Anthem Reviews
Anthem offers near unlimited potential, with certain features, taken separately, representing a marvel in design. Combined together and it proves to have a lot of style but very little substance.
We only had a taste of what Anthem’s end-game has to offer, and we can’t wait to see what else the developer has in store for players over the coming weeks and months.
Anthem mimes shoot-and-loot games, but doesn't do enough to stand apart from the competition. Plus, bugs and tedious level design mar a potentially entertaining title.
There's a good game somewhere in Anthem. Somewhere behind the loading screens, asking for meaningful endgame content. Hopefully in the next few months, when BioWare starts launching its post-launch content and quality of life fixes, the game will become what it's meant to be.
Anthem is a blast at times, but its best moments are separated by too much grind and an inconsistent story.
Anthem is a game with unmet potential at every turn. The gameplay is fantastic and recreates the '30 seconds of fun' that has made its competitor Destiny such a success. But in its current state of bugs, server issues and poor design decisions, it is planted firmly in the 'play it in six months' category.
The game's bland mélange of competence feels like the deliberate, calculated, focus-tested murder of ideas.
Anthem is two core ideas clashing violently, making for an abrasive and dull experience. On top of feeling incomplete and low on content, it struggles to achieve even a mildly addicting gameplay loop: a death knell for games of its kind.
BioWare's Anthem is as disappointing as it is boring, with the game's biggest fault being that it just gets in the way of its own self.
I have no doubt that Anthem will dramatically improve over time, but right now, this flight should remain grounded.
The basic structure of the Bioware shooter is fun, but story and mission design disappoint. Anthem still has a long way to go.
Review in German | Read full review
BioWare’s new loot shooter is fun at times, but ultimately underwhelms with its tedium and lack of depth
Anthem is a beautiful car that is an absolute joy to drive, but so far, it only has enough gas to get you a couple miles. Also, the wheels will periodically fall off. Sold as a live-service game, fans of Anthem's exhilarating gameplay have to hold out hope that things will improve, but there's no denying the initial expedition was rough.
Anthem is not a bad game as a whole, but rather an interesting project with wasted potential. It has really great gameplay mechanics and an awesome setting that, sadly, got negatively affected by bad choices and poorly implemented ideas like a forgetable story with horrible narrative, repetitive mission structures, painful loading screens and a multiplayer approach with null sense of cooperation.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
If BioWare can salvage the great gameplay ideas the game is built on and streamline some of the obtuse checklists, maybe Anthem will become the engrossing, living world I wanted it to be. But maybe I’m searching for something that was never there.
The controls of Anthem are intuitive and engaging. Flying through the world of Bastion is a sight to behold, and coordinating with your team on higher difficulties like Grandmaster is rewarding. Despite some questionable design choices and shortcomings, Anthem has a strong foundation that has potential to be a genre leader, but isn't quite there just yet.
Anthem is the imperfect result of a creative birth that has placed in the hands of the public one of the most promising shared-world shooter of the last few years.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Anthem may look like a slick blend of action and exploration all wrapped up in some shiny armour, but beneath its surface lies a game that is riddled with bugs, shallow world-building and a paint by numbers approach to its design.
Six months or a year from now, Anthem, like many of the other games before it, may be a wholly improved experience and complete its redemption arc, but right now it may as well be AAA Early Access.
Beautiful and mechanically robust throughout, but weighed down by repetitive missions, a flabby structure, and a lot of the people you meet in Fort Tarsis. Even the strongest beats become tiresome if repeated or drowned in white noise, and that's Anthem in a nutshell.Richard Scott-Jones