Anthem Review

The javelin flight is the one thing everybody agrees on. Diving through a canyon, skimming a waterfall to cool your thrusters and pulling up into a hover to fire is the most exhilarating movement in any loot shooter, and the Bastion is a gorgeous, overgrown place to do it in. Nothing else worked. Missions were four shapes repeated, the loot tables were mathematically broken at launch in ways that made drops meaningless, and the endgame consisted of three strongholds, one of which reused a story boss.

A studio famous for companions and conversation gave you a social hub with no camera control, walking speed and nobody worth talking to. Loading screens fired between every zone and after every menu. The reporting that followed described years without a decided design, and a full rebuild was announced and then quietly cancelled two years later. What remains is an argument that a single sublime mechanic cannot carry a game that has nothing behind it.