IDUN REVIEW: TOWER DEFENSE MEETS CARPAL TUNNEL FROM HELL
Ever wondered what would happen if someone took They Are Billions, injected it with caffeine, and handed over the voice acting to an AI having an existential crisis? IDUN answers that question with a frantic cocktail of base building, tactical warfare, and repetitive stress injuries.
GAMEPLAY: YOUR FINGERS WILL HATE YOU
The core premise is solid - a dynamic tower defense where you can freely move and reposition your defenses. In theory, it's brilliant. In practice, it's like trying to play speed chess while juggling chainsaws. Your success depends less on strategic planning and more on how quickly you can drag turrets around the map like a panicked interior decorator during an alien invasion.
The game offers multiple mission types that sound great on paper. Defend a base? Classic. Escort nuclear vehicles? Spicy. Protect mining carts? Now we're talking. But each mode ultimately devolves into the same frantic clickfest, where your strategy is less "carefully planned defense" and more "OH GOD OH GOD EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE."
THE RNG CASINO
Here's where IDUN really shows its sadistic side. Success often hinges not on skill or strategy, but on whether RNGesus blesses you with decent upgrades. Get a triple minigun early? Congratulations, you're basically a god. Get three consecutive rounds of useless buffs? Time to hit that restart button, champ.
THE META MESS
The progression system feels like it was designed by a bureaucrat who got lost in IKEA. You've got a space station to upgrade, but good luck figuring out where to place anything. Made a mistake? Hope you like living with regret, because there's no way to move buildings without starting fresh. It's like playing Tetris where every piece is permanent and you're blindfolded.
CONTROLS: CHOOSE YOUR PAIN
Want to play with mouse and keyboard? Prepare for carpal tunnel. Prefer a gamepad? Get ready for the precision of a drunk surgeon. Touch controls? Sure, if you enjoy pain. At least it's "optimized" for Steam Deck, though "optimized" here means "technically playable while crying."
THE AI VOICE ACTING APOCALYPSE
Look, I get it. Voice acting is expensive. But the AI voices in IDUN sound like they were generated by feeding a text-to-speech engine nothing but energy drinks and B-movie scripts. Characters interrupt each other more than politicians at a debate, and the dialogue has all the emotional range of a toaster reading Shakespeare.
TECHNICAL HIGHS AND LOWS
When IDUN works, it really works. The swarms of enemies flooding your screen create genuine tension, and successfully holding off a massive wave feels legitimately satisfying. The destruction physics and terrain deformation add nice tactical wrinkles, forcing you to adapt as the battlefield changes.
Performance is surprisingly solid, handling thousands of enemies without breaking a sweat. If only the same attention to optimization had been applied to the user interface, which feels like it was designed by throwing darts at a UI/UX handbook.
THE PROGRESSION TREADMILL
The tech tree and upgrade system could be interesting if it wasn't so painfully grindy. You'll spend hours unlocking new toys and abilities, but the progression feels more like busy work than meaningful advancement. It's less "look how powerful I've become" and more "finally, I can slightly inconvenience larger groups of aliens."
THE BOTTOM LINE
IDUN is the gaming equivalent of a promising first date who shows up wearing a tin foil hat and won't stop talking about their collection of AI-generated poetry. There's potential here - the core gameplay loop can be genuinely engaging, the variety of missions adds spice, and the technical performance is solid. But between the maddening RNG, the carpal tunnel-inducing controls, and voice acting that makes Siri sound like Meryl Streep, it's hard to fully recommend without some serious patches.
Score: 6/10 - Like They Are Billions had a speed-dating session with Cookie Clicker while an AI chatbot provided commentary.