Anthem

Anthem is a competent looter-shooter. It is not an overwhelming, hallelujah-inducing entry into BioWare's storied history, but it's fine. I doubt I'll engage with the game past unlocking the final javelin, even though there is that tease at the end of further content.

In a matter of weeks Anthem has marveled with its engaging action and technical incompetence. As a power fantasy, the game achieves many co-op thrills but the highs are often spread too thin over questionable design choices. BioWare's pedigree feels suppressed by a game that needed much more time in the oven.

Anthem is not a bad game as a whole, but rather an interesting project with wasted potential. It has really great gameplay mechanics and an awesome setting that, sadly, was negatively affected by bad choices and poorly-implemented ideas like a forgettable story with a horrible narrative, repetitive mission structures, painful loading screens and a multiplayer approach with null sense of cooperation.

Anthem may never get the chance to live up to its potential due to a series of unfortunate game design decisions and issues. The first IP from BioWare in over ten years displays moments of grandeur with fun and unique gameplay that unfortunately is undermined by the game's current condition.

Anthem has its share of problems, like the poor "Quality of Life", a few major bugs and some design flaws, but it has laid the foundation for a game that can be greatly improved upon. Now it is time for BioWare's move.

As much as I personally wanted Anthem to be a runaway success, it ends up delivering an inconsistent experience that constantly waivers between mediocre and excellent.

Anthem annoys me in particular, because it leaves so much potential left. The Shared World Shooter has an incredibly cool unique selling proposition with the Javelins, but BioWare does not make much of it.

With a marvelous open world and a dynamic action gameplay, Anthem has surely a lot to offer, but it forgot to bring with it a good AI system, various types of enemies, a more diversified missions set, and, of course, deeper teamplay and storytelling.

Anthem has some good ideas and excellent combat, but the current state of the game leaves a lot to be desired.

Anthem offers a solid multiplayer PvE action-shooter experience and exo suit power fantasy dampened by fundamental design problems and loot system inconsistencies.

First and foremost, Anthem is not a bad game; it's just forgettable. The constant comparisons to Destiny are utterly fitting, and in more than one way. Anthem may get better; it has a roadmap and since it's another of the… "Games as a Service" style releases, it is planned to develop over an extended period. The problem is, though, that the game has to be looked at now; at how it plays right now… and, right now, it feels unfinished - unpolished; buggy; something that deserved another round of beta testing and another six months. Perhaps it will get better, but whether the audience is still there when it does is questionable. Cool flying mechanics can only keep the interest of the masses for so long.

With all its design hiccups and elaborate but exhausting missions, Anthem is tiring to play, and that’s too bad. You can tell the game is capable of incredible things when you first try on a javelin and see the massive, beautiful world waiting to be explored. But it’s safe to say Anthem’s launch has not been very inspiring, despite the freedom of its excellent combat and a surprisingly broad story told by a devoted and expressive cast. We could see ourselves one day returning to this fascinating place, but we have no problem leaving our javelins in the forge for now.

BioWare has created a sufficient foundation of story and play mechanics. Now it just needs to figure out a way to properly meld and symbiotically grow both elements.

This is what Anthem is like as a whole: a game where promising moments are bookended by frustration, where good ideas are undone before they can be fully realized.

Anthem shows a tremendous amount of promise, but what is currently available is disappointingly below standard. Expectation unquestionably plays a factor, but with the talent behind this game and a high standard already set by other very similar titles, I think it's fair to expect better. Anthem's thrilling gameplay, quality presentation and sound design redeem what is otherwise a puzzling mess of questionable design decisions, and telltale signs of a game under pressure to hit the release date. I have no doubt that the game, given time, will only improve and likely be deserving of much better praise than I can give it now.

Though it’s one of best-looking titles on PS4, Anthem’s uninspired action and obsession with grindy tasks mean BioWare’s mechs aren’t on song. [Issue#160, p.83]

I will probably fire up Anthem more than a few times again, if only to experience the joyous nature of plopping down a Colossus in the middle of a firefight and unfurling fiery, shelled death upon the landscape. It's a wonderful distraction. But unfortunately, Anthem doesn't look like anything more than that. I can't recommend it.

Despite nailing the feeling of flying around in its Javelin suits and crafting a beautiful world, there’s nothing in Anthem to hold a player’s interest. It all gets old quickly thanks to bland encounters, dumb enemies, a borderline empty world and a dull story. Add to that a general sense of technical instability, loading issues, non-existent end-game and utterly boring loot, and the result is a game that feels unfinished, underdeveloped and wholly unsatisfying. Maybe check it out a year from now, but don’t even bother otherwise. There are many other games that offer a similar experience and they all do it better.

Look past the lush tropical beauty of Bastion, look past the simple but stingily doled-out joys of flying a mech suit like Iron Man, and you’re left with the most depressingly banal collection of gameplay loops and mechanics in a major AAA game in the last 10 years.

Anthem is gorgeous to look at and can be fun in places, but for now it feels decidedly half-baked.

Given time, ANTHEM could slowly start to bloom into a much more cohesive experience, but the worry is that it won't be given a chance. There's a good game in here somewhere, but only the flashy, satisfying combat stands out amongst a background mess of shockingly bad design decisions and woefully undercooked systems. ANTHEM feels unfinished and, frankly, undeserving of your time when there are much better live titles currently available on PS4. Check back in a year from now, and we might be onto something.

Even if I ignore all the bugs, glitches and disconnects I had, Anthem is still, by and large, a mediocre game. The lackluster story, loot system and gameplay make this game one to pass on. At least in its current state.

There is really nothing wrong with Anthem's core gameplay. But as much as we appreciated the use of the Javelins and the overall gunplay, it just feels as though the rest of the game is unfinished. A tremendous amount of annoying bugs with random disconnects all the time, weird design choices, poor end game content, uninteresting loot and we could go on. There is loads of potential here but that will require a large amount of effort on the developer's part. In its current state, Anthem is simply an unfinished product that we cannot recommend.

There’s an intriguing game buried somewhere in Anthem, lying broken beneath its loot and structural frustrations like chunks of fossilised dinosaur bone.

Anthem always left me wanting. There is solid combat, cool wildlife, some awe inspiring visuals, and superb flight, but I was always aware that I desired more than what was here. Nothing in this game felt alive; not the story, the world, the characters, or even my interactions with other players.

Twice on PS4, the game crashed so hard that it literally powered down my console, forcing me to repair all my storage devices before I could boot it back up. A game making you worry about damaging your hardware is just inexcusable. I don't remember seeing this many big and small technical issues in a major release since, well, Mass Effect: Andromeda. How that reflects on BioWare's recent track record doesn't really need to be said.