To be honest, when I saw the name of this game, I was stunned for a moment. Not because it is so famous, but because these four words "Three Kingdoms" suddenly brought me back to ten years ago. At that time, I was still using Nokia N73, which had a small screen and clicky buttons. I could download a JAVA game of several hundred KB and play it all day long. At that time, mobile games were not as fancy as they are now, but they were so simple and addictive.
"Horse to Guard the Pass" is produced by Xinxian, and it can be regarded as a new work in the "Horse to Guard the Three Kingdoms" series. I didn't have high expectations at first, after all, the mobile game market is full of skin reskin and cash-for-money, but after playing for a few days, I was a little surprised. I'm not going to brag about it, but it does have a bit of the “serious gaming” feel of the past.
Let's talk about the picture first. The realistic style of Three Kingdoms tower defense is rare on mobile phones. It's not the kind of Q-version cartoon, nor is it filled with light pollution on the screen, but rather tough and textured modeling. When the generals use their skills, the details of their movements are in place. For example, when Guan Yu slashes with a sword, it really feels like the sword flashes and dust flies. Although the picture quality is not as good as those of current 3A-level mobile games, it is considered a sincere work on the 4.0 version of the operating platform😌.
In terms of gameplay, it combines tower defense and hero micro-management. Not only do you have to lay out defense towers, but you also have to control the hero's movement and release skills, which is especially exciting when challenging the BOSS. There was a level where I had to fight Lu Bu. I had to play it three times before I could pass it. Every time, I was overwhelmed by the last wave. Later, I figured out the timing of releasing the hero's skills and cooperated with the minion blocking, and I narrowly passed the level. I haven't experienced this sense of accomplishment of "winning with my brains" for a long time.
What surprised me the most was its 1v1 fair confrontation mode - "Tower Raiders". There is no VIP level crushing, no equipment suppression, all relying on manual troop dispatch and strategic matching. There is a conflicting relationship between the arms, which is a bit like the micro-management feeling in playing "StarCraft" back in the day. Although there are not many people playing now, the matching speed is not bad, and each game only lasts three to five minutes, which is suitable for playing in spare time.
The charging mode is 0, which is free. To be honest, there aren't many decent games these days that can be said to be “free”. I observed it and found that there were no forced pop-up advertisements or VIP gift packages for extortion. The main income comes from skins and outside development, but you can slowly save money without spending any money. For an experienced player like me, it's really rare to find a tower defense game that's not overbearing or annoying.
Recalling the days when I used to play "Plants vs. Zombies", "Defend Carrot" and "Three Kingdoms Tower Defense" from the Saipan era, I could finish a level several times just to get three stars. Although "Horse to Guard the Sky" is not a masterpiece now, it allows me to regain the simple happiness of "seriously breaking through the levels and trying again and again". In the world unified server ranking mode, you can also see your ranking in the region, and occasionally compete with overseas players, which is a bit interesting😏.
If you are like me, an old player from the Saipan era, and are fed up with the current "one-stop" mobile games that automatically find paths, automatically fight monsters, and automatically hand over tasks, and want to find something that really requires your brain and hands-on operation, you might as well try "Horse Guard". I don't want it to be popular, I just hope that a game of this quality can live for a few more years and not be buried by the market.
One final word of emotion: In games, sometimes the newer is not always better. The old method, the new taste, can still make people go crazy.