There’s no doubt that the mobile device space, especially tablets, really rejuvenated the semi-casual tower defense genre. Whether playing it more straight-up as pure strategy, or peppering in the ability to contribute more directly with a little action, as much as many of these games have in common there have been some variations on the formula that have been nice. Lesson Learned falls into the more action-based variety, though your level of participation in holding back attacks is more limited than you often see, but it works well enough in general in its own right.

What feels a little different here is that with the scale and style of play there’s almost more of a survival game feel to things, with you both directing your help on what to do and then doing your own part as well. In general, assigning people to do the tougher resource collecting tasks while you pick up loose ones laying about seems to be the best tactic, then transitioning to using your slingshot when enemies come knocking. With weaker enemies you can at least seem to make them pause, but otherwise unless you’re able to find a potion, or something else to supplement your firepower, unfortunately you tend to feel a bit incapable.

Instead, you’ll want to keep your focus on resources and then building up your various defensive units which fall into very typical types for the most part. Of course, having a mix of them will typically be your best strategy, but aside from the normal focus on correct placement and combining them effectively you’ll typically need to be ready to break them down and move them as well. The fact that your base will move on you absolutely has an effect on your strategy, as you’ll need to stagger units around in a way that you aren’t trying to reposition everything for a new spot, hopefully being able to just peel away the first line of defense to then put them in a new spot near the area your base ends up in.

The thing is, given there are plenty of varied options in this subgenre, I can’t say it ever really feels like Lesson Learned hits a great stride. Everything is a bit big and chunky, which can lead to some visual confusion when there gets to be a lot going on at once, and I can’t think of anything that stands out as wholly unique or implemented in a superior way here. More often than not it feels like laying down as many units as you can in clusters and spamming your enemies is the recipe for success, and without the ability to set up choke points or bottlenecks of some kind the strategic element also feels quite thin. In the end, there are just better and more engaging options out there.