Ever since it was revealed,The Anacrusishas been on the radar forfans of co-op multiplayer shootersas itsLeft 4 Dead-but-in-space pitch is certainly intriguing, especially given its retro aesthetics that set it apart visually from a lot of the other co-op shooters on the market. Now that the game is finally playable in early access, however, it’s clear that it isn’t quite up to snuff yet and still needs plenty of work before it’s finished.
Although it’s not the most enjoyable experience at the moment, the magic ofThe Anacrusislaunching in early access means that there’s still a lot of time for it to be updated and polished before becoming a finalized release. Unfortunately, that doesn’t help anyone looking to play the game today, as it’s available for download onXbox Game Pass, but if anything, the current build of it shows that there’s potential forThe Anacrusisto become a solid co-op multiplayer shooter up there with the best of them. To get there though, there are a few major fixes that the game could use to be put on the right track.
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Improving The Anacrusis
The Anacrusismakes it very clear that what’s available on Game Pass isn’t a finished product and that fans shouldn’t expect perfection immediately with it. That said, one thing that needs immediate attention is its controller support. To be blunt:The Anacrusissimply doesn’t feel very good to play when using a controller. Obviously, many first-person shooter fans would argue that allgames feel much better to play with mouse and keyboard, but the difference in controls between playing the game on PC vs. playing it on console is night and day. With a controller, even when settings like “look acceleration” are turned all the way down, it still feels as if there are invisible milk jugs strapped to the end of each weapon giving the entire game a sluggish feeling and making the weapons inaccurate and frustrating to aim.
The weapons could also use a bit more variety. As it stands, there are seven total weapons inThe Anacrusis,but they all mostly boil down to the standard shotguns, assault rifles, and pistols that are included in most other shooters. It makes sense to keep the pool of weapons relatively small as Stray Bombay continues working on the game, but right now,there’s not enough settingThe Anacrusisapartfrom every other shooter in terms of the gunplay. Overall, there feels like a lack of imagination being afforded to the weapons available, and like Stray Bombay isn’t making the most out of the retro sci-fi setting when it comes to inventive, new weapons.
SinceThe Anacrusisis a four-person co-op shooter, it makes sense why it might not have the biggest emphasis on story, but there’s really not much on display for fans to latch onto when starting the game for the first time. It’s likely that there’s still more to be seen from the game’s background narrative as the final two episodes are made available in the future, but even simple things like the banter between characters setting up the situation that they’ve found themselves in is lacking in a lot of areas. There’s still plenty of time forThe Anacrusisto fix the issues present with its current build, but at the moment, there’s not a lot of reasons why a player would turn to it over other titles likeBack 4 Bloodor even the originalLeft 4 Dead. Hopefully, Stray Bombay is able to find a true voice and identity for the game that’s as striking and memorable asThe Anacrusis' retro aesthetics.
The Anacrusisis in early access and is available now on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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