Anthem is EA’s just-released online multiplayer action-RPG from developer BioWare, the makers of Mass Effect and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Curious how it’s doing with critics? So are we.
Reviews of the game are fresh off the printing press as Anthem just came out for PC, PS4, and Xbox One on February 22, 2019. The open-world game features both single-player and co-op elements, and while it is being touted for its impressive graphics, the gameplay is being described as uninspired.
A common complaint across the reviews is that the game is currently in an unfinished state and that the story is a bit of a garbled mess. PC Gamer‘s Steven Messner writes that “Anthem’s disjointed story, boring loot, repetitive missions, and shallow endgame are all disappointing.”
IGN‘s James Duggan argues that “Anthem has energetic combat” but that “it saves too much of what precious little content it has for the endgame, making playing through its mismatched story a tediously repetitive grind.”
GameRevolution‘s Mack Ashworth is even less optimistic for the future of Anthem. “I feel like fixing this game goes beyond patching glitches, squashing bugs, and then cramming in expansions. To bring this title up to the must-play level, many aspects of the game need a full overhaul,” he writes.
The rest of the reviews are not much better. And while the game may improve as it continuously receives patches and updates, Anthem is currently averaging just a 60 out of 100 on Metacritic and receiving a 4 out of 10 user score. It’s safe to say that this is not the reception that EA and BioWare were hoping to receive as they rolled out an entirely new video game franchise.
