The Sentinel series of games are like royalty among Tower Defence games, so it’s a bit of an event when a new one comes along. Can Sentinel 4 continue to provide the same quality alien shooting?
From the first look at the new improved menu system it’s clear that Origin 8 have given the latest game in the series more than a little polish. This goes for the upgrade paths, too, with a much clearer set of upgrade paths for turrets, items to help you out and strenthen your main character’s armour and weaponary.
The story continues from where Sentinel 3 left off, having destroyed the aliens on their homeworld, a surprise appearance from a large enemy disappearing through a wormhole leads to a brand new adventure in another universe.
This brings its own set of extras, with aliens helping you in your quest, but Sentinel 4 is mostly happy with a collection of features from the series past. With repair and attack drones that can be bought and recharged in-game, little robots that return to block paths and attack enemies and a large number of upgrades for each tower it feels like a ‘greatest hits’ of Sentinel games. That’s no bad thing, of course.
The difficulty is spot on again, with the return of the 4 difficulty modes, though later levels are tough even on the easiest mode without a proper set of considered upgrades. This adds an extra layer of strategy to the game.
Graphics are polished as well, the best they’ve ever looked. There isn’t that much you can really do with a classic Tower Defence, but these alien worlds and the characters in them are certainly well designed.
So while Sentinel 4: Dark Star isn’t a reinvention of the Tower Defence genre or of its own series, it’s the strongest Sentinel game yet and should satisfy any fan of the genre.
Sentinel 4: Dark Star
Pros
- Great graphics
- New modes to take personal control
- Varied scenery
