Anthem (video game)/YMMV

Awesome Music: The remixed version of the song "Uprising" by Muse that was used in the 2018 trailer.
Ensemble Darkhorse: After the gameplay reveal went public, the Freelancer Kim became a power-levelling Memetic Badass in the eyes of the fandom.
Flat Character: One criticism of the game is that the majority of characters are lacking in personality or character arcs. Only three of them really undergo character arcs (Halyk, Owen and the Monitor - and the latter is if power-induced insanity counts). Especially jarring is the lack of character arc for the player character.
Good Bad Bugs: The Gentle Touch Marksman Rifle has a strange bug. Every time a bullet is fired and hits a target, the gun gains a stack of the "Striker's Balance" buff, which reduces the recoil of the gun by fifty percent. However, once three stacks are reached, the gun appears to develop crooked sights, requiring the user to aim off to the left of the target to make the shots hit.
Harsher in Hindsight: The fact that the game is about a world abandoned by its creator deities before it was finished became this after the game came out and it became clear that the release version was unfinished and loaded with bugs (some of which were game-breaking or even console-wrecking).
Internet Backdraft:
- Starting with a news story saying that Anthem was "Do or Die" for BioWare, and that if the game fails the studio "could look very different in the future," many of their fans felt that EA was forcing Bioware into a Heads I Win, Tails You Lose situation with regards to Anthem. The perception is if the game succeeds, BioWare will produce and release new content for it and will producer fewer, if any, of the single-player, story-driven games that the fans expect from them. If Anthem fails, which is a growing concern following its low sales and mixed reviews following release, BioWare might be dissolved completely and absorbed into EA like so many other studios.
Memetic Mutation
- "Kim needs the XP."
- "It's not a Delay."
Narm: Several people have expressed their amusement over fact that the main villain of the game is named The Monitor, especially in conjunction with the game's infamously long and frequent loading screens.
- Random YouTuber: "The monitor fits perfectly as the main villain of Anthem. You're basically forced to watch it during every load screen. Menacing."
Overshadowed by Controversy: Hype for the game has been muted due to the performance of past Bioware and EA games. The flawed mixed bag that was Mass Effect: Andromeda and Dragon Age: Inquisition not living up to expectations tarnished the Bioware brand name in the eyes of many fans. The recent lootbox debacle over Star Wars Battlefront II (2017) has led many fans to suspect that EA will try to shoehorn lootboxes and microtransactions into Anthem. The departure of several key members of the development team, including lead writer Drew Karpyshyn, form the project provoked questions. A visit to the Edmonton studio during development by controversial media personality Anita Sarkeesian raised further questions and concerns about the game.
The Scrappy: Owen Corley. To some he already comes across as an annoying comic relief character and a bit of a Small Name, Big Ego. Then Owen betrayed the Freelancers by stealing the Javelin of Dawn and siding with the Dominion at a crucial moment. Owen did this because he thought the player character can't beat the Dominion and that they never gave him a chance to prove himself (even though Owen had already proven to be dangerously incompetent at piloting a Javelin). Then he stabbed the Dominion and the Monitor in the back after they hurt him for messing up their plans by not knowing how the Shield of Dawn needs Tarsis' Signet. After coming crawling back to the player character, does Owen doing something useful like giving back the Javelin of Dawn or using it to fight alongside the player character? No. He gave one of Helena's seals then fled to parts unknown and abandoning the fight completely. Going from annoying comic relief to a deluded selfish villain makes him probably the game's most hated character.
So Okay It's Average: The game has received mixed to negative reviews following release. Most of the critics state that on the whole, the game is solid and competently put together. However, a recurring complaint is that the character and story arcs are either subpar or aren't used to their full potential. There have also been some who claimed that the gameplay doesn't feel unique or polished enough to differentiate Anthem from its competitors within the genre, such as the Destiny series.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The memetic "Kim" from the trailers. Fans hoped she'd be a major part of the game, or at least a notable character, only for her to have no impact on the story.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- The Dominon assault on Freemark was one of the better received parts of the story. Had the battle been a playable tutorial, it would've introduced players to the world and setting through immersive gameplay. While the game did this with the tutorial mission trying to silence the Heart of Rage, many have said it would've been better to be a full playable mission rather than the cutscene and tutorial that was in the game.
- The Anthem of Creation itself is considered as a wasted plot element. By extension, some consider the The Shapers to be this; while the devs have said they're not like the Precursors in other Bioware games and in-game they're compared to gods, the game makes no progress towards revealing what they are or what happened to them. In his angry review, Angry Joe pointed out The Anthem could've been used to offer interesting gameplay scenarios like warping reality, reversing gravity, or even opening up new realities. All that it does in the game is spawn more enemies, with gravity manipulation only being mentioned by a side character.
Visual Effects of Awesome: The Gameplay footage shown in the reveal has the animations and graphics look absolutely stunning, to the point that many people are anticipating that there will be a graphical downgrade before the game comes out.
Win the Crowd:
- Though Anthem went on to become Bioware's lowest-rated game ever, many fans have been pleased with the amount of open communication between the developers and fans on social media.
- Regardless of how much of this was implemented into the game, Anthem's 2018 Game Awards trailer included personal stakes, the main villain's motivation and his goals. For many fans, the trailer's emphasis on story helped reassure them that Bioware hasn't forgotten its roots.
- Likely in response to the backlash over microtransactions, most of the material types for Javelins are unlocked purely via progression, with no microtransactions involved.