From this view, you can see arrows at every intersection, which indicate which way the convoy will turn when it arrives. You can pause the game and enter a tactical view of the level, which shows you the entire level, enemies on the map, the convoy’s route, and other points of interest. As the commander, your job is to supervise. They always keep moving forward, and they fire at targets of their own free will. Each level puts you in the shoes of a nameless commander who must guide a convoy of tanks through a level. In terms of play, the basic formula has not changed from the first game. Now, it looks like the developer, 11 bit studios, has decided to take matters into their own hands and release Anomaly 2. It was a fantastic game, and I assumed that it would pave way for a huge crowd of imitators to build upon its reversed version of the popular tower defense genre, but it was not to be. Released in early 2011, Anomaly put you in charge of an ever-advancing line of armored vehicles as they made their way past a grid of alien towers. This involves re-pathing them to avoid threats, repairing them as they become damaged and ordering new units onto the field if they're lost.Anomaly: Warzone Earth was the first game I learned about in the sadly under populated “tower offense” genre. Radioactive debris is raining onto the roads, so it's up to you to act as human GPS and field-mechanic to your forces as they make their way into the city. The tutorial mission inserts you on the outskirts of your first anomaly-shrouded city. The commander can dart around and collect these as powerups en-route. He has no offensive capabilities, but grants limited support functions such as area-effect heals for your units, smoke-grenades to fox enemy targeting, and the deployment of decoy vehicles. His role is to provide tactical support to your armoured column as it ploughs inexorably toward the key alien target at the heart of each anomaly. This is thanks in no small part to the unit you have full movement control over: the commander. Your vehicles may move at a plodding pace but the decision-making and the action is intense nonetheless. Tower Defence AI in general could learn a thing or two from you. Intelligent pathing is the key to success. It's essentially a series of waypoints you set on the way to the mission's key target. By flicking to the command screen you're able to path them around the grid-like cityscapes, choosing which direction they turn at each junction. Some offer area-effect shielding to the units in front and behind them. Some are lightly armed but heavily armoured designed to soak up fire so your more lightly shielded big-gunners can go to work. Your armoured column consists of up to six units and there are six types to deploy. It's your job to find out, with your hand-picked troupe of combat vehicles. What's going on inside those opaque bubbles? Some kind of alien disco? One can only hope. Go us! Those smithereens, however, have rained down on earth's cities, where they've set up domes of crackling energy: the game's eponymous Anomalies. On a similar scale to Defence Grid, it's a more complex piece of development than standard TD fare, with crisp, pleasing visuals and some interesting tactical challenges all of its own.Ĭertain enemy turrets trigger global visual effects when they fire to emphasise their sheer naughtiness.Ī colossal alien mothership has been spotted heading for earth, but just as it reaches the atmosphere, we blast it to smithereens. Serious buffs may have come across the likes of Anti-TD in the past, which embraces similar concepts, but with nowhere near the level of scope and substance of Anomaly. On the bus, while the bath's running, even in the bath, they scratch my itch.Īnomaly: Warzone Earth, from ex CD-Projekt staffers 11 bit, brings a zesty little tweak to the genre: it places you in charge of mobile forces and leaves tower-construction to the AI. I'm hooked on the things in all their forms, from Flash Element TD to Field Runners, from to Hidden Path's excellent Defence Grid: The Awakening to the multitudes on the Android Marketplace. I'm waving my arms and bouncing on my chair like the boy in the maths test who really needs a wee.
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