Anthem is the new big game from BioWare. But does it also satisfy BioWare fans? Cortyn tries to answer that question.
Anthem is BioWare’s big game of 2019. But how does Anthem perform in the expectations of a BioWare fan? Is the game worth it for someone who liked Mass Effect or fell in love with the Dragon Age series?
To get straight to the point: I have loved most of BioWare’s games, even the more controversial titles. I enjoyed Dragon Age, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and the entire Mass Effect series.
I even had fun with Andromeda and consider it to be a fundamentally solid game. I even loved the extremely controversial ending of Mass Effect 3 because I support the indoctrination theory.
What I mean to say is: I can get into many things with BioWare games and find joy in them, even if some fans’ expectations were disappointed.
In the week of “Early Access,” I played Anthem extensively and already formed my opinion about the game.
Anthem is not a typical BioWare game
The most important point first: Anthem is not a typical BioWare game. There are no branching dialogues with significant story decisions or compelling romances.
You won’t find a companion system or moral choices that lead to different endings in the narrative. Those who expected that from Anthem will be bitterly disappointed.
And yet BioWare has drawn on many elements that primarily made Mass Effect great. We have already explained in this article that the combo system and entire types of enemies stem 1:1 from Mass Effect.
The actual gameplay also strongly resembles the last installment of Mass Effect, but offers many more possibilities due to the option to fly.
And you can’t deny it: Flying with the Javelins is fun. Diving down on enemies, throwing bolts of lightning or fireballs, shooting with various weapons – all of this is really enjoyable. The focus here is clearly on the abilities of the individual Javelins, but the cooperation within the group is really good.
And yet long-time BioWare fans will miss something, because …
Many parallels, but the heart is missing
BioWare games in the past had a mostly very clear focus: the story. The narrative was always in the foreground and helped create a convincing world. The actual gameplay, meaning the combat and RPG systems, were mostly just tools to support the story.
One played for the next cutscene, the next great dialogue, or to finally bring a companion’s story to a conclusion.
In Anthem, it is different. The gameplay is in the foreground and the story is secondary. If you walk through Fort Tarsis (the game’s “base”), you do discover some background information, but it is significantly less rich than in other BioWare games.
Even worse, at times the story has been a disruptive element for me, holding me back from the action.
That BioWare has made me find the action in a game more interesting than the story is both nice and sad.
The enjoyment of a story is a matter of taste and definitely not an objective criterion for evaluation. Personally, I liked the story, but at some points it felt a bit too thin, and often it was a stumbling block that made cooperative play difficult or forced me into long dialogues when I actually wanted to explore the game world more.
Conclusion: Anthem is a great game, but not for everyone
Anthem is not the big gaming revelation of 2019 for me – especially not as a BioWare fan. I fear that Anthem will lose many players in just a few weeks who have grown tired of it.
But that is perfectly fine. Anthem is a solid game that definitely provides enjoyment for 20 to 30 hours and may keep some players engaged for longer.
However, I doubt that it will keep hardcore gamers entertained for weeks and months. A few hours with friends on the weekend is fine.
But I wouldn’t expect much more from Anthem unless the developers pull a few big surprises out of the hat.
Do you share this opinion? How do you perceive Anthem as a “BioWare fan”?
Why our shoe man is excited about Anthem, he reveals here:
