Tower defence games

[Avilan the Grey]

Non-flash based that is.

Getting hooked on Plants vs Zombies (I know, very late for that) I have been looking around and found a few (like Toy Soldiers).

Any tips on good titles?

[Dublock]

I love tower defense games. Gemcraft is my favorite series for sure although that is flash based (its on Kong). Its by far the games thats taken the most hours from me in this genre. There are three of them, Gemcraft, Ch 0, and Labyrinth (if anyone plays, play them in that order as thats the order they came out in). Ch 2 is going to be coming out and I know I will be spending another 50+ hours on it :D

PnZ is great, and the infinite mode is good, until you get to like wave 200 that takes multiple hours and it becomes repetitive.

[Iskandar]

Defense Grid

Good mechanics, challenging, atmospheric, and just a wonderful tower defense style game. $10 on Steam.

[Traab]

This is a pretty extensive list of tower defense games. Im also a big fan of Bloons Tower Defense 4.

[Tavar]

NUD is a pretty good Tower Defense, and it is completely free.

[MachineWraith]

If you don't mind shelling out a few bucks, I had great fun with Orcs Must Die!, a tower defense style game where you play a wizard who must protect the castle's juicy bits from rampaging orc hordes.

You get a bunch of traps you unlock that you must strategically place, and you get several weapons that your wizard can use. One thing that's a little different, though: you have a limited inventory, and thus must choose which traps you want access to for each mission.

I enjoyed it quite a bit!

[hobbitkniver]

There dungeon Defenders which mixes TD and action elements. Also, it isn't flash like most of the suggestions here.

[Tavar]

Oh, you might also look into Gratuitous Tank Battles, but I can't actually recommend it, as I've never played it. The game before this one, Gratuitous Space Battles, is fun though, so it might hold true.

Also, you might try Defenders Quest.

[Avilan the Grey]

Defence Grid looks great. I will look into that.
Also, someone who has actually played Toy Soldiers?

[Iskandar]

Oh, you might also look into Gratuitous Tank Battles, but I can't actually recommend it, as I've never played it. The game before this one, Gratuitous Space Battles, is fun though, so it might hold true.

Also, you might try Defenders Quest.

Defender's Quest! Don't know how I missed recommending that. Great tower defense with RPG elements and even a decent story. Plus, there is a demo, so you can try it out without any risk.

Also Creeper World
. Not exactly a standard tower defense game, but still wonderful nonetheless. The demo is flash based, but the game itself, iirc, is a standalone, not browser based.

[Cespenar]

Kingdom Rush is probably the best free TD game I ever played.

Aside from that, Gemcraft and Cursed Treasure: Don't Touch My Gems would make the runner ups.

Scratch all that. For some reason, my addled brain turned "non-flash" into "flash".

[Reverent-One]

Defense Grid

Good mechanics, challenging, atmospheric, and just a wonderful tower defense style game. $10 on Steam.

I support Defense Grid, now with 100% more GLaDOS.

[Tavar]

Defender's Quest! Don't know how I missed recommending that. Great tower defense with RPG elements and even a decent story. Plus, there is a demo, so you can try it out without any risk.

Also Creeper World
. Not exactly a standard tower defense game, but still wonderful nonetheless. The demo is flash based, but the game itself, iirc, is a standalone, not browser based.

Yeah, I can't wait for them to release the next update. Couple new features I'm looking forward to.

[Kizor]

I still claim I don't like the genre (Defense Grid, for instance, does nothing to me) but that's ringing increasingly hollow, since I like Plants & Zombies, Immortal Defense and Defender's Quest, and didn't as much like Revenge of the Titans as experience the bloody-minded surge of "Oh, it is ON!" as you refuse to lose to a computer .There's also Anomaly: Warzone Earth, a reverse tower defense game, which kind of wore out its welcome. And wasn't very long.

Orcs Must Die! is a great game, but unrecognizable as a tower defense.

[Grif]

Oh, you might also look into Gratuitous Tank Battles, but I can't actually recommend it, as I've never played it. The game before this one, Gratuitous Space Battles, is fun though, so it might hold true.

