Anomalous

About

Anomalous is a single player shooter game with horror and violence themes. It was developed by Byron Dunwoody and was released on September 22, 2024. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

Anomalous takes place in Kosolov. A grim industrial city. Kosolov is a highly controlled and secretive society. It's an industrialized nation. With overwhelming authority and a devotion to its leaders, the citizens endlessly work to death. A hard divide between the secretive upper society and the majority brainwashed working class ensures continuation. Effectively shunned from the rest of the worl…

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

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70%

Audience ScoreBased on 125 reviews

music15 positive mentions

replayability3 negative mentions

Unique gloomy and dystopian level design reminiscent of Half-Life 2 with impressive lighting and environmental details.
Fast-paced, fluid movement and gunplay that capture the essence of classic 90s/2000s boomer shooters.
Strong soundtrack blending industrial, techno, and metal genres that complements the intense atmosphere.

Numerous bugs including clipping issues, enemies getting stuck or teleporting, inconsistent AI behavior, and broken hit detection.
Weapons often feel weak or unsatisfying due to poor sound design, lacking impact and feedback.
Confusing and maze-like level design with poor signposting, excessive backtracking, lack of autosaves, and some areas being punishing for exploration or secret hunting.

music
39 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
54%
8%
The music is generally praised as a strong, adrenaline-pumping heavy metal and techno soundtrack with Mick Gordon influences that fits the game's fast-paced style well. However, users frequently note frustrating issues with the music abruptly stopping or failing to loop, leading to uncomfortable silent moments that detract from the experience. Despite technical hiccups, the soundtrack remains one of the game's most appreciated aspects.
- “The soundtrack is equally vital to the experience: a harsh, adrenaline-pumping blend of industrial and techno that mirrors the game’s frantic pacing.”
- “The soundtrack is probably the best part of it; the mood is pretty appropriate, even if the rest of the sound seems to not take it blaring into account.”
- “But, the gameplay, how it feels to shoot, in those lovely locations, when that music blasts, and you have an open vertical arena where you bounce from jump pad to jump pad at breakneck speed blasting enemies around you, that feels really solid and juicy.”
- “Sometimes the music ends and it doesn't loop back, so you're left in silence with just your footsteps.”
- “The design is clunky at best, the sound design is awful and I have grown to kind of hate soundtracks that are like 'let's do the Mick Gordon thing but instead of carefully constructing the music, let's put a ton of guitars and overlay them with each other.'”
- “Music sadly has some very rough triggers; it can stop abruptly and you're left wandering the streets in silence for extended periods until it maybe kicks back in.”
graphics
32 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
34%
53%
13%
The graphics feature a deliberate retro, low-poly, and pixelated aesthetic reminiscent of Half-Life 2 and classic boomer shooters, creating an immersive, grimy, and industrial atmosphere. While some praise the unique art direction and solid presentation, others note issues with inconsistent lighting, visual bugs, repetitive assets, and occasional lack of polish, reflecting its solo-development origins. Overall, the visuals effectively complement the gameplay but sometimes suffer from execution flaws and could benefit from more distinct enemy designs and smoother effects.
- “The retro aesthetic is not a gimmick but a deliberate stylistic choice that complements the mechanical intensity.”
- “For the short run time and very low bundle price I got anomalous, it's difficult to complain about it, and for a solo-dev project, the low-poly look, weapon animations, health and ammo placement and Half-Life 2-esque brutalist aesthetic are pretty good.”
- “The demake-style graphics give this a very "City 17 in Quake" vibe that I enjoyed.”
- “This game needs a lot more time in the oven, the graphics and lighting are awful, too many guns only use 2, awful level design—you get lost in every level and sometimes you go someplace that looks like a secret area and get stuck and have to start the level again.”
- “In a lot of scenes I see and appreciate the vision, but the amount of VFX, microstutters, repeating assets, inconsistent lighting and shadow placement quality, and sometimes straight up visual bugs (my favorite being bullet impact dust, which is just a flat GMod grey panels texture) take me out too often to fully enjoy how it looks. I think the enemy visuals could have stood out more too.”
- “The graphics look bad, the lighting in particular seems to oscillate between too bright and too dark and the flashlight doesn't help much.”
gameplay
29 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
34%
56%
10%
The gameplay of Anomalous blends fast-paced, mechanically intense combat with retro FPS level design, offering satisfying gunplay, smooth movement, and engaging platforming. However, it suffers from inconsistent mechanics like ledge grabbing, lackluster weapon feedback, and some uninspired elements that feel more stylistic than functional, making it enjoyable but not groundbreaking compared to other modern retro shooters.
- “Gameplay is where Anomalous shines with full force.”
- “It’s a game built for players who enjoy raw mechanical challenge, quick reflexes, and the pure satisfaction of cutting through hordes of enemies without a single lull in the action.”
- “The pace of the gameplay is pretty solid right now; the movement is fast and feels pretty good, the bit of platforming works fairly well, the combat is mostly pretty solid, and the weapons feel like they pack a punch – combined with gore, blood effects, and destructible environment elements, it makes the game a lot of fun.”
