ANVIL: Vault Breakers is a top-down, co-op, Hades-style roguelike combined with the sci-fi aesthetics of games like Anthem. This blend works incredibly well, offering wonderful art design and randomized levels that help each expedition feel fresh and challenging. That said, ANVIL is currently balancing on a couple different edges, such as whether or not it can establish its own identity and if it can provide a truly satisfying experience in the long term, both of which remain unanswered with such a limited time with the game so far.
In the world of ANVIL, humanity has the capacity to travel the galaxy and, in doing so, discovers remnants of an alien civilization which they call "Vaults." They were spread out across galaxies and offer powerful artifacts to those who can find them, but they are well guarded by the native fauna of each planet, as well as powerful guardians that appear from time to time. Like the Warframes in Warfame, humanity develops powerful suits called "Breakers" in order to fight back against these threats and, as the namesake implies, break into the Vaults.
Those familiar with how Hades plays will adjust to ANVIL quickly. Not only does it share its isometric camera, but it also lets players access upgrade modules after clearing out a room, where they can either purchase stat buffs or ability upgrades. ANVIL adds to this formula as well, by having some stages include secondary objectives such as standing in a certain area long enough to activate a turret, or killing specific enemies in order to proceed. It also supports multi-player co-op, so players don't always have to fight alone and having a partner makes life on these worlds a lot easier.
The Breakers are quite fun to experiment with as well. ANVIL starts by providing three Breakers: Jungler, Guillotine, and Elsa. Jungler is the soldier class build centered around long-range combat area-of-effect abilities, Guillotine is a melee-based character with the ability to counter enemies and has more damage resistance, and Elsa is a speed and reaction-based character who is less damage resistant but can quickly dodge and summon a worm-like monster to help. Though they all have strengths and weaknesses, it's clear that Breakers like Jungler are meant to flesh out a squad, whereas Elsa was the most versatile and deadly when playing solo.
This disparity in gameplay really stands out, as most of the playtime began to revolve around one of the three Breakers, and even though ANVIL incentivizes players to switch between Breakers for extra bonuses, it never really feels worth the effort. Once players find a Breaker they like, the gameplay feels really good, and the combat feels closer to something like Darksiders Genesis rather than a manic bullet hell that requires constant movement. However, the difficulty curve has a sharp increase after the first boss fight, which is only the third stage of the first galaxy. Enemies suddenly take and dish out a lot more damage, which makes playing solo a frustrating experience.
During its next stage of development, it will be interesting to see how ANVIL will establish its identity as something greater than the sum of its parts. It's clear that ANVIL is utilizing the best designs and systems from the games mentioned throughout this review, but it comes at the cost of not feeling like it's doing anything new or at least anything that is uniquely "ANVIL." With ANVIL: Vault Breakers promising regular updates, it has plenty of time to become something entirely its own.
ANVIL: Vault Breakers releases today, December 2, into Early Access for PC via Steam and Xbox via Game Pass. Screen Rant was provided with a Steam download code for the purpose of this review.