Sai's Gaming World

Autobot Stronghold is a tower defense game based on the film 'Transformers'. Our objective is to defend the base from the Decepticons with the following autobots: Bumblebee, Jazz, Ironhide, Ratchet and Optimus Prime. Each autobot has its own pros and cons. The game consists of 50 waves of increasing difficulty, comprised of a variety of decepticons.

Autobot Stronghold - Wave 50

After experimenting with all the autobots, I found that placing just Ironhides at appropriate positions is enough to hold back for the first half of the game. Then after you get access to Optimus Prime, deploying just that and upgrading Prime is enough to beat the whole game.

After a couple of loses, I beat the game on my 4th or 5th try. Its not a very complex, addictive tower defense with loads of features. But a simple one which is good for the first few times.

Gameplay:
Warzone is a tower defense game where your objective is to defend your HQ from the waves of enemy tanks by constructing defensive structures. There are many maps to choose from and different types of game modes.

The game is too good because both the enemy units and our defenses are so well balanced that you need to construct all types structures to counter the variety of enemy units at strategic positions. The maps are initially empty at the start, it is upto the player to shape up the path that the enemy takes to his/her advantage. This gives infinite possibilities where player can try out a different number of placements to find a best placement plan.

Apart from the defensive structures, the player has the power to drop bomb and nuke at a given point which has a one time area damage effect, very much useful at crysis especially at later stages.

No goal:
The only thing that I dont like about this game is that none of the maps has a goal which when reached we win the game. All maps and modes are like endurance mode where we keeps on playing until our HQ is destroyed. The thought that how good we play, we are going to loose at the end is not much satisfying. Other than this, it is a perfect tower defense game.

Warzone highscore 71899

Cheap Trick:
There is a cheap trick to survive longer than usual. The defenses should be placed such that there are two long curved loopy paths to the HQ, one path should be closed always so that all the units move through the other path and when the units are near the end of their path, that path should be closed and the other is opened. Thus by repeating this cycle with perfect timing, we increase the path travelled by the enemy tanks to virtually infinite distance.

By using the above technique, once a large number of tanks are gathered in a single area, we could drop a nuke there to take them all out with a single hit.

Reference:
In our office, we are to develop a similar iphone game named 'Warnest', so we took this as a reference. I was playing the game daily for past few weeks and the maximum score I could reach is 71K in the 160th wave.

Overall its a great game with much replay value because of its dynamic nature and served its purpose (as a reference to our game) well.

I found another big vault opening door and came out the facility, where I got orders from Betters to get as far from the facility as possible.

I had some creepy encounter with Alma and in one encounter I was forced to shoot her. But, I suspect my bullets will do any harm to her. The whole place is blowing apart and I am literally running for my life. Those monsters from hell are spawning everywhere and slowing me down, but nothing can stop me.

I came out of the facility alive and witnessed a worst incident, a big terrible explosion at the heart of the Auburn District. Later I was saved by my friends and we are going in the chopper, where I witnessed another totally unexpected nightmare. With that the game ends.

The ending is very cool, with full of twists. As in other games, there is no boss monster to fight with, but this ending is 100% appropriate and suits the plot. I will start playing the expansion packs soon. Before that I will write another post on the plot of this game, after doing a little research myself, because plot-wise, I might have missed out something.

I just now arrived inside the vault. There is a cool looking orb floating in front of me.

As expected, I am having creepy dream sequences with Fettel in it. This time, Fettel let me know a big secret and I never thought things will go like this. Unexpected, but interesting. On the end of the dream sequence, I am wiped out of my weapons and Fettel and Alice are found dead in front of me. I am not sure, whether it is for real and just an illusion.

On proceeding a litle, I found 3 soldiers, but they are standing still without any motion. I went close to them and touched them, but still no response. Maybe Fettel is really dead and now no one to control those soldiers, so they are now acting like unplugged robots.

I found a laptop with a video recording of Wade, where she described more about Alma. He ended his speech with a cool line. Here it is, "It is the way of men to make monsters. And it is the nature of monsters to destroy their makers". Its a very cool quote and fits exactly to the current situation.

This facility is like hell, where Alma is free roaming everywhere and killing everyone. I saw an incident of Wade getting killed terribly by Alma. Hope its just an illusion, that tricked me well. And here she spawned some new type of monsters directly from hell through a dark(warm hole like) opening. They are easy to kill (in one shot), but they are self-destructive explosives and causes very high damage and they spawn in big numbers. Even with my sloMo, I barely manage to handle them.

