IT sounded so promising.

Anthem offers the chance to become an Iron Man-style super soldier with a jet-pack powered suit in a futuristic multiplayer-meets roleplay world. For any modern gamer, that’s a pretty appealing prospect and while you are soaring across the skyline, Anthem controls beautifully. Developers BioWare – creators of Mass Effect – have put a lot of work into the game’s precision.

Initially it is thrilling to navigate your way through the landscape at speed or rocket into the water to literally cool your jets, especially alongside your other ‘Freelancer’ teammates.

But once you get past this unique aspect (or gimmick if you’re feeling unkind), the experience becomes tired very fast.

Missions are very repetitive which quickly robs Anthem of its potential. You usually just follow some map markers to an objective with a few battles along the way and that’s about it. That would be fine if the third-person combat was not so blunt. Enemies often stumble around, demonstrating little intelligence, making firefights a dull affair.

And although your foes have weak points, shooting indiscriminately in their general direction does the trick. Anthem also fails at what BioWare has historically excelled at – story. It is hard to engage with or even understand the game’s setting which focuses on a powerful energy source called the ‘Anthem of Creation’ which can terraform sections of the planet and mutate wildlife. The traditional definition of an anthem is a rousing or uplifting song but if this game was a single it’d be more like an annoying ditty that you can’t wait to turn off.

DAVID MORGAN