Tower Defense is not surprising today. The idea is too clear, and the gameplay becomes boring faster than you can build a hundred towers. Such games do not develop strategic skills, but dexterity and the ability to poke defensive turrets faster and harder. Typically, projects made on the basis of a single concept are considered genre outgrowths, but not something independent. Let in this case there be respected representatives like Rampart or Master of Defense, but the mind steadily comes up with the idea that the same mods and maps for Warcraft 3 or Starcraft are enough to understand that the Tower Defense genre does not know how to surprise. He can only occupy him for a while, and then he will feel sorry for him. But not all developers are ready to come to terms with this truth. Moreover, some are ready to completely change our opinion about games of a similar nature. Which is what I did 11 bit studios. The studio acted simply and at the same time innovatively – they released a kind of “Tower Defense in reverse”.
Don’t defend, but attack!
Anomaly: Warzone Earth (hereinafter – A:WE) – this is not about how to prevent a dense flow of weaving, crawling, creeping and sometimes even jumping creatures. It’s not about how to fight off wave after wave, placing turrets and hastily switching from one edge of the map to another, plugging up leaky places in the defense. The game lets you feel what it’s like to control the flow itself, from which in the usual Tower Defense you have to escape.
And what does it feel like? Yes, it’s terribly easy and even fun at first. It is always more interesting to attack than to defend. Mechanics A:WE is such that the detachment entrusted to us is not an uncontrolled zergo mass, which, as usually happens, crushes the power fortifications with the number of.
So, a combat unit, which includes exclusively wheeled vehicles, can be composed of the following elements. There is an armored personnel carrier – rapid-fire, does little damage, but is strong. It’s best to put him first. There is a rocket launcher – it hits much harder, but it also deteriorates quickly. In order to somehow reduce the chance that the main combat unit will be destroyed, its armor should be “reinforced” with a generator of a special energy field. It “covers” only two nearby objects in the chain. Later you will still encounter Japanese tanks and other self-propelled flamethrowers.
You rule the show – a weirdo in a battle suit, in which health is regenerated at the speed of mating rabbits. The main character is a kind of extended version of the “Ghost” from Starcraft 2. He knows how to call not only artillery support, but is also the only and indispensable guardian for the entire convoy. Our main responsibility is to ensure its smooth transportation from point A to point B. There will be many obstacles on the way. And almost all of them are defense turrets of different colors, sizes and rates of fire.
The rush tactic doesn’t work here nongambancasinos.co.uk/ – they’ll kill you in the first encounter with three guns. Additional options come to the rescue. Let’s say you need to somehow distract the plasma thrower’s attention in order to overcome a section of road. You mark the desired area and activate a deception trick – a fake unit appears on the map, and one turret is switched to eliminate it. And the entrusted squad calmly moves towards the goal without fear.
Another situation is that there are too many wildlife exterminators around, and there certainly aren’t enough “fake raccoons” for everyone. We click on the icon for calling support, which is responsible for activating a conditional, so to speak, smoke screen (because there is no trace of any animation – just highlighting the area with a colored circle), and the entire convoy moves freely under the cover of invisible camouflage.
If your charges are still caught by enemy fire, activate the repair area in the same way – and everyone who passes through it will automatically improve their “health”.
So we have described the main elements of the game mechanics here. It’s simple. On normal difficulty levels A:WE does not present any difficulties – you can safely hold Shift to speed up and have time to place protection in time.
War of the Worlds
If you think that in A:WE the plot is not the most important and burning topic, then you’ll be right. Due to our duty of service, we are obliged to tell about him. There’s some really nice stuff going on in the game about Sudden Threat. It all starts in Baghdad. A group of peacekeepers from the UK were sent to monitor and track, imagine, an alien invasion. The endless expanses of Space sent capsules to the sinful Earth, which, when opened, were spawned by those same turrets..
The story campaign is divided into two stages. First, we gradually jump into unknown anomalies and turn off the reactors for replenishment, regularly losing everything we have acquired when moving to the next level. The situation somehow improves when the action moves to Tokyo. There are more fun missions there – like escorting a downed plane or crossing a bridge for a while. There is no need to reassemble the squad either – now it is carefully preserved from task to task, introducing only new conditions for passing.
IN A:WE there are even conversations on the radio. More precisely, the entire dialogue part consists of them. Because you can’t see real people here (except for a controlled short man in a super suit). Budget restrictions make themselves felt, but we are hardly offended. But the scriptwriters lack the ability to make fun of themselves. All they can do is predictable gags about Japan and sushi or “that thing over there” larger than “my auntie has boobs.”. It comes, what is especially incredible, to a direct quotation from Apocalypse Now Francis Ford Coppola. What phrase did the story writers remember? A:WE, it’s easy to guess.
The game ends quickly. You already get used to the uncomfortable view from above, the tactical map without “zoom” and sometimes even try to read the subtitles out of politeness… The project copes well with its main responsibility – not to get bored of it. Many representatives of the Tower Defense genre suffer from monotonously killing monotony, stretched out over long hours.
Japan, destroyed houses, cars randomly piled up in a heap… If you squint, it would be quite suitable for a photo on Google Earth.
Tower Defense in reverse is fun. In most cases, attacking is more interesting than defending. Anomaly: Warzone Earth goes quickly and painlessly. There is no point in making serious claims to it – for its class it is quite good, and given the lack of fresh ideas in the genre, it is completely commendable. For which he receives an appropriate assessment.
Pros: a good approach is Tower Defense in the opposite direction; the game does not have time to get boring; a couple of interesting missions in Japan; hurricane speed and dynamics.
Cons: one more hour – and the game would definitely get boring; uncomfortable camera.