Thronefall PS5 review – the king of tower defence

Thronefall – a minimalist marvel (Mythwright) There’re dozens of new Tower Defence games released every year but this one is actually different and the most interesting entry the genre has seen in years. For years now, there’s been a trend in mobile game advertising where ads deliberately mislead potential players about the content of their games, presenting gameplay that has absolutely nothing to do with the title they’re promoting. Fairly predictably, a lot of gamers don’t like that and anyone with sufficient levels of hubris to click on a mobile game ad will likely have experienced the wearying sense of disappointment when it all turns out to be lies. It’s mystifying that developers don’t simply make the more interesting games the ads are pretending to be, but one of the first impressions of Thronefall is that it looks a lot like one of those advertised but non-existent games. The way your heroic monarch gallops about on his tiny, minimalist horse hoovering up gold coins, has the exact look and feel of those purposely specious ads. The difference here is that there’s no subterfuge and you’ll find a well-designed and highly playable game that’s exactly what it claims to be. In this case, that’s an interesting and somewhat puzzle-orientated take on tower defence, where along with turrets and support troops, you also control the king. He occupies multiple roles: defender, protector of resources, and your avatar on the battlefield. During in-game days, you use the king to trot over to towers and upgrade them, or order construction of new buildings, some of which generate gold, while others let you conduct research to buff your defensive capabilities. At night, he helps combat a wave of invading enemies. They arrive in a multitude of different forms, some flying, others land based, while one memorable giant bubbles up out of the water, but all need to be rebuffed using a combination of towers, troops, and kingly stabbing. At night, damage is automatically repaired and all surviving resource buildings generate an income that you use to buy and upgrade defences. This introduces one of the game’s most essential tensions, between economy and defence, because every gold coin spent increasing your revenue for future days can’t be spent building defensive structures, leaving you slightly weaker for that night’s assault. It’s a continual balancing act, and one that’s initially reasonably easy to get right. It’s only when you start digging deeper into the game that you’ll make the odd catastrophic balancing error. Want GTA 6 news? Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for the latest GTA 6 news, reviews of new games you should play and exclusive analysis of the biggest stories of the week. Each map has six crowns you can earn for completing it. The fist simply requires winning, but the rest demand that you win whilst having specific buffs and debuffs equipped. The latter downgrade some aspect of your king, buildings, or resource generation in return for a greater experience point reward at the end of the level. They make things trickier though and, in combination with one another, sometimes a lot trickier. That forces you to look more carefully at every decision you make. Maps generally take 13 to 15 in-game days to complete, and you can retry each day, but get an additional bonus for not doing that. It means that no mistake is completely irrevocable, even if this is one of few tower defence games that doesn’t let you sell or demolish towers. Accidentally choose the wrong one, or erect a building you didn’t mean to, and you’re stuck with it unless you restart that day. You’re also only able to place towers and buildings on pre-defined nodes, your agency supplied by deciding when to build them and which upgrades to apply. Resource buildings can only be improved to generate extra coins, but defensive turrets benefit from up to three rounds of improvement, each of which comes with four options once you’ve unlocked them. It lets you optimise towers for radically different use cases, ranging from sniping to pouring fiery boiling oil over nearby enemies. The combination of perks that are required to earn each map’s additional crowns turn out to be carefully chosen to introduce you to genuinely useful and game changing ways of stacking them. You’re allowed a maximum of five abilities and an unlimited number of negative effects, but the sheer number of available options means there are plenty of massive stat boosts available if you take the time to experiment. The backdrops have an impressive amount of variety (Mythwright) The layout of each map and the waves of enemies it throws at you mean assigning quite different priorities to the way you defend your central castle. All maps require investment in your economy for the first couple of days, using your king to fend off relatively inconsequential bands of incoming bands of foes or helping muster more money to ramp up defences later when the going gets tough. The towers you build first, which troops you recruit, and their placement on the battlefield, are all decisions that vary depending on the map and perks you have equipped. Enemies also require tailored approaches. If you’ve armed your king with a sword rather than a bow or spells, he’s no use against flying enemies, which will in turn affect your choice of back-up heroes, who come in multiple varieties and act much like other troops. All behave intelligently and will head towards massed enemies no matter where you originally place them, but your choices all make a difference. Once you’ve finished the campaign and earned as many of its crowns as your patience allows, there’s a collection of puzzle-like mini-modes, which give you specific set-ups to take on, requiring pin perfect accuracy in practically every choice you make. They’re savagely difficult, but also very satisfying, which is a quality you’ll find throughout the game. Its initially gentle learning curve gets far steeper, but it makes winning all the more fulfilling. That’s a sense bolstered by beautifully engineered sound design. The dry jingle of gold landing in your chest, the little fanfare that plays at the start of each night’s attack, and the drums that signal your eventual victory all have a distinct feel and resonance that only seems to improve as they become familiar. The whole game reflects painstaking and thoughtful design choices in the same way it demands you make similarly studied selections as you play it. With its minimalist visuals and refined set of variables to tinker with, inside the rigid framework of each map, Thronefall will be catnip to strategy and tower defence fans, its unusual spin on the genre making it unlike any similar game. With an expertly metered challenge, those joyously brutal mini-modes to move onto, and a price that’s as minimal as its art style, it’s an easy game to recommend. Thronefall review summary In Short: An elegantly designed twist on tower defence where every choice you make matters, its structure creating crafted scenarios that almost feel like a puzzle game. Pros: Aesthetically beautiful and with great sound design. A welcoming learning curve and levels that reward experimentation. Cons: Towers can’t be sold or demolished. Moments of frustration when difficulty spikes, and the rigidity of its design, spoil the fun. Score: 8/10 Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, and PCPrice: £11.69Publisher: MythwrightDeveloper: Grizzly GamesRelease Date: 11th November 2026Age Rating: 7 Technically, towers both attack and defend (Mythwright) Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. Arrow MORE: Fans shocked to discover GTA 6 is playable on Xbox One Arrow MORE: Zelda is fastest-selling Switch 2 game as GTA 6 boss praises remake Arrow MORE: Games Inbox: Does it matter if GTA 6 is only 30fps? GameCentral Get the latest GTA 6 news, reviews of new games you should play and exclusive analysis of the biggest stories of the week.