Geekscape Games Reviews Anomaly: Warzone Earth
Normally, tower defense games are boring to me. There never seems to be enough challenge other than trying to not get bored and screw up something that calls for your untimely loss. Many have tried to change up the genre as best they could, mostly to no avail. 11 Bit Studios, however, did so in a great way with Anomaly: Warzone Earth. What if you were the aggressor instead of the defender?
With the game on pretty much every device out there, Anomaly: Warzone Earth makes a stop to Xbox Live Arcade this time. You still get the great voice acting of Jason Statham (not really him), controls that translate very well to a console controller and graphics that look better than they should for a small game such as this.
The story is paper thin but doesn’t need to be more than that. As the commander of the 14th Platoon in the near future, you and your squad are sent to investigate the crash sites of an alien spacecraft and end up finding trouble conveniently in the form of towers.
Since Anomaly: Warzone Earth is all about strategy, picking your units at the beginning of a mission is crucial. With some units only available in certain missions, I ended up sticking with tanks, shield generators and missile launchers. Being a tower defense game, you have limited funds to purchase units at the beginning and during the missions. More funds can be snagged up by destroying towers and finding ‘ore’ laid out in certain areas of the map. Also, if a unit is not working for you the way you thought it would, sell it off and use that money to get a different unit.
Playing as the commander, you have free reign to go anywhere on the map. I use this to my advantage with the power-ups at your disposal. While the smoke screen, repair kit and decoy are used to protect your platoon as you follow them into battle, sneaking around ahead and using your bomb power-up on the annoying towers is sometimes a smart move. Controls between pulling up the map to set a path for your platoon to traverse, purchasing upgrades or new units then switching back to battle to use power-ups to support the platoon was very snappy. Sometimes, it was a little too snappy and I would end up using more power-ups than I intend to. To me, that is a testament to how responsive the controls can be.
Anomaly: Warzone Earth has a great difficulty curve as you get into the later missions. Towers that hit a unit and spreads that hit to everything it’s near, regenerating towers that use the energy from your power-ups to bring back towers you destroyed in the immediate area and my least favorite, the tower that shoots a blast that creates an small bubble that when the commander is inside it with a friendly unit, the friendly units turn on you and target you instead of the towers. Makes using power-ups on your platoon a gamble until that tower is dealt with.
Bringing something new to the Xbox Live Arcade version of Anomaly: Warzone Earth, 11 Bit Studios added six “Tactical Trials” levels. Carried out in a virtual reality simulator, you have to find the most optimal way to complete the objectives. I really got the Metal Gear VR mission vibe upon first loading up the tactical trials. There will be some trial and error here so use that to figure out what units work in each trial. having the trials unlock only after you beat the game is a shame since I felt you could learn some strategies or at least get used to the different units to see which ones you find useful. At least it gives the player some replay value after the campaign is finished.
11 Bit Studios did what I thought was neigh impossible, to like a tower defense game. For those who already played Anomaly: Warzone Earth, the tactical trials is not enough to warrant another purchase to play them. If this is the first time you have even heard or seen of this game, be prepared to spend some quality time having Jason Statham’s (again, not really him) voice carry you into a surprisingly fun twist on the tower defense genre.
