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Normally when it comes to Tower Defense games you’re fighting off monsters, zombies, or perhaps a invading army…not the case with Pathogen Defense, instead you must fend off germs that are trying to make it past your post.

The goal of Pathogen Defense is the same as a Tower Defense game but the actual gameplay strikes me more as a physics action game due to how it plays out. What you do is aim your tower’s missile at the oncoming germs and determine the angle and speed of the shot. Once you shoot the missile it’ll bounce off the germs and somewhat interact in a way similar to playing a game of Billiards (in zero gravity that is…and the table is slightly slanted) and ricochet off of one another. Adding a bit more depth to the gameplay is that, over time, you can  upgrade your tower with a variety of missiles that can be changed on the fly.

While there’s two mods to choose from, Odyssey & Survival, it’s Odyssey that you’ll spend most of your time with (or at least at first) since this is where you’ll be able to upgrade your tower. The levels in Odyssey move slowly at first and feels like it takes forever for the level to end. With that said, even the first stages are challenging and not to worry…the pacing does pick up (not quick pick-up and play) and if you’re a Tower Defense vet you’ll be challenged.

iPhone 5 vs iPad

We normally don’t break down gameplay on iDevices but because Pathogen Defense does offer something slightly different I figured…why not? Pathogen Defense is one of the first titles to use the full screen real estate of the iPhone 5…and it looks beautiful. If you’re one of the lucky people to get your hands on the iPhone 5 and looking for a game that supports the screen ratio, this is a perfect casual game to try out. Multiplayer is a cool extra feature on the iPad that almost makes it feel like a different game. Yeah, you can play two people on one screen so expect even more germ warfare

The Bottom Line: 7.5/10 (Good)

If you stick with Pathogen Defense past the first few stages you’ll be rewarded with a fun physics Tower Defense game.