How was the Anthem Demo? Am I Still Excited?

By: Ryan Ramakrishnan

Bioware’s upcoming shared world shooter take on the role-playing genre has me super excited but not for any of the words just mentioned, save for “shooter.” I am looking most forward to the abilities the Javelins will provide me regarding movement. All of the marketing of “Anthem” thus far has lead me to believe come February 22, I will be able to feel like Iron Man. With the demo behind us, did it make me feel like my own version of Tony Stark in his prime? Did the gunplay feel good? Did the demo give me good vibes for what “Anthem” will bring?
For starters, I must say that gameplay does feel quite good. I was expecting it to be a blast when in the sky but combat was going to be a concern. Never did I expect “Anthem” to not be a fun shooter but I wasn’t sure what it’d feel like. The first gunshot and the few after that were fine; however, once I was in the air and going crazy, spraying my ammo with rapid fire, I felt great. The gunplay isn’t anything unbelievable but it works as a third person shooter, thanks largely to what happens around the core shooting.

My Javelin, the Ranger, had a missile of sorts to launch, as well as a grenade. In between cool times for one, I’d launch the other and then just shoot a lot of bullets the entire time. These heavier weapons felt amazing. I loved the impact of the explosives. And best of all was a special ability that took quite a long time to build up. But once it did, I got to shoot multiple heat seeking missiles at once and it was like something out of “Iron Man 2.” It is things like that that make me love video games, that make me stoked for “Anthem’s release date.”

Enemies in their appearance were a mix of robots and aliens I suppose you can say in the most general terms. I care more about what it felt like dealing with them. I found them to not be too spongy with bullets, nor were they too brutal. However, some enemies, really just a few types, including what seemed like a boss fight, were bullet sponges and true tanks. These menacing enemies took time to kill, some took what felt like ages to eliminate, even with allies. Defeating them through the fun combat was rewarding; however, I feel this would be a perfect segue to talk about what I hated in the “Anthem” demo.

Instead I’ll save it so we can talk about the incredible movement. Versatility in the air and even on foot is the name of the game. “Anthem” allows you to boost yourself with the most satisfying sound effects, pleasantly like something out of, you guessed it, “Iron Man.” The boosters are triggered as you push to sprint and then takeoff. Flying through the skies of “Anthem” was amazing. I was honestly so pleased with how it felt so smooth and looked so awesome together. And what you can do in the sky isn’t just simple flying.

I assume once the main game launches later this month, we will have many abilities accessible for in-flight mobility and versatility; however, for now, the demo satisfies. I loved stopping mid-air to shoot down some enemies and then to slam down with an epic melee attack, one that could also be used on foot. And when you’re in the air soaring around, you are able to swing around and change directions smoothly or stop short with no damage to avoid overheating. What’s also nice is that the overheating doesn't seem to be overly structured, so you can presumably get some good airtime before the inevitable. Traversal is so fun and thrilling that I spent much of my demo time soaring around instead of actual mission objective completion.

Let’s get back to the one issue I had with combat. I inevitably was going to die at some point. The enemies got tough and I am new to the game, like the rest of the players I suppose. And when my death did come it had to be during what can only be described as the end of the level boss fight. This tank that took an absurd amount of bullets to destroy took me out instantly before I could safely get away to heal. My teammates were not allowed to revive me since it was the boss fight. As a result I gotta watch them fight. This would be fine in a game where spectating is actual spectating. Instead, “Anthem” has you see the action in monochrome with a massive red image in the middle of the screen reminding you you died. And that watermark of a message went nowhere. I genuinely didn’t want to leave the mission but couldn’t stand to watch the minute amount of content the game would even let me see thanks to my death so I opted to play my Switch in the meantime.

As I played through “World of Light” missions in “Super Smash Bros Ultimate,” I glanced every couple of minutes up at the TV to see the same cluttered action of my teammates clearly unable to beat this monster. It took some 10 minutes before I was miraculously allowed to be revived. Low and behold I start shooting at the boss and then it kills me again. It didn’t take long the second time around though thanks to the game deciding to close things out altogether.

So this leads me to the issue I read many had in both runs of the demo. “Anthem” VIP demo players and open demo players the weekend after (my experience) found the servers to be unstable to say the least. I too witnessed this interrupt me a few times. I thought it was stupid at first but then frustrating as the game would randomly disconnect me in the middle of a dialogue or a fun flight imitating Iron Man. These connection issues are obviously intended to be fixed in the game’s core release. I do however have to be concerned, given the fact that Bioware is releasing “Anthem” very soon and clearly has some stability problems with their always-online game.

Outside of the combat, flight and mobility in the gorgeous environments, I found exploring the main hub to seem a bit dull though it was largely limited due to the fact that it was only a demo. Walking around in first person, you can talk to a couple of people but the real conversations and mission grabbing will obviously come with “Anthem” official launch.

The one last thing that has me hyped for “Anthem” besides its actual gameplay is customization. If you are someone who is into customizing your avatar, character, armor, etc. in games, I think this will have you covered. The demo offered me just one or two extra options for a few parts of my Javelin, as well as colors and shades to the armor, all of which looked awesome. I of course was cut short midway thanks to the aforementioned server issues. Before that I did find “Anthem” customization teases to be wildly exciting, given the fact that we will gave plenty of loot and gear to mess around with to our liking across all Javelins too.

I ultimately enjoyed the gameplay a whole lot in the open demo for “Anthem.” Ironically, I pre-ordered the game at Gamestop awhile back for PS4 and did put the codes in and all yet failed to find a way to play the VIP demo but I was glad to see the open one available on the weekend I happened to be home sick. I played a lot of it and enjoyed my time with the smooth flight and action-packed gunplay and combat, mainly the movement though. And I think there is a lot of fun on the way in “Anthem;” however, those server problems cannot be ignored, especially since they ruined my experience with the otherwise delightful demo more than a couple of times.