At this point, the tower defense genre has been done to death. You can get variations on the basic idea in pretty much every flavor imaginable, and in every degree of quality. Anomaly Warzone Earth steps into this crowded market and asks: What if you reverse the genre’s normal style of play? Leading a small group of attacking units, players in this game are usually tasked with pushing past an array of gun towers to reach their objective. While this is an obvious ’gimmick game idea’, it’s carried out sufficiently well to be worth playing.

Anomaly Warzone Earth is set in the near future, you are the commander of an elite military squad sent to investigate a series of extraterrestrial incidents in Baghdad and Tokyo. The plot is pretty typical military versus aliens fare, but what really matters is how well Anomaly paces itself. You start out leading just a few unit types through streets full of alien gun towers, but new mechanics are introduced every so often. Before too long, you’re in charge of a full squad of military vehicles, with various support and able to use your ’commander’ unit and its special abilities such as repairing allies, deploying smoke screens, and more.

Anomaly Warzone Earth strikes a balance between player freedom and keeping you on task. Some stages will make heavy use of scripted events and predetermined unit lists, while others let you not only purchase and upgrade whatever vehicles you like but also allow you to pick the route they follow. While pushing to the end of the level is your usual goal, you will have situations where other tasks are required. These tend to range from protecting a certain object from damage to reaching your objective within a time limit (while also figuring out which detours you can safely take to gather more resources/money), with a few other concepts thrown in from time to time.

While there isn’t much in the way of online play for Anomaly Warzone Earth, several factors make up for it. Those interested in score attack or speedrun play are both accommodated, especially with your choice of routes and limited resources to spend on vehicle upgrades. There are also a series of special challenge stages that can be unlocked, and some of them even gain new material to use (such as different units/vehicles) as you get further into the normal levels. Adjustable difficulty also helps keep things interesting no matter your skill level, and it all comes together as a pretty good package.