Anthem

Beautiful world with interesting combat but underdelivers on story and loot. Repetitive content.

Beautiful open-world with excellent flying and stunning combat visuals. Confusing level design wastes time.

A competent action-RPG shooter with great core flight combat and elemental combo systems, but undermined by uninspiring loot, weak storytelling, and insufficient endgame content.

Anthem is a positive game with interesting mechanics and well-crafted systems.

A co-op action RPG with gorgeous graphics, great sound, and genuinely fantastic mech flight and traversal, but the gameplay falls flat fast. Combat boils down to spamming two abilities against the same handful of enemies and quests across roughly 25 hours, the social hub is tedious and unbelievable, loot and customization feel pointless, and there are only three thin strongholds plus constant loading screens. Thumbs down.

A scathing verdict: in its current state Anthem is an unfinished, not-consumer-ready product not worth its $60 price. Missions are repetitive fetch quests and point defenses, loading screens are excessive, endgame content is thin (only three reused strongholds), and bugs, disconnects, and broken difficulty scaling are rampant. The hub Fort Tarsis is lifeless and the cosmetic grind is punishing, though gorgeous environments and genuinely fun core gameplay hint at long-term potential.

Yahtzee: grindy live-service shooter with identity crisis between story and multiplayer.

AJ Angry Review: 4/10.

Before You Buy: skip.

EA: skip; tiring despite capable combat.