Also, you might try Defenders Quest.

Gratuitous Tank Battles is more of a true TD compared to its counterpart, Gratuitous Space Battles. It actually features you placing towers against hordes of invading enemies in real time. (Instead of just pre-placing ships and whatnot.) What this game does with a twist is that like GSB, you are allowed to design and mix and match your own turrets.

It also features a reverse TD mode ala Anomaly: Warzone Earth. Again, you are allowed to design your own units to best hack your way against AI defenses.

However, it does suffer from some balance issues and some weapons are just plain better than the rest. I expect those to be ironed out in future patches though.

[Makensha]

I enjoyed Sol Survivor quite a bit.

[GloatingSwine]

Defence Grid is excellent.

Also, Dungeon Defenders, but you absolutely need at least three people to play it at its best, it scales up to crazytastic levels of creeps on the go at once.

[Avilan the Grey]

Kingdom Rush is probably the best free TD game I ever played.

Aside from that, Gemcraft and Cursed Treasure: Don't Touch My Gems would make the runner ups.

Scratch all that. For some reason, my addled brain turned "non-flash" into "flash".

Well it looked good enough to bookmark.

[Cespenar]

Well it looked good enough to bookmark.

They are good enough to bookmark (and further). Just not fitting the non-flash clause.

[Dublock]

There was a Steam package that had an assortment of TD games long ago, so I've played through some of them.

Defense Grid is great

Revenge of the Titans was the one where I opened it up and then I looked at the time, looked back and then said to myself "Its been 6 hours?!"

Sol Survivor I didn't like as much. Although to be fair I didn't to fair into it (cause I had Defense Grid and Revenge of the Titans at the same time :P)

[Brother Oni]

Also, someone who has actually played Toy Soldiers?

I've played it and own it. Very fun stylistic game, although a little frustrating at times.

Other non-flash suggestions:
Iron Brigade: Combination tower defence with stompy mecha first person action, available on X-box Live.

Defenders of Ardania: Fantasy based tower defence, which has you competing for prime tower positions against your opponent, while trying to send troops through to destroy their castle. Available on X-Box Live and PC.

Sanctum: FPS tower defence, trial available on Steam.

Edit: Stretching the tower defence concept a bit, there's the Tecmo's Deception series, where you set traps around the environment and brutally murder defeat all comers. They're a fair bit older though with various incarnations on the PS and PS2.

[Acanous]

Why has nobody stated the obvious and said Starcraft 2 yet?
There's a veritable buffet of TD games in SC2, all of them free to download and play, assuming you payed for SC2. It's like an RTS game that comes with a bunch of free TD.
Also, Orcs Must Die is good.

[Cespenar]

Why has nobody stated the obvious and said Starcraft 2 yet?

You mean Warcraft 3, obviously.

[Kizor]

Maybe I'm just a scrub, but the setting and atmosphere of Immortal Defense set it apart for me. The first tower you get is your fear, and it slows down your enemies. The second tower is your courage, so its shots continue through anything...

There's an extensive demo, and I'd recommend that over the trailer on the game's website. They've managed to put spoilers in the latter.

Orcs Must Die! is just fun, tapping right into the chldish joys of building interesting things and murdering bad guys. The charm endured through the entire game for me, and so far it's lasted into hard mode. It's a game best played in spurts, though.

An example. Orcs rush through the gateway and into a narrow passageway where the floor is coated with tar. This bunches them up for the flamethrowers. Surviving orcs run past and onto spring traps, which catapult them into the acid vats. Remaining orcs turn into the path of the arrow-shooting walls, and barricades herd them onto the middle of the floor, where there's another layer of spring traps.

Archers pick off the rest.

Years ago, I played Evil Genius, a game about being a Bond supervillain. It was flawed and so very repetitive, but I found it let me design a pressure plate trap that would flood entire hallways with flames. It caused collateral damage like mad, and set parts of itself on fire every time, but I and a friend whooped when we saw it in action. Orcs Must Die! is the first game to remind me of that.

[Gnoman]

I found a cheap one on Steam called iBomber Defence that's not bad.