ANIMUS: Harbinger

 Switch
  • Publisher: TROOOZE
  • Release Date: Nov 7, 2019
User Score
6.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 18 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 18
  3. Negative: 6 out of 18

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. Loncia
    Nov 12, 2019
    8
    Having played the first game, I will say this one is a welcomed, fantastic improvement. The gameplay feels more flawless and in tune with the battling system and offers good challenges against enemies and bosses with various of weaknesses and resistances to keep you finding the most efficient strategies to defeat them effortlessly. The games runs smoothly, and unlike the previous title,Having played the first game, I will say this one is a welcomed, fantastic improvement. The gameplay feels more flawless and in tune with the battling system and offers good challenges against enemies and bosses with various of weaknesses and resistances to keep you finding the most efficient strategies to defeat them effortlessly. The games runs smoothly, and unlike the previous title, doesn't have the slight of lag or framerate issues with the 5 or so hours I have put into it. It looks good, with a darker mood than the first game and the fps remains consistent throughout. The story continues from the first, which is a delight. The grinding has improved tenfold, feeling moreso like Monster Hunter in terms of grinding and leveling throughout and not just a tedious chore at any given time. Although the menus do feel lackluster. It could have been more detailed to better match the rest of the game's aesthetic and mood. For $8 you're getting a lot bang for your buck (I believe it's 20+hours according to reviews) and the game is great for short bursts of play or the occasional long grinding session.… Expand
  2. JudgmentalAss
    Nov 11, 2019
    3
    Has a severe memory leak bug. After half an hour the framerate gets choppy. After an hour it easily crashes. In 3 hours of gameplay it crashed twice with the same pattern I described above. Graphically wise it's passable. Aesthetically wise it's pleasing. The combat feels like trash and its far worse compared to Animus Stand Alone, its prequel. Slower weapons aren't particularly viable.Has a severe memory leak bug. After half an hour the framerate gets choppy. After an hour it easily crashes. In 3 hours of gameplay it crashed twice with the same pattern I described above. Graphically wise it's passable. Aesthetically wise it's pleasing. The combat feels like trash and its far worse compared to Animus Stand Alone, its prequel. Slower weapons aren't particularly viable. Half weapon classes are bugged, their side step teleports you 10 meters away, making them almost impossible to use because every small opening is wasted by closing the distance created by said movement. Some have issues even with backsteps or even attacks. The greatsword is unusable, all its attacks are affected by said bug.
    They managed to kill the pacing of the game because they took a mobile, pay to win game and turned it into an upfront pay game were the difficulty level rises like a skyrocket and grinding nets you almost nothing. There's also a severe lack of looting: most missions become pointless once completed because they net you nothing save for a negligible amount of money and memories. Once you get stuck on a broken enemy, you either grind like a madman (and we are talking about grinding for hours upon hours just to beat a boss), you find out some random weapon is far stronger than the others (hint:gauntlets) or you drop the game. Learning patterns is a hit and miss in this goddamn pile of trash game. The first boss has a nice mechanic were he spawns some monsters giving the player a small window to perform a combo. By killing the spawned monster the player gets plenty of safe openings. Nice game design on that one. The second boss at 60% hp starts performing multi hit aoe, multi hit spinning attacks with blast properties (too many parries and you explode losing half of your hp). It takes around 3 well timed dodges to get out of it unscathed, which doesn't work quite well in the Switch version compared to the original mobile version where there was no stamina bar, this time around its there and dodging consumes a lot of stamina.
    This game is crap, it has its high moments but they are buried in a sea of indecent turd tier game design decisions.
    I'm no even sure how they managed to pull it off considering that Stand Alone, despite its similar technical drawbacks and a few wonky hitboxes, was an actually good souls lite boss rush game.
    Tl;dr: do not buy the game, it's crap. Either buy Dark Souls 1 or Animus Stand Alone.    … Expand
  3. chosen0ne
    Sep 22, 2021
    0
    It feels exactly the same as the first. A pay-to-win mobile game ported over to the Switch that results in the incessant need to grind to get anything good. It's cheap, it's terrible, don't play it. I wasted 8 dollars on it and regret my decision. Not even on sale would I recommend you buy this.

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
tbd

No score yet - based on 2 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. Nintenderos
    Jan 14, 2020
    70
    Animus does not have too much complexity or depth in order to be an innovative project, although it feels very comfortable to play it for its excellent technical section. It can be a great title for those players who do not decide to buy a Dark Souls game.
    Read full review
  2. Nintendo Life
    Nov 20, 2019
    50
    Animus: Harbinger is a good idea; a boss-rush-style Dark Souls mobile game that could have been a perfect fit for the Switch if its combat, levels and enemies had received a higher level of polish. As it is, for the budget price, massive fans of FromSoftware's brand of action may find some enjoyment here, but overall the stuttering performance, unreliable hitboxes, bland levels and shoddy AI all add up to make this one a pretty hard recommendation for anyone else.
    Read full review