Skip to main content

The Anthem public demo is in much better shape, but it's still buggy as hell

Last week's VIP demo for Anthem didn't make many of us feel like VIPs. Connection issues, infinite loading screen bugs, and issues with Origin accounts recognizing VIP status were all the buzz, while everyone's Anthem hot takes were drowned out by the low, terrible moan of gamers losing their shit across the world.

But this week, things are going much better for Anthem's public demo. Despite opening the floodgates to everyone, there's been little noise about the connection issues we saw last week. I've been able to log-in and load into Fort Tarsis without issue, though bugs are still everywhere. No, I'm not talking about the brainy, explodey bugs you kill approximately 1000 of in the Stronghold mission, I'm talking about getting booted back to Fort Tarsis during a respawn loading screen. Twice. I still haven't been able to complete the damn thing. 

Players on Reddit are reporting the infinite loading screen is still around for a select few, components of the sound mix going silent, sporadic freezes, missing light nodes during certain missions, and more. It ain't perfect and won't be—the demo only runs through the weekend. It's enough to get a taste of how Anthem plays, assuming you don't have any problems. I advise not investing too much time beyond that, though. Get in, get out, and do a little reading. We've played quite a bit of Anthem, so if you have lingering questions, we've probably addressed them somewhere in our recent coverage.

Things should be even smoother once Anthem releases in a few weeks, first for Origin Premier subscribers on February 15, then for everyone on February 22. Keep in mind, the demo doesn't represent the current status of Anthem's final build. It was made using a snapshot of Anthem from a few months back, then put on its own independent development track to get ready for primetime. BioWare still has a few weeks to take in everything from these last two weeks and clean up any lingering problems.

At only 11 years old, James took apart his parents’ computer and couldn’t figure out how to put it back together again. As an Associate Editor, he’s embarked on a dangerous quest to solve Video Games. Wish him luck.