Anomaly President Review Summary

A significant sequel improvement with highly enjoyable, fluid combat and polished audiovisuals, but suffers from inconsistent difficulty and repetitive gameplay.

Significant sequel improvement: Players consistently highlight that the sequel is a major improvement over its predecessor, with varied gameplay, refined mechanics, and expanded content that addresses the shortcomings of the first game.

Highly enjoyable experience: Many reviews express that the game is highly enjoyable, fun, and engaging, with several players reporting that it exceeded expectations and provided a captivating experience.

Fluid and satisfying combat: Combat is frequently praised for being fluid, satisfying, and varied, with effective hit feedback, enjoyable finishers, and effective integration of anomaly powers.

Polished audiovisual presentation: The pixel art style, smooth animations, music, sound design, and overall atmosphere are consistently described as high-quality, polished, and immersive.

High build and power variety: The variety in weapons, anomaly powers, builds, and special abilities is appreciated, offering satisfying character progression and replayable strategies.

Inconsistent difficulty balance: Difficulty is inconsistent: parry mechanics are hard or questionable, some enemies and bosses are extremely tough, while posture and iframes can make players immortal, with overpowered weapons like claw and sword.

Gameplay feels repetitive: Gameplay becomes repetitive after the first few bosses and runs, with minigames, level designs, and content quickly repeating, leading to boredom and disengagement.

Unappealing UI and menus: UI, menu, and font design are plain, mismatched, or placeholder-like, with settings not visible in fullscreen, default keybindings awkward, and font reminiscent of mobile games.

Poor ultrawide monitor support: Multiple users report a lack of ultrawide and widescreen monitor support, including specific resolutions like 3440x1440 and 3840x1080, causing stretching, stuttering, screen clipping, and crashes when applying resolution.

Stiff animations weak feedback: Animations are stiff, disjointed, and lack flow; hit reactions and finishing animations are missing or weak, and some weapon actions use incorrect animations.

Roguelike progression with upgrades: Multiple reviews highlight the roguelike or roguelite structure with character upgrades each run. The game features a 2D platformer hack-n-slash combat system with permadeath and run-based progression.

Day and night cycle: The game features a day and night cycle: during the day, players engage in campaign activities (like voting or bus management), and at night they fight enemies using roguelike combat. This loop is a core gameplay mechanic.

Combo and skill system: Combat includes skills, weapons, and combos with finishers. I-frames are present during combo enders and anomaly powers, and the system relies on reflex-based inputs.

Bus upgrade and customization: Players mention a bus upgrade system using items collected during runs, with customization options like rooms for kitchen, blacksmith, medical, and anomaly. This daytime management contrasts with nighttime combat.

Posture and execution system: Combat mechanics involve posture damage: players punch or block/parry to reduce enemy posture, then execute after a break. Dodging avoids unblockable attacks.

Good performance on many systems: Many players report smooth performance, good optimization for early access, and solid frame rates on various hardware, including Steam Deck and handhelds. This is a positive trend.

FPS drops and stuttering: Several players report frame rate drops and stuttering, particularly on Steam Deck and other hardware. This is the most common performance complaint.

Game crashes: Players experience black screen crashes, including when changing resolution settings. These crashes disrupt gameplay.

Resolution issue on specific monitor: One player reports a fullscreen resolution issue specific to a particular monitor setup. This appears to be a niche problem.

Strong genre recommendation: The game is strongly recommended for fans of roguelike, roguelite, and Metroidvania genres. It is also suggested for newcomers who want to explore the genre.

Generic high recommendation: Many reviewers give blanket recommendations and perfect scores. The game is praised as an excellent experience overall.

Good value for price: The game is considered worth its current price, and even a higher price. However, budget-conscious players may want to wait for a discount.

Appeals beyond original fans: Players who liked the first game will likely enjoy this one. Even those who disliked the original or the genre are encouraged to try it.

Gamepad recommended: Reviewers strongly advise playing with a gamepad for the best experience. Keyboard controls may be less satisfying.

Session length: 2.0h.

Players find the game immediately enjoyable due to smooth combat, varied skills, and addictive meta progression, with no early friction delaying fun.

Genre Veteran: Deliberate and strategic, focusing on build synergies and item combinations. Actively compares mechanics and narrative progression to established genre benchmarks. Motivation: Exploring strategic build diversity and narrative progression within a familiar genre framework. Stance: buy.

Curious Newcomer: Tentative and exploratory, often struggling with difficulty but determined to progress. Relies on external motivation from content creators and achievements. Motivation: Social influence from a favorite creator and the surprising enjoyment of discovering a new genre. Stance: sale.

The game performs well on Windows systems with less than 8GB VRAM, with only minor frame drops reported.

Windows <8GB VRAM: positive. Players with less than 8GB VRAM mostly report smooth performance, with only occasional minor frame drops.

Polished early access game: The game is in early access but is already polished and feels close to a finished product. Reviewers note a surprising level of quality despite its development stage.

Support for indie developer: The developer (Enis Abi/Cherryson) and small indie team are frequently mentioned. Players often bought the game specifically to support the developer, reflecting trust and loyalty.

Comparisons to Dead Cells, Hades: Players compare the game favorably to genre hits like Dead Cells and Hades, suggesting high-quality action and roguelike mechanics. These references indicate strong design and replay value.

Bundle with first game: Many players purchased the game as part of a bundle with the first game, often at a discounted price. This bundling strategy is appreciated and drives sales.

Demo used by some players: Some players tried the demo before buying, while others purchased at launch without a demo. Both approaches show varying degrees of pre-purchase research.