Anthem Review

I recently purchased Anthem and have adventured my way up to level 20 of a possible 30. Quick note before going further, this is a game with a Bioware title/ signature. I have been a huge fan of their games: Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, Mass Effect 1-3 and I even didn’t hate Mass Effect: Andromeda. When it came to purchasing Anthem I had higher than expected hopes. So far they haven’t disappointed.

Alright so Anthem…..here you are on the planet/ in the world of Bastion as a Freelance Javelin suit pilot. What does that mean? Well it means you have a not Iron Man, but totally Iron Man-esque mech suit you drive around the planet doing all manner of missions. The main story is there is a super powerful artifact known as the Anthem of Creation. There are people after it. You need to stop this and yeah it  instantly feels like the plot of a 100 other games. I could really care less about the plot because I get run and fly around in a not Iron Man Iron man suit! This is the biggest bit of awesome in the game!

JAVELINS?!

Yeah I love me a giant mech suit and there are three to choose from Ranger, Storm, Interceptor and Colossus. Each suit has its own job/theme. The Storm is the glass cannon/ wizard of the four suits. It is full of all manner of elemental attacks ( I recently unlocked the Storm, but have yet to try it) and has a nice protective shield, but is super squishy. The Interceptor is the “ninja.” The fast mobile melee close combat stuff (I haven’t unlocked this guy yet and am not super interested in it). The Ranger (my second favorite suit) is the middle of the road/ well rounded suit. It has a little bit of everything when it comes to shooting bad guys. Plus it makes you feel like Iron Man/ Warmachine more than the other suits. Then there is the big bruiser, the Colossus, with a lot of close range special attacks and a big hunk of metal as a defensive shield. This is also my suit of choice because it has a lot of health, can take punishment, can deal it out really well and it has the option of a flamethrower as a special weapon. I loves me some flamethrowers! My Colossus is named Grimace because it is big, bulky, I painted it all purple and “Nothing can stop the Grimace!” The fact you can tool out any javelin to fit whatever playstyle you like is just great stuff! All the suits offer two gun options, two special attack options, one special ability option and eventually six options for all manner of additional upgrades to stats, gear, damage etc. These suits are very customizable when it comes to building them for combat.  For instance I have upgraded my Colossus shield to doo 300% damage to enemies if I hit them while running. This means I can basically charge through baddies knocking them aside with my shield and doing substantial damage too! Then I tack on a flamethrower and optional upgrade to add 15% extra damage, a rotary auto cannon for throwing out mass amounts of bullets quickly when the flame thrower is on cool down, a mortar to hit groups of or frozen enemies, a secondary assault rifle for when/ if I run out of ammo for the auto cannon and a few additional components to increase my damage output.  All this gives me Grimace my big purple mech suit!

BEHOLD!
GRIMACE! THE COLOSSAL JAVELIN!

GAME PLAY

This is a third person action shooter with an tiny RPG element

Oh look a budy. Hey there friend you wanna......wait...die die die!
Kill it Kill it!
It is after my face!

 While in your javelin you fly and run around Bastion doing one-off missions, world events, exploring and the whole alien artifact main story all from, a 3^rd person perspective. This is where Anthem really shines. When you hit combat you can approach it either fast and brutal or tactical. It really depends on your flavor of Javelin. I chose blunt force and it has worked in all cases sans one. There are mini world bosses that appear called Titans. These require a bit of tactical strategy as they can deal and soak a lot of damage. Still they can be taken down solo if you are smart.

Titans. They are annoying, bullet sponges, but killabe and can have descent loot drops.

Yeah you can play through the majority of this game solo, at least I have so far, and it is not overly difficult. You can also queue up with three randos to accomplish missions and quests. I have done a few rando groups and it is either goes really well or……it is a trio of annoying twitchy spastics flying about. It seems there is no in-between.

There is also, for the time, one Stronghold mission I can queue for. This is basically  a dungeon/ raid for this game. It is pretty straight forward with any wacky mechanics or tactics which will inevitably be in the Stronghold in the future. You know what I love about wacky mechanics in dungeons/raids….. nothing. I just can’t wait to have to learn silly raid mechanics for these Stronghold missions in the future (insert thumbs down motion and wet fart noise here).

