When Anthem, EA’s open-world RPG, was announced last year, I couldn’t help but get excited. The first few gameplay videos EA put out were nothing short of amazing, even though they didn’t show off too much in the beginning. The vast open world and the seamless transition from land, air, and water, makes exploration seem rewarding. However, I regret to say that after watching a few of the gameplay trailers, my enthusiasm has slowly diminished.
Before I get into what I feel is wrong with Anthem, I want to go into the thing that I feel Anthem will do really well. There is no denying the fact that Anthem is a beautiful game. As I stated before, the various ways of travel and the diversity in the landscape will be enough to keep anyone drooling at the mouth as they explore. Everything from the character graphics and design to the terrain is immaculately crafted to be as gorgeous as possible. I’ve seen rocky mountains, snowy hills and dense forests so far and I love the variety.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get into the things I feel are a bit underwhelming when it comes to what I’ve seen so far.
1. Unsatisfying World
No matter how beautiful the world is, if it feels empty, I wouldn’t want to explore it. Anthem is gorgeous to look at but sadly, I feel like there won’t be many rewards for going out of your way and scour each nook and cranny. It looks as if the developers created a world and sprinkled a few enemies between checkpoints to keep players interested. If we’ve learned anything from the many successful open-world games that have been released over the past few years, we know that story and easter eggs are a big deal. Taking a detour from the beaten path should yield many rewards for players and it’s more incentive to continue to explore the worlds that publishers go to so many lengths to create.
2. Lack of True Customization
The Javelins in Anthem look awesome. Between the four classes that were recently introduced, we can see that there are some variations to their appearance. The only problem is that there isn’t much evidence of true customization so far. From what I’ve seen, there are a lot of different things you can do to the paint of your Javelin as well as a few subtle changes to your armor pieces, but nothing major. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of paint variations that will keep me in the customization menu looking for that perfect look, but I need more than that to stand from the rest of the crowd. Most likely, hiding many of the different customization opportunities was a decision made by the developers to keep us intrigued until Anthem’s official release, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens.
3. I’ve heard this story before
The main mission of the Pilots (freelancers) who are brave enough to go out and fight off the enemies (dominion) is to protect the Anthem of creation from falling into the wrong hands. Now, is it just me or does this sound like something we’ve been through before? It kind of sounds like Guardians in destiny and their mission to protect the traveler from the forces of evil. Now, a game like Anthem won’t have a refreshing story as that isn’t the main point of the experience. A game like Anthem is more about the grinding and exploration, rather than the story that leads you to that point. Nevertheless, I would still like to experience a story that has something different to offer. I’m sure there are many more aspects that will go into the story behind the Anthem of creation as we watch the story unfold, so there could potentially be a lot more promise behind the plot.
4. Anthem Could Be A Cash Cow For EA
EA has dropped the ball way too many times Over the past year or so with the decisions they’ve made so far. The biggest backlash was brought on by their decisions surrounding microtransactions and Battlefront 2. I doubt EA will continue to make the same mistakes but it has been confirmed that Anthem will incorporate “cosmetic only” micro transactions. This is a good thing of course, as sources have stated that there will be no loot boxes within Anthem. However, knowing EA, there will be some sort of money grab from the community whether in the form of overpriced DLC, or any other way EA will try to justify their efforts. Let’s hope that EA learned their lesson and that I’m completely wrong in this sense.
5. Lackluster Enemies
When it comes to games that incorporate a vast open world as Anthem does, you can suspect to fight the same type of enemy repeatedly, but this isn’t always the problem. There has to be filler in between bosses to allow players to get familiar with their abilities and the terrain. However, there still needs to be variety in the enemies as we make our way throughout the game. So far, we’ve seen Titans in the gameplay. I don’t know if Titans are bosses or if they are just stronger enemies, but each one I’ve seen has had the same attacks when facing off against Javelins.
Be sure to check out the video version of this article below.
