BioWare's new IP: Anthem



As much as I think that guy is a shitbag. He's 100% right. I'm giving the game till Division 2 drops and then I'm moving on.

Very few guns.
Very few abilities.
Everyone uses the same shit.
Like 4 or 5 actual different boss types.
Everything is artificially hard due to their shields.

Interceptor is utterly worthless at higher Diffs.

Sigh.
 
Is it strange that none of these youtube videos affect my game play?
lol nope, most reviews are angry click bait because no one wants to read a review titled "everything is fine!". The only real reviews I seem to find online now are from game podcasts that don't need the click baits to get listens, there is a few in particular that almost always seems to line up with what I find and while they all admit that Athem isn't the most amazing thing its not horrible. So far I'm having fun and I will definitely get my months worth out of the origin premier sub, then its a toss up between this and division 2.
 
Video reviews from non-review sites are nothing but people trying to make every game out to be the best or worst ever. They couldn't possibly be more worthless. Most will even tell you as much right in the title.
 
Is it strange that none of these youtube videos affect my game play?

Different people, different tastes, different reactions to the same thing. If you like the game, more power to you. No one should ever let someone else dictate what they do or do not enjoy.
 
I haven't played the game so I really have no input. I was interested after the E3 reveal, but I love the old BioWare and Andromeda + EA's "Games as a service" practices have soured me on anything they touch. So, I knew I'd wait for reviews on this one. My reception of SkillUp's opinions has waned considerably from his early Division days to his recent "this is the best / worst xxxxx ever" style of reviews. The Layman Gaming channel he co-hosts is particularly bad.

All that said, the first 6 minutes of that video nails the current state of BioWare and Anthem in general imo. I'm glad people are still enjoying it, but for us old farts that have been around a while, it's still difficult to watch this industry decline from the art form we once knew to this shallow, fast-food equivalent garbage that are built around a monetization scheme rather than fun gameplay mechanics.
 


Developers talking about patch size (6GB) and a very good deal of information about: Update roll out & features.
What is coming next for Anthem after 32 minutes.

** updated the edited version
 
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Developers talking about patch size (6GB) and a very good deal of information about: Update roll out & features.
What is coming next for Anthem after 32 minutes.


The Stronghold vanity chest system sounds really awesome. I love how every player gets the item from each chest and no dupes for the vanity items. The examples they showed off were pretty cool too.
 
Such a joke, no one does the GM Strongholds all the way anymore. First 2 chests and then everyone quits.
 
LOL Beware Strongholds seem to be crashing now at end when going to the normal post screen process....just fucking lost a masterwork :/
 
officially pre-ordered a few minutes ago...bought the digital version through Best Buy as I had some credit...hopefully they send me the Origin code before it unlocks tomorrow night
 
Did a mission just now. Completed it, had collected numerous items, game says it lost connection to live servers, re-connects.

None of the items I collected are in my vault, or in my inventory. I just never got them. Didn't receive end of mission XP either.
 
Did a mission just now. Completed it, had collected numerous items, game says it lost connection to live servers, re-connects.

None of the items I collected are in my vault, or in my inventory. I just never got them. Didn't receive end of mission XP either.

LOL.....jesus...they just keep fucking up. I'm honestly wondering if they even test these updates before they push them at this point.
 
did you guys get the Day 1 update?...I'm expecting it to be playable but still needing a lot of new content drops and bug fixes for the next few months
 
Yes, but the game is completely FUBAR on PC right now, from what I can see.

The update fixed a lot of issues, and it loads faster.

Unfortunately the servers are just fucked, and i'm getting constant random drops in missions, and what happened when I just finished a mission.

Don't bother playing right now, it's hosed.
 
once they fixed the infinite loading bug the beta was pretty stable for me...how did they make it worse for the final release?

Honestly there's a ton of bugs. I'm pretty certain at this point lots of the prefix stuff on gear isn't working correctly, numbers just aren't adding up for before/after. But its super hard to tell since there's no stat page or anything you can check.