I found the reactor with four reactor cells. As told by mapes, I destroyed them and the whole damn place started crumbling. I am running for my life and I need to get the hell out of there. Missions aside, I need to save my life first.

I am at some Armacham Research facility, which is filled with ATC guards and Fettel's telepathic soldiers. The more deeper I go, the more things made sense through laptops, videos, etc., I met my old friend Mapes doing some mischieves as usual.

After some long search, I found the big entrance to the vault and a scene between Harlan Wade and Mapes, in which Mapes was shot. Harlan Wade enters the vault and sealed it by divering the power supplies to vault. Now, to open the vault, I need to bring back power to the vault doors.

I went through the whole facility and activated four power rods and came back to the entrance of the vault, where Mapes told his last words. He wants me to blow up the vault, by damaging the reactor cells in some power generator. I dont know if I can trust him. Anyway, Vault is just a few steps ahead and I am already freaked out. But, I am not quitting now, lets see.

This interval starts with a chopper ride, where we are headed to Rammelmeier Industrial compound in Auburn. It was found that there is an underground complex in there and that place is somehow linked with the so called Project Origin. Also, that place is shut down for years because of some unknown reasons. On our way, as usual, our chopper was shot and we fell down in the middle. My mates were pretty badly injured and I am to proceed alone.

I proceeded all alone through the old ruined building, killing the hostiles on my way. After going a long way, in one place, I saw Fettel holding Alice's neck and the image ran away. And I had a very disturbing dream sequence with Alma. Those dream sequences are very intense, long and very creepy now, when compared to past.

I searched the whole of Auburn District, with a number of encounters with the heavily armored soldiers and Alma. I finally found an elevator. With a creepy vision in an elevator, this interval ends.

Still I didnt found the Vault, Fettel, Alice or the gory Alma. But I have this feeling that I am very close to them now. Continued on next post.

Now I am a bit closer to Alice Wade and is now going to enter the Executive Building. This executive building is soo creepy, that Alma even shows up in TV monitors. Without much trouble I reached a place, which is supposed to be the office of Alice Wade. But no one is there, and the place is shattered into pieces. I wonder what happened to her. Anyways, I continued my pursuit for her.

The damn lift is broken and I am forced to use the ladders inside. After searching the executive building thoroughly, with some creepy encounters and gun fights in between, I found Alice Wade locked up in her father's office. I freed her and now I am to escort her to the top for evac.

At one point, we are separated and in front of my eyes, Alma shows up and takes away Alice Wade. All, I can do now is to proceed to evac area. I did that well and found Alice Wade at the terrace. She is totally unaware of what happened at the lift before. While we are having a nice chat, our evac heli arrives and unfortunately shot down by the hostiles. Alice is shocked on seeing the heli blowing and going down and ran into a nearby door and locked the door.

There is a high probability that Alice is heading towards the Car Parking area, to take her car. So, I need to get there ASAP and find her. I am in the terrace now and need to go all the way down to find her. I started my pursuit and on my way, I encountered a wave of new type of enemies. They are flying bots programmed very carefully to kill just me. With my SloMo enabled, they are not a big threat.

The parking area is very heavily guarded with normal guards and heavy troopers and wiped them all out, but could not find Alice Wade. It seems she already escaped from this facility. Then, I met with my friends, who are waiting for me with the heli. Now, we are en route to Auburn District, where Alice is believed to be going to find her father.

See you at Auburn District.

I moved to some other floor in the elevator. Few guards were waiting there, ready to be killed by me. I finished them off and proceeded and met the old friends, Mapes surprisingly. Once again Mapes want me to bring down the local security system. I was not sure, whether to rely on him. But it looks like, I have no other choice.

Next few levels are pure horror without much gunfight. I somehow (bravely :P) managed to get past those terrifying stages and after some moment met up with Mapes again. That little noob activated security system and escaped from there. The activated security system controls the machine guns attached in the ceiling and they joined my list of hostiles now. Thanks to Mapes.

With SloMo and 2 close range shots from Shotgun, those machine guns were nothing. Then, I proceeded through the facility in search of Fettel. After adventuring through the creepy labs, I went to a U - shaped hall, dumped with a soldiers and an office in between. I wiped out the soldiers and then activated a button in the office.

That button brought down a worst sort of enemy, I ever seen, A power armored monster with rockets. It gave me a good intense fight. The trick is to always on move, hide from it, till the SloMo regenerates and then fire our own rockets at it, in SloMo. With this technique, and a dozen or two of rockets, he can be finished.

