Anthem review

'Games as a service' is a strange phrase and an even stranger genre. It used to be that only MMORPGs occupied this space, yet in the last few years we have had games like Destiny and The Division pop up, games that are aiming to occupy your mind for as long as possible. 

It seems odd then to find a brand new game trying to fit snuggly into this well-occupied area of gaming. Nevertheless, this is exactly what BioWare – primarily a creator of fantastic single-player games - is hoped to do with Anthem. 

Anthem is set on a world that has been left unfinished by the gods who have abandoned it. The only proof that they existed at all is the terrifying Shaper technology which is terraforming wildly and creating huge monsters. 

With humanity on the brink of being wiped from the face of the planet completely, your role is to fight back the shadowy figures that wish for your end. 

Anthem update: six months on

Anthem has been with us for six months month and, due to its status as a ‘game as a service’, we think it’s important to update our thoughts on it. 

Anthem has been steadily correcting a lot of the complaints from many players and critics. The aim here was for a big comeback in a similar vein to a few other titles in recent years. An integral part of this process is the Cataclysm, an event which was meant to go live all the way back in May but was instead pushed back to August to make sure the foundations of the base game were more solid.

The story in this event is relatively short, and it ends with you having to repeat the same thing a few times before you can finish it off. The good news is that you can just jump straight into the Cataclysm whenever you want.

The cause of Anthem’s latest kerfuffle is one Vara Brom. Vara has decided not to learn from the mistakes of literally anyone in the game’s history and is trying to harness the power of the old gods for herself. 

Maybe she didn’t play the original story and see how badly that whole thing went for The Monitor, who knows? 

Unsurprisingly, it goes awry, and she ends up fused with some god-tier power, all with the aim of saving her people. At least, that’s what the game seems to be hinting at. The cutscenes are so brief and full of jargon that even a long-time player would struggle to understand exactly what’s going on. 

It’s made a little more frustrating by the peculiar voice acting in said story missions. There are moments where the words would be excellent if only the voices didn’t sound like they too had given up on poor old Anthem. 

But, maybe that stuff doesn’t bother you; perhaps you’re just here for the gameplay. 

Well, the new missions have you running around doing fetch quests and other dull bits, all leading up to you entering the reality-warping Cataclysm. This is where things become genuinely interesting. 

Within the Cataclysm lies a continually shifting set of realities. As Vara is trying to recreate the world to match her own ideals, there are little pocket realities all over the place. Each of these contains a different kind of puzzle, and the more of them you complete, the more points you will earn. There are a couple of good puzzles here but, once you know the trick to them, it does feel a little too easy. 

Of course, there will be more puzzles added as the event rages on, but it’s hard to imagine that they won’t suffer from the same issues. Once you’ve completed enough of these events, you get the chance to fight Vara herself, who looks a lot like an enemy from another 'games as a service' title to do with space magic. 

The boss fight has some good moments. Vara is an imposing presence, and some of her attacks require you to hide in specific areas. You then need to juggle that with constantly being aware of how stable the reality around you is. Once you complete it, you’re rewarded with crystals, which can then be spent on new cosmetics or other loot in the Seasonal Store. 

The event itself is a welcome addition to Anthem, but the story leaves a lot to be desired, and it’s hard to justify doing multiple runs of the Cataclysm when most of what you get from it is just cosmetic. If you’re already a fan of Anthem, then this will be a wonderful new thing to do with your friends. If, on the other hand, you were wondering if it’s worth making the leap into the game, then this probably isn’t the thing to sell you on it. 

We'll be continuing to update this review intermittently to assess how Anthem's patches and DLC affect the game. 

Anthem update: three months on

Anthem, the multiplayer third-person iron man sim from the good people at BioWare has been out for three months now. To say that the last three months of Anthem have been rough would be like saying having a baby is a bit tiring: a colossal understatement. The early release build was the wrong one, the servers could barely function, and we’ve even had updates taking features away. It certainly hasn’t been a nice ride for BioWare or the fans. 

However, we are beginning to see the light again. Playing Anthem feels better than ever thanks to a few small changes. One of the greatest issues plaguing Anthem has always been, well, actually playing Anthem. Just trying to get into a mission would take an uncomfortably long walk to Fort Tarsis followed by multiple loading screens. 

This has been remedied by the ability to launch from anywhere in the Fort. No longer do you have to walk through tar just to get into your Javelin, you can just go from wherever you are. Then we have mission selection. The UI is greatly improved, the selections are easier to understand and loading into a mission is far faster now. Hell, you can even change your equipment during missions, a feature once reserved for those playing literally any other game ever. 

