Tide and Tower

Tide and Tower asks a simple question: can you hold your little seaside town together while the water keeps rising? You place walls, pumps and watchtowers, then react as each tide comes in higher than the last. It's strategy that respects your time — rounds are contained and you can pause to think.

I like that it doesn't drown you in menus. The tutorial is short, and the systems reveal themselves through play. There's a real satisfaction in setting up a layout that survives a wave you thought would wreck you.

It gets properly tough around the mid-game, and I had to rethink my whole approach a couple of times. That's a compliment. If you enjoy tinkering with layouts, this scratches the itch.

What we liked

• Clean, menu-light interface
• Tense but pausable rounds
• Layouts that reward experimentation