As Anthem has proven to be yet another slow debut for a AAA game, I’m left wondering what it will take for a game of this magnitude to actually do well. These are my takeaways of what gamers want from a bigtime series like Anthem. Before I start, let me be clear: I didn’t hate Anthem. I went into it with realistic expectations, and they nearly matched what I was given. That being said, there are a lot of things that could have gone differently. I don’t think I’m alone in that thinking, seeing as Mass Effect: Andromeda sold nearly twice as many copies in its first weekend as the latest BioWare space epic. Nevertheless, let’s get to what gamers want from a  series like Anthem.  

Want: Relatable Characters

The dialogue during battles is not worth critiquing. Few games master in-mission dialogue, at least from the point of view that the story feels better for it. An interesting take on the development of Anthem’s world and story were the straight shots of characters sharing a little bit about their lives, experiences, and hardships. You feel for them in this perspective, whether they are truly selling a story of human struggle or not. That being said, one of the most disheartening parts of the delivery of many of the game’s major plot developments and world-building scenes were the lack of adequate facial expressions.

It was funny in Mass Effect: Andromeda watching faces switch seemingly at random during lines of dialogue, but it was also game destroying. Any amount of intricate storytelling falls flat when it cannot be delivered successfully, and the fact that we’re still struggling with this is a plague upon BioWare. Characters need to be relatable, and even if we draw from the stories in Anthem any sort of connection, they’re abolished by the sheer notion that a smiling NPC could be talking of struggle as readily as a stern face could be praising you for a job well done.

Don’t Want: Meaningless Mission Design

The types of missions you will be coming across are all laid out for you within the first three hours of Anthem. Press this button, return this to an area, and fight a horde within the perimeter of the checkpoint. I don’t mind the fact that the missions follow patterns, every game does this. Red Dead Redemption 2 is literally a shooting gallery and horse riding simulator after hour 5.

My problem with Anthem’s mission design is the fact that the setup to recreate the repetitive mission designs is so poorly done. I rarely felt like the story was driving me, and instead felt myself sizing up the mission to identify which type I would be forced to drone through again. Boss battles are even a bit repetitive, and the fact that bigger doesn’t always mean better shows me that the missions are inherently flawed.

Want: Innovative Mechanics

Something Anthem nailed was the Javelin flying and combat. In my opinion, the flying is fun, exciting, and keeps things interesting enough to push forward longer than the story or mission design deserves. Other than some major hitbox issues, the feel of using the Javelin suit is natural, and honestly invokes feelings of familiarity. This is a huge plus for Anthem, and as the game looks to tweak things and build on the good while leaving behind the bad, this is a good base.

Don’t Want: Everything on the Table from Hour 3

Mechanics are fun in Anthem, but you also get a look at the entire picture of the game by the end of hour 3. It’s almost unbelievable for a main game of 15 hours, with endgame activities and co-op to build on, you have everything at your disposal so early in the game that there are nearly no new innovative ways to play unless you make things up yourself. That’s not what I want from a game like this. I don’t think others did either.

Conclusion

At the end of it all, gamers want story coupled with innovative, intelligent gameplay. The mechanics of Anthem make you feel good at the game, and that’s not easy to do. A huge detriment to these two prerequisites for a great game is the fact that neither have much depth. There does not have to be a killer story in Anthem to make it interesting, but facial errors and shallow dialogue make it hard to care about this game, even if you have every intention of loving it. Gamers are not being too critical in this case. Anthem fails to offer the things we pretended it would have on launch. Can it save itself? Time will tell.

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