Anthem Review: Hands-On. Everything You Need To Know Update 12/2024

Even while most games produced under this model are incomplete and lacking in substance at launch, most of them go on to make huge improvements through updates and expansions.

An online action-RPG like BioWare’s Anthem is tough to review in the traditional sense because of this.

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This is not imply we should disregard how a live-service game performed when it was released. The focus of this review will be on finding a middle ground between where Anthem is right now and where it is going.

If anything changes or new information becomes available, we’ll keep this review up to date as much as possible, so be sure to check back often.

Micro-transactions

Since the game’s E3 2017 announcement, much of the conversation surrounding Anthem has focused on the game’s development company (BioWare) and publisher (EA).

This is logical given EA’s history of micro-transactions and BioWare’s shoddy Mass Effect: Andromeda implementation.

Anthem’s chances were skewed from the start because of this. Even if the game was a success, a certain segment of gamers would never play it. As of right now, there are no predatory microtransactions in Anthem, which is a rarity in EA games.

To purchase crafting materials, armor, emotes and decals for your javelin with real money, it offers an in-game store, however none of these are linked to player performance and can all be purchased with in-game currency.

Some products, such as emotes, currently appear to be pricey in the game. It’s also difficult to buy a piece of armor for a javelin because you have to buy the full set instead of individual pieces, which significantly raises the price. If you don’t want to buy anything, you can easily bypass the store.

Performance

A day-one patch corrected a few bugs, but Anthem still has a lot of performance concerns, even after six years of development. While I had only one game crash and a few minor glitches, my teammates had a much more difficult time.

My brother and I play a lot, and he’s had numerous issues with the game, including crashes, being unable to enter certain places during missions, and receiving no rewards or story progression after finishing a task.

As a result, many gaming sessions were terminated short due to player fatigue. However, I don’t think this justifies the game’s obvious lack of optimization, even if he played it on a PS4 and I on a Pro. For some reason, even though the game was developed for mid-generation consoles, Anthem still doesn’t function well across all platforms.

Even if you don’t care about anecdotes, there is one issue that will annoy any player, especially those who are playing Anthem on PC. After running a patch to speed up loading times, I was able to go right into the game right away.

I can only image how much worse it must have been earlier, given the present horrible time of loading into missions or even the game’s hub planet.

Customization

Anthem’s gameplay mechanics and javelin customisation are its real strengths. Even though others keep referring to you as a Freelancer, you feel like Ironman when you put on your mech suit in first-person.

There are a wide variety of materials, vinyls, and a color wheel accessible to players who enjoy customizing their javelins to their heart’s content.

Despite the fact that some cosmetic things like new wear states or particular materials are linked to strengthening your loyalty to other factions, this strategy motivates you to play the game more and delivers a sense of success once you’ve obtained these items.

It’s a lot of fun to jump into a mission and check how my colleagues’ javelins appear in comparison to mine.

The lack of Pilot customization is a glaring omission from the game. Anthem, on the other hand, forces you to choose between a handful of pre-made male or female designs. The lack of a character’s face in cutscenes initially didn’t seem like a big concern because you spend the majority of the game in third-person while wearing your suit.

As a result, I couldn’t empathize with my Pilot in scenarios that were clearly meant to elicit an emotional response from the player. These moments were rather startling.

Story

BioWare has a reputation for generating dramatic narratives, and the game’s main story does its best to live up to that reputation, even if it falls short. Let me be clear: the story is fine for a game of this type.

If your efforts to stop the bad man fail, you’ll need to regroup before trying again, this time with more success! Another thing is the Anthem…?

It’s worth seeing Anthem for the plot twists and character developments that occur. Because of this, events in the game don’t have much impact. The player is never able to understand the scale of the world, how the many places are connected, or the motivations of the people. The only way to learn about it is to spend hours reading about it in badly designed menus.

Owen and Haluk are the only characters whose connections with you change during the course of the main tale.

However, despite my criticism of the game’s story, I don’t believe it is essential in a game such as Anthem. The bulk of my friends ignored the game’s cutscenes and had no interest in knowing more about the world of Bastion or the backstories of any of the NPCs in the game..

It’s a game that many people resort to when they’re looking for a distraction from their work and just want to have fun with their pals. Anthem’s story would be considered unnecessary fluff if it were produced by a firm other than BioWare, but because it is BioWare, there is a grandiose expectation that Anthem just cannot meet.

