Written by Peter Karleskint
Last week, as many may know, the VIP demo for Anthem launched. With it came a closer look at the game and what it would be like. If you followed Anthem news at all, you would know that the VIP demo came with a slew of technical glitches and issues. Anywhere from the 95% glitch where your game would be stuck loading and you’d have to reset, not being able to get into the game, server overloads, freezes, etc. Supposedly these issues are going to be fixed in time for the Open demo accessible now on your respective console or PC.
Though I want to warn you of the current technical problems, I do not want to focus on those for this early impressions article. What I want to focus on is the gameplay and elements found within the game aside from those tech problems.
Anthem is in the niche genre known as a “looter shooter.” A genre that can thank its growth to the likes of games like Borderlands or the Destiny franchise. These games took traditional looter aspects and implemented them into shooters. Since this genre has taken hold, a larger audience has been growing. With games like the Division 2 coming out soon, the repertoire of the looter shooter seems to only be growing. Anthem being the newest entry to be released on February 22nd, 2019.
Anthem wants to bring an array of new elements to the looter shooter genre. With the way it plays, to the weapons you’ll use, and even these mechanized suits known as javelins. Let’s start with the javelins. Javelins in this game are suits of armor that have a variety of abilities and can fly. In fact, they’re similar to the idea of Iron Man, a common comparison surrounding the Anthem community. You play as a freelancer devoted to protecting your home and people. Javelins have four distinct classes: the jack-of-all-trades Ranger, the tank Colossus, the ninja Interceptor, and the mage-like Storm. Each class offers different powers, loot, and strengths or weakness.
During my time, I only got to play as the Ranger and the Interceptor javelins. And let me just say, it was FUN. I have been skeptical of Anthem ever since its announcement. By merely watching the game, it looked like witless enemies grouping up on you to be destroyed like fodder. While I can’t exactly say that this is untrue, the diverse move sets of each javelin and recommended 4-player count make this game appear far more tactful than can be seen by a few gameplay videos with the use of combining moves with teammates to create dramatic combos and plays in game. It truly is one of those games that you have to play yourself. To be fair, I wasn’t hooked by the game. The Ranger may be the most balanced amongst all strengths, but it was by far much more boring to me than the Interceptor. The Ranger is what you are forced to play as until you level up a few times to unlock the other javelins. Things didn’t pick up until I got online with some friends and we played together, each of us using a different class.
As for the gameplay, being able to jump and fly away from enemies in a snap is fantastic fun. Even when the combat gets stale, the flying never does. And with abilities that return relatively quickly, you never feel powerless. The issue I seem to have so far is the gun variation. While the powers are explosive and entertaining to use, the weaponry is just okay. They get the job done but feel far less impactful than anything else in the game. I hope that with the release of the game, there are far more weapon modifications or perks that will add to the need to go looting for more weaponry.
Looting will be the biggest aspect of Anthem. Hence the name “looter shooter” as referenced earlier. Much to my surprise, the powers of each javelin vary wildly. Running through a few missions netted me new powers every time, some on javelins I didn’t even access yet. This variation in loot will add much to the game. The sense of progression comes from the loot gathered, so making sure there is plenty for players to grind for is key. Again, I’d like to see if modifications or perks come into play for powers as well. While there seems to be a lot now, after hours of the playing the full release, these powers could get old relatively quickly.
Now for the visuals of the game. The game is gorgeous. The environments are large open spaces set to a beautiful background as you fly around in your javelin. The water looks like it really flows and seems to almost reflect with how well the design for this was. The enemies had interesting designs and there seemed to be such a variety of enemies and creatures that I’m sure we’ve hardly seen anything in the demo alone. The visual aspect of the game was very well done, even though much of those empty spaces seem empty when not in the location of enemies or mission objectives.
The sound of the game leaves much to be desired. Weapons just don’t have that extra oomph and the general sounds of the world don’t do much to draw you in. However, the sounds work and do what they’re supposed to, using the amazing visuals and fun gameplay to immerse you instead.
Much of this game will be made or hindered by the end game. Like Destiny 2, end game can make it or break it. Destiny has gone through extensive strides to win back its player base after a disappointing and dreadful end game experience. Hopefully, Anthem can learn from Destiny’s mistakes and start off strong with a fascinating and replayable end game experience. As it stands now, there is nothing to be seen with an embargo set up to prevent any end game conversation until a future date. The end game is what will be my deciding factor on whether or not I buy this game myself. I’m hopeful, but things could very easily go wrong. While we won’t be experiencing any end game content in the demo, the demo will give you insight into whether or not you’ll like the base and gameplay that the whole game is founded upon making it an important experience to have.
While I’ve gone into the general game in the demo, I did have some issues with it that stuck out to me. My main gripes with the game come from a variety of different areas. For one, the central “hub” that you start every boot up of the game with is torturous. While the city looks beautiful at first, it quickly loses its charm after the third or fourth experience walking like a snail from one end to the other just to access your javelin and start missions. And they do not give you the option to run, making every trip an utter slog. Aside from the story elements, this part of the game seems useless. They would’ve been better to opt into a social space much like Destiny’s “Tower” to allow you to join the city with friends in javelin’s and make the place feel more alive while giving you access to all the necessities for you to continue in your adventure.
Another problem I have with the game is squad system. Something EA seems to never learn from in their previous games. The menus to invite friends are cumbersome and it only feels like you are with your team when in mission. It can be confusing and can drag down the experience. It should be easy to invite friends within a button press or two instead of navigating the menus.
There are some parts of the movement that can take you out of the experience as well. For one, at times the flying in the game makes you overheated way too fast. Sometimes I’ll fly around for what feels like no time at all and then be forced to crash down until my overheating bar can cool all the way down. I want to feel like the modern Iron Man, not like his several early prototypes. Also, upon jumping into deep water, the camera can sometimes be disorienting as it drops your view straight down and making it tough to align yourself with the path forward. This needs to be tweaked as to not be so severe.
As mentioned earlier, some of the AI for the enemies is downright pitiful. They’re either a master assassin who can snipe me across map without ever missing a shot or they’re shooting around my outline without ever landing a shot. It’s either John Wick or a Storm Trooper. While this can be common in large scale fights in video games, I would like to see this messed around with a bit to find the proper functionality.
Missions as well are just like every other open world action game where everything is predictable and feels the same. It can be hard to fight this sort of thing in a looter shooter type game, but it would be a welcomed change to find some more refreshing missions. The demo will give you insight into the story as well, but as of now I’m just not interested. This could change with the full release. Bioware is known for their epic stories, but there’s no telling for sure with the function that a looter shooter serves. Only time will tell.
Now while I had problems with Anthem’s demo, it is just that, a DEMO. Things can change and open up upon full release. And overall, my feelings of the game were POSITIVE. I went from no interest in the game to being taken in and contemplating buying it myself. While I do recommend playing with a full team, I do recommend giving the game a shot. The demo is free this weekend so it can’t hurt!
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