ANVIL

About

"ANVIL: Ancient Vault Investigation Lab is a sci-fi hack and slash game with stunning game mechanics and spectacular graphics. In this multiplayer co-op top-down shooter, explore random planets and defeat unique boss monsters as a Vault Breaker. Find relics and enhance your Breaker's abilities to survive in this godforsaken galaxy, with over 100 randomly generated artifacts and vault weapons to discover."

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

+27

68%

Audience ScoreBased on 689 reviews

gameplay66 positive mentions

grinding28 negative mentions

The game features a unique blend of roguelike mechanics and fast-paced twin-stick shooter gameplay, making it engaging and fun.
The variety of characters (Breakers) and their unique abilities add depth to the gameplay, allowing for diverse strategies and builds.
The developers are actively listening to community feedback and making adjustments to improve the game, showing commitment to its growth.

The game suffers from significant balance issues, particularly with boss fights that can feel overly punishing and lead to frustrating one-shot deaths.
Progression resets every season, which can be discouraging for players who invest time into leveling up characters and unlocking relics.
The matchmaking and multiplayer experience can be inconsistent, with long wait times and issues connecting with friends.

gameplay
160 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
41%
54%
5%
Gameplay in this title is generally praised for its fast-paced, engaging mechanics and diverse character builds, offering a solid core loop that encourages replayability. However, many players express frustration with the game's reliance on grindy battle pass systems, one-shot mechanics, and a lack of meaningful progression due to seasonal resets, which can detract from the overall experience. While the combat and boss mechanics are noted as enjoyable, the balance and difficulty scaling have received criticism, particularly in solo play scenarios.
- “The variety and challenge led to dozens of hours of great co-op gameplay.”
- “The controls are responsive, gameplay is fluid and fast-paced, and the game is pretty challenging.”
- “The gameplay is fun, upgrades are enjoyable, weapon types per breaker class are engaging, and there are a bunch of different bosses to fight.”
- “The gameplay becomes very repetitive.”
- “It's just a long annoying daily grind to get a little bit of gameplay progress.”
- “Spending 20-40 minutes to get to a boss and get their HP down to 10-15%, only to be one-shot by cheap mechanics, and then receive almost no reward and no progress feels awful.”
graphics
58 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
28%
5%
Overall, the graphics of the game are widely praised for their quality and detail, with many users highlighting the beautiful visuals, solid framerates, and engaging character designs. While some players noted minor issues such as resolution settings and animation smoothness, the general consensus is that the graphics are impressive and enhance the gameplay experience. Additionally, the game supports ultra-wide displays, further contributing to its visual appeal.
- “The graphics and visual design are superb; the speed and pacing of the gameplay is excellent; the character and build diversity is good; I highly recommend you jump in now!”
- “The game has beautiful graphics, beautiful skills, and the gameplay is also very attractive.”
- “Pros: really nice visuals, skills feel very satisfying to use and generally haven't run into many bugs in 12+ hours of play.”
- “Default graphic settings look terrible because they turned on resolution downscaling for some reason.”
- “I've seen far older games with better graphics.”
- “There really isn't much to talk about graphics honestly.”
story
42 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
10%
83%
7%
The game's story aspect is largely criticized for its absence, with many players expressing disappointment over the lack of a proper narrative or character development. While the gameplay features a variety of missions, including boss rushes and survival challenges, the repetitive nature of these missions and the absence of a cohesive story detracts from player engagement. Overall, players feel that a deeper storyline would enhance the experience and provide a reason to invest more time in the game.
- “Best game for a rogue-like, but I think this game should have at least a proper story.”
- “That's fine, but a story mode would be really cool.”
- “_Need more stories, give me a reason to care for the worlds, characters, monsters, bosses._”
- “If you like playing through the story and completing the game, this might be disappointing.”
- “My only gripe would be the lack of a story mode.”
- “It is deeply flawed in terms of execution, the connectivity of the group play is abysmal and it lacks any form of story, plot-line or basic characterization to make single play worthwhile.”
grinding
28 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The grinding aspect of the game has received mixed feedback, with some players enjoying the challenge of leaderboard competition and character progression, while others find the repetitive nature of the grind tedious and overwhelming, especially with multiple currencies and frequent resets of achievements. Many users express frustration over the grind required for seasonal content and the perceived pay-to-win elements associated with the battle pass, leading to a sense of burnout for new players. Overall, while the game offers potential for long-term engagement, the grinding mechanics may deter some from fully enjoying the experience.
- “The game is now incredibly repetitive on top of what was already an extremely grindy progression system.”
- “It's fine if you just beat the game once, but grinding the battle pass makes you experience the exact same gameplay/playstyle a million times.”
- “If you're picking this up because of the 'action roguelike' tag, be warned that this is too grindy and most of your progress will be wiped out every 3 months.”
optimization
20 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
15%
70%
15%
Overall, optimization for the game has received mixed reviews. While some players praise its performance and fluid combat, others report significant issues such as stuttering, high CPU/GPU demands, and overheating, particularly when using ray tracing features. Many users express disappointment that despite multiple patches, the game still requires further optimization to run smoothly across a wider range of hardware.
- “Anvil, a gorgeous top-down shooter with incredible performance and optimization, and plenty of content to keep you busy, featuring co-op for up to 3 players.”
- “This game nails so many aspects-- the bullet hell, twin stick shooter, challenging difficulty (agreed, tweaking needed), the seamless and easy co-op, great optimization (runs like a dream), randomized loot, and persistent progression within a rogue-like framework.”
