You can sign up to get a daily email of our articles, see the Mailing List page.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

My top Tower Defence games for Linux

By - | Views: 31,318

I love tower defence games. My fascination with them started with the Android game Sentinel 3 somewhere around 2010, then consolidated with Robo Defence a year later. Things quickly escalated when I moved to Linux exclusively in 2013. Sure, I also love FPS games, but disappointments in that genre have been more than made up for by the abundance of TD games available with Linux support. So I thought I’d give you all a list of some of the best titles out there, some honourable mentions, and outline a few of the titles I’ve yet to try in the hope that you’ll tell me why I should!

The following list is my personal take on the genre in order of excellence but any of the recommended list should be considered must-buys, if you like the genre.

Recommended

 

Kingdom Rush [Steam, GOG, Humble] & Kingdom Rush Frontiers [Steam, GOG, Humble]

Let’s get this out of the way - yes, these are on Android too but, given the horrific micro-transactions Ironhide implemented on that platform, I consider the Linux versions to be far superior. It’s on Linux that the sublime balance isn’t ruined by the introduction of gems for TNT or Freeze Crystals that you can spam into a wave to save the day. Only on Linux will your tactics win the day, not your grind.

Arguably, the first game is the better of the two. The Kingdom Rush franchise’s unique selling point (USP) is the use of Heroes that help on any given map. In the original game, a Hero always starts the map at Level 1 and is usually Level 10 by the end waves of the same map, resetting back to Level 1 again on the next map. However, in Frontiers, a Hero’s experience is cumulative across maps, taking many runs to level up, awarding stars that can be spent on skills. This is really engaging but, of course, balance suffers a little as a result. Earlier “difficult” maps become significantly less challenging when you revisit with a powerful, leveled-up hero.

But I’m nitpicking. Both games have wonderful sound, graphics and animations, inventive tower options, well structured learning curves, intuitive interfaces and keyboard shortcuts, huge Hero variety and, best of all, satisfying and superbly-balanced gameplay. I consider them the pinnacle of the genre.

I love these games so much, I’ve made a few Youtube series about them. Check them out here: Kingdom Rush and Kingdom Rush Frontiers. I apologise in advance for the accent. I’m honestly trying my best to be articulate.

Defender’s Quest: Valley of the Forgotten  [Steam, GOG, Humble]

Frontiers might have taken a leaf out of Defenders Quest's book when it came to that leveling up mechanic, since Defenders Quest’s USP is levelling up your characters (which are also the “towers”) throughout the game. Indeed the whole game feels like a Tower Defence meets RPG mix, allowing some customisation in each character and even the concept of character classes for your “towers”.

DQ was released in 2012, originally using Adobe Air. As you can imagine, this caused Linux no end of grief when Adobe announced its demise during development. Technically, you can still buy Defenders Quest on their website, complete with the Adobe Air requirement and you can probably still mess about with it all and get it working. However, it’s far easier to buy on Steam where the “DX” version is available. This newer version is a full engine rewrite from Air to HaxeFlixel and features updated HD graphics, and various fixes.

It’s worth noting that Level Up Labs’s lead developer Lars Doucet, is focal in the HaxeFlixel community, heavily involved in making that open-source game engine better, and often posts incredibly detailed and intelligent articles on his blog. Well worth a read!

Sanctum 2 [Steam, Humble]

The original Sanctum was a four-player co-op FPS Tower Defence. Yep, you read that right, multiple USPs on this one. Its sequel follows the same model but, more importantly, is available on Linux! This is thanks to the awesome Icculus (Ryan C Gordon, whom you can “patreonise” here). Yes, the early port of Sanctum 2 (it’s a UE3 title) was incredibly buggy — I’m not even sure it should have been released in that state given the “fall through the floor and out of the world” bug that plagued so many maps. However, later patches have left the game virtually bug-free, although there are still reports floating around of difficulties with anti-aliasing. Your mileage may vary.

But what a beautiful game to play, especially with friends. And since it’s first person, it’s incredibly engaging. There’s a genuine sense of panic when your strategy falls apart and the critters start eating your core. It’s a tough game, with some limited character progression and an absolutely huge number of diverse towers, weapons and maps. It’s also one of the few TD games on this list that allow you to create mazes with your tower placement. As a result, tactics are paramount and teamwork in multiplayer is essential.

Dungeon Warfare [Steam, Humble]

The graphics might put you off this gem but you’re bigger than that, aren’t you? Or maybe that retro-looking scaling and colourful palette reminds you of your AtariST/Amiga days? But, of course, it’s all about the gameplay and balance, and that’s what Dungeon Warfare has in abundance. This game’s USP is undoubtedly the use of push and pull mechanisms, combined with either spiked walls or empty space.

