Problems that Keep Anthem from Being Great
Load Times and Slow Menus
The load times in Anthem can be downright brutal. Having to wait over a minute sometimes just to load back into Fort Tarsis can really break any groove players get into. Even while just roaming around the world, certain areas requiring loading into which further breaks any immersion the player had while exploring the rather dense map of Anthem.
Most story missions have players traveling to areas they need to load into, which can be frustrating after waiting a few minutes to load into a mission only to have to sit in then yet another loading screen. Thankfully, BioWare has just pushed out a patch to reduce the load times, which definitely alleviates the issue.
However, there’s another problem to address.
On top of long load times, menus are sluggish and feel unresponsive at some points. While trying to salvage your long list of old equipment it is faster to do it individually rather than use to the mass delete system which takes an awfully long time to load. Compare this to a game like Destiny where players have instant access to their gear, map, and challenge screens with just a few simple buttons and you can see where Anthem falls a bit short.
In a game where repeating the content loop to get stronger, it’s important to put as few roadblocks in the players way as possible, and Anthem has a few too many currently.