- “I do, however, wish the game were a bit more optimized in terms of CPU/GPU demands, which seem a little high from what you experience in-game, but it runs well anyway.”
- “I will admit this may be because I have an older computer, but I would think after the multiple bug fixes and patches to this game, the developers would have added some sort of optimization.”
- “The new RTX features do nothing but tank performance.”
- “Sadly, I have noticed terrible performance issues in the sense of my GPU overheating and fans going full airplane turbine mode just a few minutes into the game.”
monetization
17 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
12%
6%
82%
The monetization aspect of the game has received mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the absence of intrusive ads and the potential for earning in-game currency through gameplay, while others criticize it as a cash grab with predatory microtransactions that detract from the overall experience. Many users express concern over the game's future monetization strategies, fearing they may undermine its quality and enjoyment. Overall, the sentiment is divided, with a significant portion of the community wary of the game's monetization direction.
- “I understand that adding microtransactions may be planned, but if they keep it similar to the setup of Heroes of the Storm, where you can still earn currency just by playing the game and completing daily quests, that's just fine with me.”
- “(The developer response to this was for my old review about their monetization strategy, which they did improve.)”
- “People end up saying this game is just a cash grab.”
- “The game has one of the greediest implementations of cash grabbing I've ever seen.”
- “Microtransactions are already ruining games and at this point every developer should know that and yet this developer has the audacity to put microtransactions for better progress into an early access game.”
stability
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
92%
The game's stability is currently a significant issue, with players reporting frequent random disconnects, game-breaking glitches, and various bugs that detract from the overall experience. Many users advise against purchasing the game until these stability problems are addressed, as they severely impact gameplay and enjoyment. While some acknowledge that the developers have promised fixes, the game remains unpolished and frustrating for many players.
- “The theme is brilliant and runs great.”
- “The game maintains a smooth performance without any noticeable glitches.”
- “I appreciate how stable the gameplay is; it never crashes or lags.”
- “Not bad, but if it wasn't plagued with random disconnects during the run (usually when you are at the final planet) nullifying any reason to play the game at all, and lots of random boss single-hit glitches and game bugs, I could recommend it.”
- “But in the current state, it is just too buggy for many.”
- “Save your money until the game developer can do even the most basic things like friend groupings, reconnections, boss glitches, rebalances, etc.”
music
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
20%
30%
The music in the game receives mixed reviews; while some players appreciate the heavy metal soundtrack and its ability to enhance the gameplay experience, others find it generic and lacking in variety, with few tracks that become repetitive over time. Overall, the audio quality is praised, but many players express a desire for a more diverse and expansive musical selection to complement the game's engaging visuals and mechanics.
- “And the soundtrack rocks!”
- “The music is good.”
- “On a technical level, the game looks great, has good audio, and a really nice music score which gives the game a special vibe that just ties it all together.”
- “I really wish the music was not so generic and easy to ignore.”
- “Music isn't the strongest aspect of the game; it has very few tracks, and you'll learn all of them very quickly.”
- “The music is okay, but I wish it had more variety.”
replayability
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
71%
29%
Overall, the game offers decent replayability through its goal-oriented structure and engaging core loop, with players appreciating its challenge and graphics. However, concerns remain about the gameplay's limitations, particularly in PvP, which could hinder long-term replay value. Players express hope for future content updates to enhance replayability further.
- “I had a great time with this game... it's a clean twin-stick shooter with great replayability and is plenty challenging.”
- “Has all the qualities I look for in a game: good graphics, fun, and lots of replay value.”
- “The core loop makes sense, and it's got a ton of replayability.”
humor
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
75%
The humor in the game is generally well-received, with players finding it funny and relaxed, though some express frustration with technical issues like crashes during multiplayer. Additionally, there is a critique of the game's progression system, which some feel detracts from the overall enjoyment. Overall, the humor is a highlight, but it is somewhat overshadowed by gameplay concerns.
- “Funny game, very relaxed, you must try.”
- “This game is so funny, but I often crash when playing in multiplayer mode.”
- “Funny to me that billion-dollar companies can't get this formula right, but indie devs can.”
- “The premium season pass is gone in season 2, which is disappointing, but the free season system is just a grindfest and lacks any humor.”
- “The jokes in the game fall flat and feel forced, making it hard to enjoy the humor.”
- “I expected some clever wit, but the humor is stale and often misses the mark.”
character development
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
100%
Character development in the game is visually appealing, with interesting designs that initially promise depth; however, players express frustration over the grind required to unlock characters and the reliance on a battle pass system, which detracts from the overall experience. The gameplay mechanics, while initially fluid, ultimately reveal significant issues that hinder enjoyment.
- “Character design is amazing, showcasing a unique and engaging aesthetic that draws players in.”
- “The character development feels shallow and lacks meaningful progression.”
- “I was disappointed by the limited choices in character customization and growth.”
- “The characters don't evolve in a way that feels impactful or engaging.”
emotional
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users express frustration with the emotional impact of the game's progression system, feeling disheartened by the locked rewards behind premium access and the limited use of in-game currency. This has led to a sense of futility in their efforts, leaving them feeling undervalued and disappointed.