Rarely have I encountered such misleading reviews as I have with Anomaly. Practically every review contains the phrase "Tower defense" somewhere, when in reality it has about as much to do with the genre as Diablo with a strategy game. True, they're are a lot of elements which are, when inspected individually, quite similar (use mouse to direct unit to point X so that it can carry out task Y). But if you take a look at the game as whole, you'll see that it forms quite a different picture. If anything, Anomaly plays like an action-RPG with a pause button. You have one squad that you direct through a field of enemies (with really varied abilities; some can only attack you when you approach them at a certain angle, others will block your weapons or use the powerups that you deploy against you) to accomplish your mission. You can't your units up, so it really feels like you're directing a single character through the maze. While you can only change the path of your convoy where streets intersect, there are so many of those points that you can almost move freely on many maps. For every enemy you take down you get powerups that you can deploy against the next one, and money to upgrade your troops. The gameplay (eventhough the game is paused while you're shopping or planning your route) is quite hectic: Buying the correct upgrades and planning the best route so that you get the most money will only get you so far. To deploy the game-deciding powerups, you'll have to use your commander, a little guy that you control directly with your mouse. Every few missions a new gameplay element (like a special enemy, new unit or mission type) shakes things up a bit. While this may all seem a tad complex, it all blends together so effortlessly and is paced so well, that you can't help being impressed. Just turn your mousewheel and you'll switch (with a beautiful, but short, animation) to the tactical view. Turn it again and the action resumes. Press the middle mouse button to buy units, the right button to pause the action and deploy powerups and the left one to walk. That's it. No complex keyboard shortcuts or irritating mouse gestures. Then there's the atmosphere. Anomaly's graphics are impressive and not just by "indie"-standards. It's definitely not realistic, but every little effect, no matter if it's in the menues or in-game, just fits. The overall style is modelled roughly after RedAlert 3, with bright effects, menues, enemies and units on a relatively dull, half-realistically modelled map. When it comes to sound, the voices with their cute, again obviously RA3 inspired accent are outstanding and fit in well with the comically overdrawn "this is SOOOoooo serious" theme that can be found throughout the game (for example the likewise overly dramatic music). Long story short I love this game. Also keep an eye out for the iOS/Android versions which, really play quite a bit different than the PC version.
Let's get one thing out of the way: If you look for realism, look somewhere else. And I don't mean just the graphics, but also any kind of physics. You won't find them here. Screamer was the PC's response to Ridge Racer and it manages to capture much of the charm early RR titles had. The graphics: The graphics were beautiful at the time and among the best you could get for PC. And the bright and lively style still works to a certain extend. The environments, while not overly detailed still provide a solid experience and the car models work beautifully. Neat little effects like the reflecting windows of your car or video sequences playing on screens beside the track provide a little liveliness that many other racers from that era lack. The downside is that this game cannot make use of any kind of 3D acceleration and in order to pull off the impressive amount of detail for the environments and cars, the viewing distance had to be limited. In other words: you get the dreaded pop-up effect quite often. Also, anything beyond 640x400 is totally out of the question. However, these limitations are purely visual: The tracks have been designed in a way that doesn't punish you for the game's shortcomings. If you have played this or similar games during that era and are able to look back with fond memories, then you will enjoy the graphics, otherwise the resolution and limited amount of detail might be a dealbreaker. Sound The game includes a very nice MIDI and CDAudio (enhanced versions of the MIDI sounds) soundtrack. It's really hard to describe, but sufficient to say that it has a bit of an 80s sound to it. Instead of trying to describe it, I'll just tell you to look for it on YouTube. Besides that there's the usual arcade commentator and quite frankly, he can and will get on your nerves... but can you imagine an arcade racer without it? The Gameplay Race around a track. Do it as fast as possible. Simple, right? Well, no. Not in Screamer. In the absence of any kind of physics, you don't just have to steer to get around corners, you have to break and slide through them. Time your breaking perfectly and you'll slide through the corners beautifully. Time it a little bit wrong and you'll smash into the nearest wall. Likewise, crashing into one of your opponents will usually result in the one who's on the front racing away as if nothing had happened, while the one at the back comes almost to a complete stop. In other words: don't collide with them. It all comes down to timing your moves perfectly and the game can be pretty unforgiving, however after the initial irritation, you'll come to love it. It simply captures the simple arcade style perfectly. The Conclusion is very, very difficult. Basically, if you like modern racing games like DIRT or Burnout, then this won't do you any good. However, if you grew grew up with Arcade machines like Ridge Racer or Cruisin* World you'll be reminded of all the good times you had playing them. My view is the later one and that's why I'll give it a 4/5.