After playing this game for a week and defending it quite a bit...I'm gonna be real here. They needed another 6 months at least to shake all of this out, I love to hate on Destiny....but that game launched in way better shape bug wise, and jesus.....it had more content. It really pains me to say it....its look like it had roughly twice the content at launch at this point.
 
As much as I think that guy is a shitbag. He's 100% right. I'm giving the game till Division 2 drops and then I'm moving on.

The new patch did improve the end game quite a bit. No longer getting 1 shot.. gear drops are more frequent. Going to be cool to see some of the builds people come up with.

Hes right about some stuff.. But there is points in the video where he is crying about how enemies teleport in.. Gimme a break.. he nit picks alot of shit just for a longer video.. Anthem is a looter shooter just like the other ones.. People expecting mass effect story and what not.. Go else where.
 
The new patch did improve the end game quite a bit. No longer getting 1 shot.. gear drops are more frequent. Going to be cool to see some of the builds people come up with.

Hes right about some stuff.. But there is points in the video where he is crying about how enemies teleport in.. Gimme a break.. he nit picks alot of shit just for a longer video.. Anthem is a looter shooter just like the other ones.. People expecting mass effect story and what not.. Go else where.

So people shouldn't get a Bioware game if they are expecting to get a Bioware game? Its not exactly fair to judge a game by what it is not and what it is not trying to be, but people are going to go into a Bioware title expecting it to be a Bioware title. For the myriad of problems the games had Sonic Dark Brotherhood, Dragon Age 2, ME3, and ME: A all still felt like Bioware games. Anthem does not and never will feel like a Bioware game. It probably benefits from not being tied to the Bioware formula, but that isn't going to change how people that are familiar with the studio look at and approach the game.
 
The Stronghold vanity chest system sounds really awesome. I love how every player gets the item from each chest and no dupes for the vanity items. The examples they showed off were pretty cool too.

I was extremely happy when I saw the video. Nothing that was in there made me question Bioware dedication to do their best or die trying ;) .
 
The new patch did improve the end game quite a bit. No longer getting 1 shot.. gear drops are more frequent. Going to be cool to see some of the builds people come up with.

Hes right about some stuff.. But there is points in the video where he is crying about how enemies teleport in.. Gimme a break.. he nit picks alot of shit just for a longer video.. Anthem is a looter shooter just like the other ones.. People expecting mass effect story and what not.. Go else where.

Didn't improve GM2 or above though. I'm almost fully decked out in Masterworks and the entire squad was too, and we got destroyed on GM2. At this point I can say there's no real end game for this game at the moment.
 
Didn't improve GM2 or above though. I'm almost fully decked out in Masterworks and the entire squad was too, and we got destroyed on GM2. At this point I can say there's no real end game for this game at the moment.

Well that sucks.

What time do you usually play. I could use a badass to carry me through some of the harder content. I'm currently level 9 and play on normal mode. :)

Origin: Solhokuten
 
Didn't improve GM2 or above though. I'm almost fully decked out in Masterworks and the entire squad was too, and we got destroyed on GM2. At this point I can say there's no real end game for this game at the moment.

I heard there's no point going past GM1 as you get the same loot drops...the only thing different is the crazy difficulty spike after GM1
 
I heard there's no point going past GM1 as you get the same loot drops...the only thing different is the crazy difficulty spike after GM1

Ya loot tables/drop chances are screwed up for GM2 and higher. And the only reason its hard is their higher dmg output and health pool.....coupled with the outright cheapness of the boss battle. The Tyrant lair is fine on the final boss fight, but the Scar Stronghold and recycled final mission stronghold they are just BS cheapness fights.
 
Given how bad last night was it'll likely be unplayable through most of the weekend is my guess.
 
Did a mission just now. Completed it, had collected numerous items, game says it lost connection to live servers, re-connects.

None of the items I collected are in my vault, or in my inventory. I just never got them. Didn't receive end of mission XP either.
You're kidding me... I had the same issues during the beta. What was all that white box testing for if they didn't even improve the network code between then and now?
One more day!! Anyways, I expect a shit show when I'm finally able to play tomorrow. I'd like to be wrong though :)
When does the game unlock? I honestly haven't logged into Origin recently to check.
 
