In this 70’s-style mish-mash of martial arts and futurism, you take on the role of Agent 70, who works for an anomaly detection bureau. This 2D combat-centric Platformer is like James Bond meets Star Wars – use your espionage skills to take down an army of clones, and look cool as you do it!
Story
Agent 70 has just been promoted to HQ and this is his last day out in the field. As he’s about to clock off, four Anomalies are detected. Anomalies are supernatural events, usually triggered by someone with an Anomaly – A.K.A, a superpower. The four Anomalies are identified as time travellers with their own superpowers. With nothing but a briefcase, a business card and deadly martial arts, Agent 70 must hunt all four down before his shift is up and restore the damage caused by the rifts in space-time.
Gameplay
Anomaly Agent is essentially a hack’n’slash Platformer where the majority of enemies are clones. Clones can fuse to form larger clones that are stronger than their previous form, providing a variety of talented clones to fight.
Agent 70 can use his briefcase to parry attacks and use his business card to stun distant enemies, and later on Agent 70 can upgrade his stats to increase the power of his martial arts. For example, you eventually unlock a baseball bat that can transform into a katana and a giant hammer. Along the way, Agent 70’s hand-to-hand combat improves, allowing him to pull off some sick combos.
During conversations with characters, Agent 70 is rewarded based on how he responds; responding pleasantly rewards you with happy faces to improve your health bar. Responding poorly rewards you with sad faces that can be converted into money to spend on upgrades. This creates an interesting dynamic where you can choose how you’d like to react depending on what stats you want to improve.
Level Design
Levels are linear and are a combination of platforming puzzle rooms, such as avoiding laser beams, or obliterating waves of enemies. All the enemies need to be killed to progress to the next stage, and Anomaly Agent is extremely forgiving as it replenishes your health at the start of every stage. At times, Anomaly Agent feels like you’re micromanaging, working your way towards the boss in incremental steps but this gives you a chance to tackle each area as an independent puzzle.
The Cons
The biggest problem with Anomaly Agent is how it bombards the player with so many enemies at once that you will never get the chance to try out all the combos you can unlock. Towards the end of the game, levels are so dense with clones trying to kill you, that you’ll find yourself parrying or jumping out of the way instead of trying to squeeze in a killer combo.
Without going into spoilers, the time-travel aspect is well thought out and the game makes attempts to make references to previous events to make your actions feel circular but the final act is unfulfilling and doesn’t quite live up to the complexity found in the best time-travel stories. It’s worth playing a second time to try and experience things slightly differently but it won’t revolutionise the gameplay as the alternate changes are superficial.
Conclusion
Should you play it? Yes
Why… Anomaly Agent is a straightforward, good-humoured action title that attempts to weave a captivating time-travel story, deserving of a second playthrough if only to experience the alternate ending.
But… It would have been nice if time travel was part of the gameplay and not just part of the plot.
Final Score: 7/10
Reviewed on Xbox Series S
Developer: Phew Phew Games
Publisher: Phew Phew Games
Playable on: Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, Steam, PC
Released: 24th January 2024
