The Wall Mustn't Fall

Looks very early in development, but I don't care. Been a long time since I've seen a decent base defence game like Elona Shooter or the first two Last Stand games.

For anyone that was obsessed with Elona Shooter during the golden age of Flash, this is the game for you. Growing up during the time periods of Kongregate, Armor Games, Miniclip and Newgrounds, The Wall Mustn't Fall was basically love at first sight.

The Wall Mustn't Fall (abbreviated to TWMF) follows a fairly straightforward gameplay loop, divided into two "phases" - Defending and Base Management.

The first phase of TWMF is the hands-on gameplay. As the title states, your job is to defend the wall on the right from onslaughts of enemies that come from the left in the form of waves. Enemies are plenty, but early in the run of course your adversaries are simple such as sheep and birds (crows?) that are fairly mundane and simply waltz to your wall. Rest assured however as you progress you will encounter more complex enemies and even bosses that have unique strategies.

Your character defends by shooting at enemies with a variety of weapons using left click. Alternatively, you can press "Z" to enable auto-pilot if you want to kick back and let the AI do the work for you. I must mention however that auto-pilot isn't recommended when you get into the late teens levels as enemies will spawn that require immediate attention. Along with your weapon, you also have an active ability (default "Q" key) that has a cooldown which can be used for dire situations and active items along your item bar.

The second phase of TWMF is the base management. After a wave, you earn gold and loot from the battlefield. From here you can make repairs to your wall, upgrade it with more health/armor, recruit AI allies (make sure to equip them with a weapon) and more.

Where the strategy comes in are classes - every unit has a unique "class" that provides different abilities. For example, the "Necro" class is a Necromancer (surprise surprise) that summons Skeletal Minions that engage enemies and the "Builder" creates Sandbags that monsters have to get through first before they can attack your Wall. Buying 3 of the same unit type will upgrade the unit and further augment their abilities. The Necromancer upgrades add Skeletal Archers and more Skeletons with the Builder being able to construct more Sandbags with level 3 allowing him to continuously repair them. Although the game is still incredibly new, there already is a wide plethora of classes and offer unique playstyles to experiment with.

All classes belong to a "tribe", which gives a unique bonus if you have a set number of units on your team with the same tribe. The Builder belongs to the "Constructor" tribe, which heals your Castle by 15% (at this time of writing) of it's max health at the start of each wave. This feature further adds on to the replayability of TWMF as the game encourages you to experiment with different tribes and classes to see which click and synergize.

As well as having units, tribes, and classes, TWMF also adds depths of strategies with items called "Relics", which provide passive bonuses as long as they are in your (or a teammates) inventories. Relics provide all sorts of bonuses, some increasing the amount of gold you recieve, others bolstering you or your units damage or accuracy. Some relics also are dependant on positioning, and can provide bonuses to units that are above, below or even diagonally from one another.

Eventually however, every player will inevitably lose their run at one point or another. Whether it is due to bad RNG, perhaps the AI made some questionable decisions even though you specifically told them to prioritize certain unit types, so on and so forth.

Once a run ends, you are given a number of "Upgrade Points" which allow you to purchase bonuses that assist you in future runs. Some bonuses unlock weapons (who doesn't like a good Revolver?) while others provide passive bonuses, such as giving your Wall more starting health and armor.

In terms of artstyle, TWMF isn't exactly Elden Ring or God of War: Ragnarok levels of pretty, but like mentioned at the beginning, TWMF is reminiscent of flash games of a bygone era and possess a unique charm to it. Although the older, "flash" style may be a bit off-putting at first glance, it certainly grows on you as time goes on.

It is worth mentioning that The Wall Mustn't Fall in it's current state is in VERY Early Access (currently v0.5.2 at this time of writing) and no game is perfect nor without bugs, but the Developer has been continuously working, is active on Discord and CapsuleCollpase really does show their love and homage paid to a time period when games were simpler and could be played for years on end.

Also, the game is dirt cheap. The Wall Mustn't Fall is a must-have for the older crowds.

People compare it to Elona Shooter(Flash Game) But honestly its just a very cheap copy, that literally has none of the good features from it, No reason to manual Aim(No weak points from Mobs aka Crit exist) the economy is literally just invest 10 to generate 1 more for the next 100 or whatsoever rounds.

Not gonna lie, the first 1-2 hours feel similiar and pretty good, but after that you realize extremely fast its just put everything on automatic, because you´ve 0 idea whats happening anymore on the Screen, becomes pretty impossible to aim yourself after you make it a few Waves in, because just too much random ♥♥♥♥ happening.

The biggest issue, Balancing doesn´t exist whatsoever, only for the first like 20 Levels, after that you wont even see Enemies/Bosses anymore because everything just dies off screen and you probably just end up gettin one shot from one of the later waves no matter how much Armor/Hp you got.

I really wanted to like the Game, because i absolutely loved Elona shooter, but this Game at its current State, is just really bad and Boring - Put aim on automatic, buy and upgrade some random shizz because it doesnt rly matter, put on x5 Speed and literally 2 seconds later ; Repeat.