Anymaker Review Summary

Great vehicle building, visuals, performance, and zombie combat shine, but a broken tutorial, rough unpolished state, and need for more development hold it back.

High Potential and Hype: Many reviewers see great potential and have high hopes for the game. They are excited for future development and believe it could become something amazing.

Strong Vehicle Building System: Players consistently praise the vehicle building mechanics as well-done, interesting, and detailed. Many highlight the extensive part selection and in-depth engineering options.

Great Visuals and Performance: The game runs and looks fantastic, with smooth performance even on ultra settings and lower-end specs. Graphics and sounds are well-received.

Zombie Hordes and Combat: Zombies spawn hordes from gunshots and can knock you down, creating tense encounters. Dynamic combat and looting from enemies are highlights.

Highly Enjoyable and Addictive: Reviewers express strong love for the game, calling it amazing and fun. Many are eager to continue playing and see more content.

Game is rough and unpolished: The game is described as raw, rough, and lacking polish. Multiple clusters highlight a general lack of refinement.

Tutorial is broken or unhelpful: The tutorial is criticized for being bugged, fragile, and failing to guide players. Some players got softlocked or had to restart.

Needs more development: Players feel the game requires significant work, even for an early access title, and needs more updates before release.

Clunky controls and mechanics: Players frequently mention clunkiness, with some calling the game very clunky. This affects overall gameplay feel.

Laggy performance: Players report severe lag and slow performance, even on systems meeting minimum requirements.

Zombie survival open world: The game is set in a zombie apocalypse where players must survive in an open world environment. Zombies and enemy survivors pose threats, with zombies swarming at night.

Vehicle building and design: Players can design and build their own vehicles, including cars, using in-game tools. Vehicle building is a core mechanic with controls for assembling parts.

Tutorial and sandbox mode: A tutorial is available to guide new players. Completing it unlocks a sandbox mode where all main game content is accessible.

Building and construction mechanics: Building is a key game mechanic, enabling players to construct structures and vehicles. It involves managing multiple tools, often around 10 to 20.

Engine building and piping: Players can manually build engines from scratch, including simplified piping systems. This adds depth to vehicle construction.

Inconsistent Performance Reports: Some players report smooth 60 FPS on ultra settings, while others experience severe lag even with high-end hardware. This inconsistency suggests optimization issues or hardware-specific problems.

Crashes in Various Scenarios: Players report crashes when entering graphics settings, loading saves, or periodically during gameplay. These crashes often occur in fullscreen mode.

Slow Motion Gameplay Issues: The game engine causes slow motion gameplay, leading to unresponsive tools and random slowdowns. This severely impacts playability.

Proton Compatibility Failure: The game does not work on Proton, affecting Linux users. This limits the game's accessibility on certain platforms.

First Person View Lag: First person view is laggy, causing discomfort and hindering gameplay. This issue may be specific to certain configurations.

Not worth buying now: Many reviewers advise against purchasing in the game's current state, citing lack of polish and insufficient content. This sentiment appears across multiple clusters with high frequency.

Price deemed too high: Multiple reviewers feel the price of $25 or $35 is not justified by the current content and quality. This concern is explicitly mentioned in several clusters.

Mixed feelings on recommendation: Some reviewers give a thumbs up or recommend with caveats, while others cannot recommend at all. This reflects a divided opinion on the game's current state.

Support development in early access: A minority of reviewers recommend buying to support the developers during early access, acknowledging the game's potential. They encourage providing constructive feedback.

Refunded due to unmet expectations: Several players requested refunds because the game did not meet expectations, especially regarding price and unfinished state. This was a notable point of dissatisfaction.

Community fair range: $0.00 - $10.00.

Session length: 1.0h.

Early enjoyment is often blocked by a broken or incomplete tutorial and a steep building curve; the clearest fun appears in co-op vehicle building, with one report placing that positive turn in the first two hours.

Friction: Tutorial fails to teach core play and building; Tutorial can softlock or break, forcing restarts; Early hours can feel empty or boring; Steep learning curve for building and tools; Tedious inventory and item handling; Poor night visibility and harsh early combat.

Unlock drivers: Building vehicles with friends; Stable co-op multiplayer; Figuring out mechanics independently; Prior Stormworks experience.

Cautious Early Access Wait-and-See Buyer: Wishlist and monitor updates, read patch notes, and delay purchase until a sale or major improvements. Motivation: Avoid wasting money on an unpolished game and buy only when it is more complete or much cheaper. Stance: deep sale.

Engineering Sandbox Builder: Creative construction, vehicle engineering, and tinkering with building systems. Motivation: Build and experiment with vehicles and machines without excessive grind or an unreasonable skill barrier. Stance: no buy.

Co-op Multiplayer Player: Host or join co-op servers, play with friends, and evaluate multiplayer stability and shared-session mechanics. Motivation: Share stable multiplayer survival and building sessions with friends. Stance: buy.

Performance reports are mostly negative for the Windows 8-15GB VRAM cohorts, with crashes and slowdowns dominating, while the Windows 16GB+ VRAM cohort also includes notable poor-performance complaints despite one excellent report. The Windows <8GB VRAM cohort has only a recommendation snippet and no reported performance issue.

Windows <8GB VRAM: positive. The sole included review is recommended and does not report any performance problem.

Windows 12-15GB VRAM: negative. The only included review is not recommended and reports random slowdowns during play.

Windows 8-11GB VRAM: negative. The only included review is not recommended and reports crashes that affect playability.

Frequent comparisons to Stormworks: Reviewers consistently compare this game to Stormworks, referencing its learning curve, building mechanics, vehicle handling, and overall atmosphere. Many feel it fails to carry over Stormworks' best features.

Price considered too high: Reviewers widely agree the price is too high for the current quality and state, with many suggesting $10-15 or even free would be more appropriate. Some returned the game due to its price.

Game is in Early Access: Multiple reviewers note the game is sold in Early Access and still being worked on, with rough edges and missing bits. Some feel it is too early even for Early Access.

Localization problems with Swedish: The game auto-sets to Swedish and cannot be changed in-game, with incorrect part naming such as suspension translated as 'wheel'. Players struggle to switch to English.

Long development time disappointment: Reviewers note five years of development with little improvement since Alpha, and some give a decade for full release. The developer previously made Stormworks, which was never properly finished.