Anthem

About Anthem

BioWare released Anthem on February 22, 2019 as a shared-world action RPG available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. You play as a Freelancer in a world filled with advanced tech and ancient mysteries. The game centers on piloting powered exosuits called Javelins to fight savage beasts and stop forces threatening humanity. After a failed mission two years prior, your character returns to Fort Tarsis to take on contracts for locals. While the story involves finding legendary gear and stopping a villainous group called the Dominion, the focus remains on flying these suits through open zones. It launched during a time when live-service games were trending hard, but the execution left many players confused about its identity as both a shooter and an RPG.

Gameplay

Sessions revolve around mounting a Javelin and jumping into the sky to complete missions across the Shrouded Lands. You spend most of your time flying, shooting energy weapons, and dodging enemy projectiles while managing cooldowns for special abilities. The core loop involves looting resources from fallen enemies or broken containers to upgrade your suit in the hangar. Missions often require you to destroy specific targets, escort NPCs, or clear out infested areas with a squad of three other players. Combat feels weighty but can become repetitive quickly since every enemy behaves similarly. You switch between four distinct Javelin classes that offer different playstyles ranging from heavy assault to stealth support. The controls are precise for flying mechanics, yet the ground combat often feels clunky compared to traditional shooters.

What Players Think

Player sentiment on PlayPile shows significant division with an average community mood of mixed but leaning negative. The IGDB score sits at 61.7 out of 100 based on 154 ratings, reflecting early frustration with the game's state at launch. Average playtime for those who finished the main story hovers around 25 hours, though many quit before reaching the end due to grind issues. Completion rates suggest that only about 35 percent of users saw the final cutscene. Review snippets frequently mention broken promises regarding loot drops and the lack of meaningful story depth outside the flight segments. Critics noted the live service elements felt forced rather than engaging. While some fans appreciate the flight physics, the overall reception indicates a game that struggled to meet expectations for its genre hybrid status.

PlayPile's Take

Anthem is worth playing if you enjoy flight mechanics and have patience for repetitive grinding without strong narrative payoffs. The price point varies by platform but often drops significantly on sale given the current lack of content updates. Achievements are standard with no major difficulty spikes, yet the journey to unlock them feels tedious. This title fits best for players who want a specific type of co-op shooter experience and do not mind dealing with clunky mechanics. The story provides some context but fails to carry the weight needed to sustain long-term interest. You will likely find yourself skipping dialogue in favor of getting back into a Javelin quickly.

Storyline

A famed Freelancer named Haluk rallies an army of Freelancers to enter the Heart of Rage and deactivate the Cenotaph. Among them is the player's unnamed character, a rookie undertaking their first mission. Accompanying them is Faye, Haluk's own wife and Cypher. Shortly into the mission, all the other Freelancers are killed, prompting Faye to call a retreat, with the player evacuating a wounded Haluk. The resounding failure causes people to lose faith in the Freelancers, whose ranks are now decimated. Two years later, the player has settled in Fort Tarsis, a frontier city between The Heart of Rage and Antium, Bastion’s capital. Partnered with a young Cypher named Owen, they make a living completing modest Freelancer contracts for the locals. Owen aspires to be a Freelancer, despite his psychic abilities being a hindrance to piloting a Javelin. An agent of Corvus named Tassyn hires the player to locate a spy who went missing while undercover with a smuggling gang called the Regulators. At a devastated Regulator hideout, they encounter a Dominion leader called The Monitor. The Monitor is a powerful Cypher, a skilled Javelin pilot, and participated in the assault on Freemark that created the Heart of Rage. The Monitor executes Tassyn's spy and takes a Shaper relic that they were hiding. Tassyn surmises that The Dominion is collecting relics for another attempt to reach the Cenotaph, and rehires the player to reach the Cenotaph first. She also notes that Haluk and Faye have spent the past two years developing a new plan to deactivate the Cenotaph, recruiting the pair to Tassyn's mission. Faye and Haluk believe that the only Javelin able to survive the Heart of Rage is General Tarsis’s legendary Javelin of Dawn. Using clues found in the tombs of Tarsis’s Legionnaires, they locate Tarsis’s secret tomb. Within her tomb, the player's obtains Taris's signet, which acts as a key to the Fortress of Dawn- the site of Tarsis's last stand and the Javelin of Dawn's resting place. At the Temple of Dawn, the player is challenged by trials of skill and resolve. After reenacting Tarsis’s last stand, an apparition of General Tarsis declares the player to possess the qualities of a Legionnaire of Dawn and grants access to her Javelin. Before the player can take possession of the Javelin of Dawn, their own Javelin freezes up. Owen appears and takes credit for sabotaging their Javelin so he can take the Javelin of Dawn for himself. He plans to accept The Monitor's offer to spare Fort Tarsis in exchange for assisting him with the Javelin of Dawn, and accuses the player of keeping him from his dream to be a Freelancer. Before Owen leaves in the Javelin of Dawn, Faye scans its unique shielding module, the Shield of Dawn, hoping that it can be duplicated so the player can enter the Heart of Rage with their own Javelin. Haluk and Faye succeed in building a copy of the Shield of Dawn, but are unable to activate it. At the same time, Tassyn arrives to announce that The Dominion are nearing the Heart of Rage. Tassyn also reveals that she hired the player at Faye's own request in order to replace Haluk's role as a Javelin pilot. Upset, Haluk flies his Javelin to the Fortress of Dawn to find a way to activate the Shield of Dawn, but is ambushed by The Dominion. The player arrives to find that Haluk was saved by Owen, who apologizes for his betrayal. As a peace offering, Owen gives up his own Shield of Dawn before leaving. After activating the Shield of Dawn on their Javelin, the player returns to the Heart of Rage, with Faye and Haluk providing remote support. The player discovers that The Monitor has used the conduit to merge with the Anthem, and is forced to fight him. After The Monitor dies, Faye uses her powers to deactivate the Cenotaph and close the Heart of Rage. While celebrating in Fort Tarsis, the player is pulled away by Tassyn to see the corpse of a Urgoth recently discovered and killed inside of Bastion's borders. Suspecting another crisis, the player is asked to be ready to help again.