The haunting soundtrack doesn't stand out, but it suitably accompanies the stages.
Units are easy to distinguish from one another the ruined cityscapes are chilling, with palm trees swaying as spacecraft fly overhead and dust swirls around the gutted buildings and crumbling asphalt. It doesn't hurt that Anomaly: Warzone Earth is also a surprisingly pretty game, particularly given its subject matter and its availability as a rather small downloadable title. Medals for ruthless or efficient play provide further incentive to replay stages, and leaderboards make it easy to compare performance with close friends or worldwide leaders. The player can choose a preferred setting before attempting each individual stage, rather than committing to one setting and finding that it grows too difficult or too easy halfway through the campaign. The player will see a few "Game Over" screens after making the occasional silly mistake, but frequent checkpoints throughout the campaign prevent much lost progress.Īnomaly: Warzone Earth provides some good incentives to keep playing, notably its well-implemented difficulty settings. Meanwhile, in typical tower defense fashion, enemies generally remain stationary at key posts rather than putting up a real fight.
The low number of unique units is disappointing, particularly since it's possible to clear most scenarios by upgrading a couple of Crawler units and letting a Shield unit accompany them as they lead a merry procession through enemy territory. If units are frequently annihilated, slight changes to the route they follow and the order of power-up deployment can make a substantial difference.Īt first, Anomaly: Warzone Earth seems to do everything well, but some weak elements detract from the otherwise exemplary experience.
Careful resource management and planning are constant imperatives. Air strikes are also possible later in the campaign. These allow him to deploy a field of fog that forces enemies to fire blindly, or place decoy units or repair damaged vehicles. When an enemy tower is leveled, space is cleared and an icon appears that the commander can collect and utilize. A few seconds of unavailability is disastrous, though, because it leaves the steadily advancing platoon to navigate nearly unassailable territory without precious power-ups, which only the commander can dispense.Īside from the offensive approach, these power-ups are the game's most significant twist on the familiar genre. If he wanders too far and enemies eliminate him, he'll return to the action unscathed after a brief delay. Mostly, he should remain near the mechs, tanks, shield generators, and supply vehicles that make up the platoon. A single ground unit, the commander, calls the shots, working as the player's primary means of interaction. Offense is the directive, but the game still plays a lot like a more standard tower defense title. Now soldiers must take back each captured zone by bringing the fight to the aliens. Extraterrestrial vessels hover over scorched soil and the remnants of apartments and office buildings. As events unfold, aliens have set up encampments and Earth's soldiers are the new invaders.
Anomaly: Warzone Earth is a tower defense game in reverse.