11bit studio's Anomaly Defenders is a solid entry into the tower defense genre, a worthy capper to the studio's trilogy of alien vs. human tower combat. The game does not redefine the genre as we know it, but it does not feel the need to. It invites you over for 'just one more' drink, and you will end up staying the night, not realizing how much time you've put into this.
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The first thing you will notice about Anomaly Defenders is its intuitiveness. Any novice fan of tower defense will be able to easily, effortlessly pick up the basics. The game slowly reveals itself over the course of its 24 unique levels, teasing you along with both upgrades and new enemies. Defenders never overwhelm you, so long as you play cleverly; but it will absolutely punish a mis-step or lack of attention without mercy.
The humans have come to your planet, and boy are they pissed. In the previous games, Anomaly and Anomaly 2, the aliens came to Earth and started messing everything up but were thankfully defeated. Now, humanity has come to ruin the alien's day and it is up to you, the commander, to prevent them from reaching the Launchpads that house your population.
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In Anomaly Defenders you are not simply tasked with building towers and utilizing their special abilities as wave after wave of enemies slowly marches towards the finish line. This is how tower defense games operate. Here the attacking army not only attempts to reach the end of the road, but will also attack and destroy your hard-earned towers if you let them. This game mechanic forces you to be more active and aware of your surroundings. There's more at risk now and losing a tower in mid-combat can be devastating for your forces.
Anomaly Defenders succeeds quite well with the 3B's of tower defense: build, battle and blitz. The build phase consists of a player setting up one's starting plan, where you put what will depend on how the first few waves play through. The battle phase of Anomaly Defenders, where you are scrambling to not only hold off wave after wave of enemy attackers, but build up enough Carusaurum (the game's currency) and towers to hold off the next wave, is the highlight of the action. It's a huge, swirling chaotic mess that demands your attention. The final blitz phase, where the computer sends everything it can at your defenses, keeps the pedal to the ground and refuses to coddle you simply because you have enough resources.
11bit studios has provided a robust tower and ability line-up for your defense command. As always, the towers get unlocked gradually and can be further upgraded via the fairly extensive tech tree in the main menu. Each tower has its own specialization; Behemoths are great against Mechs, Enforcers can whittle away a Panzer tank in no time, while the basic Blaster does nothing special, but can be upgraded extensively to pack a hell of a punch. Even the mining towers called Harvesters can lure enemy units to its location, a vital strategy that you will have to learn early and use often.
Many games give specific abilities to specific towers, such as increased range, improved firepower. Anomaly Defenders lets all towers have these abilities. Every tower can increase its range, repair itself, throw down an EMP or even self-destruct to damage nearby units. All of this is achieved by collecting Energy, floating orbs that your defeated enemies release at time of death. In the thick of things, though, your supply can dwindle fast and you'll find yourself in need of a repair or increased damage without the means to access what you need.
The levels themselves are randomized to a point. Few maps will ever be entirely the same. For instance, there are large columns that can obstruct both your view and the encroaching army's view, and alter your tower placement accordingly. Every playthrough of a level will yield a different variation of walls. The levels scale appropriately, introducing new concepts, units and tactics bit by bit until you're essentially taking everyone and everything on all at once from both ground and air. And if you find yourself waiting too long, there's a fast forward button to speed along the action. Use it the whole time to really give yourself a challenge.
Until the later levels of the game, the blitz phase is a little repetitive. You've upgraded everything, you've put all the towers in place and now it's just a monotonous point and click until victory. Things pick up overwhelmingly fast towards the end of the game, with the introduction of air units and multiple staging points for enemy troops, but the first few levels can feel like a lot of grinding.
The game looks very good, which is to be expected given the high visual appeal of the previous two entries. It can be difficult sometimes to tell the different alien towers apart, doubly so for the human attackers (is that a Panzer gatling or a Panzer cannon heading my way?) The music is appropriately sci-fi action, but often cut out during some of the longer missions. This is but a small inconvenience that never takes away from the gameplay itself.
There is an energy here, a second level of activeness and awareness that's missing from a lot of its fellow games. You need to be focused on what's in front of you or you will fail. A game like Anomaly Defenders is not interested in telling a story, which is perfunctory at best and merely an excuse to put you in situations, it is interested in flexing your mind and your reactions; it's the very least a game should do and by wrapping it up in a cunning package full of cool upgrades and advancements, Anomaly Defenders is worth the price of admission. The game has some replay value, mostly by beating the levels again and again on a different difficulty, but its 24 levels of sci-fi tower strategy and fun that should appease all but the most elitist of tower defense fans.
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Anomaly Defenders was reviewed from a Steam code provided by the publisher. The game is available for PC, Mac and Linux on Steam and Games Republic for $9.99. You can find the original Anomaly tower-offense games on iOS via the App store. What are you waiting for? Join up, and destroy all humans!
