Gaze fondly upon the colorful gems, as in the middle of them it shows how much cash you have to spend on new towers and upgrades. Click a circle along the path to build a defender in a strategic spot, then click again if you'd like to upgrade or sell it. Hover over the monster icon at the start of the path to see what's coming next and which way it will go so you can decide what's best to build where. Click the monster icon or the arrow button to start a wave, and click the double arrow button to enter or exit fast mode. You can hit the pause button at any time to take a look at the guide with detailed information on your defenders and enemies, and there are some levels with different things in the environment that benefit you, such as eggs with money, or mushrooms to poison enemies, so be aware of that as you choose your defense. After you pass a level, you are awarded gems depending on performance. These are used to buy pretty basic skills in the shop, and it would've been nice too see a little more variety here.

Once you get past the first couple of maps, each level will have a research book. You have to decide which specialty upgrades you will want to use on each map, and pay to research a particular upgrade before you can use it. Once it's finished researching, it's added to the upgrade tree for that level. Having to decide each level what's best for the circumstances is an added level of complexity that makes you manage your money and think about your layout more carefully. Some enemies will randomly drop spells, such as fire, which are nice to save up for a particularly tough wave. And as far as that goes, if you are a tower defense veteran, you might want to crank the difficulty up to hard. While the basic mechanics are the same as in the first Keeper of the Grove game, the look is less Candyland, and more Warcraft. The animations are fun, as is the look of the different defenders. Between guarding multiple paths at a time, deciding what to research when, and keeping track of enemies special powers, Keeper of the Grove 2 will have you beating back the baddies all the way back to space.

Play Keeper of the Grove 2