In order to get the most out of the game, you’ll have to go further into the codex and engage in conversation with the residents of Fort Tarsis. This isn’t going to happen for the majority of players, however. And, to be honest, I don’t understand why they should have to go to such lengths to craft a compelling story.

THE ACTION GAME

There are heroes called Freelancers in Anthem, an open-world, sci-fi third-person shooter. These Javelins, 9-foot suits of armor with rocket boosters, lasers, and other weapons of destruction, are piloted by these soldiers for hire. My Freelancer skills allow me to slay hordes of vicious alien scorpions and armed bandits in the blink of an eye. I’m capable of launching myself from a skyscraper, plunging 50 feet to the ground, and then soaring away in a jetpack.

Marvel movie-like control over Anthem is how it seems to me. Destroying mechs, calling down lights on spider-horde mobs, and hacking into hijacked turrets is how I make my living. I am a force to be reckoned with. Off-brand Iron Man, I am. And I’m not the only one.

Anthem requires a continual internet connection, yet I’m able to play the entire campaign with friends or strangers thanks to matchmaking for every action. When traveling the world with three other Javelins, that sense of power is magnified even further. When two or more attacks are used simultaneously, a “COMBO” visual pop-up will appear, doing additional damage and rewarding the players with a pleasant (though world-breaking) visual pop-up. Lightning strikes a frozen enemy mech and causes a crackle and crash like throwing a bunch of party poppers into the ground.

This power fantasy is perfectly executed by Anthem. This feeling, however, only lasts for a short time, and no amount of time spent playing will ever match it. Anthem, on the other hand, serves as a hindrance to the game’s enjoyment. Because the game’s action is limited by the necessity for a BioWare-esque tale, it is impossible for the user to experience it for an extended duration.

Being powerful and collecting powerful stuff is the focus of Anthem, a video game in which players assume the role of the protagonist. There’s nothing better than finding a new piece of gear in a loot-based game, equipping it, and then testing it out on the adversaries you just defeated.

Anthem’s new gear can be added by following these steps:

What happens when I kill an enemy? A purple diamond springs to life! The purple diamond beckons me to touch it. The discovery of an Epic piece of gear is confirmed via a screen pop-up. I successfully complete the task at hand.

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Also, a loading screen appears.

All of the items I’ve found are listed when I finish the assignment. There was, in fact, a purple assault rifle in the room. To use this stuff, I’ll have to go to the Forge, where everything is already equipped.

A new loading screen appears.

My assault rifle, the Epic, is ready for action. The other items I’ve found are put on my person. My current set-up is perfect for me. I make my way out of the Forge.

Again, load the screen.

Once again, I’m going out on a mission with my brand-new assault rifle.

Screen to load.

That bandit gets shot. I’d prefer to switch back to my old weapon rather than the assault rifle. This will necessitate the use of an additional four loading screens to complete the project.

In Anthem, shifting gears is a pain. This is incredibly infuriating in a game where customizing your loadout is so central.

Anthem has a lot of loading times. They can be as short as 10-20 seconds or as long as several minutes, depending on your platform and technology. It doesn’t matter which way you look at it, there are a lot of them. This bug will be addressed in the Day One Patch, although its frequency will remain.

When I play with other people, as Anthem strongly urges, the load times become very bothersome. When I’m playing with buddies on PC, I’ve noticed that I tend to load in ahead of them and then have to wait till they catch up. There was a problem with the conversation and mission goals, which they claim I had listened to while they were still loading into the system. As soon as my friends do appear in the world, they teleport to my location because they are so far behind me.

Anthem’s campaign lacks variety and freshness after the first few hours, even if my team is perfectly aligned. To keep things simple, the 15-hour campaign revolves around just a few generic goals (“stand here for a while,” “collect six of these floating items and bring them back,” and “kill anything around here”). In comparison to the mid-campaign tomb-opening assignment, this repetition is nothing. Before you can proceed with the tale, you must complete a long list of pointless tasks (e.g., “discover 10 collectibles”), which at first sounds like a fun Indiana Jones-style adventure.

The reward for completing the campaign is also drudgery-inducing. Anthem’s strongest activity is building strongholds. At launch, there are just three Stronghold missions accessible, the third of which concludes with 35 minutes of shooting a big dude. There’s no strategy; my team just fires at the same guy for 35 minutes continuously.

