Anthem Review: 4 Ups & 9 Downs

8. Multiplayer Is Incredibly Underwhelming

Anthem's key appeal is, of course, the ability to play the game in a squad of four Freelancers, scouring the lush world and taking down colossal enemies. Except, like so many online action-RPGs in recent memory, the end result is bizarrely restrictive and, as such, extremely disappointing.

For starters, communication is only permitted through voice chat, which about 90% of players aren't remotely interested in. Despite it being a feature of online PC games for over 20 years, there's no text chat here, nor even basic canned commands or emotes so you can signal to other players.

This can prove frustrating during missions where light puzzle-solving is required and the solution isn't always immediately obvious.

And honestly, what's fun about just silently teaming up with other people? It makes it feel like we're all playing our own campaigns together-alone rather than actually allying up to battle a common enemy - and that's basically the truth.

Elsewhere various other design choices feel intended solely to limit the fun: stray more than about 10 meters from your teammates and you'll get a proximity warning message, and if you don't return within a brief period, you'll be dragged there by force.

That's to say nothing of the promising but under-developed Freeplay mode, which for some reason is limited to just four players per instanced world, despite the reasonable expectation of around 16 players.

And worse still, there's no way to make basic indications to other players inhabiting your world. Apex Legends' brilliant ping system would've been perfect for Anthem, and certainly made those aforementioned communicative difficulties decidedly easier to tolerate.

Though there definitely are moments where Anthem's multiplayer sings, it overall feels so impersonal and detached. There is no charm precisely because the game doesn't allow players to display any of their own personality whatsoever.