11Bit Studios
Anomaly Korea is a wonderfully fun, if unfortunately short, follow up to Anomaly Warzone Earth
LOVED IT: Varied missions add tension, great visuals
HATED IT: Few unit additions to overall formula, tremendously limited content
GRAB IT IF: You enjoyed Anomaly Warzone Earth
The beauty of the so-called “tower offense†game snuck up on iPad owners about a year-and-a-half ago, bringing a new and addictive brand of gaming to the tablet. And now, at the start of 2013, it’s just as fun.
So much fun, in fact, that 11Bit Studios makes few massive changes to this year’s Anomaly Korea. The sequel to 2011’s Anomaly Warzone Earth is instead about refinement and polish, making a handful of tweaks to what was already a fine experience. They don’t make quite enough to overwhelm you, but if you liked the first game, you’ll love Anomaly Korea.
If you didn’t play 11Bit’s original two years ago, here’s a quick primer: Anomaly Korea, like its predecessor, tasks you with leading a tiny convoy of weaponized vehicles through vast areas of filled with attacking towers. You set the path for your vehicles via a top-down map, upgrade them and augment them with several boosts as you quest through level after level, blowing up enemies and accomplishing other simple objectives.
The mechanics were instantly appealing in 2011, and Anomaly Korea builds on them impressively. The new game adds two critical things â€" variety and tension â€" generating a far more enjoyable experience.
Both of these things are accomplished through newly varied level objectives. In the original game, you spent far too much time simply going from the end of one simple level to the next, and, eventually, the entire scheme became predictable; by game’s end, the game itself was barely a challenge.
That’s rarely the case in Anomaly Korea. Once you’re taught the fundamentals, the game introduces new challenges. One level may have you weaving into and out of buildings, and the lack of “air support†in the buildings will prevent you from calling in new units and upgrades as you battle.
Another level removes the game’s sometimes-leisurely pace entirely, forcing you to save three towers before they’re destroyed. These new challenges tax your mind in a way that all successful tablet games must; you’re forced to do more than simply rearrange and destroy and survive. If you came for a more relaxed experience, Anomaly Korea won’t serve you well, but if you want a challenge, this is the game for you.
The entire experience looks beautiful, too, although this is one game that you want to play on the iPad, not the iPad Mini. As tablet visuals go, this is a brilliant-looking game, with plenty of particle effects in explosions, and solidly detailed backdrops, but playing on the smaller iPad Mini screen gets a tad cramped.
Then again, you won’t be playing for long, which is the serious downfall of Anomaly Korea. Like its predecessor, the entire campaign can be beaten in a matter of hours, and there’s not much replay value after that. The Art of War mode doesn’t solve that problem, either, bringing a few more missions that can be beaten in a matter of hours, too. A random level generator certainly would have been nice.
Replay value, this game simply doesn’t have, and that’s disappointing because you’ll truly want more, even replaying the campaign on Hardcore mode for a bit more action.
Anomaly Korea isn’t a game you’ll play for days, simply because there isn’t quite enough content; leave that for over-and-over-again titles, such as Bejeweled.
But boy is this game fun while it lasts.
Reviewed on iPad and iPad Mini
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