ANOMALITH Review

Anomalith blends supernatural horror, anime-style action, and survival shooter mechanics into a mysterious adventure.

The survival horror genre has always relied on common ingredients to build tension: dark passageways, dangerous animals, limited ammunition, scant healing supplies, and protagonists always fighting for their lives. But ANOMALITH  takes a distinct approach. ANOMALITH is interesting because its different gameplay systems tie into the central mystery.

You're not only going to abandoned buildings to kill monsters. You explore weird anomaly zones, gather precious minerals, learn information about the species living there, and try to make it back in one piece. ANOMALITH has several promising ideas, but it doesn't fully deliver.

It features reality-bending settings, character growth, equipment customization, and an extraction-inspired gameplay loop.

ANOMALITH  takes place in a twisted version of Japan where weird anomaly zones have begun to appear, creating deadly places that no longer follow the normal norms of reality. You play as Reona Minazuki, a 17-year-old girl whose connection to the oddities stems from a personal tragedy. Her best friend, Arisa Kato, disappears during an incident at a shopping mall, giving Reona a strong reason to keep entering these risky places.

Reona's history also makes her more fascinating than an average protagonist. According to the game's backstory, she slept for ten years inside an abnormality called the Sarcophagus. Her body remained youthful, but her time in the strange dimension forever altered her perception, linking her to the magical forces that influence the universe.

The story also introduces several supporting characters who help flesh out the world. May Heibia heads security at the Countermeasures Office and has diving experience. Indeed, Mori is a mysterious person Reona contacts during one of her investigations, and a little girl is also connected to the event that broke up Reona and Arisa. These characters allow for more character development and new takes on the anomalous zones.

The story has some unpleasant elements about the people stranded in these strange places.

 At first, Reona's goal seems simple: save the victims and get them home safely. Another interesting thing is the countdown to what is called doomsday. The game doesn’t show exactly what happens when the clock ticks down to zero. Still, it hints that it could become bigger than a series of isolated incidents.

The game has a basic but potentially addictive cycle: prepare at your base, explore an anomaly zone, study your surroundings, grab essential resources, fight whatever stands in your way, and eventually make it back alive. ANOMALITH isn’t a traditional third-person shooter; it encourages you to think about what happens when you do things.

Ammunition and inventory capacity are part of the intended survival experience, so battling every adversary you face may not always be the best decision. The environments are extremely significant, as they are not just standard enemy-filled stages. Familiar places can be utterly distorted by anomaly zones, creating experiences where the building itself becomes part of the challenge.

One is a residential complex under inverted gravity, and in the other, the shopping street keeps multiplying. The game features over 200 investigative reports on anomalies, odd items, and strange events surrounding these areas. Collecting these documents gives you greater insight into the environment and rewards you for paying attention to your surroundings.

Between expeditions, you return to a central hub that’s much more than your typical menu screen.

You can interact with other characters, prepare your equipment, try different guns, alter firearms, equip artifacts, and increase your overall combat effectiveness. Weapon modification is another key feature of the progression system. You can change firearm performance by attaching various modifications, creating setups that fit your combat playstyle.

Interestingly, the equipment system also extends to Reona’s clothes. The game offers more than conventional body armor, including apparel such as jackets, school uniforms, and accessories that can affect her stats.

Another key advancement characteristic is Reona’s anomalization powers. She unlocks 12 unique supernatural powers that give offensive and defensive benefits in fights. This is quite interesting since it links her character growth directly to the enigmatic things she explores. Reona gets more powerful not through upgrades unrelated to the anomalies, but by slowly gaining powers directly tied to the abnormalities themselves.

Her transformation also provides a fascinating risk/reward mechanic. When her HP is dangerously low, she enters a partially mutated form that boosts her power and automatically replenishes MP. So she can be temporarily more dangerous when she's near death.

But the key question is how these systems will evolve over the whole trip. The demo just scratches the surface of weapon upgrades, attachments, artifacts, and character customization. Therefore, it is hard to tell how complicated the path gets, or whether alternative equipment combinations meaningfully change your approach. It’s a great start, but the full game will need to make these systems feel useful, rather than turning preparation into tedious menu management.

Combat is where ANOMALITH most obviously departs from classic survival horror. Reona is not a helpless protagonist urgently searching for a way out in every interaction. But she can defend herself with a variety of weaponry, supernatural powers, and melee strikes.

Weapon choice matters, since different guns suit different scenarios.

You can use assault rifles, sniper rifles, and other weapons by modifying their attachments to suit your preferred fighting style. Enemies can also be left open to finishing assaults after being stunned, letting you follow up shooting with melee strikes. This adds more variety than standing at a distance and constantly shooting at everything that moves.

The supernatural powers bring another dimension to the combat tactics. The 12 abilities aren't just passive statistical boosts; they're designed to shape how encounters are resolved. Their offensive and defensive uses should give you more ways to respond to dangerous attackers, especially when paired with diverse weapons and artifacts.

The partial mutation change is likely the most interesting ability-related aspect, as it rewards measured risks and makes Reona's supernatural state relevant to actual gameplay. But the sample also hints at a potential issue with the combat system: the difficulty doesn't always match the game's survival-horror presentation.

You enter a potentially dangerous situation, but you can't help feeling well-stocked with ammo and resources. Sometimes you can just go start shooting and not worry much about running out of supplies, instead of thinking about every bullet. It makes the interactions fun, but it takes away the suspense that should be part of a survival experience.

More variation would also help with the enemies themselves.

