The Anacrusislaunched onto Early Access on Steam on July 14, 2025. It is a cooperative first-person shooter from developer Stray Bombay where the player takes the role of one of four characters as they shoot their way to survival through an army of monsters.
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This setup has garnered a lot of comparisons toValve’sLeft 4 Dead, whose creators recently tried to create a spiritual successor for in the recentBack 4 Bloodto a mixed reception. However,The Anacrusishas a lot of thingsthat set it apart fromLeft 4 Deadand may give it a leg up on other coop first-person shooters.
6Anacrusis Has A Unique Sense Of Visual Style And Taste
The Anacrusishas a very distinct visual aesthetic. Stray Bombay is aiming for a hybrid of 1970s disco andStar Trekspace-based science fiction, and that is a very different look thanLeft 4 Deadhas. WithLeft 4 Dead, Valve was drawing on a broad base of horror movies, with settings ranging from Louisiana swamps, a blood-soaked circus, an abandoned farm, and destroyed cityscapes.
The Anacrusishas mainly displayed vast space stations with imagery similar to shopping centers, airport terminals, and even park areas. There is some overlap withLeft 4 Deadhere and there, but it’s a small overlap.
5The Music Looks To Strike A Different Tone
The music ofLeft 4 Deadwas similarly aiming for the creepy vibes of a horror movie. Lonely piano keys pressed here and there, the unnerving chanting when a Witch is nearby, and the cataclysmic theme of an approaching Tank. It’s all aimed to convey doom and gloom with varying levels of energy.Music is very important inLeft 4 Dead, as it signals the arrival of different threats while maintaining a mood.
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The Anacrusishas used a sort of fusion of jazz and disco in its trailers, with the game itself relying on a more subtle sci-fi inspired soundtrack. The climaxes return to the disco music, ramping up the energy to new heights. The latter is more the music one would expect with the 70s aesthetic thatAnacrusisuses, so hopefully, it will mine that musical identity for all it’s worth. Heck, the term “anacrusis” is a term used in music composition, so one would expect music to be an important part of this game’s design.
4Its Sci-Fi Weaponry That Is More Than Just “Gun That Shoots Lasers”
A science fiction setting needs science fiction weapons. WhileThe Anacrusisis still in Early Access and there’s likely more weapon variety on the way, what players have seen so far uses a far different visual language than the military equipment mixed with improvised weaponry that one can find inLeft 4 Dead.
There’s also a lightning gun and gravity bombs, both of which have an effect that isn’t really seen in any of the weapons fromLeft 4 Dead.That said,a lot of the laser weapons can still be compared to a shotgun or assault rifle, but there is enough mechanical variety to giveAnacrusisan identity apart from the Valve title.
There is definitely a hint of horror in the alien designs ofAnacrusis, particularly with the unsettling face-huggers that have attached themselves to every basic enemy that the player encounters. However, the visual language still mines its origins in science fiction more than horror. The massive Brutes and spore-like Spawners particularly draw from different inspirations than the Tanks, Boomers, and Jockeys ofLeft 4 Dead.
In terms of actual behavior, there is still a lot of overlapbetween the alien hordes and zombie hordes of the two games, but there is still room forAnacrusisto distinguish itself in that regard. At the very least, the enemies look unique, and that’s a good start.
2Starting On Early Access Means Players Will Get To Experience It As It Develops
BothLeft 4 Deadgames arrived in an era before the normalization of Early Access. Furthermore, Valve doesn’t usually use the Early Access option of its own Steam platform.Left 4 Deadarrived fully-formed, with some updates and DLCs for post-launch support.
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Anacrusishas launched in Beta on the Early Access program, allowing players to see how the game is going to develop over its lifespan. There is already a lot there, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. Players will get to feel like they are partaking in the growth of a game, and that’s something Stray Bombay can and should make use of.
1You Can Hold Three Weapons In Anacrusis
This is a fairly straightforward mechanical difference, but it is still one that is significant while playing the game.Anacrusisallows its players to hold three weapons at once instead of the two ofLeft 4 Dead. Technically,Left 4 Dead 2allowed players to hold a chainsaw in addition to the primary and secondary weapons, swapping to those weapons forces you to drop the chainsaw.
In any case, having three weapon slots allowsAnacrusisplayers more adaptability, meaning enemies have room to be more threatening to match. This is a seemingly small design detail that can actually result ina very different balance between players and enemiesinThe Anacrusis.
The Anacrusis is currently in Early Access and playable on Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S, and Windows platforms.
