Thronefall is an accessible yet challenging mix of real-time strategy and tower defense.

Thronefall, developed by Grizzly Games, originally launched in Early Access in August 2023 and followed with its full launch in October 2024. This minimalist strategy game borrows elements from various other games but still manages to maintain a unique feel of its own.

You are the king of a tiny kingdom. During the day, you focus on building and planning. At night, hordes of enemies encroach on your castle, and you must defend it at all costs. When morning comes, you will collect money from your town, which you can spend on buildings and upgrades. This cycle continues until you survive enough nights to complete the level or until your castle is destroyed.

While Thronefall is an isometric 3D game, it draws heavily from the sidescrolling strategy and tower defense hybrid Kingdom series. The gameplay loop is very similar, with a few key differences. You control a monarch who rides a horse, and you must visit buildings that you want to improve or troops you wish to command. You build and upgrade these structures using a user interface that requires you to fill dotted circles above the buildings with the necessary coins.

A notable distinction in Thronefall is that you decide when nightfall occurs, rather than having time pass automatically. This gives players a bit more breathing room. However, while the passage of time is more forgiving, I found that balancing the economy in Thronefall is more challenging due to limited resources. The decision between building up defenses or creating money-producing structures is much more pronounced.

Although both games are level-based, each level in Thronefall is a comparatively bite-sized, yet offers more variety despite its smaller scale. Rather than Kingdom’s linear sidecrolling levels, each map in Thronefall is designed with unique challenges. Town layouts, terrain, and enemy entry points vary and require changes to your strategy to survive. Each level is short than the lands in Kingdom, but provides extra challenges in the form of perks, mutators, and weapons you can choose as you start your run on a particular level. The campaign is 10 levels long, but there’s a ton of replay value.

The game's visually striking and charming presentation perfectly complements its minimalist nature. The graphics are clear, bright, and feature flat shading, with an appealing limited color palette for each level that maximizes contrast. During the day, the harsh light creates solid shadows, while limited light sources at night soften the overall appearance. The isometric camera is positioned high above the action, giving the game the feel of a strategic war diorama used for planning battles. The toy-like models of the structures you build enhance this effect. I appreciate when a game has such a clear, unified art direction that is both distinctive and cohesive.

Thronefall offers a great experience on Steam Deck. I played the game docked at 1080p resolution without a hitch. If you prefer to play on the go, the game’s level structure makes it ideal for short play sessions.

Personally, I’m not a huge fan of real-time strategy games, but Thronefall made the genre feel more accessible. This is due to its unique combination of real-time strategy and tower defense elements, giving the gameplay a turn-based feel by allowing me to control the passage of time. While it reminded me of Kingdoms, Thronefall forges its own identity and feels distinct.

Thronefall is available now on PC (Steam) and Nintendo Switch.

Overall Score: 8/10

Played on: Steam Deck