"It was the year 2018 when the world looked to the heavens and watched as a giant comet bore down on our planet. We were the first ones on the scene - 14th Platoon. I know - I was there."
— 14th Platoon's commanding officer, in the opening cutscene for Anomaly: Warzone Earth
Anomaly: Warzone Earth is a "Reverse-Tower Defence" game developed by 11 Bit Studios, which puts the player in charge of a military unit - the aforementioned 14th Platoon - in the wake of what, at first, is thought to be the impact of a disintegrating comet upon various parts of Earth.
The theory that the objects that hit Earth were merely parts of a disintegrating comet is disproven, however, when they create energy domes around large sections of Tokyo and Baghdad - and when, after penetrating the domes, the units of the 14th Platoon encounter resistance in the form of defensive towers that have popped up along the streets.
The idea behind this whole "Reverse Tower-Defense" schtick is that your squad of ground-borne units is driving slowly down a pre-selected pathway, adjustable in a Real-Time with Pause fashion. It's up to you, the commander, to choose the order and consistency of the convoy, as well as provide support using your power-suit's various abilities, such as a smoke screen to block heat-rays, a healing aura, a hologram to distract more powerful turrets, or a good old-fashioned air-strike.
Now has a sequel, and a interquel too.
This game contains examples of:
- The Artifact: You didn't control Combat Suit commander in the mobile version of the game, but the game icon still has him.
- Death from Above:
- The Combat Suit's "Airstrike" ability, which - you guessed it - calls in an airstrike.
- Also the name of one of the achievements in the game. You earn it by destroying four enemy towers with a single airstrike.
- Easy Logistics:
- You can buy new units whenever you have the money, and they simply get airdropped onto the battlefield. Which makes one wonder why couldn't they drop you at your destination to begin with?
- Averted in one mission, where your transport is damaged and you can't buy more units.
- Escort Mission: At least three:
- In Story Mode, your transport is damaged and you have to destroy the towers along its route.
- In another story mission, you have to bring an unarmed tank to a station where its weapons can be installed. For the rest of the mission, it packs dual flamethrowers.
- One in "Tokyo Raid", where a VIP in an unarmed vehicle joins your units to observe how your troops handle the defensive towers in one particular area.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The four Combat Suit abilities: "Repair" repairs all of your units in a given area, "Decoy" draws the attention of the enemy towers away from your units, "Smoke Screen" creates a field that makes it harder for enemy towers to target anything inside it, and "Airstrike", which... calls in an airstrike.
- Friendly Fire Proof: Airstrikes won't damage your units if they happen to be passing by when the bombs fall.
- Glass Cannon: The Crawler. Does the most damage of any vehicle in the game, but has the worst armor.
- Global Currency: You pay for your units (and upgrades to same) with dollars, despite the fact that you're working in Baghdad and Tokyo. And that you seem to be a British platoon.
- Human Aliens: Professor Sharp.
- Imported Alien Phlebotinum: The Shield Generator unit. You gain access to it after rescuing Professor Sharp.
- Kill It with Fire: One of the vehices you can unlock is the Dragon, which is armed with two independent plasma throwers.
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Nintendo Hard: It's pretty easy to venture into Nintendo Hard territory when over-using the fast-forward function at the most inappropriate of times, but in the later missions, the pressure is increased as more powerful turrets, and occasional time limits (Such as a bridge gradually being destroyed) are brought into the equation. - No Name Given: Played with; the name of 14th Platoon's CO isn't given until the sequel. He dies in the first mission.
- Non-Entity General: Played straight in the mobile version, averted in the PC version.
- Reformulated Game: The mobile version has several differencies with the computer one. Baghdad is the only scenario and the plot is even simpler. Some missions are similar to the original ones but others are very different, with situations originally seen in Tokyo like the Escort Mission with the transport craft and the introduction of the Dragon unit (which is fully functional from the get-go). There is no commander, abilities are deployed and collected by tapping on the screen; Hacker and Harvester turrets are present but work a bit differently to accomodate the change.
- Regenerating Shield, Static Health: Health must be repaired but shield from shield vehicles is going to regenerate itself.
- Robot War: Sharp implies as such.
- Scenery Gorn: The game takes place in wrecked Baghdad and Tokyo.
- Shout-Out: The names of two of the achievements: Pimp My Squad and A Bridge Too Far. You earn them by fully upgrading a unit and beating the "Tokyo Raid" missions, respectively.
- Spider Tank: The Crawler, which has articulated legs instead of treads.
- Tank Goodness: 14th Platoon is an armor platoon, after all.
- They Would Cut You Up: Why Sharp doesn't stick around after the Processor is destroyed.
- Tower Defense: Inverted; it's tower offense. In this game, you control the attackers, and the towers are your enemy. Not the Ur-Example (Stronghold already had elements of this at the time), but definitely the one that
started the trend. - Throwing the Distraction: The "Decoy" ability, which creates an energy signature that the defensive towers focus on.
- The Captain: unsurprisingly Captain Evans is this .
- Variable Mix: The music is more intense during combat and relaxes when not being near towers.
- We Have Reserves: Played with; 14th Platoon can only deploy six vehicles at a time, but you can replace them at will provided you have the money to do so.
- With This Herring: You must stop an alien invasion... with no more than six vehicles and some air support, even one of the lines from your troops lampshades this,
- Squad Solder:(takes damage)Hey! wheres our back up!
- Interquel: AnomalyKorea via Timeskip a few months later.
- Made of Iron: Justified, as your commander is wearing a powered suit.
