The Anacrusis early access review: Lacklustre, sci-fi jazz blues

The Anacrusis confirms my belief that the co-op shooter formula is getting stale with every release and that the genre as a whole needs a revamp.

Just like World War Z, Aliens: Fireteam, among other four-player co-op shooters, the Anacrusis makes you work together in teams of four. The team needs to maneuver through an online jazz-influenced spaceship filled with alien creatures hell-bent on killing the players.

While the gameplay is pretty simple, The Anacrusis neglects certain aspects of a co-op game generally expected. While playing with friends certainly makes this a good experience, it can only take it so far when everything surrounding it is dull and uninspiring.

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The jazzy feel in The Anacrusis

The plot of The Anacrusis is uncomplicated. Humanity has figured out how to go to space during the olden years and is spreading out across the galaxy. However, like most sci-fi settings, the human-inhabited spaceship is invaded by aliens.

That is where you and your three friends come in. Players select one of the four characters from the game and maneuver through the spaceship to escape. A video of the backdrop is shown at the start of each level.

That is the entire plot of the game - it even lacks environmental story-telling and lore pickups. I do need to point out the beautiful art style this game follows. It's simple, yet distinct, and has the 60s-80s jazz art style oozing out of every build and piece in the game.

Image via Anacrusis

In fact, the first thing the game reminded me of was 2021’s Deathloop (which was brilliant) and the old Austin Powers movies. The same style translates into the environment, which is divided into three episodes, and each level is divided into sub-levels.

The environment variable is decent - players will see similarly designed items in the world every so often. I don’t want to nitpick too much; the game is good enough and two more episodes are planned for release during the time it is in early access.

Image via The Anacrusis

With that out of the way, how does Anacrusis play? Is it hard like GTFO, where team coordination takes first priority? Or is it like a more traditional co-op shooter in the veins of Left 4 Dead?

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Shoot the alien zombies!

The first time my friends and I at Sportskeeda jumped into The Anacrusis, the first 15 seconds felt exactly like Left 4 Dead and every other co-op game that has taken inspiration from that game.

Image via The Anacrusis

Players start off by deciding on what starter weapons they want to take - the range of which is, well, limited. You get to call dibs on either the sub-machine gun, the Plasma Rifle, or the Blaster. The guns are okay - they feel unimaginative and generic to use but get the job done.

By default, players have a pistol that cannot be swapped with another weapon. If you were planning on running around the map with a plasma rifle and a blaster, I would suggest dropping that idea.

Each player can carry a health pack at the starting point for a more intense section where health dwindles scarily low. More specialized weapons, including grenades, are also available throughout the map, but have to be searched for.

Image via Anacrusis

Once everything is prepped, you open the door and shoot some zombie aliens. Before doing that, players can go to the matter compiler, which will always be located outside the starting doors at the beginning of a level.

The Matter compiler lets players choose one of the three perks available, and depending on what perks the player chooses, it changes the way a character behaves throughout the game. It is advisable to choose what suits a player’s playstyle. I buffed my characters’ defense, which proved to be really helpful during the more intense moments.

Players pretty much team up to shoot through the levels, and every now and then, there will be one specialized alien coming towards them, which will make the experience absolute hell. In fact, the special alien designs are very similar to the co-op shooters that have come out in the past.

My take: If I was asked to explain how The Anacrusis plays, I would tell them that this game is pretty much Left 4 Dead, but set in sci-fi. This game reminded me a lot of both of the Left 4 Dead games by Valve.

Image via Anacrusis

Brutes are the staple of every co-op shooter who tank the living hell out of players. A flasher, which makes the levels so bright that it is impossible to see what is happening. Aliens that go up to the players and spew sticky material out, teammates need to shoot it away, and a few more.

A mixture of these, along with the more common enemies, spiced up the gameplay - my friends and I were also making personal challenges. But the intentions here are good, the game is designed in a way that at the end of a long day, a player would boot up the game and join their friends for some mindless shooting.

In fact, there is an AFK control button in the options that a player can toggle. AFK control will let the game take care of a player’s character during the more important “off the computer” situations, not leaving them absolutely useless during a firefight.

Image via Anacrusis/Stray Bombay

This game has an AI director which switches up the location of items and randomizes them in each new run so that the same health kit or grenade on the map isn’t at the same location twice. The AI director also controls the difficulty of the game depending on how well a team plays.

My Take: All of this was fun in the first hour. After which, the realization hit me. I have seen what this game has to offer, and it is something I have already seen in past co-op shooters. Apart from its sci-fi setting, whatever this game had to offer was old and stale to us, confirming my belief that the co-op shooter formula has stagnated.

Image via Anacrusis

The strong gameplay point of The Anacrusis is the co-op with the friends, which is also allowed if your friend is on an Xbox Series S|X, as the game has cross-play. At the same time, the biggest weakness of this game is its gameplay loop and the reliance on co-op with friends for a good experience.

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It is not a solo affair

Some people might be wondering if this game can be played solo with bots or not, and the answer to that is yes. However, there is a catch. Anacrusis relies a lot on the co-op aspect to deliver a fun experience. So much so that if one wants to play this game solo, they cannot do so straight away.

Players will be forced to match at random in the lobby of players filled with bots, and only when an active session is not found.

Image via The Anacrusis

I absolutely hated playing this game with strangers, especially at times when I wanted to try it out solo - I could not even set up a private session. if you do not have a party of four players, be prepared to deal with a random and pray to the gaming lords that the match is not going to be grief and trolling.

Image via Anacrusis

The only time I played with bots was when the servers were down for maintenance. At that time, the bots felt a little bit overpowered and could handle themselves pretty well. The developers did say that the AI companions are a work-in-progress so here's hoping they improve.

My Take: The whole matchmaking system is absolutely not fun and hopefully, the issue will be tackled soon.

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In conclusion

Anacrusis was a mixed bag of emotions for me. It does everything that previous co-op shooters following the Left 4 Dead formula have done and it does that well. At the same time, that is also its weakness. It doesn’t do anything special or worthy of attention. Sure, the sci-fi setting is great, but when the core gameplay is not fulfilling, the setting can only carry it so far.

My only memorable moments from this game were when I was screaming my lungs out at my friend to save me from the brute, or when my friends and I took out the enemies together. The intentions of this game are clear, it wants you to relax and have fun with your friends. But, when a game heavily relies on playing with friends for someone to enjoy the experience, something is wrong.

Image via Anacrusis

If you have a group of friends to play a co-op shooter with, where you take out hordes of aliens and have fun, this game is for you. If you want to play it solo, I would suggest sitting this one out. The matchmaking makes that very clear with its absurd way of adding in bots, but if that doesn’t bother you, try it out.

Hopefully, the developers will consider the feedback from the players and make changes during its early-access period.

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THE ANACRUSIS (Currently in Early Access)

Reviewed on: PC (Review code provided by Stray Bombay and Evolve PR)

Platform(s): Windows(Steam), Xbox One & Series X|S, Xbox Game Pass for PC and Game Pass Ultimate

Developer(s): Stray Bombay

Publisher(s): Stray Bombay

Release Date: January 13, 2022