Anomaly

With Anomaly 2 out on Steam and me currently downloading it, I thought I'd jump back a step and remember why I bought this game in the first place.

It all started two years ago, Anomaly: Warzone Earth was released on Steam and it seemed an interesting title. 'Reverse Tower Defence' was its catchline, it looked different, I was impressed by pretty pictures and even watched the trailer. So I bought it, and I wasn't disappointed.

All is quiet in the Middle East, until Alien death rains from above. Monstrocities grow from the ground and start zapping everything in sight. A bubble shield forms around a huge area of land, impenetrable to aircraft and radar, well, most of the time. It's just you and your humble little convoy to enter the battlefield and take on an unknown enemy.

Anomaly holds true to it's catchphrase, you are on the offensive as you guide and plan your convoy's movements along the broken roads and paths. Take out the enemy towers stragegically, control your commander to grab power-ups or distract turrets. Repair your convoy, add new units, save the world!

While the premise is simple enough, it requires some serious strategy to beat this game. Towers have a nasty habit of spawning out of nowhere and since you can't control your convoy directly, only the path they take, you could guide them straight down an Alien shooting gallery. The various Alien turrets have nasty side effects, such as turning your own convoy against you, so you are going to plan your attacks carefully. To be honest, it's nice to play a Tower Defence game from the other side of the fence. A pretty Tower Defence game at that. It looks very good for it's price.

Plot wise, it's pretty decent. It throws a few curveballs and the voice acting is solid, but it's nothing to rave about. The game gets a bit crazy on the difficulty curve sometimes, the last level is totally insane and I've never actually been able to beat it. The never ending spawning turrets, the overall lack of supplies, the huge boss; it was just too much to handle. I watched a walkthrough video and I still don't know how they did it.

With Anomaly 2, I'm hoping they make it bigger and better. I know they are introducing Transformers, so where can that possibly go wrong? As long as I don't see Michael Bay around, I'll be happy.