Developer: 11 bit studios
Publisher: 11 bit studios
platform: PC, Mac, Linux
Anomaly 2 – Review
Anomaly 2, created by 11-bit studios, a small Polish indie development studio, is a Tower Offense RTS. The game continues a few years after its predecessor, Anomaly: Warzone Earth, which was described as a reverse tower defense game. The point of the game was to get past the towers with a convoy instead of building towers to prevent letting anyone through. Anomaly 2 keeps all the elements of the previous game, while offering a lot more.
Story:
A few years after the invasion, which happened in the first Anomaly game, human kind is on the verge of extinction after the machines attacked earth a second time. This time humankind wasn’t able to deflect the attack and lost the battle. Now there is one last hope, project Shockwave. The story revolves around acquiring the components for the project, saving people with knowledge of the project and a making a safe zone around an antenna which is big enough to deploy Shockwave.
The story is told through the missions where every mission is a part of the story. At the start of every mission, you get a detailed explanation of what is going on, what your mission is and how you should achieve it.
Graphics:
If you thought the first one looked good you’re in for a surprise. Thanks to a new and improved visual engine the game looks more beautiful than ever. It offers new and improved graphics that make you stare at your screen.
Sound:
The game’s soundtrack breathes battle tunes, like you’re going to take part in the biggest war of your life. The music suits the game very well, I don’t think I could imaging the game with any other music.
Gameplay:
In story mode you start as Captain Poise, stranded somewhere and asking for assistance. You’ll be united with a convoy and an explanation is given of a few of the basics of the game. Your mission is to retrieve the data of project Shockwave, the last hope of humanity. While you’re successfully in sending the data to HQ, your convoy is ambushed by the machines and in no time obliterated. The end of the 14th platoon and Captain Poise.
The next 3 missions are VR training missions, as you’re First Lieutenant Simon Lynx, a new recruit who has to learn how the battle suit works. In these training missions, you’ll get a more detailed explanation of the basics of the game.
When in the middle of the third training mission, the facility you’re training in is attacked and destroyed, forcing you to get out there and prove yourself on the battlefield. From here on you’ll get missions, to save some people, retrieve equipment, destroy obstacles, etc. All leading to the activation of project Shockwave and the destruction of the machines.
While playing, you are in command of First Lieutenant Simon Lynx and you can run freely over the map, providing you aren’t shot down by the towers. When running around you also have to plan the route your convoy takes, on the tactical map you can choose the direction of your convoy’s path, and deploying your abilities which are four types, repairing, placing decoys, placing a small EMP and targeting a single target. These four abilities are essential if you want to survive in this game.
The purpose is to clear your missions and go on to carry out the next one. But the mission is not just to destroy all the towers. No, you rarely have to destroy them all, instead you have to complete the objective of your mission and you’ll be on to the next one. There are different types of missions, like mentioned before so the objective will always be something else. This prevents the game of being repetitive, and gives it a replay value.
The multiplayer also offers you a tutorial. There are 6 tutorials to play through, 3 squad tutorials and 3 tower tutorials. As mentioned in our preview, here you’ll be able to play on offense as the squad or to play on defense as the towers. These tutorials are very welcome because in the beta I had no idea how to properly play the multiplayer. The 3 squad tutorials are the same ones as the VR missions in Story Mode. But the 3 tower tutorials are new and give a good detailed explanation how to use the towers and their abilities to their fullest.
Multiplayer is always competitive, there is no cooperation mode. You can either play against a friend or you can find an opponent on the internet. Playing against a friend is always friendly, where playing against an unknown opponent you can choose to play ranked. You can also choose whether you want to play squad or tower and put on the option that allows different skill level.
There are two ways to win a multiplayer game, earning a required amount of points or gaining a point advantage over your opponent. The exact point values depend on the map you’re playing.
Conclusion:
When I started playing Story Mode, I was so hooked to the game, I played mission after mission until it was time to go to bed. This game has a certain addiction to it, when you start you do not want to stop playing. And with 4 difficulty settings, you’ll be busy for a while. The addiction element is what a game needs to have and boy, this game does have it.
Adding a multiplayer to a tower defense game, was a very good idea and I think it will pay off, certainly with ranked matches. A competition always gives that something extra to a game.
This game deserves 2 thumbs up, great graphical game which doesn’t need a too expensive computer to be able to play it. And not to forget easy to learn and master controls. The only thing you need to pay attention to is your tactic to defeat the enemy.
11bit studios delivered us a solid game in which you can spend hours and hours of gameplay without ever getting bored.
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