You're kidding me... I had the same issues during the beta. What was all that white box testing for if they didn't even improve the network code between then and now?

When does the game unlock? I honestly haven't logged into Origin recently to check.

The worst part about that crash...it was introduced with the patch yesterday. Game has run fine since the early access launch.
 
The worst part about that crash...it was introduced with the patch yesterday. Game has run fine since the early access launch.
Ah, I always love having to deal with regressions. Whomever is in charge of source control needs to be slapped.
 
I just can't believe they broke it so much right before global launch. I know it sounds overly critical/needy - But if I can't play this game this weekend i'll just assume to un-install it and never touch it again given that I didn't even really pay for it under premier.

They have my attention now. Not later.
 
lol nope, most reviews are angry click bait because no one wants to read a review titled "everything is fine!". The only real reviews I seem to find online now are from game podcasts that don't need the click baits to get listens, there is a few in particular that almost always seems to line up with what I find and while they all admit that Athem isn't the most amazing thing its not horrible. So far I'm having fun and I will definitely get my months worth out of the origin premier sub, then its a toss up between this and division 2.

I never watched any review type videos on the game prior to actually playing the VIP demo a few weeks ago. Being a huge BioWare fan, I wouldn't have cared what was said anyway. That said, I have seen one or two videos and my opinions generally line up with some of what I've seen, but I'm not all doom and gloom about the game. After reflecting on my experience, I have a couple of thoughts:

The gameplay is too slow for my tastes. Granted, I've always been someone who likes fast pace, twitch shooters like Q3, UT99, UT2K4, CoDMW, and Destiny 2. The latter makes for some very good comparisons to Anthem, and in a way, shows us what we can expect out of the coming months of Anthem. (I'll get to that in a bit.) The gameplay, at its core is good. I'm not a fan of the speed, but that's not the end of the world. I could get used to it except the game doesn't let me play the way I want to play. I've seen comparisons to Destiny 2 and Mass Effect in terms of combat. When playing Anthem, I found all the enemies to be bullet sponges. This is true if you stick to the weapons alone. If you execute armor ability combinations, you can get kills more quickly but the system doesn't do a good job of explaining this to you ahead of time. As you play, you figure it out eventually.

This naturally brings Mass Effect's gameplay into the comparison as Mass Effect has abilities that when executed properly provide faster time to kill for enemies. However, there is one key difference. In Mass Effect the weapons never felt useless. When playing Shepard as a soldier, I could use my abilities and those of my squad mates in specific situations to aid me, but I felt no obligation to do so. I could use my weapons alone and do almost everything I ever needed to. On the higher difficulties making use of your abilities is key to resolving combat, but again, your weapons are capable of dealing enough damage on their own. Abilities simply help with crowd control so you take less fire, or they can be used to get kills faster, etc. Everything is a bullet sponge on the higher difficulties, but on normal this isn't the case at all.

I think if there was a moderate speed boost to combat and a weapons buff, the game would feel fine. Right now it feels slow and clunky. Certain mechanics like the revive mechanic need a serious look. I got stuck in a down state for over ten minutes while my match made squad took forever to down the boss. In Destiny 2, I'd have had the option to respawn by then. The revives take too long to execute in combat, so my teammates couldn't get me back up without getting torn up by the boss. This isn't the case with D2. Even in a restricted spawning zone, teammates can get you back up and in the fight somewhat quickly.

I like the armor customization well enough, but find the loot system and inventory management clunky. These are things that can be fixed easily enough. I also worry that there isn't enough content to keep me interested for very long at launch. This was a problem with Destiny 1 and 2 as well. Those games were basically turned into the games they should have been from the very start by their second year. There is no reason to think that's not going to be true of Anthem as well since it follows the "Game as a Service" type model. now, my biggest disappointment is that there isn't really much story. From what I understand, Anthem is essentially handled the way Destiny's story is in that you do get some NPC interactions throughout the campaign and the occasional cut scene like D1/D2. However, all the basic lore etc. are presented via a codex that you uncover as you go just like D2.

