- July 26, 2023
- ACTION SQUARE
- 9h median play time
ANVIL
Anvil: Vault Breakers is a solid, stylish sci-fi action shooter that does roguelike gameplay right.
Platforms
About
ANVIL is a single player and multiplayer hack and slash game with a science fiction theme. It was developed by ACTION SQUARE and was released on July 26, 2023. It received mostly positive reviews from both critics and players.
Take on the role of a Vault Breaker in search of alien artifacts called “Vaults” and fight against monsters and powerful bosses, you can strengthen your Breakers to explore the farthest galaxy that no one has ever reached.











- Fast paced, fluid, and engaging twin-stick shooter gameplay with a variety of unique characters (Breakers) and weapons.
- Good roguelike elements with build variety and relics that allow for different playstyles and strategies.
- Developer is responsive to community feedback, actively patches and improves the game.
- Poor game balance, difficulty spikes, and bullet sponge bosses can lead to frustrating and unfair gameplay, especially for solo players.
- Progression resets every few months due to a seasonal system, removing relics and skill upgrades, leading to grind and frustration.
- Multiplayer issues including dead servers, long matchmaking times, shared loot and relic pools among players, and instability with connection and bugs.
- gameplay160 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
The gameplay is generally praised for its fast-paced, fluid combat, diverse characters and builds, and engaging roguelike mechanics, offering solid replayability and a satisfying core loop. However, common criticisms include repetitive grind, overly punishing one-shot boss mechanics, balance issues, and a heavy reliance on monetization via season passes and multiple currencies that can hinder progression. While the combat and boss mechanics can be fun and challenging, the difficulty scaling and grindy progression often lead to frustration, especially for solo players.
“There's decent boss mechanics, lots of interesting builds and what appears to be an interesting speed run scene which I'm looking forward to getting my teeth into and seeing if I can compete.”
“The variety and challenge led to dozens of hours of great co-op gameplay.”
“Good game design and core gameplay loop constantly bringing you back for more.”
“The gameplay is an identical 15 second skill cycle from the time you enter the season challenge to the time you die.”
“I really expected the developer team to focus on refining their product since it is early access but they just made a season with season pass that gives you an edge in performance if you pay an extra 20 bucks. On top of that, the content is copy-paste choose and play a mix of the last bosses with same mechanics and graphics but with new color on them. Oh and sometimes you get a copy-paste of the same boss three times in the same arena.”
“Spending 20-40 mins 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.”
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Frequently Asked Questions
ANVIL is a hack and slash game with science fiction theme.
ANVIL is available on Xbox Series X|S, PC, Xbox One, Windows and others.
On average players spend around 19 hours playing ANVIL.
ANVIL was released on July 26, 2023.
ANVIL was developed by ACTION SQUARE.
ANVIL has received mostly positive reviews from both players and critics. Most players liked this game for its gameplay but disliked it for its grinding.
ANVIL is a single player game with multiplayer and local co-op support.
Similar games include Killsquad, Gatekeeper, Temtem: Swarm, Ember Knights, Dungeon Souls and others.