Creating a corridor of push tiles along a yawning chasm is really satisfying - you don’t care how fast or powerful a given unit is if you can just shove it off the ledge and into oblivion. Maps are also designed with useful one-use boulders that can be triggered to roll along a path, Indiana Jones-style, crushing hundreds of enemies along the way.

You might need to revisit a few earlier maps once or twice to afford some of the later upgrades, but the grind here is minimal and the sheer number of enemies the game throws at you makes it one of the most satisfying TD games out there.

OTTTD (Over The Top Tower Defence) [Steam, Humble]

Sticking with the traditional mechanics, OTTTD’s USP is probably a combination of multiple Hero units with a psuedo-3D top-down view. The graphics are really superb in this tough TD game and handling two or three heros as mobile towers, along with traditional placement and upgrades, will really keep you on your toes. I was surprised by how many hours I’d sank into this one. There’s a decent variety of heroes at your disposal and you’ll actually enjoy playing earlier maps just to upgrade some of lesser-used characters that become available throughout the campaign.

The graphics are lovely and there’s some truly wacky enemies to take down, including Octopus bikers and (Sharknado-inspired?) half-shark airships. Even better, or worse depending on how you look at it, the ground slowly turns to sludge as the gibs of your kills clutter the battlefield. Very over-the-top and all the better for it.

Revenge of the Titans [Steam]

Puppy Games’s  take on TD is really unusual. There’s no grid here; you just place the towers where you think the critters (“Titans”), will appear. Crucially, though, the Titans will also attack your towers if you place them too close to their route. My original attempts to create a maze fell apart quickly when I realised that the Titans are too clever to wander along a set route — they just attack your wall and tear a hole in it to get to your towers! Another USP is that cash is carried forward — if you can spare cash throughout the waves and use the minimal amount to succeed, you’ll find the latter waves easier since you’ll start with more funds.

Despite its overall excellence, however, it’s that last point which is also its greatest weakness. I’ve played three or four attempts at completing Revenge of the Titans and each time poor early choices have left me woefully under-prepared in the late game, which can be a bit disheartening after pouring hours into earlier levels. However, I love the tech tree which allows for completely different play styles, where you can focus on lasers, ballistics, or explosive armaments.

There’s no grind as such, but the lack of intel on routes on any given level means that you’ll tend to start a game, get a feel for where the enemies are routing through, then restart the level so that you can plan properly. That’s a bit frustrating, but hardly a game-breaker.

Without a doubt, the polish, atmosphere and research tree are all very engaging and if you haven’t tried this title, it’s definitely worth checking out.

 

Honourable Mentions

As I said, I play a lot of Tower Defence. Here are a few titles that you might want to check out, but don't quite make my "must-buy" list above. These titles are often superb, but might have one flaw I found offputting, or perhaps I was trying them on the wrong day and they just didn't click for some reason. They may click for you, though, so here they are.

Space Run [Steam, Humble, also on GOG, but not for Linux]

Interesting TD concept, with towers that are positioned in firing arcs across the edges of your space ship. Great presentation and pretty graphics, but the main issue is having to know where the bulk of the enemies will be — whole runs are wasted if you leave a gap in your defences and that’s where the bulk of the enemies end up appearing, requiring a frustrating amount of replay. The bosses are nails too!

PixelJunk Monsters Ultimate [Steam, Humble, also on GOG, but not for Linux]

I love PixelJunk games and their take on TD is cartoony and a lot of fun. This is one I’ll end up going back to eventually.

Defense Grid  2 [Steam, Humble]

Beautiful graphics, wonderful balance and decent voice acting. This would make my recommended list but the last time I went to (re-)play it, it wouldn’t start. I didn’t get to the bottom of whether the whole Linux build is dead, or if it was just because I using my laptop, and hence Mesa [BTRE's note: I tried it just before publishing this article with Mesa 17.2.5 and an AMD card, seems to work just fine]. Definitely worth a purchase and you’ll get the option to refund if it doesn’t work out.

Defend Your Life [Steam]

I played a few hours of this one and enjoyed it but something about it just didn’t quite click and I didn’t go back when I stopped playing. It’ll be one to revisit in the future.

Alien Robot Monsters [Steam]

I actually loved this one and the only reason I didn’t play a whole lot more of it is the complexity of the towers. I often wanted a specific type of tower, but couldn’t for the life of me remember which combination of previous towers I had to purchase in order to get there. If only the upgrade trees were a bit more intuitive, I’d have spent 70 hours in this one, rather than just 7. If you're willing to give it a try, don't miss this Steam Forum article, (translated from German) for a tower guide.

