GAMINGBOLT’S MOST DISAPPOINTING GAME OF 2019:
ANTHEM
There’s a certain level of quality one expects from BioWare games (or expected anyway), and Anthem falls way, way below that benchmark. More than that, though, the game has a major identity crisis. It doesn’t know whether it wants to be a looter shooter or a narrative-driven RPG, and because of that confusion, it ends up being bad at both those things. A bad story, uninteresting (and broken) loot, a lack of content, a litany of technical issues, repetitive and boring missions, and worst of all, being almost entirely ignored by BioWare and EA since launch – to the extent that the game’s “roadmap” has been completely dropped (after it was delayed) – are all factors that have contributed to Anthem becoming one of the most high-profile AAA failures we’ve seen in years.
During very early development, BioWare were internally calling Anthem “Dylan”, because they wanted to make something that would have as big of an impact on games as Bob Dylan had on music. It seems simultaneously depressing and hilarious in retrospect, because Anthem is not the Bob Dylan of video games. It’s barely even the Justin Bieber of video games.
