Chicane TD

About the Game

The race is coming through. Build the chicane.

A chicane is the tight bend put into a track to slow the cars down. In Chicane TD you are the one putting it there: a tower defense where you walk the circuit yourself, in first or third person, and build your towers on the kerb as wave after wave of cars pours in through the doorways.

Every run is played on the ground. Stand at the crossing where three lanes meet, watch the traffic come round the roundabout, and decide where the next tower goes — then press on before the countdown sends the next wave.

Five towers, three tiers, one super

• Basic — dependable single-target fire.
  
• Frost — chills cars to a crawl; its upper tiers splash the cold across the pack.
  
• Poison — damage that keeps working after the car has driven on.
  
• Lightning — a wild roll anywhere from a spark to a strike.
  
• Fire — burns through bunched-up traffic.

Research each line in the Tower Menu and carry the towers you have already built up to the next tier. Every tier is its own tower, not a bigger number: Frost II and III learn to splash, Fire III reaches further and burns wider.

Then stand all five top tiers within reach of one of them, pay the price, and assemble a super. The other four are consumed; what stands in their place is permanent — Overwatch, Tempest, Firestorm, Deep Freeze or Contagion, each with a job of its own. Firestorm throws meteors. It is allowed to.

Ten circuits, each with its own idea

• Town Circuit — a suburb with a race through it.
  
• Autumn Park — one roundabout, every lane lapping the same island.
  
• The Lido — the track hugs the fence and the middle is a swimming pool.
  
• Desert Circuit — two serpentines and one long lap behind the pits.
  
• Snow Park — three loops and a single spot in the middle that sees them all.
  
• The Divide — two loops split by a row of houses; a second lane is a second front.
  
• The Hairpins — the ground worth having is the bands between the straights.
  
• The Pinch — every lane crosses one point, once, and never comes back.
  
• The Figure Eight — every car crosses the middle twice.
  
• The Switchback — a zigzag downhill, and the cars pick up speed all the way to the bottom.

Each circuit opens one lane at a time: clear it with one way in to unlock two, then three. Choose Easy, Normal or Hard on top of any of them.

Twenty waves, then as many as you can stand

Every wave is authored by hand. Bosses arrive at ten and twenty and bring the dusk down with them — the street lamps come on, and the cars come out of the dark. Heavy cars shrug off a chill. Let too many through and the route is lost.

Clear the route and keep going: endless mode carries your towers, your coins and your leaks straight on into waves that grow harder until nothing can hold them.

Progress that stays with you

Every car stopped is experience. Level up between runs and spend points in The Depot: cheaper towers, more coins per kill, more experience per run, more cars allowed through, Sharpshooter for critical hits, Windfall for the odd wreck that pays twice, or Spotters to see stealth cars from further off. Respec whenever you like; the experience is never lost.

Clear a route on Hard and the Sergeant joins the patrol: a second officer to walk the circuit as.

Features

• Tower defense played on foot — first person or third person, one key to switch
  
• 5 tower lines × 3 tiers, and 5 permanent super towers assembled from them
  
• 10 hand-built circuits, each with 3 lane counts and 3 difficulties
  
• 20 authored waves per route, boss waves at dusk, and an endless mode after the clear
  
• A skill tree of 7 upgrades, bought with experience earned across runs
  
• Two officers to play as, the second earned on Hard
  
• Fast-forward whenever you are ready for the next wave
  
• A minimap, a before-and-after panel for every upgrade, and a range ring on every tower you look at
  
• Every key rebindable