Anomalous

It was a janky, awkward death fest with boring environments and an unfulfilling finish. There was a recent update which didn't help matters; it's given the enemies a gloss of paint, but there's just nothing here that felt worth exploring. I ended up just running through the levels to get to the end. The shooting was so unfulfilling that I spent most of my time avoiding enemies rather than actually engaging with them... can't believe I went through 15 levels only for it to end [spoiler]on a train to nowhere.[/spoiler]

Controller support is below bare minimum, cannot use the controller to navigate menus, cannot dual wield weapons on controller as there is no button for equipping the 2nd and there is no autoaim so shooting fliers is a needless struggle. There is no remote saves so if you uninstall the game or switch pc your save data is lost.

This game is so good! The way the industrial synthwave music blends with the fast-paced movement, traversal, and action is fantastic. The game has a really good flow that is sometimes hindered by maze-like level design, but thankfully, it never gets as bad as Doom 1 or 2 in that aspect. While clearly inspired by other games in the genre, Anomalous has an identity of its own—and a strong one at that. The only real negative thing I have to say about the game is that there’s only one boss fight, and they somehow managed to put minions in it... Don’t worry, though, it’s not a dealbreaker. It’s just annoying because... who likes minions in a boss fight??? Apart from that, I’d say that if you’re a fan of games like Doom, Dusk, or any other fast-paced shooters, you should definitely give this one a go.

There's part of me that wants to give this a positive review, but when it comes down to it, the question you gotta ask with these postive/negative review types is "would I recommend this to a friend", and I just don't feel like that's the case. (Played this on Veteran difficulty, if that matters) First off, wanna say I love the modelling of the guns and the enemies in the game. The human models are pretty simplistic, but think it fits the style and setting well. I also like some of the maps, especially the map Edgelands (which wasn't really used in the game, but was still great). The style in general I think is also really good. The movement is pretty tight, and encourages constant movement, although I wish there was any sort of movement abilities like a dash to accomodate for choices made with enemies (which are listed below). Now, the negatives. This game is janky. Proper janky. I fell out of the game about 7 times, and 3 of them were from the same poorly-placed teleporter. The spawn points for enemies are a joke, with many of them spawning in your vision, and frequently spawning literally in front of you. On more than one occasion, the enemy spawned literally where I was sta…

Gun randomly not firing, enemies shooting you through walls, enemies blinking across your field of vision, enemies not spawning when they should spawn, enemies spawning but not "activating", doors not re-opening without interacting with them several times, invisible blockers when walking back up a ramp, grenades bouncing off of an open doorway instead of going through the doorway, enemies teleporting into the floor, a soundtrack song ending and no music replacing it, and you falling through levels are the most annoying bugs encountered so far. Given the choice between ~10 weapons and 5 weapons that feel impactful to use, I'd choose the latter. The shotgun, sniper, and bow and arrow feel especially rinky-dink (although the double shotgun's rhythm is satisfying). The grenade launcher doesn't feel super necessary. Despite all the above, this game is still fun to play - DOOM in Half Life skin is a winning combo. It's just a pain in the ass to reload multiple missions because you fall through the level.

Paid for Half Life mod!