I wanted to like Anthem. I still might. However, the void left in it's wake has been filled by The Division 2. I made my choice already. Don't have enough time to put into both.
I get excited about loot almost immediately in the Division. Having "brand gear" from jump is just awesome. You can have a "build" going at level 5, short lived as it is because you're leveling. This is an advantage though because you get kind of a preview of what you want your end game build to look like. The enemy AI, while not genius, is very...hmmm..."swarmy". They flank aggressively and the different factions actually have different tactics, even more than the ones in Division 1. The "bullet sponge" mechanics only happen when it makes sense. Like yeah you expect some hulking behemoth to take a lot more bullets to take down, but once you blast through his armor he's just another guy. If anything, I'd say we are the bullet sponges now. The story is somehow minimal but still engaging. It feels like it's more about finding instances or snippets of a truly chaotic recent past along with truly circumstantial current events. The voice acting was always good in the Division, but I feel like it really shines in the sequel
Anthem...I mean I don't see how anybody gets past the loading screens. That's what made me stop. Maybe I'm not patient but man some of those screens felt like over a minute long. The characters I did get to meet were...okay I guess. I guess I expected people in this type of world to be...darker? They feel like they belong in Monster Hunter World rather than Anthem. The word "anthem" itself is a very heavy word. I expected more, suffering, more sadness, more pessimism. Your sidekick, forget his name. It's like he's on something. Super Happy, joking all the time. Dude there are 30-story tall monsters made of lava and shame outside the one wall we have. Please be serious. Granted I didn't have enough time with the game to truly give an all encompassing opinion of all the characters and the side stories, however I've heard nothing but mediocre things. This, from Bioware...who have now broken my spirit twice. It's like a bad relationship, I just had to cut myself off. It's not healthy. Not for them, or for me. They need to be better and I don't know what they need to do to regain their former glory, but until then I can't see myself with them.