MetaCritic Average: 60
OpenCritic Average: 60
TechRadar: 3/5
Anthem is an immensely fun game wrapped up in a dull story and a repetitive end-game. It will no doubt get better as time goes on, but this isn't a great starting point.
VG247 - No Score
I went into Anthem with an open mind. It's a game I wanted to succeed from a studio I've always been fond of. Unfortunately, it's everything everyone feared at reveal. It's a hollow experience that's been designed to appeal to the widest market possible while squeezing more money out of those who are hooked in by its doggy treat design.
Boomstick Gaming: 6.9/10
It's not quite the endlessly fun online grind-a-thon experience that will have you logging on nightly for months, but instead, Anthem is a fairly competent action RPG shooter.
CGMagazine: 7/10
Despite its abundance of bugs, narrative shortcomings, and an overall small pool of content, I still enjoyed the fun gameplay of Anthem and plan to revisit it after the game has developed a larger suite of content and events for me to experience. In its current state though, the experience is one I would recommend waiting on for people on the fence because it doesn't quite deliver yet on what Bioware envisioned for this game.
Flickering Myth: 5.5/10
Slick flying and gunplay collide with infuriating design choices throughout Anthem. But its biggest problem is a lack of soul – this is a cynical, committee-produced product bereft of any significant creative spark.
Arstechnica: No Score
But if I had the power to do so, I'd beg EA to cancel whatever expansion plans they have in store and get back to work on the Anthem that already exists. This game is freaking rad at its best, but it's just not done. It's not fun to have sessions with friends so constantly interrupted. It's not fun to keep quitting out of the main map just to check my loot and quest beats. It's not fun to fight these boring bad guys in these boring missions, again and again and again. It's not fun to feel confused by a lack of information all over the place.
Anthem has flashes of being a really good game, but what's the point if it's not fun?
Destructoid: 7/10
BioWare will need to build quickly on top of its shimmering jet-fueled foundation to hold people's interest, but folks looking for a new neighborhood to move into might want to give Anthem a try -- either now or after fixes and updates.
GameSpot: 6/10
Anthem has good ideas, but it struggles significantly with the execution. It's a co-op game that works best with no one talking; it buries genuinely interesting character moments and puts its most incomprehensible story bits at the forefront; its combat is exciting until you get to the boss fights and find your wings have been clipped. Even the simple, exhilarating act of flying is frequently interrupted by the limitations of your javelin, and you never quite shake that feeling of disappointment--of knowing, throughout the good parts of Anthem, that you'll inevitably come crashing back down.
IGN: 6.5/10
Anthem comes closer to succeeding as a co-op action RPG than it does as a story-focused game, but only does so after a trying grind through its repetitive main quests. And even at that, its standout elements like the flashy combat and mechanically rich bosses still have a long way to go in terms of polish, variety, and balance. I have hope that with time BioWare can capitalize on its strengths and turn Anthem into something worth investing all these hours into, but all indications are there's a lot of work to be done to reach that point.
PC Gamer: 55/100
Anthem's disjointed story, boring loot, repetitive missions, and shallow endgame are all disappointing. At least it's pretty.
Spiel Times: 7/10
Whether Anthem surpasses or fails to meet expectations depends largely on the audience who evaluates it. Devoted fans of BioWare may be disappointed that Anthem is not the next Mass Effect. It lacks the depth in worldbuilding and storytelling that the studio has shown in the past, and that may rankle with some long-time devotees of the studio known for their deep single-player RPGs. But those who were attracted to Anthem based on the promise of an exciting shared world looter shooter will find a lot to love in Anthem's satisfying flight and combat.
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