BioWare is a studio famous for epic RPG’s such as Baldur’s Gate, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age, so you’d be forgiven for thinking that their most recent online RPG Anthem would have at the very least, a good story.
Sadly, the story is perhaps the weakest part of Anthem, with boring gameplay, and excruciatingly long loading screens not far behind.
Has BioWare lost its spark?
Anthem has been in development for five years, yet it’s surprisingly barebones, full of bugs, and light on fun. It’s hard to see how a game could be worked on for half a decade and be this empty, unless there was a significant shift in direction along the way.
BioWare can usually craft a believable world, if nothing else, and the world of Anthem is easy on the eye and centred around an interesting force called ‘The Anthem of Creation’.
Anthem Relics can alter the planet in different ways with Cataclysms, which can cause storms, turn wildlife into violent mutants, or make areas of the planet barren and inhospitable.
It would be easy to make it so the humans on the planet are the dominant species and understand the Relics, but it’s a nice change that it’s the opposite – humans have no idea why this is happening or how to stop it.
Some humans even believe that the Anthem is the source of all life, giving it and the creator of it, The Shapers, god-like status.
If this premise sounds good, unfortunately it doesn’t really go much farther in the relatively short time it can take you to complete the main story.
A rookie mistake
The first mission in particular is so ridiculously cliché it’s almost embarrassing. You’re the plucky newbie sent out on a mission that goes awry, and when your Javelin is damaged you must learn how to walk, jump, and attack from scratch.
After that, the next four or five hours are quite dull, with the game introducing one generic, forgettable character after another. After almost every mission you must return to the town of Fort Tarsis, which serves as main story hub.
It’s jarring to go from flying around outside at breakneck speeds to slowly running around a dull town, listening to NPCs drone on when all you want to do is get back out into your Javelin and fly.
Flying around the world is without a doubt the most fun and interesting part of Anthem, making you feel like Iron Man. The speed at which you can start flying around also helps, and the visuals, sounds and feel of lifting off into the sky never get old.
Hovering in place is equally as cool, and useful to get a better angle on enemies.
Sadly though, the limitations on flying are incredibly frustrating and feel unfair.
Don't clip my wings
Your Javelin heats up as you fly, and you’ve got to fly through a waterfall, go underwater, stop flying or nosedive to cool it down.
It makes logical sense and brings a sense of realism to the world and the suits, but this is also a game about god-like creatures and forces changing a planet, just let us fly around as much as we want, rather than having the most fun part of the hampered by annoying restrictions.
Jumping into a mission or free roam with three other players is quite easy, the matchmaking never took longer than a minute and it is cool to see your three teammates and what types and style of Javelin they have (one guy on my team had the red and yellow Iron Man colours down to a tee).
Navigating through the world can be confusing as there are not a lot of recognisable landmarks, and navigating through the menus is even worse. Tabs, layers, menus inside of menus, which isn’t ideal for a loot-shooter containing almost endless amounts of weapons, items and mods.
Visually Anthem is impressive, with the facial animations, detail on the Javelins and combat effects such as explosions looking detailed and lifelike. The world itself isn’t as polished, but still looks great.
The soundtrack is surprisingly good, and while it’s unlikely to be as memorable as Mass Effect’s soundtrack, it does stick with you after playing. The sound design also shines, with your Javelin booming as you take flight and all the mechanical seals and joints moving as you get in or out of the suit.
Anthem is an impressive attempt to create an evolving, continuous world but it falls flat in far too many ways to make it a must-play. The story, mission design, clunky menus, all hamper the experience so much, not to mention the annoying restriction on flying, which is the games’ best part.
Anthem has the ability to improve in almost every way with updates, but the question is will the players be still there by then? Or will BioWare abandon the game as they did with Mass Effect: Andromeda?
At the moment, the only way I could recommend Anthem is by using your free trial of EA Access/Origin Access, otherwise wait for a sale.
Follow @98FM on Twitter for the latest Dublin news
A digital copy of Anthem was provided by Electronic Arts for review, and reviewed on an Xbox One X.
