The Anacrusis is a Sci-Fi 4-player Co-Op Multiplayer First-Person Shooter by Stray Bombay, a startup Indie studio (consisting of about four core members and a couple dozen additional support developers) with prior experience in AAA game development, including a few former members of the Left 4 Dead team. The game was released on Steam Early Access in January 2022, and saw a full release on December 5th, 2023.
The game has gameplay heavily inspired by Left 4 Dead and a lighthearted, groovy 60s visual and environmental aesthetic inspired by 60s Science Fiction films. Players take the role of a group of 4 survivors consisting of practical Nessa, Liu the Cloudcuckoolander, the egotistical Lance, and Guion who's just glad to be here (and not dead) accomplishing various mission objectives on a luxury colony ship named the Isolode which has been taken over by an alien parasite that has converted the thousands of passengers and crew into a vicious horde of killer aliens.
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I Am Not Shazam: The ship the game takes place in is called the Isolode. The Anacrusis is a cargo barge from which the survivors launch their various missions onto the Isolode, which is only ever seen on the opening loading screen. - Artificial Brilliance: The game's bots, used in single-player or to fill in any empty player slots for your 4-person squad, are generally fairly competent and do a good job of aiding you in making it through a mission, at least on Normal difficulty. In fact, as the game's AFK mode (in which you can have a bot play for you if you need to go "Away From Keyboard") shows, the bots can actually navigate from the beginning to the end of each level on their own and can potentially beat the game with almost no human input required (though this can only be done on official maps since it relies on A.I. pathing scripts encoded into the map). The AFK bot does have some limitations the regular bots don't, such as being unable to pick up weapons/items or use grenades (likely meant to prevent them from changing your loadout when you're AFK). This bot functionality seems to be intended for the game's Versus mode, as it was removed from the AFK mode in the Versus mode update, most likely to avoid players exploiting it for the normal game.
- Deflector Shields: One of the random perks you can acquire during a mission is a recharging deflector shield that lets you take a single hit without taking any damage.
- Elite Zombie: The game has a number of special enemies similar to Left 4 Dead's special infected, though many behave quite differently from the ones in Left 4 Dead.
- Grabbers are disablers who will grab and immobilize survivors from several dozen feet away using long tentacles, then pull them close and stab them repeatedly with multiple spike-tipped arms. You need a teammate to kill the Grabber to break free.
- Goopers are disablers who spit green goo which slows down your movement when walked on and will encase you in a cocoon of goop on a direct hit. You need a teammate to shoot you out of the cocoon.
- Flashers constantly emit a blindingly bright aura of light which can heavily interfere with your vision.
- Spawners run around away from the action and spawn rolling organic turrets that attack you.
- Brutes are large 8-foot tall Lightning Bruiser Giant Mook Mini-Boss enemies similar to Left 4 Dead's Tank. They're a bit easier to kill compared to the L4D tank, but can potentially appear in pairs.
- Eggs are spiky boulder-sized balls that spawn in clusters and are initially dormant, but which will bounce around in a swarming attack if disturbed by movement or gunfire.
- There's a very rare cloaked enemy that moves fast and attacks with a giant claw. It only appears once every 10-20 games, and isn't even listed on the end-of-mission stats screen. In the kill log it's simply listed as [Unidentified].
- Energy Weapon: The arsenal consists of various sci-fi weaponry including plasma rifles, shotgun-like shockwave blasters, and continuous laser beams.
- Excuse Plot: The game never goes into any detail as to who your characters are, why you're in space, or what exactly is going on. There's nothing in the way of an introductory cutscene or anything like that either. You just run through the levels doing the mission objectives you're given, and all you can gather from context is that you're on-board some kind of spaceship which has been taken over by aliens. Any more concrete backstory can only be found in various interviews by the developers discussing the game.
- Fling a Light into the Future: Faster-than-light travel either doesn't exist in this setting or is very limited, so the 4 survivors know there's no hope of escape for themselves. The best they can hope to do is learn as much as they can about the aliens and send a message to Earth warning them about their existence, which won't be received for hundreds of years. Later episodes clarify that the Isolode has a long-range faster-than-light drive which the survivors need to destroy before the aliens can take the ship to human space, but this is apparently rare tech which the survivors' own ship lacks. At least a couple of the survivors apparently grew up on the Isolode, suggesting long-term space travel is normal.
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: Your team consists of two men and two women.
- The Ghost: The survivors get their orders from a Mission Control named Boris, who is never actually seen or even heard from in the game itself, only referred to by the survivors, and who is apparently a woman. According to survivor banter, she also never sleeps, making them suspect she's an android.
- Mind over Matter: Your quick melee ability is a telekinetic shove that can throw a group of aliens in your face backwards a couple dozen feet, giving you space to back off or reload your weapon. However, it takes several seconds to recharge before you can use it at full strength again.
- Parasite Zombie: The aliens seem to take over humans similar to Headcrabs, engulfing the head and spine and controlling the body, which turns corpse pale with black Tainted Veins.
- Schizophrenic Difficulty: The first episode is actually the longest and most difficult; later episodes are noticeably shorter, are easier to navigate, have fewer fixed hordes, and are generally less frustrating.
- Zeerust: The game's aesthetics are based heavily on 60s Sci-Fi, and the groovy 60s vibe in general.
