Review GaryFromLiberty 4/5 · Jun 8, 2026
I'm a big fan of tower defense games where you classically build a maze out of towers to slow down enemies as they are moving towards you. Emberward is a tiny evolution on that idea by splitting the towers and maze into too different aspects. You collect polyomino (tetris shapes) cards that you use to build your own maze on …
I'm a big fan of tower defense games where you classically build a maze out of towers to slow down enemies as they are moving towards you. Emberward is a tiny evolution on that idea by splitting the towers and maze into too different aspects. You collect polyomino (tetris shapes) cards that you use to build your own maze on the map then you place the towers on top of those shapes to hurt enemies while they move past. Then they take that and wrap it in a roguelite deckbuilder.
The polyomino cards act a lot like cards in other roguelite deckbuilders where they are offered randomly, relics are gained that synergize with specific types of shapes and towers, and some of them will have upgrades on them that boost towers place there. The towers you have access to are always available as long as you can afford to put them down and you'll unlock more randomly as you finish levels in a run. Finally you can equip a unique power to your homebase (a fire in this game) and play a character that also comes with their own unique power and/or relic.
The progression between runs is unlocking more characters, more flames, and special perks/powers that carry over to all your runs. You also unlock higher difficulty modifiers kind of like a "build-your-own slay the spire ascension" system.
All that, on 4 different levels that have unique maps, enemies, and bosses comes out to a lot of replayability which is great in games like this.
I only really have 2 criticisms of Emberward and they won't apply to everyone so if you already love what you hear, try it full stop.
First, I think the individual runs are maybe a little too long for a roguelite game. Usually by the end I've got more towers than I can hold and a couple relics that are literally doing nothing for me because I got them too late to actually make use of them, etc.
And the 2nd criticism is that although getting steam achievements for this game is mostly very fun, there are some "just be super good at this game" achievements that I couldn't end up getting because, unlike some other games in the genre, there was a faster ceiling of skill growth for me. I stopped understanding how to get better than I already was and unfortunately the lack of popularity meant I couldn't go online really to learn from other people either. But I don't have a great explanation of why that is in this game specifically so that could just be chalked up as a skill issue and your mileage may vary.
Overall I enjoyed Emberward a lot and recommend it.
4 / 5 Stars