This frequently makes it necessary to plot multiple routes to clear out pockets of alien scum to boost the power and size of your convoy. Destroying enemy defenses often triggers an item drop and adds cash resources to your pool. Each of these area-of-effect abilities is only triggered for a short time, and the way you deploy them is often more important than the actual makeup of your squad. Having to balance fluctuating attack plans with the need to defend your own convoy keeps things moving at a brisk pace.ĭespite his tiny, vulnerable size, your command character has some neat tricks at his disposal, like laying down a smoke screen, repairing units, dropping nukes, or making your convoy temporarily invisible to the enemy. The entire game is played with the mouse, which makes it easy to manage your team amidst eruptions of chaotic combat.

Additionally, you can bring up a tactical map screen at any point to adjust the travel route of your convoy on the fly or scope out the action ahead to concoct an appropriate battle plan. While they're slowly traveling along the path, blasting at any foes within weapons range, you get to run around on foot to scout ahead, distract enemy turrets, and deploy weapons power-ups to keep them safe. Instead of having direct control over your convoy's armored vehicle units, you plot a course for them on a strategic map and let 'em rip. However, Anomaly's creative take on tower defense goes well beyond a mere role reversal in the combat department. This requires shoehorning your forces through heavily fortified enemy positions with a limited amount of funds and units available for resupply. As the head of an armored military column, your mission is to find a way to break through the energy barriers, battle your way to their core, and shut down your extraterrestrial foes before they can wipe out the entire planet. Mysterious alien invaders have landed in Baghdad and Tokyo, erecting force fields around both cities and digging in for a hard fight. The action gets off to a weird start, thanks to an outlandish plot setup, but everything soon settles into a steady groove.

The need to continually plot pathways, adapt to new adversaries, and lay down a constant stream of support power-ups to keep your convoy from being annihilated is thrilling stuff. Leading a convoy of high-tech military vehicles through the mazelike streets of a postapocalyptic Baghdad to infiltrate a giant energy dome and take down heavily entrenched alien forces is an enthralling exercise in combat strategy and quick thinking. 11 Bit Studio takes traditional tower defense gameplay and turns it inside out by putting you on the offensive in Anomaly: Warzone Earth. There are many different creative tricks game developers use to add spice into well-worn genres to keep them feeling fresh, but sometimes, it's the simplest and least-expected ideas that yield the most alluring fruit.

Anomaly 2 screen size