It’s nice, to be honest. The game has always looked, sounded, and even felt good, but playing it never really has. Despite the joy that flying around can bring you, the game itself never really let you dig into that. The changes that have been made really help accentuate what is good about the game. 

Unfortunately, this is not a glowing review of a plucky underdog, Anthem still has a long way to go. Technically speaking, you can still crash out of missions and objectives can still occasionally just not appear correctly. From a gameplay standpoint; there still isn’t anything to do that you haven’t already done, the missions are still incredibly dull, and the boundary system is still certain to inflame your Heart of Rage. Which is a pun that only Anthem players will get, and you’re a dying breed. 

Anthem currently serves as a stark reminder of what happens when a game doesn’t get delayed enough. It was released in a poor state and it has taken three months just to get to a point where it feels like it works. It may forever be tarnished by the terrible first impression that it gave, but there is still hope for the game. With every little tweak Anthem becomes a bit more enjoyable, assuming BioWware is given enough time then the game will grow into something incredible.

The thing is, it isn’t there yet. There just isn’t enough to it to make it worth your time when there is a world of other games-as-a-service out there. Anthem is still an easily forgettable mumble rap song instead of the rousing, stadium-filling rock classic that it could become. These things take time, we just have to hope that BioWare is given enough to work their magic. 

Anthem update: one month on

A month feels like a long time in games and there have certainly been a lot of patches since the original release of the game. Despite all of the work that has no doubt go into improving Anthem, at present, it just isn’t good enough. In fact, several aspects of the game have slid backwards into the abyss and leave the experience more irksome as a result. 

Not every change has been bad, and it is important to draw attention to the positive changes. As it stands, you can launch into a mission from anywhere in Fort Tarsus. Previously, you had to slowly meander over to your Javelin in order to do this. This genuinely speeds the game up and makes having to go back to the Fort in-between missions more bearable. 

That being said, you still have to return to Fort Tarsus before starting a new task, there is no option to jump from mission to mission. It just boggles the mind as to why this is the case. It’s a simple quality-of-life improvement that would prevent players from being presented with so many frustrating barriers before play. 

In fact, most aspects of Anthem seem to have deteriorated. We ran through the Heart of Rage stronghold mission in the run up to this re-review in order to truly put the recent changes through their paces. We made sure to undertake lots of other activities too, but this mission exemplified everything wrong with the current iteration of Anthem.

Finding a match was already a time consuming experience, but it’s somehow gotten worse. This is not the fault of Anthem directly - well, it might not be - but whether due to a lack of players or shaky servers, getting a mission going took longer than it did this time last month. Upon loading in, we were joined by one other player to begin with. Fighting our way through to the Titan mini-boss the cracks began to open up. 

Part way through this fight the Titan fell through the earth. It walked through a wall and then fell into oblivion before reappearing where it was mere moments ago. The Titans are bullet-sponge bosses who take a considerable amount of time to take out, the best way to harm them is to shoot the glowing spots that appear as they attack you. This Titan, having seen the depths of hell, had shed all weakness and no longer had these weak points. This made an already chore-like battle feel even more like trying to hoover up cat litter. 

Next up is a corridor with some enemies to clear out. Having cleared the way, it took two minutes for the game to notice and remove the barrier ahead. Strongholds are not short missions, they are meant to take time, but not because of things like this. The final boss took all of two minutes to take down, because by that point other players had spawned in and everyone knows how to clear these bosses out in record time now because nothing new has been added. 

When you add in enemies mysteriously regenerating health because the servers can’t keep up, the sound cutting out randomly, and the occasionally critical crash of the game itself, Anthem just isn’t up to scratch. It honestly feels worse to play now than it did upon release. We still have months of content to come from this game, so there is still hope, but damn if Anthem isn’t making itself hard to like. 

Jump around

[Below is our original review of Anthem at launch.]

Only by jumping into exoskeletons called Javelins do you have any hope of saving yourself and the entire race. A lot rests on the shoulders of you and the other Freelancers who protect as best they can. Unfortunately, after a horrific failure two years ago, you find yourself scrounging about for work, no longer the heroes that you once were. 

Anthem’s gameplay consists of you jetpacking around and unleashing hell on anything foolish enough to stand in your way. The game forces you into the vanilla (Ranger) suit to begin with before unlocking the strawberry (Interceptor), chocolate (Storm), and chunky monkey (Colossus). Honestly, the gameplay as the Ranger Javelin is just kind of fine. Flying feels good but the weapons are kind of dull, it’s just a bit too run of the mill. 