Many of the enemies are rather slow, and the same kinds of enemies can get repetitive after you fight them many times. One notable encounter involves an enemy that suddenly moves much faster than the others. Another worry is environmental diversity. Most of the game takes place in hospital-like back rooms and corridors, which create a fitting mood but can feel repetitive. 

ANOMALITH  explores many supernatural areas, such as commercial districts, apartment complexes, and other warped everyday places. A repetitive series of similar passageways could be improved by introducing new enemies, hazards, and combat scenarios in each area.

Regarding puzzles, the game shows no meaningful puzzle system that stands on its own, nor enough instances to assess difficulty. The environmental abnormalities are exciting exploration problems, but it would be unreasonable to assume the whole game has sophisticated puzzle elements without more evidence. For now, its strongest gameplay identity is exploration, investigation, shooting, and resource management, not classic puzzle-solving.

The fighting is good all around, especially when mixed with Reona’s talents and gun customization. But the developers have to keep the risk up. If there is too much ammo and the monsters don't often test your talents, the horror atmosphere may start to lose its bite. Instead of traditional XP grinding, ANOMALITH seems more about collecting materials, finding anomalies, upgrading gear, and unlocking skills.

Instead, the game lets you explore anomaly zones and collect valuable resources. You can take these back to the base and use them to invest in weapon development and equipment upgrades. Beyond the main quest, investigation reports and side missions give you extra reasons to explore, while artifacts provide stat bonuses that can shape your combat setup.

This makes successful missions crucial, as the loot you bring back directly fuels your preparations for next voyages.

 The 12 anomalization abilities also offer another avenue for growth, though the game doesn’t explicitly describe how to access them. The clothing system adds another interesting layer, since you can make equipment choices that affect stats without compromising how you want to look. Overall, the growth seems promising, blending adventure with character development.

But the full game needs to offer enough meaningful upgrades to keep resource collection from getting tedious. Visually, ANOMALITH makes a powerful impression by eschewing the lifelike look typically associated with modern survival horror games.

The most amazing part is the blend of anime character designs with classic Japanese scenery. The Showa-era influence gives the world a nostalgic identity, with familiar retail districts, abandoned interiors, old-fashioned decorations, faded signboards, and other places that seem locked in time.

Liminal spaces are a cool visual notion the game captures really well. Empty hallways, empty buildings, and familiar places with no people in them can feel tense without monsters popping up every few seconds.

The supernatural changes to familiar places offer a lot of visual variety. The developers make the everyday feel exceptional, with apartment buildings in inverted gravity and shopping streets that stretch on forever. The game creates horror without relying only on darker lighting and scary creature design by altering the environment's rules.

ANOMALITH  still raises considerable concerns about environmental repetition, particularly its hospital-like halls and back rooms. Overall, the art direction is one of the game's stronger aspects. It’s got personality, and that personality might make ANOMALITH  stand out even among other supernatural horror releases.

Sound design will be especially vital for a game focused around liminal spaces and spooky investigations. Everyday spaces can become much scarier through quiet environmental audio, distant sounds, unsettling creature sounds, and unexpected shifts in musical intensity. The contrast between calm moments and sudden enemy encounters can amplify the terror atmosphere.

The character-focused approach and anime-inspired direction lend themselves to emotive voice performances, especially in dialogue and emotional tale moments.

Convincing performances also aid Reona’s bond with Arisa, conveying the emotional significance of their separation. ANOMALITH is a curious mix of supernatural horror, third-person shooting, extraction-based exploration, and anime-style storytelling. Its major strength is that it establishes an identity around its core theme, rather than simply following the typical survival horror template.

The contrast between Showa-era Japan and frightening liminal areas quickly sets it apart from more typical horror material. Reona is another significant part of its identity. The hunt for Arisa gives the exploration of the anomaly zones emotional impetus, and her mystical transformation links character development to the overall enigma.

The chance to meet ex-victims who turned into hostile beasts also creates a moral dilemma that adds complexity beyond a simple monster-hunting outing. The gaming mechanisms also appear intriguing. Many interrelated mechanics to explore range from rifle customization and anomalization powers to artifacts, equipment benefits, investigation reports, and the extraction-inspired task structure.

But the game left me with one big worry: ANOMALITH doesn't always feel as scary as its presentation suggests. Combat is fun, but the abundance of supplies and very manageable adversaries can make battles feel more like action scenes than dire survival situations. That doesn't mean the game's action-oriented orientation is a bad thing. Actually, part of what makes the battle fascinating is that Reona can fight back.

But the devs have to combine her magical powers with encounters that really challenge you.

Also keen to see how the advancement system plays out. The existing material promises a lot of versatility, but the whole experience needs weapon attachments, artifacts, clothing benefits, and supernatural abilities to feel significantly different. The investigative system should support the tale, not just be a collection of optional materials with little narrative value.

ANOMALITH has a good basis and several ideas worth exploring further, ultimately. It has its own identity, with its ambiance, protagonist, supernatural features, and extraction-style gameplay. I expected something closer to old-school survival horror, but the game has me thinking an anime-inspired supernatural action-adventure could be just as fun.

Specifically, I hope the whole game adds more random foes, more environmental variation, and more challenging resource management. If those pieces come together properly, ANOMALITH might deliver an experience that blends exhilarating fighting with the unpleasant atmosphere its concept promises. My main conclusion is that ANOMALITH doesn’t need to be a totally different game to succeed. It just has to make its existing ideas more challenging, diverse, and important.