Anthem’s fighting is fantastic. Because of this, the missions don’t do justice to the violence. There is no subversion, no expansion, and no creative use of warfare on their part. Target practice and Easter egg searches take up most of what should be a surprising world.

Gameplay

Now, Anthem’s combat and traversal are both fantastic. Taking off and flying in any direction feels natural, and the game’s expansive landscapes allow for a lot of freedom of movement.

Heat meters that progressively fill up while flying or hovering may put off some people, but I believe that flight would become too simple without them.. Keeping an eye on my meter during combat increases my sense of involvement because I appreciate trying to juggle multiple systems at once.

To keep your suit cool, you can fly over bodies of water while wearing the suit’s heat system, which drives you to devise new ways to go farther.

The four classes in the game each have their own individual personalities and play styles. The Colossus is slow and tanky, the Storm is fragile and can stay in the air indefinitely, the Ranger is incredibly flexible, and the Interceptor is speedy and deadly. They each play a specific function in battle, which makes the game more interesting and more fun to play again and again.

Generally, the structure of a mission is the same: defeat waves of attackers while retrieving and delivering a magical orb or cube.

By prohibiting flight when holding some objects, Anthem is attempting to add a level of difficulty. However, all this accomplishes is eliminate one of the game’s most useful features for the time being. There are a lot of different objectives to accomplish in each mission, which helps to keep things fresh and interesting for players.

Where Anthem really shines is in its Stronghold objectives—longer “raid” missions that require you and your team to infiltrate a wide territory before battling the game’s most powerful bosses. These are a much more difficult and rewarding than standard missions. Unfortunately, there are only three different Strongholds in the game at this time, which makes combating them tediously repetitious.

Anthem’s fighting mechanics, like many other aspects of the game, are subjective. As a “looter shooter,” the game places a heavy emphasis on skill rather than gunplay.

With low cooldowns on the vast majority of spells and abilities (including your ultimate), weapons, components, and support gear can make it even easier to use them. Battles become more exciting when you have access to each javelin’s distinct skills on a regular basis.

While it would be ideal if Anthem could perfect its shooting mechanics, this isn’t likely to be the case. When you gain access to more powerful weapons, the shooting becomes significantly better.

Because of this, you are forced to cope with the guns’ default skins, which in most cases appear drab and uninspired.

End-Game

In order to help my friends develop and have a better knowledge of the game’s primary story, I had to redo some missions. Even as I write this review, I’m still itching to go back into the game after reaching this milestone.

Higher rarity weapons begin to drop closer to level 30 and have a greater likelihood of containing useful qualities as you near the current cap.

As an added bonus, a new story-related task has been unlocked, and it seems interesting. It remains for me to strengthen ties with certain factions, find new blueprints, and improve the abilities of each javelin.

A couple contracts have eluded me despite the fact that I’ve completed every story objective. Although I’m sure I’ll take a break from the game at some time, I’ll return if new content is released.

Anthem update: six months on

In light of the game’s status as a ‘game as a service,’ we believe it’s time to revisit our thoughts on Anthem.

Many of the issues that players and critics had with Anthem have since been addressed. The goal was to have a strong comeback like a few other games in recent years have had. In this process, the Cataclysm plays a key role, as it was originally scheduled for release in May but was postponed until August in order to ensure that the foundations of the main game were sound.

This event’s story is brief, and the only way to finish it is to go through the same sequence of events several times. Good news! You’re free to enter the Cataclysm whenever you like.

Vara Brom is to blame for the current hiccup at Anthem. There is no way Vara is going to learn anything from the mistakes made by anyone else in the game’s history.

Is there a chance that she didn’t see the original story and saw how disastrous it was for The Monitor?

Unfortunately, things go wrong and she ends up with some god-tier power, all in the name of saving her people. At least, that’s what the game appears to be suggesting. The cutscenes are so quick and riddled with slang that even a seasoned player may have difficulty deciphering what is happening.

For some reason, the story missions’ voice acting is a touch off. It’s possible that the words may have been fantastic if only the voices had not given up on Anthem.

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The new missions, on the other hand, have you going around doing mundane tasks, all leading up to the Cataclysm. Things begin to become intriguing at this point.

The Cataclysm’s reality is constantly evolving. Pocket realities abound as Vara tries to reimagine the universe to meet her own standards. It’s up to you to complete as many as you can in order to rack up the most points. Some good puzzles may be found here, but once you get the secret, they feel a little too simple.