- “Now, I don't think that inherently is the worst idea, just doing things because they are cool, but since it never actually serves the general gameplay it makes the game as a whole feel empty.”
- “-lack of a satisfactory gamefeel (the weapons lack punch and are not that fun to play around with. The enemies don't give that much feedback when hit or killed. Lack of flinching mechanics).”
- “Air control is also horridly bad which in normal gameplay isn't much of a problem, but when you have to chain together several grapples to gain height, you'll more often than not fail because of the above mentioned reasons.”
story
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
24%
38%
The story in this game is minimal and primarily conveyed through brief texts and logs, offering little engagement or depth. Most players find the narrative unimportant or underdeveloped, aligning with the game's focus on gameplay rather than storytelling.
- “Story is purely through a handful of logs and short text appearing on screen. There is something here, but all of the other design aspects never gripped me enough to be invested in this type of delivery.”
- “For those looking for comparisons, I would place the gameplay somewhere between Dusk meets Prodeus - and the story/lore clearly shows its appreciation for Doom Eternal.”
- “"Disclaimer: story about the game's origin may not be 100% accurate but it is true to the best of my imagination."”
- “Story is... not really there, but I kinda feel like if you found this game, you were never really looking for a story.”
- “Story is purely through a handful of logs and short text appearing on screen; there is something here, but all of the other design aspects never gripped me enough to be invested in this type of delivery.”
- “There's no real story.”
optimization
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
24%
38%
Optimization reviews are mixed, with some users experiencing significant performance drops and frame rate inconsistencies even on high-end systems, along with issues like texture streaming and minor bugs. However, others report stable, rock-solid performance at high settings with no frame drops. Overall, the game could benefit from further optimization and polish to ensure consistent performance across different hardware.
- “Performances were rock solid during my playthrough, no framedrops with everything on epic, it's well optimized.”
- “That being said, the game could still do with a bit of polish - an optimization pass, adjustments to texture streaming and fixes to a couple missing textures and holes in the world geometry, perhaps a slight rebalance of some enemies and adjustments to their AI, and a couple fixes to other small glitches.”
- “But judging at the standstill, all the levels are lit pretty well and don't seem to take priority over gameplay performance.”
- “Given the above, performance was not good, especially given how far above the suggested specs my system is.”
- “Optimization in some combat encounters is awful and I can barely play.”
- “I did have a few performance issues where some levels dipped down from 300 FPS to around 60 in certain parts of levels and there is no autosaving in the game.”
replayability
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
60%
The game's replayability is mixed, with a relatively short campaign designed for replay rather than length, but limited content and achievements reduce its long-term appeal. While it offers good replay value for some, especially if priced low, it lacks the depth that roguelike mechanics typically provide for extended replay.
- “Good replay value.”
- “Replayable.”
- “Personally, I would advise waiting for a sale since it is a fairly short game with little to no replay value as there's only a handful of levels and a lack of achievements.”
- “If this was a roguelike, it would be fantastic but as a standalone experience, replayability is low.”
- “Its campaign is relatively short, designed to be replayable rather than sprawling.”
stability
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
80%
The game currently suffers from several bugs and graphical glitches, including missing textures, world geometry issues, and problematic enemy death animations, which detract from the overall experience. Despite these stability issues, the frame rate remains steady, and with future optimizations and fixes planned, the game shows promising potential.
- “Unfortunately, it's been released in a buggy and janky state that brings the experience down.”
- “That being said, the game could still do with a bit of polish - an optimization pass, adjustments to texture streaming and fixes to a couple missing textures and holes in the world geometry, perhaps a slight rebalance of some enemies and adjustments to their AI, and a couple fixes to other small glitches.”
- “Enemy death animations are lackluster, with them kind of just falling over (dev mentioned that ragdolls with impact velocity will be implemented in the future) and the zombie enemies have buggy death animations where they very often just end up standing, looping in their positions.”
atmosphere
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The atmosphere is a mix of oppressive and energizing tones created by strong audiovisual elements, though some users feel it could benefit from more subtle, moody ambient sounds to enhance immersion.
- “Together, the audiovisual elements build an atmosphere that feels oppressive and energizing in equal measure.”
- “Also, at times I wished it would shut up and play some moody ambience to build an atmosphere instead.”
grinding
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding is considered tedious due to poorly placed enemy triggers that make achieving 100% kills difficult, and the challenge is compounded by having to restart tough fights after dying.
- “And, if it hits you a few times, you die and have to restart the whole tedious fight again.”
- “Weirdly placed enemy triggers make getting 100% kills tedious.”
humor
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users find the humor in the narrative engaging and appreciate the darkly amusing premise of overthrowing a theocratic-corporate regime with cyborg horrors, though the title's meaning remains unclear. The humor arises subtly through piecing together story elements rather than overt jokes.