I won this game through SteamGifts.

Islets Defense was a really pleasant surprise for me. The graphics are lovely, the gameplay feels polished, and the mechanics stay interesting because the game keeps introducing little twists and new ideas as you progress. I had a lot of fun with it overall.

That said, the difficulty curve gave me a bit of whiplash. Early on it felt very forgiving, like you could kind of do whatever and still win, but later some levels became super punishing where one small mistake basically meant restarting the whole thing. I got pretty close to giving up a few times, honestly. I didn’t even touch hardcore mode because normal mode was already destroying me enough.

I’d also say the “tower defense” label is a bit misleading. It feels more like a turn-based strategy game since you can only do one action per turn and can’t freely spam buildings whenever you want. Not a bad thing at all, just different from what I expected going in.

Even with the difficulty headaches and the lack of strategy guides online when I got stuck, I still think it’s a genuinely good game and definitely worth recommending if you enjoy strategy games that make you think a bit.