#4
The thing about Dungeon Warfare 2 is that it does not really let you play passively. Other tower defense games reward a good early setup that then carries you. This one punishes it. You are a dungeon lord placing traps, and the best outcomes come from reading enemy pathing and engineering killboxes where multiple trap effects chain. A grinder slows them, a spike trap finishes them while the slow is active, a knockback resets the cycle. Getting that chain right for the first time is the kind of moment that keeps strategy players coming back. PC-only and not visually impressive, but the trap synergy is among the richest pure TD design on this list.