‘Sentinel 3: Homeworld’ Hits A Tower Defense Home Run

[This review was originally published on November 26, 2010, pre-dating the launch of our News section.] Sentinel 3: Homeworld by Origin8 Technologies Limited is the third installment in their well-received Sentinel tower defense app series. The first Sentinel app, Sentinel: Mars Defense released February 27, 2009, was set on the red planet, Earth’s first colony under siege from an alien life form. The second app in the series, Sentinel 2: Earth Defense released June 26, 2009, had humanity fighting for existence on their home turf. Sentinel 3: Homeworld released November 26, 2010, has humans taking the fight to the alien’s planet. We’ll admit we haven’t reviewed the first two apps in the series but we are impressed by Sentinel 3: Homeworld. We are generally big fans of the tower defense game genre and, therefore, scrutinize new apps carefully. Sentinel 3: Homeworld is one of the best tower defense apps we have played to-date. We really like having responsibility over three main groups: (1) ground units (2) sentinel weapons and (3) Commander upgrades. In ground units you can select and upgrade weapons such as lasers, bombs, aerial slow, missiles and a host of others. With sentinel weapons, you can unleash powerful weapons including missiles, ion bombs and napalm sweep. The sentinel weapons are particularly useful because they can get you out of a serious jam by wiping out large swaths of enemies while you fortify your weapons and contemplate next moves. The Commander can be upgraded in four main categories: (1) health (2) strength (3) shot damage and (4) morale.

Early in the game you can purchase the ability for the Commander to jump to various pre-designated areas on the map which is important for a number of reasons. First, the Commander emits an aura that boosts the energy of the weapons around it. Second, you can send the Commander to those areas where you are either suffering heavy damage or to wallop the enemies. The Commander is a powerful figure who really adds to the game’s complexity and gives it a great extra dimension. With each successful campaign you work toward giving the Commander powerful abilities like “stomp” which creates a powerful shockwave or “rage” that increases his speed and strength for a short amount of time. There is a diverse group of enemies with different capabilities and strengths that compel you to carefully allocate resources to optimize your chances of fending off each increasingly more devastating attack wave. This app gives you a lot to think about and the game is fresh and challenging throughout.

 We hope Origin8 Technologies Limited decides to put out a Universal version or iPad only version because, let’s face it, all games are more fun on the iPad’s larger screen. There is a lot of information on the screen at times and it would be nice to have it spread out over the iPad’s larger display. [Editor's Note: The app is now indeed Universal.] Nonetheless this is a fantastic game and if you enjoy tower defense games, like us, you are certain to like this one.

AppPicker Rating: 5 / 5 Stars Pick It Up in the App Store: Sentinel 3: Homeworld Other apps by Origin8 Technologies

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