There is also the option of Free Play. This is nothing more than flying around the world of Bastion looking for collectibles, minor world quests and taking in the scenery. It is a nice change of pace from the missions and story of the game. It is also the best chance to take in the amazing world that has been built. The world of Bastion is really beautiful and expansive both horizontally and vertically.

 Your home base is a place called Fort Tarsis this is where there is an attempt at some RPG stuff. Basically you walk around and chat with people. You choose one of two dialogue options and you may gain some faction reputation from your talking choice. You know a Bioware title has to have some dialogue choices. It is not my favorite activity in the game.

GOOD/BAD STUFF

After 20 levels I really enjoy this game! Is it perfect? Of course not, but I don’t think it deserves the harsh criticism it has garnered.  I know this is a “looter/shooter” game and the loot drop rates seem fine to me. I mean am I getting great stuff at the end of every mission or Stronghold run? Nope. Do I expect to get every great drop every time. Hell no!  After playing WOW and every version of Diablo I have become accustomed to not getting the loot I want when it drops. Yet, when I do get that upgrade piece of gear I really want, man does it feel great! I know the end game has players miffed as they are not getting the super special gear, marks, trinkets, baubles and the like as often as they want. Boo-frackin’- Hoo! The whole point of end game stuff is running the same raid, dungeon, quest over and over and over and over again until you get your special gear drop. Well that or get bored and quit because repeating the same event over and over expecting different results is the definition of madness isn’t it?

Is there a dearth of end game content as well. Yeah that probably does suck, but there is more stuff coming this month and beyond.

There are micro transactions and people hate those. Yet….they are only for cosmetics so you can just ignore them. Like you should. These don’t alter the game play, story etc.

The missions get repetitive. Well once again have you never played any other open world questing game. They all get repetitive! Go here kill this. Go here protect them. Go there recover an number of that. Yeah it gets boring, but these are side missions and they get boring in every game!

The main story is still compelling enough for me even though it has a familiar feel to it.

The voice work is really good.

The world of Bastion is just amazing!

Javelin customization with gear, looks and color is a bit I really enjoy and I have only tricked out one of the three suits I have. I still have to play with the Ranger and Storm suits too.

My Ranger and 2md Javelin suit. I have modded to look like Colonel Shepherd's armor from Mass Effect.

You level your gear and weapons while completing missions and killing baddies. I like  this touch too. It makes me want to run missions so I can unlock a better weapon or bit of gear that I can craft. This allows for making better weapons/ gear until I get that super cool drop item.

This is just a Destiny clone! Well at first I thought that too, but as you play the similarities to Destiny end pretty quick.

This is multi-player, but it doesn’t have to be. Sure I was happy to join a group on missions early on in my travels. Now as I have built to become a bullet soaking tank, I rarely run any mission with other players. It makes it more of a challenge at times, but it also means I don’t have to deal with the horribleness that is random  humanity as well.

Now the RPG element in Fort Tarsis is complete drek! I have started to just ignore talking to people. There is the chance to gain a little faction reputation, but that is only if you choose the correct dialogue choice it seems. I hate grinding for reputation and this feels worse than grinding. I don’t care about the citizens of Fort Tarsis unless they are wanting me to go kill, retrieve or protect something. This piddly RPG attempt is weak and feels tacked on due to the Bioware title attached to the game.

Not with you ya big creep-o!

As beautiful as Bastion is….the gun models for this game are pretty bland and uninspired. They all look way too similar. Even the names are pretty bland too. My favorite example is a shotgun called Scattershot? Really? Come on make an effort at least.

FINAL TAKE

I really enjoy the hell out of Anthem so far. I know my opinion can change in the next 12 levels, but right now it is a damn fun game! Is it the best Bioware has had to offer….no. Is it the worst? Oh, Hell no! It is a really fun 3^rd person flying shooter looter set in a beyond pretty world.