Only one solution for some levels? That's not a strategy game, that's a puzzle game!
I have a nagging suspicion that there only exists one solution for some levels, like "Y me?", "Inward Spiral", "Nucleotide"... well, quite a lot of levels actually, and ESPECIALLY the new downloadable ones.
I bought this game because I consider normal tower defense games with set paths are pretty mindless. But, when you put so many obstacles in the way that it basically becomes just one or two paths again, I think the opportunities that the hexagonal grid invites is wasted, at least for the player (perhaps not so much for whoever made the level itself though).
But then, when you add on top of that waves which follow a very distinct pattern you need to memorize and build specifically to, well, then all tactics, strategy, emergent gameplay and other opportunities are thrown out the window as well, and it becomes simply a puzzle where you will fail until you find the one specific solution that the designer had in mind.
So, not only do you have to build towers on a level according to a specific pattern, but you have to do it in a specific order as well, tailored to that level's solution.
I'd love to the proven wrong, but I don't think I am.
If I am, people will be able to post distinctly different solutions to the above mentioned levels.
But then again, perhaps my original assumption is also wrong. GD Swarm perhaps isn't a strategy game, but a puzzle game instead?
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Obviously this post is super old and you will never read this response, but long ago I posted two distinct solutions for every medium and hard level:
http://criticalthoughtgames.com/node/121
If you think there is only one solution to each level you are probably just bad at the game.
It's also important to realize that the more solutions that are possible for a level, the easier it becomes. If you can beat a level in 15 different ways with any combination of towers, that means the level is TOO EASY.
I completely disagree that set path TD's are more "mindless" then open field ones. In each case you are simply trying to find optimal solutions for the level. In an open field TD the solution is almost always going to be "funnel the creeps to a single, long, lane, apply splash damage." In a set path TD you are denied the ability to funnel the creeps into the optimal path, instead being forced to find a solution to a specific problem that would otherwise not be optimal. Geodefense swarm is an interesting combination of both premises, giving some open field choice while in many cases forcing a semi-specific path so you have to work on varying strategies.
Yeah, you took the words off of my keyboard. Missing ONE tower will make one too poor to continue. Upgrading towers in the wrong order will destroy you. The fact that the description of the game has to assure players that each level is beatable, and that there's always more than one solution speaks volumes; puzzles have solutions, strategy games have maps. And yeah, if you REQUIRE a disclaimer that the game is beatable, there's about a 5:1 ratio of people totally lost and people acting like arrogant fools, the margin of error is 0, and at least a few people are so annoyed that we're dismissing the game as being a puzzle, you might consider taking it back a few steps.
Elysium, you're just helping us out. TWO viable configurations, each of which has at most a dozen and a half towers, for Swarm-a-licious, is not indicative of a strategy game; Advance Wars and Rampart (my favorite strategy games) could be beaten in oodles of ways, not just two. Desktop Tower Defense (my first and favorite TD game) can be beaten in further oodles of ways (and now there are hundreds of variations that make the game even more awesome).
There's also the fact that I cannot seem to find a video of how to beat Swarm-a-licious for GD Swarm v. 1.6, which makes me question how many people could have possible played enough times to find even one of the two usable configurations.