At last years E3 (or maybe the year before) BioWare announced their new game, Anthem. The idea of going around in an Iron Man suit appealed to me a lot. When the game was released this year it got a lot of flack and I had other games to play (as I always do) so let it fall by the wayside. Recently, Sinisa, one of my favorite technicians at work, let me know that Anthem was on sale for €10 on sale in Smyths. Naturally, I did not have to spend much time debating about the purchase.
Does anyone remember having Nerds as a kid? Coloured, sugary balls of E numbers. They weren't really nice but at the same time, I couldn't get enough of them. I had a friend, Harry, in secondary school, and one day while waiting for his mum to pick us up he ate a whole box of them in minutes. The results were amazing, he puked hard and in multicolor like a rainbow. It makes me wonder when they depict unicorns with rainbows coming out their mouths have they simply eaten too many Nerds? Playing Anthem I wondered was I going to be puking like a unicorn?
Story
BioWare has always been well known for its great storytelling abilities, interesting characters and dialogue choices that could really shape the game. This is all largely absent from Anthem. The game features you and a bunch of Freelancers who are wearing suits called Javelins. There is something called the Anthem that seems to be almost alive, if someone can control it then they could remake the world. There are also artifacts that need to be kept in check so they don't destroy the world. A load Freelancers go to take on a major artifact and it goes badly. The story from that point is about trying to go back and finish the job.
There are many characters in the games but I didn't feel invested in them, with the exception of Mathais, a historian/archaeologist/scientist type. He's the only one whose storyline provoked enough interest that he was memorable at all. Conversations and the answers you choose seem to have no bearing on what happens at all.
Overall the story feels like an unfinished novel, there are some interesting parts that could offer potential if only BioWare bothered to finish it, and it smacks of an incomplete EA release to get as much money as early as possible.
Visuals
While the story is lacking BioWare have at least tried to provide some great visuals. The world you traverse is full of lush forests and some cavernous places. In 4K they look really good and the Javelins themselves are very detailed. The character designs are pretty good and for the most part, it feels like you are interacting with an actual person rather than just an NPC.
Overall the visuals look great, the only thing lacking is a bit more variety with the world itself, one area can look very much like another - all high cliffs and lush forests with some rocky terrain. Different times of day would have added to this as well, missions at night perhaps.
Music
The soundtrack has an almost cinematic sound to it, featuring lots of strings, a choir, and the occasional electro sound. The music is composed by Sarah Schachner responsible for; Assassin Creed Origins and Unity, and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2019.
The soundtrack runs at just shy on ninety minutes. My favorite tracks include; 'Strong Alone, Stronger Together', 'The Monitor', 'The Titan', 'Outlaw Ambush', and 'The Chimera'.
Overall the soundtrack is good but not quite as strong as Schachner's work in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2019.
Gameplay
There is so much to discuss, so let's get it into it. The game can be played solo, in co-op or with up to three other players. There are four types of Javelin, Colossus, Storm, Interceptor, and Ranger. Each with their own specialties and you can unlock all of them as you level up. They each feel quite different and each provides a slightly different experience. The javelins can be fully upgraded, from weapons to appearance. Weapons can be collected or crafted but for the most part, crafting isn't really necessary. The javelins each have a power number and can increase as you add better equipment and weapons.
The enemies are varied and while a large number of them can feel a little intense at times it never feels hard even when the difficulty is on hard. There are only a few bosses in the game which are fun to be fair and offered more of a challenge. By far the most challenging areas are the Strongholds which offer lots of enemies and even more experience points. It was this element of the game that really kept me wanting to play more and is a really great co-op game. I suspect if I hadn't been playing it with my Nollsy, I wouldn't have gotten nearly as much enjoyment out of it, and she felt the same. Co-op is really the thing that saved the overall experience.
Okay now for the bad. The load times are horrendous, which is made even worse through the matchmaking element which nearly takes as long. With side missions especially they can be completed so quickly that you can spend at least a third of your time waiting for the game to load. This part of the game needs a massive overhaul and hopefully, be fixed in BioWare big redesign/update.
Once the game has been completed you can play missions on Legendary difficulty and take on all manner of challenges. It because of things like this that I will keep going back and playing more of the game.
Overall the gameplay has a lot of work to make it all it could be, that being said I can't enough of playing it!
Final Thoughts
So, after twenty-plus hours how did I feel? Confused. The story is far from epic, the visuals are pretty good but could use more variety, the music was good. The gameplay is addictive even though it really needs work. It is really tough to rate this one, I like giving round numbers so this one gets a 3 out of 5
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