Anvil, Provato – Multiplayer.it

Many video games have thus far abandoned any experimental or expressive ambitions, presenting themselves as machines designed to pass time in utter delicacy; The basic experiences that present themselves are as simple and straightforward as possible, in which the only constant are random boosters that turn the player into some kind of unaware rat, constantly chasing the lever to get their cheese. You can also read on our site Try the anvilWe’re talking about one of those games

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Anvil is a really simple game to explain: it’s a twin stick shooter Very classic in the setting, it is played in single player or co-op, dropping waves upon waves of enemies in procedurally generated levels, collecting coins to spend to buy upgrades within floating parallel lines. Don’t be fooled by the official description of planets to explore, because there’s really nothing to explore.

Indeed, for the whole game, you go from one arena to the next and constantly shoot, slaughtering innocent local animals (after all, we are the predators, in this case). The planets only change the biome you’re fighting in and the types of enemies you encounter. The order of the planets to be explored, six per game, affects the proposed challenge. Essentially, the only downtime moments are those between the carnage and the one in which the aforementioned upgrades can be obtained.

In fact, the entire game experience revolves around it Progress, which immediately becomes the core of the gameplay. Each parallel line, usually cubes, gives access to three potential rewards that can be purchased (usually you have the resources to buy one, two at the most), which refine some aspects of the character that, individually, are illogical (you know) classic MMO upgrades, Like “+1 for protection when the enemy howls” or something?).

However, the more rewards you collect, the stronger our character becomes. The quality of the rewards and the way they are intertwined depends a lot (maybe a lot) on chance, so much so that progressing in the maps can happen with a structure that is not entirely exceptional, and finally find yourself at the utter mercy of a powerful boss, who can kill us with a few well-aimed shots (sometimes even with just one). However, in other cases, it becomes so powerful that ordinary clashes practically lose their meaning. Keep in mind that there are many cubes around: at least one per square, so the flow of new forces continues to the end.

The race for rewards

In addition to the cubes, you can find a small floating monolith that allows you to upgrade a file skills Or to buy new weapons. Skills are also job related. It mainly consists of three special attacks (such as mine, missile attack, or powerful slash), as well as a dodge. Skills, like weapons, vary depending on the chosen character. Basically, there are characters who specialize in melee and others in long-range weapons.

Diversity from this point of view is decent and the possibilities offered are high, although the procedure is frequent. Their enemies range from general meat of slaughter, very weak creatures that attack en masse and take down very few blows, to exotic monsters that are much larger and skinnier that require more effort to kill, even bosses, who are very powerful enemies. Unique attack patterns and who often turn the action into a kind of hell, as they can fill the screen with bullets.

As we have said, the procedure itself is quite repetitive, starting with Plot It is the background. The chosen sci-fi warriors, mechanical bodies designed specifically for battles, are cutters who are part of Anvil, an enterprise that haunts tombs, that is, places where the remains of ancient alien civilizations lie. That’s it? That’s it. Vaults are always located at the end of the series of random planets that matches form, so don’t hope to find them lying around. Once unlocked, you get special rewards that are kept in the next game (normal rewards are almost completely lost). In total, at the moment there are only three campaigns that can be tackled, of increasing difficulty, tied in turn to a season, which give access to unlockable resources and are completely free. Resources obtained through play or from season unlocks can be spent to permanently upgrade the Bandit in the starting center area, where the match stats are also located.

Missing live service

As you understand, we are dealing with a game that is set up as live service. At the moment, it’s not quite the case, but we imagine that developers need to evaluate their sales before doing this in all respects.

Unfortunately the anvil has several limitations that make it difficult to recommend. Meanwhile, only consider if you have a friend you share it with, because playing it alone quickly reaches saturation. This is because, and here we are forced to repeat its main problem, it is very repetitive and presents a very lackluster game structure. Keep in mind that the larger levels are organized in a ridiculous linear fashion: kill monsters, gain upgrades, and move on to the next arena. Repeat until nausea. Then there are the smaller levels, where you either fight off very large waves of enemies, protect a specific structure, or fight against bosses, the latter being the best part of the game. The rest is all about calculating how best to improve the crusher, and switching to regular accountants from video games that focus on accumulating various items and bonuses.

There are no secrets to look for, no private interactions, and no choices about where to go. nothing at all. Just a frantic race of buildup and enhancement, which leaves no room for anything else, to the point where one wonders if it’s worth playing just to see the characters get stronger, and that’s the only reasonable goal suggested. We hope that as development continues, some elements will be added that will make it more interesting, because as the anvil it is really light, in the most harmful sense of the term, to the point that it tires very soon. It’s a shame, because it’s technically not bad, despite the general artistic trend and constant references to already widely digested sci-fi fantasies.