The sequel to Anomaly Warzone Earth came out recently and I decided to grab it up since I was a fan of the first game. Let me start by saying this is what sequels should be like. Bigger, badder, and a lot of cool new stuff to use. First a little bit about the series. Anomaly is a tower offense / defense hybrid. You aren't defending from invaders. Those suckers are already here and they've laid waste to the planet. Your mission is to blast through them with your convoy and get the planet back.
You play this game by essentially switching between two phases. First you plan out your path through a virtual HUD display where you essentially pause the game and have an overall view of where the enemy forces are, checkpoints and your ending destination. This is where a lot of the tactical strategizing takes place. At anytime you can also reorganize and purchase units from the squad menu to the left. The second phase is the real time strategy part. Your troops will traverse the planned path you laid out and attack any enemies they come in contact with.
While the first game had a pretty neutral atmosphere, set in both Baghdad and Tokyo, which looked pretty much the same, Anomaly 2 has upped their game with diverse environments set in iconic locations. You start out in a cold ruins of New York City seeing the remains of the Statue of Liberty on the ground then make your way to the lush tropical climates of Rio. All of which have been transformed into a beautiful disaster by the machines.
In addition to going from point A to B the missions have a bit more variety as some missions you'll have to defend a fort or travel separate from your squad while avoiding traps. Also new to this installment is the unit morph ability. Just about all of your units will have a second transformation mode you can switch to on the fly. Mastering when to make changes can very well make battles a lot more manageable.
Another thing this game has added is an new competitive multiplayer option. You can go against another online player as either the squad or machines. The goal of which is to collect the most points by destroying the other team's generators or by having a difference of 500 points. This adds a new layer of gameplay and gives you a reason to keep playing past the single player game.
I did try a couple of matches and got spectacularly slaughtered by my opponent as both the squad and the machines. If you're playing the squad you more or less have the same attributes available as the single player game, with the exception that you have to purchase new technologies in which to give you an edge against the opposition. But since everything is in real time you have the added pressure about making snap adjustments as you don't stop moving and if you delay you can very well give your enemy time to gather more points getting closer to winning. Using the machines also have a bit of learning curve as they work differently than the squad controls. Controls that aren't as well explained as the single player experience. But learning via dying is good too, can't be spoon fed all the tactics, where's the fun in that. Overall I thought this is a great game with enough variety to keep things fresh.
No comments:
Post a Comment