Anthem (video game)

Anthem (video game)
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Title	Anthem
Developer	BioWare
Publisher	Electronic Arts
Director	Jonathan Warner
Designer	Mark Darrah
Engine	Frostbite
Platforms	PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One
Released	February 22, 2019
Genre	Action role-playing, multiplayer
Modes	Multiplayer, online

Anthem (video game) is a 2019 action role-playing game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts. The game features cooperative multiplayer in a shared open world where players pilot powered exosuits called Javelins to explore, combat, and complete missions across a living landscape influenced by ancient technology and factional politics tied to the Shaper relics and the mysterious Anthem itself. Anthem's development and launch intersected with controversies around live service design, corporate restructuring at Electronic Arts and franchise stewardship debates involving studios such as Bioware Edmonton, BioWare Austin, and publishers like Activision and Bethesda Softworks.

Gameplay

Anthem's gameplay combines third-person shooting, aerial traversal, and loot progression in a persistent online environment influenced by titles like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and shared-world shooters such as Destiny and The Division. Players choose from four Javelin classes—Ranger, Colossus, Interceptor, and Storm—each with unique loadouts, abilities, and movement profiles that echo class systems from Diablo III, World of Warcraft, and Guild Wars 2. Missions occur across regions such as the Freeport, Leviathan, and Fortress of solitude analogues inspired by locations like Bastion and Nexus while collecting gear tiers comparable to Borderlands and Path of Exile. Combat emphasizes verticality and environmental hazards reminiscent of encounters from Killzone 2, Halo 3, and Gears of War with a progression loop of crafting, upgrading, and modding equipment using currencies and materials akin to Destiny 2 and Warframe.

Plot

The narrative centers on Freelancers—contracted pilots operating Javelins—who navigate conflicts among factions including the Dominion-like militia, the Shaper-influenced remnants, and archaeologist factions comparable to Indiana Jones-style explorers. Story beats reference mythic devices and ruins that mirror plot elements from BioShock Infinite, Mass Effect 2, and Stargate-style ancient tech mysteries, as protagonists investigate the Anthem's nature while confronting a catastrophic emergence reminiscent of disasters in Apocalypse Now and The Day the Earth Stood Still. Key characters and political intrigue draw on narrative techniques used in Dragon Age: Inquisition and Mass Effect 3, with themes of hubris, creation, and unintended consequences paralleling narratives from Frankenstein and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Development

Anthem's development was led by BioWare studios shaped by leadership experienced on Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises, and utilized the Frostbite engine previously deployed on titles like Battlefield 1 and FIFA 19. The project involved collaborations between art teams influenced by Gears of War 4 aesthetic approaches and engineering teams familiar with online frameworks from Battlefield 4 and Star Wars Battlefront II. Development cycles saw input from producers and creative directors whose past credits include Mass Effect: Andromeda and narrative designers from Dragon Age: Inquisition, while corporate oversight by Electronic Arts executives influenced decisions comparable to other live-service pivots at Activision Blizzard and Ubisoft. Workflows incorporated iterative testing, multiplayer netcode challenges similar to those faced by No Man's Sky and Anthem's contemporaries, and performance tuning across PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.

Release and Updates

Anthem launched in February 2019 following beta periods and promotional events mirroring practices used by Blizzard Entertainment and Square Enix for major releases; post-launch support promised frequent updates, seasonal events, and an overhaul roadmap referencing "Anthem Next" ambitions analogous to substantial reworks undertaken by Final Fantasy XIV and No Man's Sky. Live-service plans included loot rebalancing, new endgame activities inspired by Destiny raids, and quality-of-life fixes reminiscent of post-launch trajectories seen with Warframe and Tom Clancy's The Division 2. Despite patches and content drops, development shifts and internal restructuring at Electronic Arts led to cancellations and eventual suspension of major redesign efforts, paralleling restructuring patterns at Treyarch and Irrational Games in prior industry examples.

Reception

Critical reception ranged from praise for Anthem's art direction, flight mechanics, and musical score drawing comparisons to composers and cinematic influences across Howard Shore-style orchestration and franchise soundtracks, to criticism over technical issues, loot progression, narrative pacing, and live-service implementation similar to critiques applied to Mass Effect: Andromeda and No Man's Sky at launch. Reviews compared mission design and open-world traversal to Horizon Zero Dawn and multiplayer balance to Destiny 2, while player community response and engagement metrics echoed debates around microtransactions and content cadence in titles from Electronic Arts, Activision, and Epic Games.

Legacy and Impact

Anthem's legacy influenced debates on AAA live-service development, studio management, and franchise stewardship within industry discourse alongside examples from No Man's Sky redemption stories and Final Fantasy XIV relaunch models. The title prompted reassessments of engine suitability for role-playing experiences, informed postmortem analyses by studios like Rocksteady Studios and CD Projekt Red, and contributed to conversations at conferences hosted by GDC and E3 about scope, player retention, and post-launch roadmaps. Anthem's mixed commercial and critical outcomes affected career trajectories of developers, corporate strategies at Electronic Arts, and served as a case study in industry reporting by outlets such as Polygon, Kotaku, and Game Informer.

Category:2019 video games