Anthem: VIP Beta Review

TL;DR Review

Pros:

• Frantic, fun, and challenging combat
• Each class handles and plays differently
• Epic and impressive settings
• Variety of enemies and in enemy AI
• Traversal is awesome and make your feel free and powerful

Cons:

• Long load times
• Wandering around the fort is boring
• Frequent crashes and failed loads
• Having to recreate my squad before every mission got tedious

Conclusion:

All I saw was potential. I enjoyed the combat and the teamwork aspects. I kept my pre-order and I look forward to playing in future betas and I will be suiting up in my Javelin on day 1.

Anthem: Post Beta Thoughts

I can’t even remember how long I have been excited to get my hands on a Javelin and really get a feel for what Anthem would have to offer. That being said I have also been very cautious to not allow my expectations to grow to high. I learned this lesson on several other Triple A titles that failed to deliver on their grand promises (I am looking at you Destiny and The Division) these game still provided hours of game play and some great moments playing with friends but they always lacked something and I left disappointed.

Anthem, while garnering my attention and interest, has made me nervous to commit. With development delays and lofty promises regarding experience and game play, needless to say I have tempered my expectations.

Last weekend I finally got my chance and got to participate in the VIP demo and I could not be happier with the result. Again, it was not a flawless experience there were several crashes that closed me out of the game, long periods of watching loading screens, and even having to manually close the game to load back into game play.

Even with all the hardships whenever I was in a mission I had so much fun. It was great exploring on my own or completing missions with a full fire team. The game really shined when we assaulted the stronghold. It required exploration, puzzle solving, and lots and lots of combat.

What struck me the most about the demo was the different ways to win at combat. You could fly to a new vantage point or get behind enemies. You could combo attacks for huge damage boosts. You could pop you ultimate and level the entire enemy force.

I look forward to the full launch of Anthem and will play as much as they let me until the official launch. For my overall impressions lets just say that I am starting to let my self get excited to play though I haven’t fully committed to the Anthem hype train.