Overview and Plot

The story starts in the near future when parts of an alien spaceship fall on earth (more specifically in Baghdad and Tokyo) and the so-called “Anomalies” appear around them. Your first mission as the 14th Squad is to investigate the first anomaly in Baghdad, see what’s causing interference with the communication systems and find gather information about why and what is happening inside the anomaly (which is where the first mission ends).

Gameplay

The gameplay is simple: you control a given set of units that must complete objectives, such as destroying target buildings or simply reaching a specific point in the map. Obviously your enemy will do everything to stop you from doing just that. You path will be riddled with various forms of enemy machinery, from small laser towers, energy charged towers, giant cannons and so on. During the first couple of missions you can’t buy any units, but as you progress (the first 2 or 3 missions are like a tutorial where game elements are gradually introduced and explained) you will be able to buy or sell units. Also, along the way, new units will become available for purchase, each one with a set value of armor and power, which dictates how much damage they can do or take. Each unit has its own strengths and weaknesses and to be able to progress in more difficult missions or higher difficulty modes you will have to do some micromanagement, since each unit is better suited to deal with a specific kind of enemy. There is also a shield unit that doesn’t do any damage but instead, protects the 2 units around it, one in front of it and the one in its back. This protection comes in the form of a second health bar that regenerates with time should your units stop taking damage for a while. Each unit can be upgraded three times, each upgrade increasing its armor and damage values by a set amount. Each upgrade costs more than the previous one and to get money you need to gather rare minerals found through the missions. You also get some money just for killing enemies. Upgrades need to be well managed, since you need to decide which unit should be upgraded for each situation, since the money is scarce, at least on Story Mode.
You can modify the path your units take based on available roads in the map, and in most situations you must choose wisely, whether it is to take less time to get to your objective or to minimize the amount of enemies you will have to face. Your character (the captain of the 14th Squad) is the character you control directly, moving him to any spot by clicking on the map. With his combat suit, he needs to be constantly used to help your units in their mission. The combat su8it has several abilities that are introduced one at a time over the first couple of missions, except the first one with is the Repair ability, which you already begin the game with. Each ability can only be used a very limited number of times and recharges aren’t abundant so you have to manage them well.

At the end of each mission you may be awarded medals for your performance. The three medals are for Directionability (usually attained by going through the fastest path), Ruthlessness (killing lots of enemies) and Efficiency (usually ending a mission with a certain number of ability charges left). Moreover, each medal has 3 different ranks (bronze, silver and gold obviously). There are a couple of different game modes besides the story mode like the Baghdad Mayhem or Tokyo Raid where you have to go through a large level without your captain (meaning you can’t use any abilities) or beating a set number of enemy waves in a regular map (each wave spawns after you kill the previous one and its harder to beat). These modes have some extra cash for you to be able to further upgrade your units.

Opinion

First off I’ll say that the way game mechanics are introduced is pretty good, not too fast, not to slow. Everything is pretty intuitive except certain effects that specific weapons have on your machines, for example, when energy-charged machined fire at your tanks, the shoot twice as fast, and how this must be used in order to take advantage of certain situations. Casual difficulty is pretty balanced but Harcore revealed itself completely impossible for me from mission 11 onwards. The plot is very very simplistic, wich is good on one hand, theres not much information for players to absorb on that side. The extra modes are fun to play but pretty difficult and the Story mode could be longer. Just like almost every game in my account, I picked this one up on a sale and I liked it. If you don’t like strategy or tower defense games you probably should star away from it though, because if you don’t like the style of gameplay itself, other game elements like the story wont help much either. if you like this kind of game, go ahead. There’s achievements of course and a Leaderboard which tracks your total game score.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Good	The Bad
Simple, not too much information to absorb; Variety of vehicles and enemies; Interesting extra game modes.	Difficulty ramps up too quickly in story mode; There’s not much story to it, but then again I didn’t really expect it to.

Conclusion

If you’re not a fan of this genre, I suggest you stay away. Otherwise, well, it’s a simple game that’s pretty fun, at least for a while. I recommend getting it while it’s on sale.

My Final Gameplay Stats

Time Played:	21 Hours
Achievements Unlocked:	20 / 43 (47%)
Difficulty played the most:	Casual / Hardcore

Screenshots taken at 1920x1080. Title image taken from Steam Grid view. I do not own it.

Blurbarians

04/04/2012

Anomaly: Warzone Earth