Anomaly: Warzone Earth

K. Fields
2023-04-29T12:04:33-04:00
Video Games

I closed out April playing Anomaly: Warzone Earth. This game from Polish developer 11 Bit Studios was a pleasant surprise. It had very good ratings and reviews yet I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. Instead of the familiar tower defense style, Anomaly: Warzone Earth is the opposite—a tower offense game. You control a commander leading an armored squad in the 14th Platoon. Your job is to plan a successful route through enemy defenses on way to designated areas stated in the mission objectives. Story mode has 14 missions, which start in Baghdad, move to Tokyo, and return to Baghdad for the finale. You are given money to purchase squad members and upgrades and also accumulate additional cash during the missions. Available units are the APC (Armored Personnel Carrier), Crawler (mobile artillery), Shield, Tank, Dragon (dual plasma throwers), and Supply. A key element of the game is using the commander's special abilities: repair, smoke screens, decoys, and air strikes. They are in limited supply so you have to choose wisely when to deploy them.

It didn't take long to complete story mode but that was fine with me. There are also extra missions and a mobile campaign available. The series continued with several sequels as well: Anomaly: Korea, Anomaly 2, and Anomaly Defenders.