It works for Destiny, so I can't rip on Anthem too much for this outside of the fact that this isn't how BioWare game's typically work. Star Wars The Old Republic certainly has its detractors and issues but one thing it did well was execute story well while still being an MMO. I expected the same approach in Anthem rather than the lazier Destiny approach. Its a shame as a satisfying narrative can hook players and keep them interested despite a game's shortcomings. The Mass Effect series up to and potentially including Andromeda were all mediocre shooters at best. Its the story, atmosphere and characters that tended to hook you and keep players coming back to it over the years. Without that, Anthem really disappoints. Deep down Anthem really gives off Destiny vibes and from a story perspective, its actually quite similar as I understand it. Details are radically different as expected, but its really not what I expected nor wanted out of BioWare.

My largest complaint about the game is its forced matchmaking. If you get thrown into a team of window lickers, you are going to have a bad time. At least with games like Destiny, I can do most of the content solo if I can't find a group. You only need a group for a few things and even then, its still possible to do a lot of things alone. The Shattered Throne, Whisper of the Worm and even the raids can be completed solo, although, this would be extremely difficult to do in practice. Destiny certainly has its issues, most of which are on the PvP side in my opinion. If Anthem has that, I haven't experienced it yet so I can't speak to that. Being a "looter shooter", its almost certainly going to have balance issues the way all of them seem to. If gear has stats that make one piece more valuable than another and provides a noticeable advantage, then its naturally imbalanced. Players with good RNG luck will always have a technical advantage over people like me who get fucked anytime RNG is in the mix. Destiny's algorithms for matching players are laughable, so hopefully Anthem does better. However, they may do what D2 did and make compromises to get matches going quickly. This helps provide the illusion of a strong player base when there isn't one and keeps people happy because they don't wait around long. Unfortunately, a lack of skill based match making can make for a dismal experience for those who need to improve and hone their skills. Unfortunately, such matchmaking creates such a miserable experience that prevents players from wanting to suffer enough to do so. It will be interesting to see what BioWare does with Anthem in this regard.

I don't hate the game but I wasn't blown away by it either. I feel like this is one that can sit on the digital shelf until there are some more content updates for it. I'll probably start playing it in six months to a year dependent on what's going on with it at that point. I've got enough alternatives to keep me busy for awhile, so I just don't feel the need to buy into a game I feel isn't really ready for prime time just yet. If it was a more traditional, story driven experience by BioWare, you probably wouldn't be able to shut me up I'd be so into it. But sadly, that's not the case.

I can partially agree with the sentiment expressed in one of the linked videos above: BioWare made the wrong game. I do not agree with the statement that BioWare made the game badly. However, it certainly could be better.
 
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So people shouldn't get a Bioware game if they are expecting to get a Bioware game?

Correct.. Just cause a studio makes a game doesn't mean they have to make the same game 24/7. This also kills studio creativity if they just make the same game over and over.
 
Just beat the first strong hold and it was fun. Been trying to get into the colosus and it's alright, your certainly a tank lol. I think the faster storm style is more my pace though.
Correct.. Just cause a studio makes a game doesn't mean they have to make the same game 24/7. This also kills studio creativity if they just make the same game over and over.


Very nice info and summary, and to be fair your right that not every review/video is clickbait but I've ran into to many that I just don't bother and stick to let's plays/pod cast discussions instead. I find scoring systems utterly useless for reviews and just wanted to hear people i tend to think like discus their personal likes and dislikes lol.
 
Enjoyed this podcast, seems to cover the good and the bad from multiple perspectives. Anthem content starts at the 5 minute mark and goes until the 47 minute mark. I linked the video starting at 5 minutes:



The things that interest me about this game are the flight mechanics, the combo system and it being a looter shooter. The flight mechanics seem to get universal praise in this game (except PC), the combo system sounds like a transfer from Andromeda, which was 'okay' in my book; I much preffered ME2's system. So, I have some interest still, but too much is a mess at the moment. This is BioWare's first foray into looter shooter, so that isn't surprising. Overall I may check back in with this game in a year or so, but for now it is still a pass for me.
 
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