Its the open weekend for BioWare’s new IP, Anthem, and I, like any good gamer, took the opportunity to dip and test the waters.
My first impressions were that it reminded me of Warframe. That is until I worked out how to fly. After that, I felt like Iron Man. Comparisons to Bungie’s Destiny franchise are obvious, but in reality only as far as being in the same genre of a shared world shooter.
The game is essentially made up of two different sections. You have a hub, which unlike Destiny is not social, and is limited to walking around in first person talking to NPCs to get the context for all the story missions. The second section of the game is the third person flying, sprinting and fighting in the exosuit chunk of the game.
Both sections look good but the first person stuff at the moment feels like a bolt on. The action side is reminiscent of Mass Effects’ over the shoulder shooting, But the traversal methods set this game apart and I took great joy in scatting the Iron Man theme tune down the mic to my squad. The environments are suitability beautiful and the sound is awesome, especially when bullets ricochet off metal or when you ignite your jetpack.
Issues for me are the stupid number of load screens and the bolt on feel of the first person sections, but these could change by the time the full game launches later this month (though it is doubtful). Still, this wouldn’t stop me from buying and playing this with my boys later this year.
Watch my first playthrough of Anthem here: Anthem First Play
Watch me play as the Interceptor class: Anthem Interceptor Class
Image copyright of EA.
