IDUN – Frontline Survival – Prepare to Annihilate Various Vermin

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• Developer: IDUN Interactive
• Publisher: Surefire.Games
• Platforms: PC
• Genre: RTS / Tower-defense / Roguelite
• Release Date: January 20, 2025
• Initial Price: 14.79€
• Reviewed Version: PC

IDUN – Frontline Survival delivers a fresh and exciting take on the tower defense genre, combining elements of real-time strategy (RTS) and roguelite mechanics to create a unique experience. Once you start playing, this title is genuinely surprisingly fun and addictive, but my biggest issue is the significant limitation on experimentation. You must craft all units first, which can feel restrictive, and progression sometimes becomes repetitive. Despite this, the game’s pacing is excellent, and the gameplay is fast and dynamic. The game forces you to think quickly and carefully plan your strategy for each mission.

The story starts abruptly when an invasion of alien vermin catches you unprepared in a mining colony, forcing you into a desperate fight for survival. The narrative leans on a sci-fi premise, with well-designed characters and a constant sense of urgency that keeps you engaged. Although the story is not revolutionary, it provides a solid backdrop for the action and added depth to the gameplay.

Interesting Core Gameplay, But Not Fun Long-Term

I first heard about this game at the Nordic Spring 2024 event in Malmö last year, when the solo developer from IDUN Interactive was presenting the project. Unlike classic tower defense games where turrets are static, IDUN allows you to move and reposition defense units during battle. Furthermore, IDUN includes Hero characters that you can deploy to plug gaps in your defense or turn the tide of battle, so you don’t rely solely on turrets. Another interesting mechanic is the massive mech you can move around the battlefield for extra firepower.

Resource management is a crucial part of the gameplay, forcing you to balance defending your base, controlling resource nodes, and upgrading defenses mid-mission. This system creates a satisfying progression loop, as you gradually unlock new turrets, upgrades, and abilities to handle increasingly difficult enemy waves. You can also call in artillery strikes or fire machine guns from space, which provides an exciting option when the battle becomes too chaotic. There’s also a technology system that allows you to upgrade units and buildings between missions and unlock new abilities.

The game utilizes a roguelite progression system, which provides a sense of long-term growth, but the grind can become repetitive over time. The core gameplay loop is fun, but the limited number of mission types (only four) and a lack of end-game content reduce replayability. Daily missions provide an additional reason to keep playing, but the game would benefit from more varied challenges and rewards.

Limited Opportunity for Experimentation

The repetitiveness stems from how missions reward resources and blueprints. These blueprints allow you to deploy new units or special attacks, such as airstrikes. At the start of the game, only one is available to you, while certain units are immediately accessible upon entering a mission. However, unlocking additional slots requires a lengthy grind. As already mentioned, the biggest issue is that blueprints must be crafted, even though they aren’t that expensive.

I don’t understand why we can’t simply choose and upgrade units over time, instead of being limited by crafting them. This reduces strategic flexibility, forcing you to work within predefined options instead of freely experimenting. True, the game recommends specific units for each mission, but I personally prefer more freedom to test different strategies, which the system doesn’t fully allow.

Since it’s an RTS title, you can speed up and pause IDUN. What I personally especially like is the wide variety of turrets, such as miniguns or shotguns, and other gadgets we can use. For instance, you can throw a healing bomb, bombard specific areas, and even have large tanks. All of this, in a way, gives you a reason to play as much and as long as possible.

Final Thoughts

Overall, IDUN is a fairly light and relaxing game. The controls are simple, the mechanics are easy to understand, and the game doesn’t overwhelm you with too much content at once. The first five hours of gameplay are very fun, as you gradually unlock new content and experiment with the strategies offered.

Yes, the game uses AI-generated voices, and while they aren’t bad, they are quite repetitive and become a bit irritating. Listening to the same robotic tone during missions and in the main hub eventually becomes tiresome. However, the game’s visual style is extremely appealing, with detailed character design and chaotic, explosive battles that are a real visual treat.

You will surely enjoy the variety of enemies, and there is something incredibly satisfying in this title as you destroy all types of vermin, from the smallest to the largest. IDUN has a special charm that keeps drawing you back, as it offers various challenges and a unique approach to the tower defense genre. The solo developer is regularly releasing updates and patches, striving to improve the game balance, which is certainly necessary, especially regarding the different types of turrets currently available in the game.

Review copy provided by the publisher