 

Yet to Try

Honestly, it's probably just a matter of time. I know, I know. I'll get help eventually. But until then, I'm casting my eye over these titles to see where my next TD hit will be coming from.

Tumbleweed Express [Steam]

This looks interesting, pretty graphics, and could be something like Space Run, but hopefully without the restrictive firing arcs.

Winged Sakura: Mindy’s Arc [Steam]

Apparently completely unlike any previous Winged Sakura game! Maybe it's not racy enough? But since I’m not particularly familiar with them anyway, I’m going to ignore the negative reviews which are fixated on this fact and focus on the gameplay, which sounds like it’s right up my street!

Defense Zone 1, 2 & 3 HD [Steam]

These are extremely cheap WWII TD games and tend to get good reviews. Hard to believe I haven’t spent the equivalent of half a pint of lager to pick them up, but I’ll likely do so eventually, particulary given the beautiful graphics.

Zombie Defence [Steam]

It’s free! It gets great reviews! Why haven’t I played this yet??

Zombie City Defense [Steam, Humble]

Looks very pretty, reasonably cheap, deep customisation and generally good reviews. I'll be checking this out for sure.

 

Apologies to GOG advocates for the poor showing! At least there's three of my top seven available, but it's super disappointing to see two other titles being sold on GOG, which have Linux builds elsewhere, but not available for Linux for whatever reason. Hopefully that changes, but given the age of some of these titles, I wouldn't hold my breath!

Any others I’ve missed? Any in my “Yet to Try” list that I should be ashamed of for not playing? If so, please let me know.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
10 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I'm Neil, an avid Linux user since 2006 and a Linux-only gamer since 2013. I used to contribute to GOL's Funding Crowd articles, but now contribute the odd article directly, most recently the Play It Now series, and the IYL articles.

I also occasionally dabble a bit in Python, I do Internet Security for a living and finally, I'm a big fan of Neil Degrasse Tyson. And not just because he has a cool first name.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
25 comments
Page: 1/3»
  Go to:

lucinos Nov 13, 2017
I wonder, does "Creeper World 3: Arc Eternal" count as TD? If it does it should be on the list. :)
Romlok Nov 13, 2017
I would say Creeper World 3 is certainly a TD game, and does deserve a mention on the list.

I can definitely recommend Tumbleweed Express. I found it quite short (5 hours to 100% for me), and the narrator's accent is kinda cringeworthy, but it was a very enjoyable take on an action-tower-defence on literal rails.

Zombie Defence is okay. It's fairly competent as a TD, but once I worked out a strategy it became more of an idle game. Grinding out more upgrades being the only motivation to continue. I thought that having to grind out the ability to speed up the game further was particularly a bit of a kick in the teeth.
Toric Nov 13, 2017
Quoting: lucinosI wonder, does "Creeper World 3: Arc Eternal" count as TD? If it does it should be on the list. :)
It should be at the top of this list, with particle fleet right below it...
sub Nov 13, 2017
Great article!

There are tons of TD games on Linux.

I love them but I'm not that skilled.

I remember Fieldrunners was just too hard for me. :D
ageres Nov 13, 2017
Anomaly Defenders and, if you'd like to see opposite of TD, the other games in Anomaly series: http://store.steampowered.com/bundle/4678/Anomaly_Game_Collection/.
DamonLinuxPL Nov 13, 2017
Im like Anomaly Defense and also reverse defense like Anomaly Warzone Earth, Anomaly Warzone Earth Mobile campaign, Anomaly Corea and Anomaly 2. I can recommend this games. First one for basic tower defense and all other for tower offense :)
stretch611 Nov 13, 2017
my 3 cents... (yes, I'm odd)

Kingdom Rush/KR: Frontiers... Fun little games well worth the price. I go back and play them from time to time.

Sanctum 2: TD meets FPS. I'm not a huge fan of FPS... its just not my cup of tea. That being said, I bought this, could not figure out what to do (and never had a chance to leave the FPS part of the game) and gave up on it really quick. Was it bugged? Maybe, it was one year ago this month when I tried it. But I realized there was more FPS and less TD then I personally care for. YMMV

Dungeon Warfare: If you have any fun with TD games get it. This has been a really fun romp since I bought it, and has been on my recent list of things to play and overplay. It actually is fairly well balanced. There are custom maps in the steam workshop. You are forced to replay old levels to grind up experience in order to conquer the later levels. However, it really does not seem grindy for some reason. Dungeon Warfare 2 has been announced and I can't wait to try that one, sight unseen. I'll say it again...get it if you like this genre... It is quite fun.

OTTTD: I have considered this a few times before... for some reason I never can quite hit the "buy" button. I can't remember why (bad steam reviews, maybe fearing grindy-ness of leveling characters, I honestly don't remember.) I might reconsider now with the positive feedback.

Revenge of the Titans: A nice and fun game. I never came close to finishing... not sure if its that hard or if I made poor tech choices. Though it has been a fun game, and I do go back and play a little from time to time. IIRC, I got this game as part of an old Humble Bundle while it was still in beta (way back when and before steam even supported linux.) Offtopic: The dev, puppygames also makes a fun space-invaders clone called Titan Attacks. And I have had fun with their robotron like shooter, Ultratron. In short, I enjoy their games, they all have a retro-vibe,and all have a related storyline.

Space Run: Played it, had some fun hours in it, ultimately it now sits unused. As Liam mentioned, you need to know where the enemies will attack from... I'm not big on TD games that force you to use certain towers in certain spots. Replaying a level because you didn't know what side to put your extremely limited resources on to begin with is not fun IMHO.

Defense Grid 2: Good TD game, high res graphics, fun to play. I have spent many hours in this one. I enjoy it, but IMO, it has limited replayability. You can go back and run some levels with challenges like no upgrades past rank 2, but once you finish the campaign it gets boring as wave after wave of the same things. There are scenarios on the steam workshop, yet the dev acknowledges that scenarios don't work in the linux port. At this point the devs have not even commented in the steam forums for over 2 years. In my experience, the game runs well on linux, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for any update to allow linux users to use custom maps.

Defense Zone 2/3 (I don't have DZ1): Interesting games, fun, but nothing unique about them. For the low cost you do get some enjoyment out of them. Levels are a little long... some sessions have lasted 2+ hours for a single level with all the waves. Overall, worth the money if you like TD, but nothing spectacular.

Talk about your timing though... I went to humble bundle and installed Fieldrunners 1 & 2 over the weekend. (HB has linux versions, steam does not.) The first one doesn't like my latest laptop/CPU and plays far too fast. If you blink the game is over. (Odd seeing how the .deb package is only 5 years old.) Fieldrunners 2 has no problem adjusting to my CPU clock/timing, but after playing a short while, it just seems more grindy then I remember. These are both TD games ported from iOS to Android to Windows to Linux.

Edit: Defense Grid 2 scenarios are actually on a 3rd party site, not steam. Not that it matters if you run linux.


Last edited by stretch611 on 13 November 2017 at 4:21 pm UTC
scaine Nov 13, 2017
View PC info
  • Contributing Editor
  • Mega Supporter
Quoting: stretch611my 3 cents... (yes, I'm odd)
As Liam mentioned, you need to know where the enemies will attack from...

How very dare you, sir, for I am not he! :D

Liam is tied up this week, so BTRE is holding down the fort while I've been sitting on this article idea for a few weeks and now felt like a good time to post it. I've obviously found a fellow-TD fan in a few of you!

In Sanctum 2, you can't place a tower until you place a wall - the towers land on top of the wall, so I'm guessing that might be what tripped you up. But yes, it's very FPS focused. I still like it because a) maze construction is so rare these days and b) it's multi-player. And kind of c) it's so pretty!

I didn't know about Dungeon Warfare 2! Hopefully it has Linux support on day 1, and like you, I'd be happy to take a punt on that without reading a single review.

As for Fieldrunners - I dodged both 1 & 2 due to my addiction to Robo Defence at the time, but I heard good things about them. Very old school though - maze placement, distinct ground/air units and towers, plenty of options for endless waves. It's a shame they don't hold up to the test of time!
natewardawg Nov 13, 2017
Quoting: lucinosI wonder, does "Creeper World 3: Arc Eternal" count as TD? If it does it should be on the list. :)

Yes, Creeper World 3 is an awesome TD game! :D

I'm guessing scaine hasn't had the chance to play this yet as he would likely have put it on this list :)
GustyGhost Nov 13, 2017
I really wish we could include the Orcs Must Die series in this list but it was never released for Linux. What kind of indie dev these days doesn't release for Linux? Of course, from what we do have, Sanctum 2 was fantastic with two or three other players but once you pass the swamps you absolutely need four to be proficient. Also lately Sanctum 2 crashes at random intervals on at least two levels I have been able to identify so do not spend a long time building towers if you're playing on Linux.

QuoteThe graphics might put you off this gem but you’re bigger than that, aren’t you?

The last 2D game I bought was Crypt of the Necrodancer. A 2D game has to sport some very unique feature before I'm convinced to try it. I know that I am probably missing out on some decent titles because of this but I only have so much time and I would rather spend that time on games that at least put in the effort to join us in the 21st century.
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.