Of course, as the event progresses, new puzzles will be introduced, but it’s unlikely that they won’t have the same problems. It’s only after you’ve completed a sufficient number of these challenges that you’ll be given the opportunity to face up against Vara, who resembles an adversary from another game as a service title dealing with space magic.

There are several good moments in the boss fight. Some of Vara’s assaults necessitate that you conceal in specified locations. Then there’s the constant awareness of how stable your surroundings are to contend with. You’ll earn crystals for completing it, which you can use to buy new cosmetics and other items in the Seasonal Store.

The Cataclysm event is a great addition to Anthem, but the story is lacking and it’s difficult to justify numerous runs of the Cataclysm when most of what you receive from it is cosmetic. As an Anthem fan, this will be an exciting new experience to share with your friends. But if you’re on the fence about jumping into the game, then this isn’t the best thing to sway you.

Anthem update: three months on

It’s been three months since BioWare’s Anthem, a multi-player third-person Iron Man sim, was released. When I say that the last three months of Anthem have been difficult, I’m really understating the case. It was a mistake to release an early version that was so unstable that the servers couldn’t handle it. BioWare and its supporters have had a rough journey, to say the least.

Fortunately, the sun is rising again. A few tweaks have made playing Anthem more enjoyable than ever before. The inability to play Anthem has long been a source of frustration. Even attempting to enter a mission would require a tedious trek to Fort Tarsis, which would be followed by a series of lengthy loading screens.

The ability to launch from anywhere in the Fort has solved this problem. For the first time ever, you don’t have to walk through tar to get into your Javelin. Choosing a mission comes next. The user interface (UI) has been considerably enhanced, making it easier to make choices and loading into a task much faster. Heck, you can even change your equipment during missions, a capability that was previously only available to individuals playing any other game in any other genre ever.

Actually, it’s quite pleasant. Although the game has always looked, sounded, and even felt great, it hasn’t always been enjoyable to play. Despite how much fun it might be to fly around, the game never truly lets you explore that. The alterations make it easier to appreciate the positive aspects of the game.

Anthem has a long way to go, and this is not a flattering appraisal of a brave underdog. It is still possible to crash out of missions, as well as for objectives to present incorrectly. Nothing new has been added to the gameplay, the objectives are just as monotonous as ever, and the boundary system is still guaranteed to make you lose your cool. Only Anthem gamers will understand this pun, and you’re a rapidly dwindling population.

The current state of Anthem serves as a sobering example of what may happen when a game isn’t given enough time to develop. To get to the point where it feels like it works, it has taken three months from its release. While its bad first impression may prove irreparable for it, the game still has a future. This is a game that gets better with every tiny adjustment BioWware makes, and it will only become better as time goes on.

The problem is that it hasn’t yet arrived. In the midst of a sea of similar services, there isn’t enough to make it worthwhile. Instead of the powerful, stadium-filling rock classic it could be, Anthem is a boring mumble rap number. If BioWare is given enough time to do their magic, we can only hope.

Anthem update: one month on

A month in the world of video games is a long time, and the game has received numerous updates since its initial release. No matter how much work has been put into making Anthem better, it simply isn’t good enough yet. In reality, a number of the game’s features have regressed, making the overall experience more grating.

As a society, we need to remember that not all of the changes have been negative. You can begin a quest from any location in Fort Tarsus at this time. The old method of doing this required you to walk slowly over to your Javelin in order to do it. With this, the game moves more quickly, which makes returning to the Fort between missions a little easier to stomach.

Despite this, there is no way to skip from one assignment to the next except to return to Fort Tarsus. I don’t understand why this is happening. It’s a simple way to improve the quality of life for gamers by reducing the number of obstacles they face before starting a game.

However, Anthem appears to have deteriorated in almost every way possible. Heart of Rage stronghold mission was run before this re-evaluation to test out the most recent updates. We did a lot of other things, but this task epitomized everything wrong with the current Anthem version.

Even while it was already a time-consuming process, it has gotten even more difficult. At least not directly, but whether it was because of fewer people or unreliable servers, starting a task was more time-consuming than it was last month at this time. We were greeted by a single other player as soon as we entered the game. The fissures started to appear as we battled our way through the Titan mini-boss.

During the battle, the Titan plummeted through the surface of the planet. It strolled through a wall, vanished for a little period, and then reappeared exactly where it had been. It takes a long time to kill the Titans because they are bullet sponges, but the easiest method to do so is to shoot the bright spots that erupt when they attack you. It was as if this Titan had lost all his frailty after seeing the depths of hell. This made an already tedious battle feel even more like a futile effort to scoop up cat feces.

