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Whereas Anomaly Agent’s dazzling colors and far-future setting might trace at a sport on the leading edge, the reality is that it’s extra of a comfortable soup than a daring experiment. Taking on the sport’s controls is like lifting the lid on a pot stuffed with acquainted components: Basic 2D beat-’em-up gameplay; crunchy pixel artwork graphics; offbeat cyberpunk humour; an ever-evolving suite of combos and skills; the procuring listing goes on. And whereas the resultant aroma might not ship your thoughts to any thrilling new locations, like the perfect of soups it is going to present a comforting feeling of heat, and a healthful gaming expertise for the top of a protracted day.
Anomaly Agent sees you slipping into the fashionable sneakers of Agent 70, an worker of the much-maligned TDAY company who serves as a fixer for issues within the sport’s cyberpunk multiverse. You’ll comply with him as he jumps between dimensions by way of portals, sorting the anomalies he encounters in every new space like he’s the protagonist of a extra pixelated Physician Who. And a extra violent one too, may I add: The Physician would recoil in horror if he noticed the physique depend racked up by Agent 70 in a single stage alone, by no means thoughts the usually brutal strategies by which he goes about attaining it. Maybe that’s to be anticipated thoughts you: he’s 23 ranks above infamous assassin Agent 47, in spite of everything.
Right here Comes The Beatdown
This wanton destruction, or beat-’em-up gameplay in additional commonplace parlance, is the meat within the Anomaly Agent soup, and it’s seasoned to perfection. You’ll begin off with a primary melee combo and an evasive roll, pulled straight out of the Darkish Souls college of fight design, however earlier than you recognize it you’ll be juggling double-jumps, ranged weapons, parries, and particular strikes all inside the identical assault chain, dodging backwards and forwards between foes to maintain these i-frames intact. It’s completely exhilarating whenever you’re within the zone, and the music does an excellent job of reinforcing the sensation of circulate that such complicated encounters carry.
![Agent 70 from Anomaly Agent stands under a huge zeppelin. Agent 70 from Anomaly Agent stands under a huge zeppelin.](https://www.gamezebo.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Anomaly-Agent-Review-Body-Image-2-320x180.jpg)
The enemy choice within the sport performs to this method’s strengths. There are just a few totally different enemy sorts, however every feels distinct sufficient to make you alter your method. Melee opponents can usually be parried for a straightforward stun, for instance, whereas these packing shotguns will have to be dodged by means of and punished from behind. Regardless of which foe you’re going through, nevertheless, all of them have chunky well being bars, letting you take advantage of your expansive fight arsenal quite than taking place to some hits of a primary combo. Fundamental enemies may even merge with others to create extra highly effective variations, including an additional layer of depth to the sport’s frequent multi-enemy encounters.
A Troublesome Scenario
Such battles may be thrilling, however they’re additionally the place among the sport’s most notable cracks start to point out. Enemies prepared up and ship assaults extremely shortly, which makes for tense fights in teams of 1 or two, however irritating messes in teams of three or extra. Making an attempt to take care of a number of melee foes directly whereas a ranged enemy takes pictures from throughout the room is a state of affairs that’s arduous to return away from unscathed, and a single mistake can shortly spiral into an unfair dying given the sport’s lack of i-frames on harm.
It may be irritating to die nigh-immediately to a big group, with no clear indicators of what went mistaken and even what in the end killed you, however fortunately the sport is sort of lenient in the remainder of its problem design. Your well being is absolutely restored with every new room that you simply enter, and dying will solely ever ship you again to the beginning of the room that you simply’re in. Because of this, not like the beat-’em-ups of previous, Anomaly Agent isn’t an endurance marathon however quite a collection of brief sprints. You don’t have to show you possibly can survive a full 20-minute stage right here, simply the 2-minute part you’re in proper now. It is a pretty concession to trendy problem preferences and, mixed with an absence of a lives system or any actual penalty for dying, contributes vastly to the cosy really feel we mentioned earlier.
Story As Previous As Time Journey
One other main consider that is the sport’s story: the wealthy inventory in our more and more tortured soup metaphor. Whereas it might’ve been simple to lean into the edgy, cool-guy power-fantasy aspect of cyberpunk, Anomaly Agent as a substitute chooses to embrace the style’s potential for the offbeat and the weird, presenting a number of characters that wouldn’t really feel misplaced in a sci-fi sitcom. You’ll meet a perm-sporting wrestler who longs to face you in honourable fight, a flatulent dwarf that may be kicked throughout rooftops, a seemingly omnipresent cybernetic bartender, and plenty of extra apart from.
![Agent 70 from Anomaly Agent is pursued down a corridor by a giant hand. Agent 70 from Anomaly Agent is pursued down a corridor by a giant hand.](https://www.gamezebo.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Anomaly-Agent-Review-Body-Image-1-320x180.jpg)
The eventualities wherein you meet these characters are glorious too. In a single mission you’ll be infiltrating a nightclub that took the time period ‘laser mild’ a bit too actually, whereas in one other you’ll be battling a military of hooded clones on hoverboards as you try to shoot down an enemy zeppelin, dodging bombs all of the whereas. As quickly as I discovered myself ducking and dodging down a tightly-packed hall whereas a large Monty Python hand adopted in pursuit, I knew I used to be in protected fingers. Fairly actually.
Discuss Of The City
There’s frequent banter between characters to get pleasure from as properly, and this, too, is powerful all through. Agent 70 serves as a wonderful viewers surrogate, always questioning his weird circumstances in humorous trend. You’re typically given a selection of dialogue choices for responding to characters, and a few of these really play into one of many sport’s most fascinating concepts: feelings as forex.
Sure dialogue selections will grant you both optimistic or unfavorable emotion factors, relying on whether or not you have been well mannered or impolite, respectively. These can then be exchanged for optimum well being batteries (assume Zelda’s Coronary heart Items) or additional cash on the sport’s skill-selling robots. It’s not a very deep system, and also you’ll quickly be taught to be as well mannered as attainable, since additional most well being is extra worthwhile than additional cash, nevertheless it’s nonetheless a really cool sci-fi idea, and one that would doubtless be expanded in a future replace or sequel.
Closing Ideas
There are definitely extra complaints I might stage at Anomaly Agent. I might dive into the low-impact talent tree, or the janky platforming sections, or the brief total size of the sport, however to take action could be lacking the purpose. The sport’s simplicity, each mechanical and systemic, is a large a part of its enchantment. That is the online game equal of your favorite consolation meals; a tried-and-tested soup recipe that has remained unchanged at the same time as numerous generations have come and gone.
Anomaly wouldn’t suggest a beat-’em-up sport, however Agent sands off the style’s tough edges whereas including a bucketload of coronary heart, offering a clean journey all through with out ever feeling patronisingly simple.
When you’ve had a tricky day, and the soup on the range nonetheless has some time to go, then give Anomaly Agent a shot – and lose your self in a less complicated world. For a short while, at the very least.
Downloads
The great
Substantial beat-’em-up gameplayExcellent pixel artworkBanging soundtrackClever and comic story
The unhealthy
Could be irritating at timesCombat might do with being slowed downShort total run time
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