Michelin Game - Anomaly Warzone Earth HD

One of the prime reasons for me to initiate this blog was to bring to readers' attention here in Singapore, some of the better games and apps on the AppStore that many might not know of.

While games like Angry Birds and Plants Vs Zombies are regularly played by Singaporeans on trains and buses, there are still a wealth of great games and apps yet undiscovered by folks here.

In the same philosophy that I have applied to my food reviews, I will only cover those apps and games that are worth your time as there is no point for you readers to read about negative stuff.

And I have decided to award those apps and games which I feel are essential and of the highest quality Michelin Game and Michelin App status, after the Michelin stars awarded to premier restaurant establishments in Europe.

Today, I will start off with Anomaly Warzone Earth, a Tower Offense game that is basically a reverse of the very popular Tower Defense genre that is so prevalent in the AppStore.

Anyone who has played Plants Vs Zombies will know what a TD game is like. You place towers of varying capabilities along a pre-determined path and try to stop the incoming enemy forces from reaching their destination.

Gorgeous 3D Top Down Graphics

Anomaly is just the opposite, as in you play the opposing forces this time round in a very refreshing twist. Seen from above, the game is presented in glorious 3D using a proprietary engine called Liquid Engine which is breathtaking on the new Retina iPad.

The premise is a futuristic Baghdad where some strange form of alien forces have infiltrated the city, and your mission is to enter the city via a series of missions (15 of them) in a campaign to rid the aliens.

Before you begin, you are given a certain budget to build your forces, which ranges from tanks to rocket launchers to fire spitting dragoons. All with varying degrees of armor and protection.

Then, you are able to set your route as there are usually more than one way to reach your destination. Once you have built your forces and set your route, you are ready to go and watch some pretty enjoyable action en route.

Along the way, as your forces engages the enemy towers, you are given power ups as you destroy the towers to repair or to give smoke screens and decoys to aid your troops.

The learning curve and the balance of this game is just about perfect. The first few missions are relative easy and will get you settled in to the game's mechanics, and as you progress, the difficulty will ramp up accordingly.

Once you reach the final few stages, it does get rather dramatic and tense and the missions do have quite a number of variations. There are some where you will need to blow up specific targets, and others where you need to protect other assets which can get quite suspenseful.

Squat Assault

Once you complete a certain amount of the campaign, the squad assault level is unlocked where it is like a survival stage of completing wave after wave of an assault of specific targets. You will complete this level if you can survive 10 waves, which is frankly, not that easy as each wave gets progressively harder.

The main highlight is still the 15 mission campaign, which does make for a very engaging story, and the visuals and audio are really top-notch. You always have a British sounding army officer giving you information which is rather authentic and the game has really good sound effects to accompany the brilliant visuals.

While 15 levels may not sound much, and will likely take you about 5-6 hours to complete on the easiest level, there are 2 additional harder levels to accomplish and a separate Commander Trials version of the campaign whereby you will need to complete the same campaign with a harder set of objectives i.e.. almost impossible.

In conclusion, this is probably the best TD or TO game out there on the AppStore right now, and possibly the best strategy game as well. It has a refreshing gameplay and great re-playability. Anomaly comes in both universal versions as well as a iPhone specific one.

I highly recommend you get the HD universal version as it is now only US$1.99 and you will have a wonderful time if you are a big fan of TD and real-time strategy games.

Anomaly Warzone Earth HD (US$1.99) - Click here to download the game.