After that, you’ll have to take care of several intruders in a corridor. It only took the game two minutes to notice and remove the obstacle in front of us once we had cleared the way. As long-term projects, strongholds aren’t supposed to be completed in a matter of hours or minutes. Because more players had spawned in and everyone understands how to knock these bosses down in record time, it just took two minutes to take down the final boss.

Even without the strange health regeneration of adversaries due to overburdened servers, sudden sound cuts, and the game’s catastrophic crash, Anthem isn’t up to par. To be honest, it’s a lot more difficult to play now than it was when it was first released. Despite the fact that we still have months of gameplay ahead of us, Anthem is making it difficult to enjoy the game.

Jump around

You and the rest of the race have no other choice but to leap into Javelin exoskeletons if you want to survive. You and your fellow Freelancers have a lot on your shoulders, so do what you can. Two years after a disastrous disaster, you’re still looking for work and no longer the heroes you once were. Unfortunately.

Anthem’s gameplay involves flying around in a jetpack and wreaking havoc on anybody or anything who gets in your path. Your character starts out in the vanilla (Ranger) suit before being given the option to select from a variety of other outfits, including strawberries, chocolates, and even a chubby monkey! (Colossus). The Ranger Javelin’s combat abilities are adequate, to say the least. It’s fun to fly around, but the weaponry are a little boring; they’re just a little too commonplace.

Things take a dramatic turn once you’ve crammed yourself inside one of the other Javelins. Interceptor is a lightning-fast melee machine that resembles a hack-and-slash more than anything else in the game. The Colossus is a massive piece of armor that allows you to wreak havoc on your foes, a tank class built to absorb and distribute damage.

Finally, we have the mage class, the Storm. Thunderbolts can be summoned and it has the ability to vanish from view. Players should be familiarized with the systems first, but once you’ve chosen one, the game really begins.

Rocket man

The gameplay revolves around traversal. You can fly or hover in the air using your jetpack, but how long you can do so depends on two factors. A cooler jetpack has a longer lifespan since it is cooler. A Storm can stay up all day, whereas a Colossus can only stay up for a few hours at the most. In order to determine which Javelin is right for you, play around with these kinds of things. Then you may decide what kind of group you wish to be a part of.

Compared to the demo, Anthem’s gunplay is better than expected, and the weapons have a lot more power. Where things get intriguing, though, are the powers that are specific to each person. These are the things that can be combined to unleash devastating combinations.

Suppose you use an ice ability to freeze your enemy, and then shock them with a lightning ability. This will cause a lot of damage. Once again, your Javelin dictates the specifics of how this is handled. One may be tailored to do damage to a single target, while another may be better suited to managing a throng. An thrilling and far more nuanced combat system results from this.

The story, on the other hand, is what most people are concerned about with Anthem, although it’s actually done exceptionally well. At its best, BioWare’s opening quest is a spectacular blend of excellent storytelling and stunning visuals.

The characters are fascinating, and you’ll be moved as you witness them rise to the challenge of seemingly insurmountable difficulties.

FAQS:

Is Anthem a failed game?

It’s important to note, though, that Anthem didn’t collapse because of its committee-driven design or because it was overly reliant on collecting money from its players. Anthem’s demise was not caused by a single deadly strike, but rather by a series of little, meaningless wounds that bled it to death.

Is Anthem worth playing now?

“Is Anthem worth it now?” is a straightforward question to answer. In the future, Anthem will probably not be worth your time. Many gamers have given up on the game in the last few months, as I’ve observed. A lot of people bought the game after the news of the overhaul, but now many of them have stopped playing it.

Did they fix Anthem?

The rework of the game has been scrapped. Christian Dailey, the executive producer of BioWare’s Anthem, announced in a blog post that the studio has made the “tough choice to discontinue our fresh development work on Anthem (aka Anthem NEXT).”

Conclusion:

Anthem is precisely what I expected from a live service game. BioWare has laid the groundwork for future expansions, which will be built upon with fresh content and regular fixes.

There is enough of a decent game here to justify my purchase as of now. It’s quite unlikely that someone else will have the same experience.

That doesn’t mean that Anthem is horrible for what it is, but there are better options out there. When it comes to addressing faults and interacting with players, BioWare has already done a fantastic job.

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Danh mục: Review