Following a good review of a tower defense game Defense Grid, I looked at the demo of the game. I liked it at the first glance, but eventually I was not impressed by the game balance. No need to use different kinds of towers to finish all four levels. In fact, basic towers were sufficient even to get the medals. The last level available in the demo allowed to use different strategies: use different towers (four types), use different upgrades (up to three on some towers). It turned out that it is easier to finish the level (with a medal) using only the basic tower even without upgrades. It seemed that attempting to use different towers created more risk than benefits. I hope the other levels in the game are more balanced. I did find that graphics, sounds, and narration were nicely done. The speed-up feature of the game is great. I really liked that each level could be completed in a short period of time, which makes the game attractive for casual games.
I wonder why such a task as balancing is not done automatically? If I work for a game development company I can see myself developing an automatic “game balancer”. Checking if a level is balanced is possible with a simulation, especially for such a deterministic games as tower defense games.