If you’ve been eyeing up Anthem but haven’t pulled the trigger yet, here’s a good excuse - Walmart’s giving away $10 eGift cards when you pre-order it on PS4 or Xbox One. This also gets you access to the VIP demo this weekend (25-27 January). Free money and a chance to play early? Not bad.
For those who aren’t familiar with the shared-world shooter, Anthem’s closest equivalent feels like Destiny. The focus is on exploring a dangerous world with your friends, getting loot for your Javelin mech suit, and busting out ridiculous emotes at the most inappropriate time. There’s a story to be had as well within the single-player hub (Fort Tarsis), but it’s largely been kept a secret thus far. In fact, the developers had an entire team dedicated to 'stripping' story references from the Anthem alpha to avoid spoilers.
We got a chance to play the Anthem game ourselves recently and felt that it has echoes of Mass Effect and Destiny, but seems to lack its own identity nonetheless. As GamesRadar’s Sam Loveridge noted, “its grand world and fantastic flying feel hollow without a strong story or fun quests”. Time will tell if those issues resolve themselves by launch (much of the game's content is still hidden, after all), but in the short term we’ll keep you updated as we take on the demo this weekend.
Don’t have a VIP access code? No worries: here’s how you can still get involved with the Anthem demo.
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