Anomaly: Warzone Earth

aka: Anomaly: Warzone Earth - Gold Edition
Moby ID: 51704
Windows Specs
Buy on Windows
$9.99 new on Steam

Description official description

Anomaly: Warzone Earth is a fast-paced reverse tower defense game. In the game, the player controls a single convoy and must lead it through cities infested by aliens. Players can change configuration of the convoy, change its path and use special abilities (for example repair units). Each mission has different goals and usually requires different strategies and convoy configurations. Game's goal is to investigate alien infestation.

Exclusive to the PlayStation 3 version is a local cooperative mode where two commanders work together in battle. One is responsible for controlling the armor units while the other plans the strategy.

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Credits (Windows version)

59 People (57 developers, 2 thanks) · View all

Game Design
Level Design
Story & Script & Dialogue Writers
Graphic Design
Level Artist
Towers & Units Graphics
Animations
Concept Art
Intro Cinematic
  • Bitter Lix
Game Programming
Engine Programming
Tools Programming
Sound Engineer
Music
Voice Acting
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 81% (based on 26 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.2 out of 5 (based on 19 ratings with 2 reviews)

Good controller support, with some very questionable game design decisions

The Good
Controller support: as good as Microsoft's Halo 2. The gameplay is all-controller, no mouse needed. You still need to press Esc to skip the intro, and Space to skip the cutscenes. Everything else is done on the gamepad. You don't need to configure any buttons. Just install the game and plug in your USB gamepad, and it's good to go. The default button layout is fine.

The voice acting is fine. Nothing special (Don't expect Metal Gear Solid quality dialogues), but not gonna make you wanna skip the cutscenes either.

It's probably exciting and fresh for two hours. And then it gets real repetitive (see below).

The Bad
Game design is questionable in many areas. Almost every level invites you to use the exact same strategies. Every level feels the same. It gets really tedious. The difficulty settings are upsetting -- you may want to just beat the "casual" difficulty and never bother with the rest. There are three medals in each level, all of which are tedious and boring to get.

Unit design: The units are too similar, and there is generally no reason to use the "low-level" units once you get the "high-level" units.

Weapon design: Your weapons and the enemy's weapons are the most generic type of weapons. Your reaction will just be "oh, the enemy's attacking" and "oh, I'm attacking", without any kind of excitement.

Unit upgrades: The later upgrades cost a lot of money (often more than you will ever be able to afford -- pointless). The upgrades don't seem to be as strong as their price would suggest.

The battles: You're either crushing the enemies, or you're being crushed by the enemies. There is no balance. Battles are way too predictable.

Graphics: It looks like there are many things on your map, but 90% of this is eye candy, and doesn't affect your gameplay. None of the graphics is memorable. Very generic "war" graphics.

Sound: Like the graphics, there is no memorable sound in this game. Very generic "war" sounds.

The Bottom Line
It's aimed at a casual audience who want to play every level in exactly the same way. It's a generic "you attack me, I attack you" game without much imagination or creativity.

Windows · by Pagen HD (146) · 2014

A 2020 Review - Anomaly: Warzone Earth

The Good
- Unexpectedly gorgeous graphics for a top-down on-rails shoot 'em up game. The scenes, explosions, and armaments all look spectacular and are appropriately peppered with rubble and signs of destruction from the alien invaders. - Typically UI isn't something very mention-worthy, however, this is a bit of an anomaly in that Anomaly Warzone Earth's UI is both great to look at and intuitive to navigate. I especially like the way the map view looks.  - Gameplay is straightforward and simple to understand. No steep or lengthy learning curve. Just strategy.  - An appropriate duration for this style of game. Since it isn't particularly in-depth in any way, it was a good choice to keep it around the 5-8 hour mark.

The Bad
- Later stages become a bit too difficult for my taste. As the enemies scale in difficulty and density, your options do not change other than you get more supply drops.  - British military radio chatter is over the top obnoxious. I get the styling, but I personally find it tiring.  - The lack in depth of enemy types was disappointing. I was hoping for more variety in enemy combatants rather than different positioning and clustering challenges to overcome.  - Its story is straight out of a can. It's too bad they couldn't have come up with something a bit more compelling. - For those wanting more out of the campaign, unfortunately, it does run rather short - even if the difficulty does spike at the end slowing down gameplay.

