Michal Ždanský Coming up with an original game concept nowadays is quite a difficult task, especially in the field of strategy games. Developers from 11Bit Studios took on this difficult task and managed to create a unique concept that could be called the Tower offense.
And what does such a Tower offense actually look like? It's basically a flipped Tower defense concept. There you have a marked route along which the enemies walk, and with the help of different types of towers built around the route you eliminate one wave of enemies after another. In Tower offense, however, you stand on the other side of the barricade, your units advance along a marked route, and you try to destroy the surrounding tower and keep your units alive. At least this is how the basic principle looks like.
The story of the game takes place in the near future in Baghdad, where an unusual anomaly has occurred. In the center of the city, they were discovered by an impenetrable dome of the force field, behind which the landed aliens stand, who decided to lead an invasion from the heart of Iraq. However, this phenomenon did not go unnoticed by the military, who sent you to the area as a battalion commander to investigate the matter. The space visitors have built defenses in the form of watchtowers in the area. Your task is to fight your way through 15 missions to the epicenter of the anomaly and avert the alien threat.
Right from the first mission, you get to know the basic principles of control, which is tailored to the touch screens of iOS devices, although the game first appeared for PC and Mac (in the Mac App Store you can find it under 7,99 €) During further missions, you will gradually become familiar with new units and types of enemy towers. Each mission map is not just a corridor, but an intricate system of streets in Baghdad, so it's up to you which route you choose. At each "intersection" you can choose which direction your units will go, and then you can see the entire route of your battalion on a simplified map. The map can be returned to for route planning at any time during the game, there is no need to determine the route from start to finish at the beginning.
Unit path planning is key in this game, a wrong route can lead you to certain death, while a good plan will see you through the map without much damage or loss of units. Of course, you can also see the location of enemy towers on the map, so you don't have to constantly switch to the game's 3D map to find out which danger is lurking around the corner. The content of the missions is not unusual, it is mostly about getting from point A to point B, or destroying some special objects. Although it seems trivial, believe me, you will definitely not be bored.
The main thing in the game is of course the units that you will lead around the map. At the beginning of each mission, you receive a certain amount of money, which you can use to buy or upgrade units. You have a total of 6 types to choose from. The basic unit is an armored personnel carrier, which, while durable, does not cause much damage with its machine gun fire. The opposite is a sort of rocket launcher tripod, which is great for destroying towers, but has relatively weak armor. With additional missions, your battalion will be joined by a shield generator that will protect two surrounding units, an armored tank, a plasma tank that can hit two targets at once, and a supply unit that can generate power-ups for every 5 turrets destroyed.
You also get money for buying and improving units during the game, both for destroying towers and for collecting special material that appears on the map in later missions. Even with your best efforts, you will lose a unit from time to time. Nevertheless, you can buy it at any time during the mission, or improve the existing one to get more firepower or improved armor. The choice of units and their order can fundamentally affect your progress. Therefore, it is necessary to consider which machine to place in the front line, which in the rear or whether to have a stronger group with fewer units or to rely on quantity.
With each mission, the number of towers on the map will increase, and you will also encounter new types of towers that will make your progress even more difficult. Each type has its own unique way of attacking and different tactics apply to each of them. Some can only fire in one direction but can damage multiple units in one hit, others can deal a lot of damage in their vicinity, and still others drain the energy of your support power-ups and create new turrets from them.
It is the power-ups that are the most interesting change in the game, which greatly facilitate your progress and which you cannot do without. In the beginning, you only get a repair option that repairs damage to units in a certain area for a certain amount of time. The second power-up is a time-limited zone in which your units gain 100% more resistance. You always get these support forces in limited quantities at the beginning of the mission, and then more appear every time the tower is destroyed. Over time, you'll also gain two other useful aids, namely a fake target that the turrets will attack while leaving your troops undetected, and finally a bombardment of a selected area that will destroy or significantly damage the turrets in a designated location. Just the right timing of using these power-ups, combined with a well-planned route, will guarantee the successful completion of each mission.
In terms of graphics, this is almost the best you can come across on iOS. Precisely rendered details of the streets of Baghdad, spectacular explosions, simply a feast for the eyes. All this is underlined by great atmospheric music and pleasant British dubbing, which accompanies you through each mission. The game is beautifully smooth, at least on the iPad 2, switching from the tactical map to the 3D map takes place immediately, and the loading time of individual missions is negligible.
The entire campaign will safely keep you busy for hours, each mission can be chosen from one of three difficulty levels, and after completing all fifteen missions, you can check the experience gained in two other endless modes that will provide several hours of extra gameplay. If you like strategy games, it is Anomaly: Warzone Earth responsibilities.
[app url=”http://itunes.apple.com/cz/app/anomaly-warzone-earth/id427776640?mt=8″]
[app url=”http://itunes.apple.com/cz/app/anomaly-warzone-earth-hd/id431607423?mt=8″]
A really soaked game after a long time. I downloaded and am already playing.
Agree with Gucci :-) nice graphics!
finished.
I hope to finish more missions ;-)
After a long time a game that caught me and doesn't bore me, a bit of a distraction besides Torchlight while waiting for Diablo 3 :-D
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation) and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1.2 or later.
The absolute best for Mac. I haven't played on the iPhone, but on the Mac it's really cool and well thought out.