BioWare and EA gave us a glimpse into what Anthem might turn into at last year’s E3, which showed a world where you could cruise in your javelins. Post-release, though, you will find yourself traveling through the world of Bastion, doing the same thing again and again, and this feels like the core of the game; the game lacks a substantial story that players are accustomed to from BioWare, which has published some of the memorable single player games in recent history.
Anthem suffers from high expectations, and the failure to meet them is a major issue. You cannot expect a AAA title to be so empty in its gameplay. Anthem feels more like Chapter 1 of a massive story, as many things seem open, and there’s a lack of cohesion about how it feels. To add insult to injury, Anthem suffered major connectivity issues during launch, and though they have been addressed in the Day One patch, the game will still often throw you out, and you will have to go through endless loading screens to get back to where you were before.
Anthem does everything perfectly in its visual department. The world is designed to be aesthetically appealing and shows visuals of pure bliss and total carnage in a perfect contrast pack. The soundtracks have been designed beautifully, matching the visuals in its praise. These two things often take your mind off a lot of the bugs the game is facing.
Anthem is facing a delicate issue where the supply boxes are not available, and it becomes tedious when you have to constantly fly by the ground to collect looks and dive right out of the mayhem.
The character designs for almost everything have been top-notch. Still, as there is a lack of a story to bind it, you will often find characters standing by themselves, looking idly into the distance with a fixed expression that grows creepier the more you look at it.
Though there have been several negative backlashes, almost no one is talking about how restrictive the game tends to feel; as Fort Tarsis is a beautifully designed safe area, it lacks in character, many places are unavailable, and the developers have missed a massive opportunity in taking the players through the fort, among every nook and corner so that the players get a proper feel of the place the character is in without their javelin suits.
Gameplay
The gameplay feels impressive at first but grows repetitive and tedious a couple of hours into the game; apart from the story, the free-play missions lack any ingenuity; all you have to do is point and shoot, and the lack of versatility hurts the game. You quickly realize that this is all there is to the game after several missions. However, according to the javelin you are currently using, you will need a proper strategy. The result is the same, with just different tricks for different characters.
The voice acting is, at times, heartwarming, and many of the NPC characters scattered around Fort Tarsis have much more to tell than what you get to enjoy in the story campaign. There aren’t even choices that put you in a dilemma that would have profoundly affected the players and maybe made a part of the game.
Story
A lack of a concrete story is a major issue for Anthem. However, there is one in place, and the central plot revolves around trying to find a legendary javelin to take down the dominion and save the people of Bastion.
Anthem has many issues, but the major problem it cannot fix is that people are still judging the title based on the mishap EA did with Battlefront 2; yes, Anthem has its negative aspects, but the kind of hate it generates feels entirely off. It feels like the EA brought its heat over from the Star Wars Battlefront 2 launch, which is unfair towards Anthem.
Yes, the game has flaws, and yes, it hasn’t delivered what couple has been a title that could revolutionize the genre, but it seems that it could be fixed, though not impossible, but incredibly difficult to pull off. Anthem feels like a work in progress that was released before the game could be finished, and the developers rushed it.
Before launch, there was a lot of anxiety about how EA and BioWare would handle the microtransactions in-game, and it seems to be justly done. There isn’t anything in the game hiding behind a paywall for players to be forced to shell out more, anything in the shop can be purchased with the in-game currency called coins or shards which can be bought by real money.
Though there is the usual grind, we are glad that EA learned from their previous mistake and have made amends. A recently revealed roadmap shows how the game will progress in the coming months, beginning in March, when new missions and world events will be added. This was announced recently.
Anthem certainly does not deserve the hate it has been getting; the game lacks substance, and that is about it. The game isn’t broken in any way, and neither will you be disappointed or overwhelmed by your purchase, which many people had been hoping for. This is the main issue that seems to be left out of the conversation when discussing the game. The developers have been quick to address the underlying problems in the game and openly admitted to trying to fix most of them.
All in all, though Anthem could be a great game, it falls short of its promise. Still, it isn’t something that you will regret buying as it has its moments where you will find yourself completely submerged in the fast-paced action adventure, where you get to become Iron Man and fly beyond the high walls of Fort Tarsis, traveling through one of the best in-game world architecture and settings this generation of games have to give.
