Anthem is fascinating and flawed

Timing is everything. Anthem comes at the end of a scrabble of releases as the fiscal year ticks over, though it's the most high-profile of the lot; a vast, expensive pivot from a much-loved studio that's been under scrutiny in recent years, it's the epitome of AAA game production. There's loot and there's shooting and there are cosmetic microtransactions and a big day one patch that may well serve to smooth over the many rough edges of a game that's just enjoyed the earliest of its many release dates.

Beneath all that, there's the unmistakable shadow of another game. Even after the first ten hours, Anthem can't shake off comparisons to Destiny: there's the same loose set-up - a small group of elite agents holed up in a fort, teaming up to head out to the beyonds for adventures in pursuit of loot so that they might become more elite yet - and the same gloriously painterly sci-fi aesthetic. There's the same loop of missions that involve an awful lot of shooting, punctuated by downtime in a hub world where much of the story is doled out.

Anthem does have its own personality, though. Its world has character and context, two things that Destiny lacked upon its own launch. Walk the streets of the strangely muted hub of Fort Tarsis and there are snippets of conversation to dip into, characters to chat to and catch up with via lightly branching conversations (where, it's worth pointing out, your choices seem to have no impact on the action, unlike in BioWare's previous games). Here, I understand what's going on, who the key players are and what's at stake - even if none of it is particularly interesting. The backstory has none of the nuance or drive of a Dragon Age or a Mass Effect, but it does have the benefit of clarity.

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