The Best Tower Defense Games Of All Time

Tower defense games have been a staple of the gaming world since the 90s, consistently challenging players to construct pathways and weapons to take out attackers and stop waves of enemies from advancing on their base. This genre has seen multiple different styles and settings but has remained a beloved category that can be tense and exciting or calm and relaxing, almost like an idle game.

Related

10 Best Real-Time Strategy Games To Try If You Are Not Into The Genre

Not a fan of RTS games? To help explore such a diverse genre and find the right one to play, here are the best RTS games to try for genre newcomers.

The genre can take on any location, whether classic fantasy, silly and satirical, or sci-fi. As the genre has evolved, some classics have made their way to the top as clear standouts and must-plays for fans. While there are countless entries in the tower defense category, some stand out as genre-defining and memorable in their own right. Here are the best tower defense games of all time.

7

Rock Of Ages 2: Bigger & Boulder

A Frantic Dash To Fire The Biggest Boulder

An exciting game that takes some of the aspects of tower defense to their extreme, Rock Of Ages 2 sees players building walls of defenses along a ramp and firing boulders at each other as soon as they are carved. These boulders try to build up speed to do as much damage to the defenses as possible, and can be controlled by players to smash into the opposing base.

The pace of this game feels manic, which sets it apart from other tower defense games that can often feel measured, or even plodding. In a story mode that pits players against strong opponents from history, controlling the rolling becomes the main event and the defense building can often take a back seat.

6

Sanctum 2

Sci-Fi First-Person Shooter Tower Defense

Sanctum 2

First-Person Shooter

Tower Defense

Systems

Sanctum 2 takes a very open-ended approach to the usual tower defense formula. Throwing players into strange alien strongholds, the game shows fans where the bug-like enemies will come from and the path that they will follow. Players can then build walls to direct foes and arrange their maps to extend the paths that the aliens take. Automated tech weapons can then be set up along the path and players can join in the assault on the opposition by firing their own weapons in FPS style.

The game gets remarkably tricky when new sources of enemies, flying foes, and bosses that can destroy the walls come into play. Nonetheless, Sanctum 2 revitalized the tower defense genre and made for a fresh and exciting game.

5

Orcs Must Die! 3

Fantasy Fighting Against Evil Foes In Co-op

Systems

Released

July 14, 2020

Developer(s)

Robot Entertainment

OpenCritic Rating

Strong

Orcs Must Die! 3 is actually the fourth title in the series, and it brings with it the lessons learned from the previous games. Players will become mages tasked with defending magical rifts from the hordes of orcs and goblins that attack in waves. Larger fantasy enemies, like giants, will also appear to face off against players, so traps like walls that fire arrows, spiked floors, and spring-loaded pressure plates that launch enemies backward must be used to build defenses that can hold up against the attacks.

Related

Orcs Must Die! 3: 7 Best Traps, Ranked

Orcs Must Die! 3 is a tower defense indie game where players must set up traps to stop incoming waves of enemies, but which are the best traps?

Players take on a third-person perspective and can also use their character to get involved and fight against the hordes using ranged or melee weapons and special unlockable skills.

4

Element TD 2

Elemental Combos Used For Devastating Towers

• Platforms: PC
• Released: 2 April, 2021
• Developer: Element Studios

In a way that feels similar to Magicka 2, Element TD 2 has a focus on the elements and the way that they interact to make stronger attacks. A traditional, top-down tower defense, enemies will wander along their preassigned paths, and players will have to choose which combinations of magic they wish to use to stop them.

Using Light, Dark, Fire, Water, Earth, and Nature players can put together laser towers, towers that build golems to fight along the paths, and freezing towers to distribute a slow effect. Upgrades can help players stockpile more funds, but the waves get increasingly tricky and players will have a tough time completing both the optional objectives and the main battle ahead.

3

Plants Vs. Zombies

Facing The Apocalypse With Horticulture

One of the pioneers of the modern tower defense genre, Plants vs. Zombies throws players into the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse and has them defend their home from the shambling undead by using happy little plants. Zombies arrive in waves, and players must use sunlight—generated by sunflowers—to grow an army of projectile-firing and zombie-blocking allies.

Related

Every Plants Vs. Zombies Game, Ranked

The Plant Vs. Zombies franchise has been around for a while, giving players amazing tower defense-style games, but which are the best out of them all?

The lawn in front of the player’s front door acts as the battleground, and the massive selection of possible plants makes for a challenging decision of what to build defenses with. A selection of mini-games, a personal garden in a greenhouse, and challenging modes that randomize the plants that players can use mean that Plants vs. Zombies has earned its status as a timeless classic.

2

Death Crown

Minimalist Art Style With Real Time Strategy

• Platforms: PC
• Released: 23 August, 2019
• Developer: 5WORD Team

A new take on the usual tower defense gameplay formula, Death Crown casts players as a necromancer bent on revenge who must use mines to gain currency and purchase graveyards, where she then can amass skeleton warriors. Defensive towers also act as a way to push borders, allowing for more buildings but also giving more space for foes to make their way into the player’s land.

Playing like something between a tactical real-time strategy game and an intense tower defense game that has players glancing around to ensure that every advance doesn’t leave them open to attack, Death Crown‘s two biggest draws are the incredible boss fights that turn the game on its head with new mechanics and the pointilist art style.

1

Bloons Tower Defense 6

Balloon Popping Monkey Mayhem

Systems

Released

June 14, 2018

Developer(s)

Ninja Kiwi

No list of tower defense games would be complete without Bloons featuring somewhere. Bloons TD 6 is an expansive game with a multitude of towers with branching upgrade paths, each fitted for destroying a specific type of strange balloon. Players control a mass of monkeys who pop regenerating, camouflaged, and even blimp-sized balloons as they fly through predetermined paths.

Maps are varied and players can even submit their own challenges. The regular updates and heaps of content make the Bloons series an easy recommendation. However, the newest title in the series has special hero towers who can gain experience, as well as Odysseys that task players with beating a series of themed maps one after the other, making it the best of the bunch

More

7 Best Introspective Story Games

Players in the mood for something a little more thought-provoking will love what these games have to offer.

.