Then, I went up through the big elevator, in front of me. I continued my search for Fettel through the facility, got one surprising opportunity of taking out the guards with the machine gun, through a terminal.

After some time, this sub-interval "AfterImage" started and this is where I am totally freaked out. The environment is totally dark, I need to use my flash light more often and it felt a little like Doom 3. Sadly, this part made me fail my personal challenge. I set a challenge myself to play through this game only at night, with lights switched off and keeping full volume in my headset. But the creepiness in this level, made me play with this lights on and hence I failed my challenge. Dont laugh at me, everyone has their limits and I think this is mine.

At some point in this level, I was told to locate Alice Wade, who is in danger and plays an important role in this part. After I was assigned this mission, I got quite a good, hard oppression from the guards, the heavy tropper and the power armored monster and a special guard holding a particle gun. I wiped them all out for good and proceed through the facility, searching for Alice Wade.

Bishop:
This interval starts with a couple of good fight with the soldiers with some frightening scenes in between. While fighting the soldiers, they spoke about me like I am after their hostage. But, I have no idea, what they are speaking out. I am only after Paxton Fettel. But anyway, on hearing their speech, I was a little curious on that hostage.

After some hack and slash, I finally found the so called hostage, a guy named Bishop. But unfortunately he is wired with bombs in a chair. I am not a demolitions expert and so I am told to escort a demolition team waiting some where on the building to the Bishop's place.

I proceeded through the corridors and came to a hall with a few elevators. When I reached out the center of that hall, all the elevators opened and the soldiers came out of it suddenly. I head shotted two soldiers and took cover in the elevator from which they came. From there, I took out everyone one by one. Finally, a heavy tropper appeared. He was my favorite. I love killing him with the SloMo on and head shotting him in very close range with the combat shot gun. After the heavy tropper is taken down, the demolition expert team appeared. Seeing them helped me to calm down my pulses, which was beating at its maximum because of the creepiness.

Once I reach Bishop along with the demolition expertise, the fire alarm got alarmed and I was to investigate the reason. And again, I am going out all alone. As expected, things were more creepy and intense this time and that damn little girl showed up in some places. The sound along with the visuals were frightening like hell.

After traversing many rooms, I found some soldiers and killed them and proceeded to the next level.

Blindside:
I reached the terrace, where I was to rejoin with the demolition expert group and Bishop. By the time, I went there all of my guys boarded the helicopters and very strangely the ATC security guards started shooting at the helicopter and they did managed to kill Bishop. Actually, they are supposed to be our allies, but again nothing goes as expected in this game.

I was making my way through the heart of the building killing everyone on my way, including the ATC security. While I was walking over a small pipe, things got loose and I fell down badly. Now, I am to search the area and find some way back. Once again, the creepiness level was raised and I was crawling through all the tunnels, crossing my paths, expecting the unexpected. Had a few worst encounters and finally I found a lift and a few soldiers appeared. I killed them all and went up through the lift.

LZ is hot:
I was nearing the Armacham Headquarters in a chopper and just before landing, enemies appeared around the landing pad and started firing us. All my men were killed and I was dropped alone. There was one small crate in the landing pad, which I used for cover. Without it, its death for me. Because there were more than 10 soldiers firing at me. Using the cover, I took them out one by one and proceeded inside the Armacham Headquarters.

The headquarters is bloody big and I was searching for Fettel in the whole of it. Several floors and rooms are tightly packed with the super soldiers and some have scary guests and creepy surprises.

In the first part of Infiltration, I was mostly hanging out at the terrace, dealing with super soldiers and only at the end of the first part, I hop in to the headquarters from rooftop and start my pursuit from there.

Watchers:
The room I hopped in looks like it had some terrible incidents happened before. Here, the game atmospere looks real creepy and it was too intense for me. I hope I wont quit this game in the middle.  Inside armacham headquarters, I was welcomed by a few cloaking soldiers. They were super fast and frightening. But with my SloMo, they were no match for me.

After a few supernatural encounters with the unknown, I met up with a fat guy named Norton Mapes, who was an engineer at Armacham. He wants me to shut down the local security system and he promises me to help me in my mission. I proceeded and shut downed the local security system as he told, after having some mini gun fights with the security guards. On coming back, he was missing. I should have already known, that I should never trust a fat guy like him.

I proceeded alone and as I near the end of this Interval, Alma is freaking me out, with occasional appearances. I am even okay with the voice of Fettel coming out of no where. But this little girl, Alma, she is very frightening.

Lets see, what the game have in store for me in the next interval.