The Bottom Line
A 2020 Review - Anomaly: Warzone Earth

Score: 7/10  Mediocrity Score: Not Mediocre.

When alien spacecraft suddenly crash down to Earth, it's your job to infiltrate to save the planet. In Anomaly: Warzone Earth - the importance is in the gameplay, not the story. By reversing the strategy for the tower defense genre, 11 Bit Studios has carved out a category and style of its own. Fight your way through the invading aliens as they summon gigantic dome-shields and defensive structures to protect their spacecraft and technology. As the commander, you are to lead an on-rails convoy across the region in an attempt to take down the aliens. 

Tags: A few words or tags that come to mind are: stunning, action, repetitive, on-rails. 

Avg. Time to beat: 6 hours and 30 minutes. Quickest Speedrun: ~3 hours (estimated)

Retail Price: $9.99 Lowest Historical Price on Steam: $0.99 Lowest Historical Price outside Steam: $0.80

Quick Take: Anomaly is a game I pick back up every year or two and put in about 2-3 hours of playing before putting it back onto the virtual shelf. I rarely play it through to the end as the final chapters become very bullet-hell like while juggling protecting and healing an escort convoy. This on-rails action strategy game is definitely worth checking out when it goes on sale. That being said, I wouldn't ever recommend the full $10. Graphics are a strong highlight and are not something I anticipated to be so standout. The constant military radio chatter is a bit cheesy and over the top. Something I wish they had done with a bit less camp. This game is unlike anything I've come across and for me would fall under its own subgenre within the tower defense genre. Its fresh take, stellar graphics, and high-octane gameplay make this title stand out positively. It may not be the greatest, and certainly gets repetitive pretty quick - but it sure is fun. Especially if you catch it at its steepest discount for only $0.99 cents.  

Concept: Alien spacecraft crash down to Earth and form giant domes in which the aliens spawn protective defensive towers and structures. None of this is acceptable to humanity at large which is where you, the commander, come in. You are to lead a convoy on-rails across a map to designated targets in an attempt to take down the aliens thus saving humanity. For me personally, this was a strange game concept that felt unique. Not necessarily great, but unique. 

Graphics: Impressive. Particularly so for a game of this genre and style. To me, this is a shining example of what more top-down games should strive for. Sure, physics could be more - but the graphics are great. What's more, is that the graphics are great without requiring too much performance to play. The UI is bold and obvious in its intentions and, for me at least, required little guidance to understand and use. UI is rather obvious in its intention to be used cross-platform.

Sound: Apart from the really annoying radio chatter and voice-comms, it's good. It's sufficient, and not much more. Not that it needs to be, it just isn't particularly noteworthy or does anything different. 

Gameplay: Plan your route as you weave and wind through the map with various pivot points available at certain intersections. Squash your enemies however you can, and keep moving onward. It offers a rather expected, but still vaguely sufficient, variety of unit types. The gameplay is very repetitive and simple at times, but offers enough breaks and is short enough that it doesn't become a chore. At least not too quickly. 

Entertainment: Even if short-lived in gameplay duration, it is suitably entertaining. No boring lulls. Don't expect any meaningful story, or even a particularly interesting one. A fresh, quality take on gameplay is the true focus and selling point for this title. Late game is a difficult juggling act, but a fun one!

Replayability: While the maps are static in their design, I do pick this game back up every year or two and give it a quick playthrough. It's short enough and quick paces enough that it scratches an itch that otherwise goes ignored. 

---Elaborations & Extras---

Perhaps this isn't the first game of the genre that you've played, but it is the first reverse or inverted tower defense game ever created - or at least formally. 11 Bit Studios really has created something fresh and unique. This kind of thing isn't commonly executed so well, which is why I try to relish in the moments while they last - even if only an alteration of an already existing genre. It's also noteworthy to mention that the studio developed and used its own in-house, multi-platform engine made just for this game. The team committed to an innovative idea, and they pulled it off. Kudos and bravo!

Thanks for reading!

Windows · by WONDERなパン (16196) · 2020

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by bakubaku.

PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation Now added by Sciere. Linux added by Iggi.

Additional contributors: Jeanne, Rainer S, Kennyannydenny.

Game added June 16, 2011. Last modified March 4, 2024.