Once you squeeze into one of the other Javelins things change dramatically. The Interceptor is a lightning fast melee machine that plays more like a hack-and-slash. The Colossus is a hulking beast of a suit that allows you to wade into and through enemies, it’s a tank class designed to soak up damage and give out even more. 

Finally, we have the Storm, which is the mage class. It can disappear and summon lightning bolts. While it makes sense to acclimatise players to the systems first, the game only really begins once you’ve found which one you like. 

Rocket man

The standout point of the game is the traversal. Your jetpack allows you to fly through the air or hover, how long for is dictated by two things. First, the temperature: a cooler jetpack lasts longer. Second, which suit you are in: the Colossus really struggles to keep itself up, whereas a Storm can stay up all day. These are the kinds of things you’ll want to play around with to find out which Javelin is for you. This then allows you to find out what kind of team you want to be with. 

The gunplay in Anthem is a lot better than you might expect, the guns pack a bit more wallop than they did in the demo. Though where things become really interesting is the unique abilities. These are the things you can chain together in order to unleash combos which cause massive damage. 

For example, if you freeze an enemy with an ice ability then shock them with a lightning one, then you’ll deal a huge amount of damage. Exactly how this is dealt is once again dictated by your Javelin. One may be customized for dealing damage to one single target, while another might be better for crowd control. It makes for an exhilarating combat system that has a lot more depth than you may initially think. 

However, the element that worries most people about Anthem is the story - but it's actually woven in expertly. The opening mission alone is BioWare at its best: a stunning combination of good writing, stunning music, and beautiful visuals. 

The characters are intriguing and watching them muster themselves against impossible odds is sure to move you.

Listen, can you hear it?

However, as we progress, Anthem begins to become a bit lacklustre. Working through the main campaign took around 12 hours and left us feeling a little bit hollow. Despite the relatively short story, there were a few moments that felt a lot like padding - having to tick off a long checklist of objectives to move onto the next part of the story just felt lazy.

There were two times that the never ending shopping list of chores popped up: the first was around one-third into the game and the second was around two-thirds in. It disrupted the pace of the story in a way that was irksome and irritating, leaving you scrabbling slowly instead of pushing forwards. 

Unfortunately, the story has other issues too. While the characters themselves are fairly well-written and entertaining, they are also fairly predictable. This in turn makes the story beats predictable, which is quite frankly disappointing from BioWare. 

While games like Anthem often truly start after the campaign finishes, the story still needs to be strong enough to satisfy narrative-driven players. Once you’ve crawled through the campaign story,  you gain access to the end-game content. This unlocks a few of the Strongholds – long dungeons culminating in a boss fight – of which there are three. 

It also gives you one of the most obscenely time-consuming checklists in a game we’ve seen. End game content can be lengthy without being repetitive, but not here. 

They're coming out of the walls

On top of this, the further you get into the game the more chances there are to see the cracks. It may sound as thought that is figurative - but it’s not. There were a few instances where scenery didn’t load and we could see through the world, or worst, nearly fall through it. 

In a few cutscenes instead of looking through your character’s eyes as you would expect, you end up looking through the back of their skull. Their head appearing and disappearing as it bobs and weaves unnaturally. In fact, in the final moving moment of the story our character model simply wasn’t there. It felt like watching a behind the scenes on a CGI heavy movie. The two characters who were there interacted with thin air, and the air talked back. 

You then have horrific loading times, abhorrent boundaries on missions, and the occasional objective just not registering as complete. However, despite all of this, the gameplay is immensely fun when you’re playing with other people. The flying mechanics are smooth, intuitive, and just so damn satisfying. 

There are a few genuinely brilliant weapons too. There’s a shotgun that becomes more accurate if you hold down the fire button. The standout was a sniper rifle that fired highly explosive bullets but didn’t have much ammo to compensate. Then you have the abilities and the different classes, each of which leads to a completely different feel. It’s just a huge shame that this is all tucked away in a lacklustre story and a buggy game. 

Verdict

 Anthem is a game of oxymorons and inconsistencies. The story is designed to be single-player but the game is clearly not. The gameplay is an absolute joy but is stifled by the repetitive nature of the end-game. The character animations are truly sublime, but most of the characters themselves are cliché and predictable. 

It is a fun game, and a stunningly pretty one, but with flaws in nearly every other aspect of its design. It will improve with patches, updates, and a strong community, but it isn’t a particularly strong foundation. This is less an anthem, and more an annoying earworm....

(Image credits: BioWare)

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