Anthem is the newest game from developer BioWare and it’s mixing this studios story-focused mentality with flashy, cooperative combat. Players assume the role of a Javelin pilot and are tasked with stopping an army from taking control of a powerful, all-consuming force known as the “Anthem of Creation.” Boasting four unique Javelins, a plethora of weapons, and numerous missions, one has to wonder how long it takes to beat Anthem.
During our playthrough, it took us around 20-25 hours to finish the core campaign and an additional 6 or so hours to hit the level cap. This will vary depending on the level of difficulty you play and how lucky you are with leveling up your Javelin. There is also one roadblock mission that has the user finish a laundry list of challenges, but BioWare is already amending this to make it less intensive.
There is a little over 20 core missions, several of which involve two key characters that the player can choose from. While you can ignore one of the two characters missions, it’s recommended you do both. We won’t list the actual mission names below since that will severely spoil the story for those who haven’t played the game yet.
After the credits roll, players will have additional challenges and end-game activities dubbed “Strongholds” to play. There are three Strongholds at launch, each of which are lengthy dungeons missions that are made up of multiple phases and puzzles. These all end with a powerful boss that players are tasked with defeating. Additionally, users can always replay the old campaign missions on harder difficulties, collect lore, grind for unique weapons, and explore the world in Freeplay.
Users also have access to four Javelins as they level up, each of which needs to be used to grind for additional equipment and abilities. This takes a fair amount of time, especially if you are looking to craft a specific build. Setting aside the grind for the very rare Masterwork weapons, Anthem offers around 35-40 hours of content if you want to do everything and play every Javelin. Again, this time may vary depending on what difficulty you start Anthem on, however, there is a decent amount of content to enjoy if you are picking this title up.