BioWare's new IP: Anthem

I've got a couple of close friends that played the Alpha. My understanding is the closed alpha was incredibly short. What was seen of the story was too small to get a sense of anything, customization of the armor wasn't allowed and every time you turned around in the game, you were told it was locked out / blocked in the Alpha. They all said it played a lot like Destiny with more emphasis on abilities and less on gun play. They also said that it feels like a shitty console port as the menus were designed for controllers. One guy I know plays everything on the PC like a dirty console peasant by way of a controller. He said the menus worked fine, so that pretty much confirms that.

Its hard to filter through the garbage you read online. You get a lot of "BioWare didn't let me in so I'll never buy anything of thiers ever" bullshit and a ton of negativity based on very little information if nothing at all. The more I've seen in the official videos, the more I've been interested. However, the impressions I got from the people who have played it were not exactly glowing. One guy said the game wasn't very good with it being pretty dull. He's kind of a negative person anyway, so I take that with a grain of salt. He said Destiny 2 was far better, and he's not played Forsaken. Two others who are pretty huge fans of BioWare's games (who both liked Andromeda) were somewhat positive, but they weren't glowing with anticipation for the full release. One of them sounded almost like he was making excuses for the game already. Granted, we are talking about an alpha, and one with limited content at that. The other person I know that played it said that the menus were clearly designed for console players and the game had a feeling of being a bit sluggish. Granted, he's running at 4K on a 1080Ti and its probably not optimized very well at this stage. He had the most positive stuff to say basically calling it a Destiny clone with a Mass Effect influence and that he'll reserve final judgement for when it launches. He said its promising, but I could tell there are some concerns there.

My concern is that they had potential customers playing an alpha version of the game when this thing is supposed to launch in late February of 2019. I'm not sure how they are supposed to go from an Alpha to a Beta and final release in under three months with two major holidays, travel season and what not mixed in there. I know BioWare was supposed to release this a long time ago and that they reworked a lot of stuff after the loot box fiasco with EA and Battlefront 2, but if its still truly an Alpha, that's not encouraging. Of course, it might not be an Alpha and the term is being used as a built in excuse for the game being called shit by people in closed testing.

Only time will tell.
 
EA: Don't break the Anthem NDA or we will ban your account.
Player: Breaks NDA and streams game
EA: Bans user's origin account
Player:
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Q-BZ said:
That *might* go to the theory of assets that should have gone to finish ME:A going to this instead. ;) Some of the videos and artwork really look like it, too, IMO.





I know this wasn't directed at me but: I'll definitely hit the demo when available.



One of the criticisms that's been mentioned numerous times at least leading up to this was the idea that despite the gorgeous looking Frostbite graphics that the game felt like it was "claustrophobic" "tight" and even "corridor-ish."

Was that yours and others takeaway coming off this?
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You definitely get that feeling as to the assets. It also seems like this confirms that BioWare put their best talent on this instead of ME:A.

As to the world, no. Again, I don't want to try and get very specific, but will say that there is a great deal of variety we saw in this small slice.
 
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I wonder how many of these "game as a service" light multiplayer games do they intend to make.
Basically every single one expects you to come back every week like an obedient little donkey for a little IV drip of what can hardly even be called content (Yay! I've got Gun +14™ so I can kill things faster so I can get Gun +15™).
How many do they think they can sell me at once? Am I suppose to sacrifice all my gaming time to this charade?
 
Dan_D said:
I've got a couple of close friends that played the Alpha. My understanding is the closed alpha was incredibly short. What was seen of the story was too small to get a sense of anything, customization of the armor wasn't allowed and every time you turned around in the game, you were told it was locked out / blocked in the Alpha. They all said it played a lot like Destiny with more emphasis on abilities and less on gun play. They also said that it feels like a shitty console port as the menus were designed for controllers. One guy I know plays everything on the PC like a dirty console peasant by way of a controller. He said the menus worked fine, so that pretty much confirms that.

Its hard to filter through the garbage you read online. You get a lot of "BioWare didn't let me in so I'll never buy anything of thiers ever" bullshit and a ton of negativity based on very little information if nothing at all. The more I've seen in the official videos, the more I've been interested. However, the impressions I got from the people who have played it were not exactly glowing. One guy said the game wasn't very good with it being pretty dull. He's kind of a negative person anyway, so I take that with a grain of salt. He said Destiny 2 was far better, and he's not played Forsaken. Two others who are pretty huge fans of BioWare's games (who both liked Andromeda) were somewhat positive, but they weren't glowing with anticipation for the full release. One of them sounded almost like he was making excuses for the game already. Granted, we are talking about an alpha, and one with limited content at that. The other person I know that played it said that the menus were clearly designed for console players and the game had a feeling of being a bit sluggish. Granted, he's running at 4K on a 1080Ti and its probably not optimized very well at this stage. He had the most positive stuff to say basically calling it a Destiny clone with a Mass Effect influence and that he'll reserve final judgement for when it launches. He said its promising, but I could tell there are some concerns there.

My concern is that they had potential customers playing an alpha version of the game when this thing is supposed to launch in late February of 2019. I'm not sure how they are supposed to go from an Alpha to a Beta and final release in under three months with two major holidays, travel season and what not mixed in there. I know BioWare was supposed to release this a long time ago and that they reworked a lot of stuff after the loot box fiasco with EA and Battlefront 2, but if its still truly an Alpha, that's not encouraging. Of course, it might not be an Alpha and the term is being used as a built in excuse for the game being called shit by people in closed testing.

Only time will tell.
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I do get the feeling this was more of a beta than alpha, but the term alpha was used because so much of the game was blocked off, including gameplay systems you mentioned. I think it's too late in the development cycle to not be feature complete.

I also think this was just an excuse to do some black box testing of the network, as I did notice very inconsistent network performance. There were times when the rubberbanding was so bad I could barely move and my abilities were not firing. Other times it was so good it felt like there was no latency at all. There were plenty of bugs that need to be fixed, most of them being visual. One can assume that they want this launch to go smoothly considering some of the high profile fuckups in the past couple years with GAAS titles.

But again need to reiterate that there was very little content available during this test. Combined with the locked off gameplay systems one can hardly walk away from it and come to a conclusion of what the final game is going to be like. A public demo will be available to everyone February 1, or 3 weeks before release.
 
stashix said:
I wonder how many of these "game as a service" light multiplayer games do they intend to make.
Basically every single one expects you to come back every week like an obedient little donkey for a little IV drip of what can hardly even be called content (Yay! I've got Gun +14™ so I can kill things faster so I can get Gun +15™).
How many do they think they can sell me at once? Am I suppose to sacrifice all my gaming time to this charade?
Click to expand...

I don't mind if they make them...but if it comes at the expense of any and all other kinds of games then I'm out.

The good news is we've seen plenty of single player games make waves and sell well so...we'll see.
 
stashix said:
I wonder how many of these "game as a service" light multiplayer games do they intend to make.
Basically every single one expects you to come back every week like an obedient little donkey for a little IV drip of what can hardly even be called content (Yay! I've got Gun +14™ so I can kill things faster so I can get Gun +15™).
How many do they think they can sell me at once? Am I suppose to sacrifice all my gaming time to this charade?
Click to expand...
This is concerning as I only have 10-15 hours a week to game these days. I loved the first Destiny, but I eventually had such a hard time keeping up with the changes and other players that I just dropped it. Tried playing Destiny 2 and the same thing happened. There are too many good games for me to focus all my time and attention to one over a span of time. I have good vibes coming from the Anthem alpha, so I'm hoping the same thing won't happen here even though I know it will.
 
I don't mind them making these, afte all I'm free to buy other games (and there are tons of them).
I keep wondering how much room there is for so many games with this concept at the same time though - they all require a relatively significant periodic time investment just to keep up - that's maybe doable for one, but no more than that.
Plus the concept is pretty similar behind them all (Destiny, The Division, Anthem, ...) - log in weekly to get better loot. It's basically Diablo in 1st/3rd person.
I can enjoy a multiplayer FPS like Battlefield while only hopping in once or twice a month - maybe I don't have all the weapons, but the playing field is still pretty even. The same can't be said about Destiny for example.
 
Can Anthem be played in first person mode like all good shooters ? Or is it that strange over the shoulder view like craptastic Gears of War garbage ?

If third persononly, then do it right like WoW.

I play Destiny 2 on PC, and only play in first person mode, it should be illegal to play a shooter in third person view.

Third person view ruins the whole immersion in the game, makes it like your playing it following someone else, and not you actually in the game yourself
 
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Zorachus said:
Can Anthem be played in first person mode like all good shooters ? Or is it that strange over the shoulder view like craptastic Gears of War garbage ?

If third persononly, then do it right like WoW.

I play Destiny 2 on PC, and only play in first person mode, it should be illegal to play a shooter in third person view.

Third person view ruins the whole immersion in the game, makes it like your playing it following someone else, and not you actually in the game yourself
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Okay, grandpa.

It's not zoomed in like Gears, or Mass Effect 2-3 and Andromeda if that's what you mean.
 
Armenius said:
Okay, grandpa.

It's not zoomed in like Gears, or Mass Effect 2-3 and Andromeda if that's what you mean.
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Grandpa?

I play shooters the way they were designed to be played, with a keyboard + mouse, not the kiddy little gamepad console controller.

Anyways, so I take it, this isn't a first person shooter style gameplay like Destiny 2 or Battlefield 5 ?

Oh well scratch this off my list, I don't like these third person views as if your following behind some other character very close, or being a parrot on a pirates shoulder viewpoint
 
Zorachus said:
Can Anthem be played in first person mode like all good shooters ? Or is it that strange over the shoulder view like craptastic Gears of War garbage ?

If third persononly, then do it right like WoW.

I play Destiny 2 on PC, and only play in first person mode, it should be illegal to play a shooter in third person view.

Third person view ruins the whole immersion in the game, makes it like your playing it following someone else, and not you actually in the game yourself
Click to expand...

It's third person, but I think its done a bit differently than say Gears of War or Mass Effect. It's centered and zoomed out a bit.
 
Armenius said:
I do get the feeling this was more of a beta than alpha, but the term alpha was used because so much of the game was blocked off, including gameplay systems you mentioned. I think it's too late in the development cycle to not be feature complete.

I also think this was just an excuse to do some black box testing of the network, as I did notice very inconsistent network performance. There were times when the rubberbanding was so bad I could barely move and my abilities were not firing. Other times it was so good it felt like there was no latency at all. There were plenty of bugs that need to be fixed, most of them being visual. One can assume that they want this launch to go smoothly considering some of the high profile fuckups in the past couple years with GAAS titles.

But again need to reiterate that there was very little content available during this test. Combined with the locked off gameplay systems one can hardly walk away from it and come to a conclusion of what the final game is going to be like. A public demo will be available to everyone February 1, or 3 weeks before release.
Click to expand...

I'm almost positive that players actually played a beta that's fairly late in development. I think BioWare and other companies that have players test these late "alpha" versions are calling the game an alpha in the event there is backlash from the players. That allows them to do some PR damage control and tell people it was only an alpha and not close to the final product.

I also think its funny that the basic story (based on the trailer) seems like a total rip off of Destiny. BioWare may not use original stories, but normally they aren't so blatant about copying something else.
 
I'm going console pleb all the way with this one - I love 3rd person and I'm gonna play using the Xbox One Controller FTW :p
 
Zorachus said:
Grandpa?

I play shooters the way they were designed to be played, with a keyboard + mouse, not the kiddy little gamepad console controller.

Anyways, so I take it, this isn't a first person shooter style gameplay like Destiny 2 or Battlefield 5 ?

Oh well scratch this off my list, I don't like these third person views as if your following behind some other character very close, or being a parrot on a pirates shoulder viewpoint
Click to expand...
Sorry. TPS was made popular be RE4 and Gears, which were released more than 10 years ago and it's used a lot these days. It adds a different kind of dynamic to a shooter that I don't think is better or worse.

I play everything with a keyboard and mouse on my PC except the Souls games. I do not know why you think TPS games need or should be played with a controller.
 
I'll definitely give this game a try as long as there's a free demo or something instead of being forced to buy the game and full
 
Bump.

Between this, Destiny 2: Forsaken and The Division 2 I'm having hard time to choose.

Anthem seems like the best option since it feels more like Diablo in 3rd person. But it reminds me of Warframe which I didn't like. Mainly because there's a lot of movement. I just don't like flying around in some mech suit.
Destiny 2 has only 3 classes. I'm really annoyed that I'm forced into first person mode. I also don't like PvP.
The Division 2 seems a lot like the first game. Which is both good and bad. I enjoyed the first game and I like the military style with subtle sci-fi/apocalypse world. But it's also it's big weakness. You're basically fighting humans all the time. It becomes boring after a while.
I heard there's a lot of improvement in Forsaken, so I'm leaning towards that. And I'm not buying all three :)
 
stashix said:
I wonder how many of these "game as a service" light multiplayer games do they intend to make.
Basically every single one expects you to come back every week like an obedient little donkey for a little IV drip of what can hardly even be called content (Yay! I've got Gun +14™ so I can kill things faster so I can get Gun +15™).
How many do they think they can sell me at once? Am I suppose to sacrifice all my gaming time to this charade?
Click to expand...

Yes.

Games have gotten so expensive to make, the corporations behind them have come to the conclusion that games need to bring in revenue for YEARS to recoup the investment. This in turn leads to games that are designed to try and keep you coming back to do the same things over and over and over again. And with the industry continuing to contract, this isn't going to change any time soon.
 
Nebell said:
Bump.

Between this, Destiny 2: Forsaken and The Division 2 I'm having hard time to choose.

Anthem seems like the best option since it feels more like Diablo in 3rd person. But it reminds me of Warframe which I didn't like. Mainly because there's a lot of movement. I just don't like flying around in some mech suit.
Destiny 2 has only 3 classes. I'm really annoyed that I'm forced into first person mode. I also don't like PvP.
The Division 2 seems a lot like the first game. Which is both good and bad. I enjoyed the first game and I like the military style with subtle sci-fi/apocalypse world. But it's also it's big weakness. You're basically fighting humans all the time. It becomes boring after a while.
I heard there's a lot of improvement in Forsaken, so I'm leaning towards that. And I'm not buying all three :)
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You might consider getting that Origin access for a month, around the time it comes out, so you can play it and then decide...would be cheaper than buying it and hating it. I feel your pain though...I'm kind of in the same boat. I am looking forward to a few other games too..like Rage 2 and Pantheon.....and I want to build a new PC at the same time - LoL. I'm going to hold out and see what the Ryzen 2 series has to offer....that 3800x or x3700 might be in my next build.
 
Xerack said:
You might consider getting that Origin access for a month, around the time it comes out, so you can play it and then decide...would be cheaper than buying it and hating it. I feel your pain though...I'm kind of in the same boat. I am looking forward to a few other games too..like Rage 2 and Pantheon.....and I want to build a new PC at the same time - LoL. I'm going to hold out and see what the Ryzen 2 series has to offer....that 3800x or x3700 might be in my next build.
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I got Destiny 2: Forsaken.
It was only €30 and I already own Destiny 2 core. I finished the main game story, didn't love the game but didn't hate it either.
I might get Origin access as you say and try it out.
 
Nebell said:
Bump.

Between this, Destiny 2: Forsaken and The Division 2 I'm having hard time to choose.
And I'm not buying all three :)
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How about none. That's my choice. All of these online games are jokes. They are so basic compared to a proper narrative driven offline game. I mean in a way they have to be simple AF. To accommodate for the netcode. Everything the game can do must be transferable to the servers and then to other players in a few tiny packets of data. And you can't have choices that affect the game world as that would affect other players in the server. So it's like a zoo. The animals, sorry I mean players aren't in control of anything. And developers and publishers still advertise "persistent universe" as some great thing.

I spit on games as a service and I Spit on games that have a "persistent universe". I'd rather quit gaming entirely than put up with this garbage.
 
Nebell said:
Between this, Destiny 2: Forsaken and The Division 2 I'm having hard time to choose
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of those 3 I'm leaning towards Division 2...the first Division improved a lot with each major expansion/update so hopefully D2 is great right from the start...only thing is the graphics don't look as good as the first game
 
System requirements:
https://www.ea.com/games/anthem/buy/pc-system-requirements

ANTHEM MINIMUM
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
  • OS: 64-bit Windows 10
  • CPU: Intel Core i5 3570 or AMD FX-6350
  • RAM: 8 GB System Memory
  • GPU: NVIDIA GTX 760, AMD Radeon 7970 / R9280X
  • GPU RAM: 2 GB Video Memory
  • HARD DRIVE: At least 50 GB of free space
  • DIRECTX: DirectX 11
ANTHEM RECOMMENDED
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
  • OS: 64-bit Windows 10
  • CPU: Intel Core i7-4790 3.6GHz or AMD Ryzen 3 1300X 3.5 GHz
  • RAM: 16 GB System Memory
  • GPU: NVIDIA GTX 1060/ RTX 2060, AMD RX 480
  • GPU RAM: 4 GB Video Memory
  • HARD DRIVE: At least 50 GB of free space
  • DIRECTX: DirectX 11
Xbox One Wireless Controller for Windows supported, persistent internet connection required for play.
 
Every video I see of this game, your always following someone very closely, like on the left side of the screen, there's some character right on your screen in front blocking your full view.

Where's the true gameplay vids showing just your weapon in front of you, without this other chracter taking up your view ?
 
Zorachus said:
Every video I see of this game, your always following someone very closely, like on the left side of the screen, there's some character right on your screen in front blocking your full view.

Where's the true gameplay vids showing just your weapon in front of you, without this other chracter taking up your view ?
Click to expand...

Not sure if serious...or haven't heard of 3rd person looter shooter before.
 
Zorachus said:
without this other chracter taking up your view ?
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That is your character, it's a third person game, not a first person game. Sort of a futuristic sci-fi The Division.

If you want a futuristic sci-fi FPS looter, then Destiny 2 might more be up your alley.
 
Wait, Anthem is that lame ass Gears of War shitastic view point ? Standing behind your character, sort of over one shoulder look ? Not a real shooter but the kids game console crap they call shooters ?

LOL instant no buy for me now. I don't play consoles or kiddy games.

If third person then do it right, more like Witcher 3 or World of Warcraft true third person. But anyways, this is a shooter, and NO shooter should ever be in over the shoulder view, they are ONLY first person.
 
Zorachus said:
Wait, Anthem is that lame ass Gears of War shitastic view point ? Standing behind your character, sort of over one shoulder look ? Not a real shooter but the kids game console crap they call shooters ?

LOL instant no buy for me now. I don't play consoles or kiddy games.

If third person then do it right, more like Witcher 3 or World of Warcraft true third person. But anyways, this is a shooter, and NO shooter should ever be in over the shoulder view, they are ONLY first person.
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It looks like you have been on this forum since 2006 so I'm not sure how serious of a comment this is.

I'm not even looking forward to Anthem but writing off "Third Person Shooters" as a kiddy genre is the most absurd, and since you were around for a long time, and probably the best example of a "head in a sand" reply I have ever seen.
 
Banko said:
It looks like you have been on this forum since 2006 so I'm not sure how serious of a comment this is.

I'm not even looking forward to Anthem but writing off "Third Person Shooters" as a kiddy genre is the most absurd, and since you were around for a long time, and probably the best example of a "head in a sand" reply I have ever seen.
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not sure if serious but cant see no issue over this tiny FoV 3rd person camera

indeed best example of head is inside full of shit :banghead:
 
profiled said:
not sure if serious but cant see no issue over this tiny FoV 3rd person camera

indeed best example of head is inside full of shit :banghead:
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If I remember correctly the alpha had a FOV slider. There is at least supposed to be an adjustable FOV in the retail release. Would be stupid to not have it when the Frostbite engine supports it.

My only complaint was that it was hard to see where you were actually going during flight. I thought otherwise that it was almost perfect for 16:9. I would prefer an option to center your character on screen and choosing whether to look over the right or left shoulder.
 
I agree with Gramps that I prefer my shooters in first person. I remember being triggered when one of the Star Wars FPS (can't recall which one) forced 3rd person when you switched to a lightsaber.

With that said, Gears 3rd person worked for me, and I can definitely enjoy TPS titles more now. However, given the choice, I'd choose FPS over TPS in shooters. I find them more absorbing and can 'react' to situations quicker than I can in TPS (if that makes sense.)
 
someone sent me an invite to the VIP demo which takes place this weekend (January 25-27)...so I'll try it out and see if BioWare has turned back the clock to their pre-EA days...
 
Armenius said:
persistent internet connection required for play.
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Who has that? I get on average 3 short (few minute) outages a week, and usually once a month one that will last at least 4-6 hours.
 
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