Okay we decided to give a few AAA games a go this week, so Canadian developer BioWare’s Anthem (2019) gets our review treatment.
Despite reading middling reviews for this action role-playing game, we thought it was pretty good fun. Nice concept, crunchy gameplay, but a little repetitive.
BioWare abandoned the game in 2021 after poor commercial results, so this is the final product! And it’s been unfairly maligned, we think. It’s…
Anthem the Action RPG Charges a Reasonable Freelancing Rate
Hello there! This thing is available on PC, PS4, and the Xbox One. That’s should you wish to give the SOB a whirl.
Anthem is set on the planet of Coda. On it there’s this mysterious energy called the Anthem of Creation (basically The Force from Star Wars) with which advanced technological relics can harness super powers.
You take control of a Freelancer. This is a human hero (it can be human male or human female—we chose the latter) who can don a powerful exosuit that lets you fly about the place and all that jazz.
Your job is to defend the remaining humans, complete contracts, earn money, and power up your gear. Got it!?
Well, the opening section to Anthem is fantastic.
It’s very meaty, crunchy, cinematic, and intense. It really draws you into the game very well with the mech suits and flying mechanics. It promises a lot and sets up the basics of what’s ahead.
You end up at a base and have to get contracts (the “freelancer” bit) and complete missions to earn swag and upgrade your mech suit etc.
We’ll note here the game is intended as a co-op experience. It actually tells you it’s more fun to play with up to four people. Which it can be, depending on who you get lumped with during online play.
But there’s no reason why you can’t play this by yourself as you romp along (which is what we decided to do in the end).
All good stuff and in bursts we had fun with Anthem.
But the main problem on a long-term playing basis is its repetitivity. Missions just involve swarms of baddies appearing, which you have to gun down. Repeatedly. Over and over.
It drags as a core gameplay mechanic after a few hours and doesn’t really let up for the whole game.
It’s a bit lazy, to be honest, plus there’s a “fly through rings” mechanic to guide the player towards destinations. And that really reminded us of Superman on the N64 (regularly thought of as one of the worst games ever).
But those issues aside (although they are considerable issues) and Anthem is good fun.
It’s a big old dumb shooty game, really, but it looks spectacular and the mech suit flying stuff is just so well done and enjoyable to control. Very satisfying in that respect.
There’s a great soundtrack, too, from composer Sarah Schachner (more on that further below).
Anthem received mixed reviews from the gaming press. Destructoid handed it 7/10 (which we think is very fair), but other reviews often had it on the 5/10 scale.
Those extra two points mean a lot, bro!
It’s curious this critical reaction from the gaming press. We do like observing the general consensus for films, TV, books, games etc.
We just reviewed the massively disappointing Starfield, for example, which has managed to sneak in many perfect scores from the gaming press. Somehow.
Not that we’re suggesting those 10/10s are dubious at all (of course not!!), it’s just we certainly enjoyed Anthem a hell of a lot more, which got smacked with 6/10 loop with the press (the score we’d give Starfield).
There’s no denying Anthem isn’t perfect.
It’s a big, massive, dumb blockbuster of a game that packs in rampant action—flying and shooting, mainly. Yes, it gets repetitive.
But seeing as we picked it up on Xbox Game Pass to give it a whirl… you know, we just enjoyed the whole switch your brain off and enjoy escapist elements of it.
Plus, the game doesn’t take itself too seriously. BioWare didn’t get weighed down in any fancy pants profundity seeking (unlike Starfield), which makes it a breezy and light experience.
Pick-up-and-play, for sure, even if its RPG elements and repetitive shooting do drag down the enjoyment factor after a while.
Anthem’s Anthemic Soundtrack
Okay, the above was taken from the 2019 Game Awards. It’s a performance of Legion of Dawn. At the 13 second mark you’ll see composer Sarah Schachner, with the glasses on standing at the flashy keyboard thing.
She’s worked on some massive AAA games. Alongside Anthem here (which was a huge release), she’s composed soundtracks for the likes of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Assassins Creed titles.
There’s a sect of CoD bro gamers who explode in rage at diversity in gaming (pronouns, in particular, cause them all sorts of issues). It most be horrifying for them to find out a woman composed the music to their fave game series!! Poor little darlings.
Anyway, Anthem’s music needs to offer pulse pounding thrills and the like. It certainly delivers with big numbers such as Hidden Depths.
It’s got a good old orchestral sweep to it, but that does give way to more futuristic sounds and the like.
Particularly with modulated choir voices and electronic beats. But then the music does give way to more melodic moments when required.
All very good indeed. Anthem’s AAA soundtrack has all the extra bells and whistles you’d expect and clocks up at 90 minutes of music.
Of her approach to music making, Schachner told Junkee magazine in March 2019:
“I have quite a bit in my studio but I have to have everything plugged in and ready to go at all times so I can experiment and throw down ideas quickly. If I have to drag something out of a closet and set it up, I’ll probably lose the inspiration in those few minutes, so that keeps my gear hoarding in check to some degree. I typically have all of my acoustic string instruments precariously scattered around me and nothing is really off limits. I choose sounds based purely on emotion and if it conveys the right feeling. There are only twelve notes, but there are endless ways to shape a sound and I really enjoy that process of finding unique sounds for each project.”
The creativity process, people! We look forward to her future work.
