Anthem is going to die next week. That’s not me being hyperbolic: Once EA shuts off Anthem’s servers on Jan. 12, the always-online loot shooter will be rendered unplayable. It’s an unceremonious end for any game, even BioWare’s black sheep that launched to decidedly mixed reception seven years ago.
I purchased Anthem in Nov. 2023 for a whopping $2 (cheaper than a slice of pizza or subway ride in New York City) yet never installed it until a week ago, like many games in my backlog. Though, all the other [number redacted] games I own and have yet to play aren’t staring death in the face like Anthem is, meaning now is not just as good a time as any to play Anthem, it’s my last and only chance to play it. I haven’t yet finished it, and maybe won’t with it having less than a week left on life support, but I’ve enjoyed my time with Anthem. It has good bones, despite not achieving the same highs as BioWare’s best, and those bones don’t deserve to die.
The main appeal of Anthem is its mech-based combat. You’ll pilot a Javelin, a robotic suit of armor, as you travel its map lootin’ and shootin’. Flying around as a Javelin makes Anthem our best “Iron Man simulator” to date. Your suit will heat up when flying, meaning you’ll have to dive straight down before dramatically swooping back up to cool it down, kind of like plunging and gliding around in the Batman Arkham games. Except in Anthem, you’ll also do barrel rolls and hover to shoot up some enemies.
Anthem’s flight mechanics were new for BioWare in 2019, but by then, the studio had wholly refined the third-person shooting that complements the game’s traversal, thanks to its work on the Mass Effect games. Shotgunning an enemy to the face before switching to an assault rifle to take down foes in the distance plays great.
But you have more than just guns in your arsenal; each of the four Javelin types have different special abilities and ultimate abilities, keeping you well loaded out on the battlefield. The tank-like Colossus Javelin has various rocket launchers and cannons, while the nimble Interceptor Javelin throws ninja star-like projectiles for heavy damage. I’ve played mostly as an Interceptor and have wreaked havoc with its reliance on melee combat, dashing enemy to enemy, slicing them up with swords. Even when playing solo — I’ve rarely come across another player in public lobbies — Anthem is an exhilarating time.
Where Anthem fails to deliver is in the areas you’d expect a BioWare game to excel at. The developer is known for character-driven, choice-based storytelling in its Mass Effect and Dragon Age games, yet none of that is present in Anthem. You play as a Freelancer (not as cool-sounding as Shepard, or Pathfinder, or Rook, or…) who barely survives a cataclysmic event that kicks things off.
The Freelancer isn’t a realized character, with the dialogue options not having as much weight in defining him as you’d expect in a BioWare game. He’s mainly just carried along for the ride, and Anthem lacks any meaningful ability for player choice to influence the game’s events; deciding to save or free the Rachni queen, you will not be doing.
Most storytelling happens in exposition-filled snoozefest cutscenes and its opening cinematic, all full of proper noun soup. Words like Anthem of Creation, Coalition, Heart of Rage, Cenotaph, Dominion, and the Monitor are thrown around with little reason to care about any of them. Missions just shepherd you between visually similar locations to either rescue some scientists or gather some items. There’s little variety in mission structure in Anthem (so good thing the gunplay works so well).
Despite those failings, however, there are worse ways to kill an afternoon than by playing Anthem. After Anthem dies, you may not remember any of its characters or what the hell the plot even was, but you will remember the feeling of piloting a Javelin. BioWare aced the minute-to-minute gameplay of Anthem, and the game feels similar to Mass Effect Andromeda (which isn’t all that bad of a game!) in that its top-notch gameplay carries a title that falls short elsewhere.
Just because Anthem was never a GOTY contender doesn’t mean it deserves to go away forever. Plenty of “mid” games can still land with dedicated fanbases, and I’m no stranger myself to holding out hope for more from franchises that bombed. Unfortunately for Anthem, its fanbase only has a few days left to champion it. At least I got my $2 worth.
