This feels like an odd thing to note in 2014, but apparently the iOS audio APIs are at a point where this is a difficult thing for developers to set up properly, and I always appreciate a game that feels like it should support outside music. The music is a bit too dubsteppy for my tastes, but thankfully playing external music apps works quite well. On the iPad, some levels don’t manage to fit all their action on the maximum zoom-out level, which is a bit annoying. In terms of play, the game’s interface works well: tapping units will call up the radial menu that shows what can be done with them, including moneyed actions and abilities to use. I still haven’t quite figured out what the Nexus system is, though apparently rewards are in order at some point. A little bit of self-discovery goes a long way in this game. Oh, and the game doesn’t quite make clear that there’s an upgrade system to boot, though poking around the menus makes it clear. For example, I unlocked the anti-air turret while playing a mission that had no air units to take it out with. The upgrade menu for the turrets explains a lot about how each one works that the game does not. What does a certain tower do? Best way is to explore and find out. The greatest strength of the game is perhaps its greatest weakness: there’s just so much going on at any one time, and often the function of everything isn’t quite explained – it has to be discovered. This is tower defense with familiar rules, just expanded out. Plus, the game still follows the basic conventions of tower defense. But hey, this is the fourth entry in the series: there’s nothing wrong with a game like this being so content-packed. There’s a lot to manage and keep track of, making this a rather complex tower defense game – one of the more complex I think I’ve played on mobile. The base can deploy repair bots, attack units, and more. The Sentinel has its own abilities to deploy, and can strengthen units near it. If two types of units with different placement rules weren’t enough, then there’s also the Sentinel, which can be jumped from wall to wall, and even to protect the main base that the enemies are trying to destroy. Lane units, however, can’t be upgraded or sold. Turrets can be upgraded and sold, but also collect experience for kills that can make them stronger. That said, it does have some elements of open-field games, offering units that can be placed in the lanes to help damage enemies along with the standard array of towers: turrets, bombs with splash damage, slowdown turrets, and more. To a certain degree, Sentinel 4 is a traditional tower defense game. This is a big and beefy tower defense game, meant for people not afraid of depth. Sometimes the game does a poor job at making all of its myriad elements come together, but not to a degree that the game suffers too much for it. Appropriate for the fourth entry in this tower defense series that stretches back to the earliest days of the App Store, there’s a lot of game to take in here. Sentinel 4: Dark Star is so large, it contains multitudes. Two-tiered currency in a $4.99 game – while handed out regularly – always feels like a specious proposition. The game is very dense, and not everything is properly explained when introduced.
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