Anthem Review: 4 Ups & 9 Downs

2. The Excellent Sound & Voice Acting

If you're dead-set on playing Anthem, at least make sure you try it out with headphones, because this game's sound mix is absolutely insane.

The purr of your Javelin flying through the air and the punchy gunfire effects are the easy standouts, the latter packing an uncommon heft which really ups the visceral ante during more intense firefights.

Sarah Schachner's musical score isn't hugely creative, but it nevertheless does a solid job selling the epic scale, even if it's sometimes employed in unintentionally comical narrative moments that end up falling rather flat.

Despite the writing proving pretty wonky throughout, most of the voice acting is meanwhile surprisingly solid.

They're sometimes doing the best they can with truly rancid dialogue, sure, but the V.A. lacks the stilted, robotic feel that still accompanies so many AAA video games.