After squandering a lot of their built-in fanbase’s goodwill with Mass Effect: Andromeda, BioWare has quite a bit riding on Anthem’s reception. They really need to kick out a winn♒ing title, and🐓 with their demonstrated capacity for excellence, it’s not something that is entirely beyond hope.

And really, Anthem isn’t looking half bad. It’s a third person loot-and-shoot romp with RPG elements being billed under the “game as a service” model, one that is becoming increasingly prevalent in the industry after the success of titles like Destiny and The Division. That move, along with some lingering resentment concerning BioWare’s mishandling of the Mass Effect universe, has generated🐎 a considerable amount of negative press.

But that hasn’t stopped a great many players from digging in and having a blast with Anthem’s intense, fast-paced combat, beautifully crafted open world and impressive graphical fidelity. And if the game’s piqued your interest, it shouldn’t stop you either. If you’re ready to hop into your Javelin and take off, here are things we think you should know before taking on Anthem. We’re shooting for an even m♛ix of the good, the bad and the ugly here, so feel free to chime in with a comment if there’s anything you think we’ve missed.

20 ♛ How To Make The Most Of Your Je𒐪ts

Flying is one of Anthem's big draws, so it ma🅘kes sense to want to do it for as long as possible. Unfortunately, your afterburners will overheat eventually. In most circumstances﷽, anyway. There are a few tricks you can use to keep them running almost indefinitely.

Pulling up causes heat build up, but taking plunges and flying near bodies of water will cool them off. Even rainy weather helps to combat heat buildup. Flying through, or over the crest of a waterfall will reset your heat buildup entirely. Utilizing ♌all these tricks togeth🐈er, along with a well-timed dash or two, should keep you flying.

19 𓂃 What The Loyalty System Does

While it's definit🐭ely desirable to increase your Loyalty ranks among the three current factions to unlock more blueprints and other neat stuff, as it is right now, that's pretty much the only reason to do so, apart from some minor aesthetic impacts on Fort Tarsis.

It's just another layer of progression that you'll probably manage to start racking up unlocks in without going out of your way to do so. They almost seem redundant alongside the challenges and feats. I mean hey, it adds to the already considerable pile of content, so I'll take it. But if they're going to bother with developing factions and the loyalty system, ꧒maybe there should be some more profound gameplay elements worked into them?

18 Ultimate Reco🐠very

One thing you'll need to keep in mind during high stress combat situations is that your Javelin's ultimate will totally restore your health and shiel🥃ds. This can provide you with a strong second wind if things are going south, so it's wise to save it until you really need it.

Another tidbit you'll want to remember is that this also grants you invulnerability for a short time, 🐷so popping your ultimate while your enemies a🐽re really pouring on the pressure can cut you some much needed slack during particularly punishing encounters.

17 ꩲ Combওo Abilities

The game doesn't exactly tell you about it, but you can execute combos utilizing certain sets of your Javelin's ab🧔ilities. They consist of a set-up, called a "Primer," and a finisher, called a "Detonator." If you execute a move that is a detonator on an enemy that has been hit by a primer, you can do extra damage or produce unique effects.

Primers are notated by a circular bullseye icon next to their name, while detonat🐲ors have an icon resembling a throwing star.

You can set up and execute a combo by yourself, but it's much more practica🧔l if you finish combos that your teammates set up, and vice versa. Enemies t🌳hat have been hit by a primer and are now vulnerable to a detonator are handily indicated by a red icon next to their name tag.

16 Forming An Alliance ꦗ 💝

Well, the thing is that you don't really need to form one. The game sort of does this for you, utilizing your friend list. If you're fri♏ends with someone, and the🍸y play, you're in an alliance together. Done.

It's pretty simple. The more friends you have, and the more they play, the more coin you get out of it. It's nice, and it's certainly unique, but it feels sort of thin and tacked-on. Adding pretty much any additional functionality or 🅠involvement to the allian🐭ce system would go a really long way here.

15 Crafting

Crafting is pretty big in Anthem, so a brief breakdown is in order. To unlock crafting blueprints, you'll need to complete challenges related to the blueprint that you're after. You𓄧 complete✃ a challenge, you get the blueprint, And then you can complete the next tier of that challenge to get the next tier of blueprint, and it progresses like that until you've unlocked the "Masterwork" tier.

Materials for crafting these items can be bought with in-game currency, found and farmed, or salvaged from unneeded pieces of equipment. In𝄹 practice, this feels pretty nice, and is a grindy, satisfying alternative to relying on the RNG for your loadout.

14 But We'ཧre Just Getting Started!

While it's really tempting to blast through the game's critical path and drum up your conclusions once you've managed to grind out some masterwork gear, Anthem's still got a lot of content up its sleeve.

Anthem's controversial game-as-a-service model is currently slated to roll o✅ut content over the course of three episodic "acts," with each pumping out new missions, Javelins, items and events. detailing an impressive length of exciting content for act one, so even if you're a bit bummed out over the del🅷ay, you can at least rest assured that it looks like there's an awful lot to look forward to.

13 ♊ The UI & HUD Need Improve♈ment

Anthem moves fast, and there's a lot going on during combat. With all of the graphical spectacles on display at any given time, it's really easy𝔍 to lose important information and feedback in the mess. When a teammate is downed, for instance, it can be very difficult to notice.

The in-game menus are alꦆso pretty dense, and while fairly well organized for the most part, they aren't exactly user friendly. You might find yourself scratching your head over where to find the exact menu or information that you need a little too often.

12 No Rea✤l Choice ﷽

While Anthem is definitely a departure from your typical BioWare title in terms of gameplay, it really feels odd to have so little input during the lengthy cutscenes and charact🍬er interactions.

On occasion you'll get some arbitrary response branches, but they don't have much if any impact on how the dialogue, story or game itself ends up playing out. Which is a shame, because there's pl💧enty of lore and interpersonal charac🍸ter dynamics on the table to have fleshed out something a little more satisfying when it comes to how these interactions play out.

11 ✨ The Player Hub's Really Weird

F💦ort Tarsis is where you'll spend most of your time as a player, as it's where the vendors, missions and contracts are. However, it doesn't serve as the social hub - instead, we get a subsection within Fort Tarsis called the Launch Bay.

And being honest, there's really no reason to go there. It offers all the same amenities as Fort Tarsis, but in a more confined area, and can be populated by a paltry sixteen other players. The ways in which you can interact are limited, and with matchmaking in place for all of the game's multiplayer activities, we can only hope there are plans to spruce this place up and give 🍌it some sort of actual purpose in the works.