"Forgettable, Repetitive": Early Reviews Aren't Kind on Anthem

[Megalith]

Game journalists who are knee-deep in Anthem ahead of Friday’s official release have been giving out early impressions over the weekend, but unfortunately for BioWare, much of the reception seems negative. PC Gamer called the story “forgettable” and gameplay “repetitive,” the latter of which has been echoed by other reviewers: Giant Bomb claims there is at least one portion of the campaign that forces players to “spend hours completing in-game challenges” before they can progress. There is also a “Quickplay” bug that lets brand-new players skip straight to the final boss fight.

Unlike Dragon Age and Mass Effect, which both have clever twists on familiar genres and establish emotional stakes early in the story, Anthem doesn't create that same sense of purpose or understanding. So even though I'm trying to immerse myself in this world by reading all the bits of lore and conversing with every character I can, the whole thing feels superfluous. And while Anthem's combat is a lot of fun in the moment-to-moment action, the actual mission objectives are boring and repetitive.

 

[SeymourGore]

RIP Bioware

 

[spaceman]

Wait what? Who saw this coming? Oh yeah, everyone. It is how AAA budget games are made. Corporate Beige.

 

[TangledThornz]

Guess I'm glad I got ANTHEM for free with my RTX 2060 but the alternative was BFV, ugh.

 

[Jim Kim]

The bug allowing you to jump to the End Boss is the best thing about the game.

 

[vegeta535]

I am shocked I tell you shocked. This going to be the biggest flop of the year.

 

[Ocellaris]

EA allowing people to access the game a week early on Friday the 15th if they had EA Access Premier killed the purchase for me. Streamers were already complaining about content by Saturday night.

Cancelled preorder...

Though I did wait a while before picking up the original Destiny and the game was great after some updates. Hoping this turns out the same.

 

[Grimlaking]

I loved how excited they were about flying around in power armor. Why they just didn't make a Iron Man Squad game I don't know. At least then they could have been tagged by Marvel and Disney and had some crossover fandom come in.

I hope the game is better than critics are saying. But I'm not holding my breath.

 

[DrDoU]

Oh Wow! What’s the flop rate for this year? How will executives stuff their pockets? I forgot ! Fire people isn’t how it works?

 

[Aireoth]

Haha

 

[Twisted Kidney]

 

[Boscoh]

I'm actually glad I subscribed to Origin Access Basic. The first 5 minutes of the game made my decision because you can't even use arrow keys as movement keys. Camera zoom is bound to up arrow and can't be unbound. I'll wait until it's on sale and this is fixed.

 

[maxius]

to hell with the reviewers ive been playing for 3 days straight its good game reviewers have become a tainted industry

 

[tunatime]

to hell with the reviewers ive been playing for 3 days straight its good game reviewers have become a tainted industry

Yes and no if most reviews say something sucks I tend to pass on it. Professional reviews are junk and should be avoided.

 

[lostin3d]

Guess I'm glad I got ANTHEM for free with my RTX 2060 but the alternative was BFV, ugh.

I actually envy you. I got BFV with my 2080TI and I'm happy to have had something to test RT and DLSS but otherwise I'm much more into Sci-Fi stuff. Either way it sounds like both are a bit of a waste.

 

[lostin3d]

Neil Blokamp made an Epic(no pun intended) trailer. Just left him make a movie already and be done with it. Unlike half arsed movies following game franchise we could end up with the even rarer movie franchise that exceeds the game.

 

[Derfman]

Unlike the demo which ran like ass, Anthem is running fine on Ultra settings now where before Medium was choking my system.

Game itself is fun to play with the wife.

 

[Lakados]

At this point show me anything MMO like that isn’t “Boring and Repetitive” they are all just variations of 5 base missions and 2 or 3 pre determined events. There is only so much you can do with this that isn’t been done to death in the last 25 years. At this point my only question is “is it fun enough for my friends and I to fuck around for a few hours a week after we’ve gotten the various kids to bed?”

 

[Lakados]

Unlike the demo which ran like ass, Anthem is running fine on Ultra settings now where before Medium was choking my system.

Game itself is fun to play with the wife.

That is basically the important part right there!

 

[BloodyIron]

So many recent "AAA" games are "Forgettable, Repetitive". It's become too much of a gamble to spend $80+ on most games now. I typically get much more longevity and fun out of games in the $30 range. At least at that price if it's a flop I can swallow the price.

 

[Nova88]

Its funny they pushed people towards origin access to make more money in the long run, but for a game that is sorta cool for a while but has no endgame, its perfect to pay the $15, enjoy it for a couple weeks then cancel. Then if they make the game better in the future like add some sort of fun progression system or just add more content, the game will be half price or less by then.

 

[wootius]

View attachment 142645

You were a good dog Bioware, but your time has come...

 

[maxius]

Let me repeat for those in the back Anthem is DAMN GOOD I like it a lot + you burn 15 a month for origin access and you can play anything its well worth the price as long as they keep the games coming

 

[RaptormanUSMC]

I'm enjoying Anthem quite a bit. Some bugs I've found though. The most glaring of which is trying to talk to Faye at one point which disconnects the game from origin servers and dumps me to the main menu. Not sure why the hell that happens but it does it repeatedly at the same point of conversation.
Other than that it's a lot of fun. I love the Storm Javelin.

