Anthem: Quick thoughts after the VIP demo weekend

Hey guys, Kevin here. People have been asking, since I write about video games and all, what my thoughts were on the Anthem VIP demo. So, here you go.

I got into the Anthem VIP demo a day late. It didn't (and still doesn't, but more on that in a bit) seem like a game I need to play on Day 1 and also, as a general rule, I don't pre-order games unless publishers really sweeten the deal for me (Yakuza 6: The Song of Life included Yakuza 0 so that was a no-brainer). So, I didn't pre-order Anthem and, therefore, just assumed I didn't have access to the early demo. But, I also have an EA Access subscription so, it turns out I did. By the time I got the game downloaded and had time to play it, I had about a day and a half to give it a real run.

So, what did I think? Well, thank you for asking.

To start with, I read all the stories about the issues with the demo, and my limited playthrough certainly had my share of them, as well. There were a few times where my game froze while loading, and I had to restart the game to get anywhere. I came into this demo, however, with the mindset that it was going to be more like a beta than an actual demo - that's probably not the actual reality of the situation, but it kept my temper tantrums to a minimum, so that was good.

Once I got into the game, however, I really didn't have any problems. No bugs, glitches or crashes on my end. Not saying the demo is free of them, obviously, but I didn't run into them.

After deciding if your character is going to be a dude or a lady, the Anthem demo drops you into the first-person mode inside... wherever it is your characters hang out. I don't know if it's because I wasn't paying much attention or if they didn't do a very good job of explaining the game's backstory, but the lore of the game and everything else going on around me went *waves hand over head, makes wooooshing sound*.

Also, the supporting NPCs that you interact with - there's some basic "pick your dialogue" type interactions with some characters - aren't particularly interesting. At least, the ones you can talk to, anyway. Some have a "you can't speak to this person in the demo" notice attached to them when you try to have a word. As if being able to talk to random bald dude #5 is going to be what finally convinces me to play the game.

I got the important stuff - at least what I assume is the important stuff - the population is being subjugated or something and we're fighting back using these kick-ass robotic armor called Javelins. And they really are kick ass, let me tell you. They look cool, that have cool weapons, and they have both rockets boots and jetpacks. If you bought a suit of robot armor without either of those things, ask for your money back - you got ripped off.

This is how you do power armor.

After you get your javelin - that's what they call the armor you wear - customized and get out onto the map, the javelins control like a dream. The controls are intuitive to the point that I figured out what does what on my own fairly quickly - and I'm kind of dumb so that's saying something. Aiming is mapped to the left trigger, main weapon is mapped to the right, which is pretty much my jam when it comes to games like this, so I was pretty happy.

Anthem is certainly easy on the eyes, at least.

The game runs on the Frostbite engine, so after seeing my surroundings, my thoughts immediately went to Mass Effect: Andromeda - but this time, that's a good thing. Like it or not (and I know most of you are in the "not" camp), Andromeda DID have some pretty nice looking environments. And, so did this Anthem demo. Environments are detailed, water looks nice, it's a good looking game.

The map wasn't too hard to navigate, either. Even if I didn't know exactly what I was doing or why I was doing it, at least I had no trouble figuring out where to do to do it.

There were plenty of other javelin jockeys (or whatever they're gonna be called, I guess) running around completing missions and shooting at each other and all the other stuff you do in a game like this. I didn't have the opportunity to participate in a mission with other players: I didn't really know any other people that were online while I was playing, and teaming up with randoms is a good way to get your mother called mean names. That'll have to be something for the demo time this upcoming weekend.

If you have any interest in this game at all, and weren't turned off by the issues the demo went through last weekend, I suggest checking out the public demo in a couple of days. At the very least, it'll be interesting to see what changes and improvements EA and BioWare have made based on user feedback - they've already have done so even before the demo, so it's not like they're completely oblivious.

Let's see what else you've got, Anthem.

For those interested, I'll be back after the weekend with my thoughts on the public demo, so keep an eye out for that. And be sure to share your own thoughts on the demo - or just the game in general - down below.

And let's try to avoid calling my mom a mean name, all right? Thanks.