Anthem’s long-awaited hands-on — BioWare’s brave new world that never ends

BioWare fans have waited a long time to get their hands on Anthem, the four-player co-op shooter set in a science fiction world that never ends (think Destiny). Electronic Arts, the parent company of BioWare, has promised that the world and stories of Anthem will keep evolving, as they will keep adding new live content over time.

I played Anthem this week at Electronic Arts in Redwood City, California. It has been a long time coming, this eagerly anticipated online shooter is EA’s first new big intellectual property in a decade. I think it has good gameplay and the world is enticing. But with around six hours under my belt, I feel like I have barely scratched the surface. Still, I think it inspires the kind of awe that you feel when you discover a brand-new gaming world for the first time, one built by some of the best game developers in the world.

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.