 

[PanzeR-]

Subbed to origin premier to ty it and really enjoying it so far. I really liked Destiny 2 up to the point of high end content because the game didnt give you any matchmaking or way to actually converse with other players. This one gives you the tools.

 

[IRSmurf]

I rushed through the game in three days. The gameplay is fun. The long loading times, frequent server/connection failures, and the long time sink time spent walking at a snails pace back and forth through town while talking to a bunch of npcs after every mission are intolerable.

Now that I'm through the worst of it, I hope I can enjoy the end game.

 

[exlink]

Played the demo during the weekends it was available. That was enough to steer me away from buying it.

 

[KazeoHin]

who didn't see this coming?


No I'm serious, who here can say, honestly, to themselves: "Anthem looks like a great, varied, engaging experience that is sure to consistently offer new, exciting challenges and a plethora of variety and surprises!"

Because I haven't met a single person who could do that.

 

[piscian18]

I keep hearing this "bioware" term thrown around. Bioware ceased to exist like 10 years ago. its just a marketing term now for 30 or so game developers who were looking for a job out of college. rather than spend $50 on anthem Id rather just bet it on some kickstarter being launched by the devs layed off when anythem flops.

 

[demondrops]

multiplayers are fine but, i rly like more storydriven games. i did play anthem a bit earlier, if u like that type of game it is probably fun. graphics are really great and all, guess i didnt play long enough to encounter any bugs. there are bugs in all games right.. seems everything is just multiplayer nowday coz so easy to milk for microtransactions there haha. my first feel of the game was it is mass effect, in a new wrapping but no real story, combat is extremely similar to mea. but u cant really fly there they have said they are working on DA4, that will be nice. and i hope mass effect will be resurected, they prety much said so already. feel like there is a horible trend to review bomb certain titles nowdays. think money in general have a detrimental effect on gaming as a whole.. ah.

 

[Hakaba]

Other than some connection issues I have been enjoying the game. Now with that said, it does need quite a few QOL improvements (better matchmaking, world event tracker, better respawn system). Also they need to adjust the Yevenia vault (sp?) quest, I am still hunting down treasure chest to open so I can prove that I am worthy... If anything this quest is my biggest pet peeve.

 

[maxius]

finally put it down still fun

 

[Zion Halcyon]

RIP Bioware

Yep, this is it for them as a studio.

EA will kill the studio and cash in its IPs.

The only curious thing will be if they keep SWTOR running. For as much as people saying that not many are playing it, it's still making money. And with so little developed under the Star Wars license, it is at least something EA can hang their hat on.

 

[Captindecisive]

Oh Wow! What’s the flop rate for this year? How will executives stuff their pockets? I forgot ! Fire people isn’t how it works?

Activision/Blizzard is a great example of this. Fire a portion of staff to keep the CEO making 30 mil a year. Kudos guys! Reading "Activision/Blizzard CEO takes pay cut to keep employees" would have been a nice thing to see, and would have kept me more interested in their products.

 

[M76]

If even the shill media claims it's not that good, then it has to be abysmal. I mean their ratings has to be divided by 2 to get near reality anyway.

 

[daglesj]

And this is another reason why I always wait a year before buying a game.

 

[ryuen]

I subbed for a month to Premier to try it, after a few hours I think it's OK: runs well, looks great, some bugs (nothing gamebreaking so far), story so far is rather 'meh' and gameplay is pretty fun but I'm afraid it will become boring and repetitive too quickly.
For me it's definitely enjoyable enough to play through the campaign once but I sincerely doubt it's a game I'll want to keep playing after that, it's not a bad game but not great right now either.

 

[Blade-Runner]

RIP Bioware

Never gets old

 

[Blade-Runner]

Wait what? Who saw this coming? Oh yeah, everyone. It is how AAA budget games are made. Corporate Beige.

 

[Pieter3dnow]

I am not to sure that people have a good grasp on what is exactly going on. The idea is that Bioware will keep making content for this game that does not mean that there is no content but it is rather structured around you finding things with friends , refreshing from the stupid quest driven idea gaming should be.

So many recent "AAA" games are "Forgettable, Repetitive". It's become too much of a gamble to spend $80+ on most games now. I typically get much more longevity and fun out of games in the $30 range. At least at that price if it's a flop I can swallow the price.

This game is more then Diablo then people think it is but it does have something that Diablo does not have that is a plan to add content on a regular basis.

who didn't see this coming?


No I'm serious, who here can say, honestly, to themselves: "Anthem looks like a great, varied, engaging experience that is sure to consistently offer new, exciting challenges and a plethora of variety and surprises!"

Because I haven't met a single person who could do that.

Who can see the media that likes content to be spoon fed so they can do their review. If it does not come within a certain structure it is lost on them.
You don't have to like Anthem you don't have to buy it.

Bioware seems to have a plan beyond launch:
https://www.gamesradar.com/anthem-r...unch-support-new-endgame-activities-and-more/

Anthem is not structured around a full game release at launch with all the content available and if people disregard that you are jumping to conclusions.