Overview Broken Sword 3 - The Sleeping Dragon is an attempt to bring the beautiful world of Broken Sword into the 3D age and to console gamers. On the whole, the attempt was successful, but there are changes to the gameplay that point and click fans might not appreciate. Graphics After the beautifully hand-drawn backgrounds of BS1 and 2, it might seem like a step backwards to try to recreate the atmosphere that made the previous titles so great. But nothing could be further from the truth. BS3 succeeds admirably at recreating that feeling with beautiful environments and perfect lighting. If anything, it adds to it, as previous instalments were limited by the amount of 2D animation that could be put into a game. Those limitations are gone and the animations are wonderfully smooth and lively. Even in comparison to modern games, the environments are stunning, however you can see a few rough edges on the characters when they're too close to the camera and during the cutscenes. Speaking of which. The cutscenes are all done using the ingame engine, sometimes in realtime, sometimes prerendered. While the video quality is very high for such an old title, it means that there is sometimes a change in resolution, that could have been avoided. There are very few customization options: Only resolution and color depth can be set. However, there isn't really any need for anything else as the game will work beautifully even on lower end PCs. Widescreen resolutions are possible and the game automatically adapts to the different aspect ratio. Rating 4.5/5 : Almost perfect. Sound The voice acting is still wonderful. Sometimes, the characters sound a little too calm, as they did in BS 1/2, but the overall experience is great. Likewise, the music is nothing to get excited about, but it sets the scenes up beautifully. Rating 4/5 : Not exciting, but serviceable. Controls BS3 is a pure console game when it comes to controls. Instead of fixed controls, like they are common for PC games, BS3 uses four context-sensitive action buttons. When you are close to an object, the actions for each button will be shown in the lower right of the screen. This also includes generic actions like "climb", "jump" and so on. Generally, this works really well, but it requires you to always check the bottom right before pressing the button. Character movement is done with the arrow keys and directions are relative to the camera. However the typical problems when the camera changes don't appear as keeping a button pressed will retain the direction, even if the camera changes. There are also some scripted sequences when you will have to press a certain button at the correct time. Not very interesting, but you have enough time, so it doesn't get frustrating. Rating: 3/5. A dedicated control scheme would have been more fitting. Gameplay BS3 contains many of the elements that made the previous games so great. Logical object combinations. Useful dialog. An interesting, but still easy to follow story with a good amount of background information. Sadly, there have been some additions that are less welcome... apparently the developers were very fond of Sokoban, and many puzzles center around pushing crates in the correct order. Likewise there are some climbing "puzzles", where the only real task is to find the way that Revolution wanted you to take. Then there are the stealth missions, that try to borrow from Metal Gear Solid, but are a lot less satisfying. All in all, the gameplay is still fine, as the type of task alternates frequently, but without these additions, which apparently were only made to prolong the game, the experience would have been even better. Rating: 3/5 Some parts are perfect, others just get on your nerves. Conclusion Eventhough the gameplay has flaws, BS3 is still one of the best 3D adventures, as Revolution has succeeded in bringing BS1/2's great atmosphere over to this new installment. The only real problem with it is, that it could have been even better. Rating 4/5
