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Geekscape Games Reviews Anomaly: Warzone Earth

by MoreLikeAndyApril 6, 2012

Normally, tower defense games are boring to me. There never seems to be enough challenge other than trying to not get bored and screw up something that calls for your untimely loss. Many have tried to change up the genre as best they could, mostly to no avail. 11 Bit Studios, however, did so in a great way with Anomaly: Warzone Earth. What if you were the aggressor instead of the defender?

With the game on pretty much every device out there, Anomaly: Warzone Earth makes a stop to Xbox Live Arcade this time. You still get the great voice acting of Jason Statham (not really him), controls that translate very well to a console controller and graphics that look better than they should for a small game such as this.

The story is paper thin but doesn’t need to be more than that. As the commander of the 14th Platoon in the near future, you and your squad are sent to investigate the crash sites of an alien spacecraft and end up finding trouble conveniently in the form of towers.

Since Anomaly: Warzone Earth is all about strategy, picking your units at the beginning of a mission is crucial. With some units only available in certain missions, I ended up sticking with tanks, shield generators and missile launchers. Being a tower defense game, you have limited funds to purchase units at the beginning and during the missions. More funds can be snagged up by destroying towers and finding ‘ore’ laid out in certain areas of the map. Also, if a unit is not working for you the way you thought it would, sell it off and use that money to get a different unit.

Playing as the commander, you have free reign to go anywhere on the map. I use this to my advantage with the power-ups at your disposal. While the smoke screen, repair kit and decoy are used to protect your platoon as you follow them into battle, sneaking around ahead and using your bomb power-up on the annoying towers is sometimes a smart move. Controls between pulling up the map to set a path for your platoon to traverse, purchasing upgrades or new units then switching back to battle to use power-ups to support the platoon was very snappy. Sometimes, it was a little too snappy and I would end up using more power-ups than I intend to. To me, that is a testament to how responsive the controls can be.

Anomaly: Warzone Earth has a great difficulty curve as you get into the later missions. Towers that hit a unit and spreads that hit to everything it’s near, regenerating towers that use the energy from your power-ups to bring back towers you destroyed in the immediate area and my least favorite, the tower that shoots a blast that creates an small bubble that when the commander is inside it with a friendly unit, the friendly units turn on you and target you instead of the towers. Makes using power-ups on your platoon a gamble until that tower is dealt with.

Bringing something new to the Xbox Live Arcade version of Anomaly: Warzone Earth, 11 Bit Studios added six “Tactical Trials” levels. Carried out in a virtual reality simulator, you have to find the most optimal way to complete the objectives. I really got the Metal Gear VR mission vibe upon first loading up the tactical trials. There will be some trial and error here so use that to figure out what units work in each trial. having the trials unlock only after you beat the game is a shame since I felt you could learn some strategies or at least get used to the different units to see which ones you find useful. At least it gives the player some replay value after the campaign is finished.

11 Bit Studios did what I thought was neigh impossible, to like a tower defense game. For those who already played Anomaly: Warzone Earth, the tactical trials is not enough to warrant another purchase to play them. If this is the first time you have even heard or seen of this game, be prepared to spend some quality time having Jason Statham’s (again, not really him) voice carry you into a surprisingly fun twist on the tower defense genre.

Awesomenauts are GO! – The stylized side-scrolling action game gets a May 1st release

by Shane O'HareMarch 30, 2012

The perfect combination of: Castle Crashers , Lost Vikings and Team Fortress 2. That is the easiest way to explain the awesome that is “Awesomenauts”. The game hits PSN May 1st and XBLA May 2nd. In the mean time, check out the epic trailer below. I am personally sold on this game, just by the trailer alone.

Geekscape Games Reviews Alan Wake: American Nightmare

by MoreLikeAndyFebruary 21, 2012

I don’t know about you, but my American Nightmare would be nothing but reality TV to watch and having to deal with a shitty economy. Wait, that’s already happening! Then I guess Alan Wake has it easy in the latest game in the series: “American Nightmare”.

If you haven’t finished the last Alan Wake DLC, “The Writer”, yet, you might want to before jumping into American Nightmare. I am sure you can play through without having played the DLC, but a lot of the context surrounding what’s going on will be lost on you. Since, to me, Alan Wake has been more about the story than the gameplay, this is a big deal. What surprised me when starting up American Nightmare was being greeted by live action video. It made me wish that the whole game could be played out as an FMV adventure game with how well the production value was on this.

The combat seems to be more fluid than it has been in the previous Alan Wake games which is offset by the amount of ammo given to you. I was never found wanting for ammo at all through the entire story mode. Everywhere you turn, there’s ammo. Just in case you can’t find the big flashy objects that your firearm desires, there are regenerating ammo and battery caches scattered throughout levels.

And although this time around there are new weapons to decimate the Taken, you are better off sticking to the sub-machine gun and shotgun combo. One thing I would have loved to be included while mixing it up with enemies is some sort of indication that I was about to get attacked from behind. I got overwhelmed a lot due to the sneaky bastards getting the drop on me. A subtle audio cue would be sufficient enough for me. Instead, I just mash on the dodge button and float like a butterfly while trying to unload buckshot into my pursuers.

Manuscripts play a bigger role in American Nightmare due to fleshing out the story even more for us story whores and being sort of a currency to unlock weapon cases for more powerful weapons. Finding the manuscripts are dead simple for the most part. Between the mini-map showing you a question mark when you are near one and the blinding light that emanates from the pages like it’s trying to send an S.O.S. to you, no one should have trouble exploring to find the manuscripts. I really, really suggest you find at least 40 manuscripts to get what I feel is THE best weapon in the game, besides light of course. The combat shotgun is essentially the AA-12 (Watch this for a brief primer on why this shotgun is amazing) and when I combined the flares with this magnificent beast, I felt unstoppable.

If you could care less about the story of Alan Wake: American Nightmare and more about shredding the Taken, arcade mode is for you, my good sir/madam. Pick a map, start the 10 minute timer and prepare to survive. With limited ammo for your bigger weapons, strategy plays an enormous role if you want to make it to sunrise as well as getting a reputable score on the leaderboards. The waves of enemies are endless. And the round finishes when you either die or make it the full 10 minutes.

I found it helpful to run around early and grab all of the ammo you can and then save the flashbangs and flare gun for the bigger threats as the waves increase in intensity. When in doubt, just run for your life until the timer runs out if you’re near the end. You won’t get those extra points for killing but at least you’ll survive with your life! More maps are unlocked as you progress through them and the later nightmare mode maps will definitely test just how well you handle the combat mechanics.

As a fan of the Alan Wake story, American Nightmare seemed to hit all of the right buttons for me. The dynamic of Alan Wake and Mr. Scratch plays so well that I was able to let go of the hangup that I had with a certain plot device in the game that I won’t spoil here but would probably be no sweat for Bill Murray. If you were one of many who wanted more Alan Wake, then there is no question that you’ll need to play this. Anyone else should play the main Alan Wake first or at least catch up on the story using the wiki or Youtube videos (although you will miss out on the atmosphere that Alan Wake brings to your senses when actually experiencing it for yourself)!