Anomaly Collapse Review Summary

Deep, strategic turn-based combat: The game features deep and innovative strategic turn-based combat with roguelike elements. Players enjoy the tactical thinking required, the ability to create powerful combinations, and the variety of strategic options available. The game mechanics are well-designed and engaging.

Appealing art style and characters: The game features a highly appealing art style with cute, kemono-style (furry) characters. This is a major draw for many players, especially those who are fans of the furry aesthetic. Some reviewers specifically mentioned the appeal of certain characters.

Fun and addictive gameplay: The core gameplay loop is fun, addictive, and enjoyable. Players find the combat system engaging and mastering it is rewarding. Many reviewers simply state that the game is 'fun' without providing specifics.

Extensive meta-progression system: The game incorporates a meta-progression system with extensive unlockables that provide long-term goals and a sense of steady growth. Players are motivated to unlock characters, items, and skills through multiple playthroughs, which enhances replayability.

Strong characters and item combinations: Some characters and items are considered exceptionally strong, leading to easier victories. Specific characters like the sheep and cat are mentioned for their support capabilities and chain attacks, while certain items that boost attack or restore basic attack cost are highlighted for their usefulness.

Shallow narrative, character development: The narrative and characters lack depth, with limited interactions and generic dialogue. Character progression is lengthy and grindy, with backstories not impacting gameplay. This makes playthroughs feel identical regardless of the chosen character.

Repetitive gameplay, excessive grinding: The game suffers from repetitive gameplay loops and a heavy reliance on out-of-game progression systems to unlock content and character abilities. This grinds down the experience, especially since the core gameplay doesn't evolve significantly, and the world lacks depth.

Unbalanced characters, limited builds: Team composition and character balance are flawed, with random character selection and significant power disparities. This forces players into specific team roles and strategies, limiting build variety and making some characters feel useless.

Limited content, short playtime: The game suffers from a lack of content, resulting in shorter playtime and a monotonous experience. The game cycle feels too long, with limited early-game options and excessive grinding required to unlock content.

Poor difficulty, unbalanced gameplay: The game's difficulty is poorly balanced, with steep spikes and an over-reliance on damage output. This leads to frustrating experiences, especially for new players, and limits strategic depth, making the game feel unfair and grindy.

Customizable characters and progression: Characters possess unique skills and can be customized with active and passive abilities. The game features meta-progression with unlocks and stat upgrades earned after runs, encouraging iterative progression. Synergistic equipment combinations and anomaly builds add depth and variety to gameplay.

Single-lane grid combat: The game features turn-based combat on a single-lane grid, emphasizing strategic positioning and movement. Players must carefully manage shared action points to optimize attacks, trigger combo attacks, and avoid damage. This unique one-dimensional battlefield creates novel tactical challenges.

Tactical positioning is key: Positioning is crucial for triggering cooperative attacks, flanking enemies, and maximizing damage. Successfully slamming enemies into walls or other enemies also deals additional damage. These mechanics add layers of tactical depth to combat encounters.

Favors burst damage, punishes stalling: The game emphasizes high burst damage within short timeframes, lacking options for slower, strategic playstyles. Battles heavily favor enemies, with reinforcements appearing if battles take too long, leading to likely defeat. HP recovery is limited, which reduces the effectiveness of healing skills.

Equipment expands tactical options: Equipment gained during combat expands available actions and encourages diverse team compositions. Synergistic equipment combinations can be very effective in combat. The game features a large number of equipment items that can be used to create builds.

Excellent Steam Deck performance: The game is reported to run smoothly and work great on the Steam Deck, indicating good optimization for the handheld platform. This is a positive aspect for players who prefer gaming on the go.

Blurry character models (minor bug): Some players have reported a graphical issue where character models appear blurry in the bottom-left corner of the screen before battles. This is a minor visual bug that may detract from the overall experience.

Generally recommended; engaging, tactical roguelite: Many reviewers recommend the game, citing its engaging gameplay, tactical depth, and unique roguelite elements. However, some suggest it may not appeal to those seeking deep narratives or extensive build variety. Some reviewers also noted that the game is more enjoyable for players familiar with the roguelike genre.

Hopes for future updates/content: Reviewers express hope for continued updates, DLC, and optimizations to enhance the game's content, longevity, and overall experience. They anticipate future improvements and balancing adjustments to address current shortcomings and expand gameplay possibilities.

Purchase on sale recommended: Several reviewers suggest the game is best purchased on sale due to its price point relative to its content or longevity. They feel the current price may be slightly high, making it more suitable for dedicated fans or those willing to wait for a discount.

Difficulty balancing needed: Some reviewers desire more difficulty levels, suggesting the current 'hard' mode becomes too easy after character progression. Others suggest that players should experiment with the game before judging it.

Balance action point playstyle: The game could be improved by using buffs/debuffs to discourage the action point battery playstyle and optimizing the 'semi-zombified' mechanic to allow execution effects.

Appealing visuals and decent music: The game features appealing visuals and decent music that doesn't detract from the experience. While some find the art style high-quality and colorful, others note inconsistencies in quality between character designs and environments. Overall, the game emphasizes sensory enjoyment.

Diverse team-building mechanics: The game features a team-building mechanic with diverse characters and items that are gradually unlocked. Players can customize their team with active and passive anomaly slots, and additional slots can be obtained by defeating bosses or through in-game events.

SCP and Lovecraftian-inspired lore: The game's setting and lore are inspired by SCP and Lovecraftian themes, featuring anomalies and furry characters. Players find the lore snippets on equippable SCP anomalies interesting and fun to discover.

Challenging quest conditions: The game features quests with specific conditions that can impose disadvantages, indicated by icons near character portraits. Chapter maps include battles, events, and facilities that disappear after a certain time limit, adding a layer of strategic challenge.

Helpful tooltips, hidden features: The game's tooltips are very helpful, but some features, like the piggy bank function, may not be immediately obvious and could be considered a bug.