Iron Brigade

Humanity’s strangest war is fought from walking trenches, where soldiers battle an army of hypnotic television-headed machines called the Monovision. Iron Brigade blends third-person shooting with tower defense in a colorful alternate-history conflict shaped by Double Fine’s offbeat humor and retro-futurist imagination. You command a Mobile Trench Brigade unit across Europe, Africa, and the Pacific, defending vital installations from waves of mechanical “Tubes” while pushing through a campaign full of absurd propaganda and oversized war machines. The tone stays playful even when the battlefield becomes crowded, frantic, and surprisingly demanding.

Every mission revolves around protecting a central objective while your customizable trench rolls into position and opens fire. You directly aim rifles, cannons, and specialty weapons, but success also depends on placing turrets, mortars, anti-air guns, barriers, and resource-generating defenses in smart locations before enemies overwhelm the line. Loot earned between missions unlocks new chassis parts, weapons, and defensive tools, letting you build for mobility, raw damage, support, or a tougher bunker-like setup. Difficulty ramps up through enemy variety and route management, while online co-op allows up to four players to combine complementary builds and cover far more ground than one trench can handle alone.

Its key strength is the way it makes tower defense feel physical: rather than watching lanes from above, you stand in the mud, rotate your armored trench, and personally stop breakthroughs. The chunky cartoon machinery, radio chatter, and deliberately silly premise give it a personality that more serious genre hybrids often lack. Rise of the Martian Bear extends the campaign with a Martian setting, additional missions, a boss encounter, survival challenges, and a large pool of equipment for returning players. Fans of Orcs Must Die!, Defense Grid, or co-op shooters who want strategic planning without losing direct combat will find Iron Brigade especially rewarding; newcomers can enjoy its approachable controls, while veterans can chase stronger builds and higher difficulty clears.