one of Anthem’s Strongholds
(20-minute dungeons that work like
Strikes in Destiny 2), there are maybe
half a dozen mission objectives that
Anthem cycles between again and
again and again. It doesn’t matter if
I’m silencing a Shaper relic that could
destroy the world or looking for a lost
scientist, I know that at some point
I’m going to have to defend a specific
point for 30 seconds or use the radar
on my HUD to find hidden objects
and then bring them somewhere.
Nearly every mission follows the
exact same structure: fly a few
minutes to a location, complete the
objective, and repeat that process two
more times until the mission is over.
Though Anthem’s world feels large at
first, by the end of the campaign I
had fought in the same handful of
arenas and caves plenty of times.
Missions that task me with
shutting down the highly volatile
Shaper relics are especially
disappointing. Characters back in
Fort Tarsis regaled me with crazy
tales about Shaper relics inverting
gravity or teleporting people into
alternate dimensions – all cool stuff
that I’d love to experience. I never do.
The first Shaper relic I silenced
summoned ice dogs. Ice dogs. I’ve
silenced dozens more since then and
it’s always just an excuse to summon
some mundane
enemies to kill.
It’s a good thing that
Anthem’s combat is
mostly enjoyable, at
least at lower
difficulties. Each javelin
is like a typical RPG
class, with three types
of abilities you can
augment as you loot more gear. I’m
particularly fond of the Storm, who
channels the elements into explosive
area-of-effect spells that can
obliterate entire packs of enemies.
Every javelin is fun to play, though,
and their abilities erupt with all the
flash and force of a nuclear bomb.
The heart of Anthem’s combat is
the combo system, which requires
that teams work together to first
afflict enemies with a status effect
from one ability, called a ‘primer’,
before hitting them with a ‘detonator’
ability that triggers a combo and
deals massive damage. It’s a lot of fun
to pull off – not least because the
sound effect that indicates a
successful combo is so satisfying.
Layering these abilities is necessary
to efficiently deal with enemies on
The heartof
Anthem’s
combat
isthe
combosystemGAME
CHANGERMasterwork
loot,explained3
Masterwork and
Legendary items
come with a special
perk, often changing
how you fight.4
Modifiers are
randomly
generated and cannot
be changed, so
hopefully you get
some good ones.5
This, along with
the colour,
indicates rarity. At
level 30, it’s only
Masterwork and
Legendary that
matter.1
An overall
approximation of
power. Raising your
overall power will help
you in higher
difficulties.2
This is a
description of the
basic function of the
item and doesn’t
change regardless of
loot tier.34215higher difficulties, so it’s baffling that
Anthem leaves the combo system
almost entirely unexplained except
for an entry in the tutorial section of
the in-game encyclopaedia. If I went
into Anthem without knowing
anything about it, I might not even
realise it exists.
That lack of clarity extends to
Anthem’s entire loot system. Gear has
boring, aimless modifiers that are
often incomprehensible, and there’s
no screen showing the cumulative
total of my javelin’s various stats.
I was 34 hours into
Anthem before I found
a piece of loot that
actually excited me. It’s
a Masterwork-tier light
machine gun that
makes me detonate a
combo on nearby
primed enemies when
I reload. Until that
point, even ‘Epic’ loot was just a
linear power increase with boring
modifiers like “+1% Heavy Pistol
Damage”. Anthems loot is so shallow
it could’ve just been a skill tree.MASTERWORKS ALL
Now that I’m deep into Anthem’s
endgame, the gear is getting more
exciting at the cost of combat being
more aggravating. Calling it an
endgame might be giving Anthem
too much credit, since the only
thing that changes is that I have
more challenging missions and
two new Strongholds – one of
which is actually just the last
story mission. The biggest
difference is the addition of
Grandmaster difficulties, three
extra tiers of difficulty thatscale up enemy health and damage to
absurd degrees but offer a greater
chance to earn more powerful gear.
Playing on these difficulties really
begins to expose the deep cracks in
Anthem’s combat and approach to
endgame. On lower difficulties,
fighting is enjoyable because I can be
hyper-aggressive and fly around
diving at enemies like a robo-hawk.
But on Grandmaster, enemies are so
fatal that even a single hit can knock
me into a downed state. That kind of
challenge requires a level of precision
that Anthem just doesn’t have, and it’s
made me acutely aware of how janky
combat actually is.
Enemies rarely telegraph their
deadlier attacks, which means I’m
constantly being one-shotted by hits I
didn’t see – or worse, attacks I did
see and dodged but that killed me
anyway. Instead of flying around like
Iron Man laying waste to my
enemies, I’m hiding behind rocks
scared to stick my head out in case
some unseen attack is going to flatten
me instantly. Grandmaster difficulty
just doesn’t play to Anthem’s
strengths, making the whole
endgame feel sluggish and dull.
BioWare has detailed some of
what will be coming in the next few
months. As a live service game, it’s
reasonable to expect that Anthem will
change a great deal, and BioWare
seems responsive to feedback. But
I’mnotgoingtoholdmybreath.55
Anthem’s disjointed
story, boring loot,
repetitive missions, and
shallow endgame are
all disappointing.VERDICTAnthem
REVIEW