IDUN – Frontline Survival Review — No Shortcuts to a Place Worth Going

IDUN – Frontline Survival is a sci-fi tower-defense game featuring thousands of on-screen enemies to blast apart using various guns, explosives, and lasers. The gameplay can be really fun at times, and the developers took an interesting approach to the genre with unique mechanics that really change up the formula. Unfortunately, key design choices really hold the game back from being something that could have been great and left me feeling a little bitter over what could have been.

Before I get into the nitty-gritty of IDUN – Frontline Survival, I have to address the big, computer-assisted double-jointed elephant in the room: IDUN – Frontline Survival makes use of AI-generative content in core, creative parts of the game. You can really tell just by playing, but thanks to a new Steam policy regarding self-disclosure of AI elements in games, we know for a fact that IDUN – Frontline Survival specifically uses “AI-enhanced images” and “AI-assisted voice acting.” While I think the image side of things just uses AI to animate still images (this review would have another three to four paragraphs if I found out all the art was AI-generated), it is incredibly clear that every voice in the game is AI.

Now, I know that everyone out there has their own opinions on AI-generated content and how it should be used in media. It’s no secret that AI has made its way into video games in areas we never before thought it could, and while I have my own, rather strong opinions on the matter, I try to review these games objectively. From my personal opinion, I think the use of AI to replace human creativity is a cardinal sin no game, movie, or other media should commit. From an objective standpoint, the use of AI in IDUN – Frontline Survival leads to terrible voice “acting” with stunted, emotionless deliveries of lines and incredibly awkward facial animations. You can, thankfully, mute the voices, but the stilted animation still remains.

Being a small indie dev does not excuse the use of AI-generated content in my mind, nor does it change how objectively awkward it is to witness and listen to. As the developer said on Reddit, “Hiring voice actors would have been awesome, if I had money. Getting friends to record would also be cool, but that would extend the production timeline, time I don’t have.” I absolutely understand and sympathize with not having the money to hire voice actors for your game, but do not tell me you don’t have time to have someone else record voice lines for you. I know from experience that voice acting is not a lengthy process, and you sacrifice the quality of your game by choosing an earlier release instead of delaying to include actual voice acting. Plus, if time was so important, why take time to generate awkward animations that distract from what could have been perfectly fine 2D, static character portraits?

I am of the opinion that choosing to replace a creative endeavor with AI shows a lack of respect for art, one that usually coincides with those who have not taken the time to develop an artistic skill of their own. I am further convinced of this theory when I look at the writing of IDUN – Frontline Survival.

Every single piece of dialogue in the game follows the incredibly tiring playbook of the Joss Whedonification of pop culture: Every character is sarcastic, teasing each other but in a “nice” way, and constantly cracking the lamest jokes imaginable. When the game does break up its constant barrage of quirky, Marvel-movie humor for a few sentences, it is to give blatant exposition about a setting filled with incredibly generic sci-fi concepts or to flat-out tell you the relationship two characters are supposed to have. Some of the most unnatural conversations I have ever heard between characters occur in this game, made all the worse by the fact that the computer-generated voices cannot properly emote at any point during the game. It’s a jarring mess that would almost be a hilarious satire if the game was self-aware enough to pull it off.

This is pretty tragic because, beneath this shell of creative bankruptcy, you have an actual competent RTS game.

Mechanically speaking, IDUN – Frontline Survival is a pretty basic RTS tower defense game in the vein of They Are Billions or Age of Darkness: Final Stand, forgoing a lot of the base-building but keeping the exciting massive horde aspect. A match in IDUN – Frontline Survival tasks you with mining out the stupidly named precious resource and defending against the forgettably named hordes of rabid aliens that attack you during. As you collect more of the Unobtanium-adjacent resource, you are rewarded with random selections of turrets, buffs, or heroes to call down, adding a pretty clever roguelite element to the game.

One way in which IDUN – Frontline Survival really separates itself from the other RTS tower defense games is the ability to move your towers at will. No, the towers don’t walk, and no, they don’t transport between fixed locations—you can actually just straight-up move them whenever you want. To compensate for this freedom, the game throws enemies at you from all angles, with very little choke points or defensive positions to hold, and does so randomly and with no warning. It’s a tower defense game that challenges your attention span and reaction speed, which creates a very unique experience in the genre.

I would be lying if I didn’t say that killing the enemies was incredibly satisfying too, especially when using the orbital gatling gun ability.

Some people are going to be put off by the game’s difficulty. As soon as you are out of the lengthy tutorial missions, IDUN – Frontline Survival picks up the pace and challenges you, with the RNG on loot drops making it a bit more difficult. Frankly, I kind of liked this aspect, and the only thing I would approve of the game (as far as gameplay, at least) would be to include rewards for mission failure so that upgrading your arsenal isn’t totally reliant on you winning these difficult fights.

IDUN – Frontline Survival was clearly made by a developer with cool ideas for tower defense mechanics, but it fumbles hard with its awkward implementation of AI and terrible dialogue, characters, and boring setting. I sympathize with trying to be ambitious without a lot of resources at your disposal. However, good intent does not excuse shortcuts that undermine your art, and while I’d never expect an indie developer to ace every single aspect of their game, these painfully obvious shortcuts just made these shortcomings all the more apparent and, in the case of IDUN, become shortcomings of their own, actively worsening aspects of the game.

There are no shortcuts to a place worth going, and it pains me that IDUN – Frontline Survival could have been so much more with just a little more time and a lot more respect for human creativity.

Try Hard Guides received a PC review code for this game. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! IDUN – Frontline Survival is available on Steam.