ANTHEM - failed Destiny clone from BioWare

[fantadomat]

This thread right now: "my shithole country is better than your shithole country"

Better than talking about anthem.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Pretty sure I don’t live inside a history book.

No,you live in overpopulated shithole filled with ghettos! Even the most poor parts of Russia are paradise compared to Mexico.

Yes, every day I cry and wish I lived in Bulgaria.

Oh wait...

I'd rather live in bulgaria than mexico

 

[J1M]

New topic: guess the day Anthem goes F2P. I'm thinking May 1st.

 

[unfairlight]

No,you live in overpopulated shithole filled with ghettos! Even the most poor parts of Russia are paradise compared to Mexico.

Get stabbed with a HIV infected krokodil needle or beheaded with a chainsaw by the cartel. Tough choice.

 

[Agame]

BioWare seems to have the same kind of problem Bethesda has, (as well as a number of developers) this weird tunnel vision where they're seemingly totally oblivious to anything anyone else is doing or has done beside the biggest titles. Everything BioWare seemingly wants to do in this game gameplay wise was already done better years before this even started development in the previously mentioned games, and other stuff like Vanquish, Outwars, and Starhawk. But apparently BioWare is too stupid to learn shit from stuff that came before them. Would have helped them to also look at the myriad of different mech related game to see if their was anything they did that could be incorporated into what they were going for. For what's seemingly meant to be a loot driven "RPG" based around power armor (even if it's a third person shooter) there seems to be little to nothing at all to do with the actual armor, and it sounds like there's only two sets of armor per class. What kind of fucking moron makes a loot based game and only puts two armor sets in when getting armor is seemingly meant to be such a big part of the game? BioWare. I wonder what the discussions were like when that idea first came up.

Yea this shows mind-boggling levels of stupidity, even more so in Beths case when they quite literally already have the model of a (fairly?) successful MMO in ESO... and then proceed to make F76 as if its the first MMO thats ever been made and fuck it up in every way imaginable. In Anthems case it just looks terri-bad on every level, from the reviews I have looked at the SINGLE feature that everyone agrees is good is: "flying around like Iron man and making 'splosions is fun"... for half an hour, and then you realize what a giant, generic, boring turd the game is.

As you said the complete lack of customization for the suits is baffling, this should be the core of the game! Upgrading suit systems and slots and making decisions on types of armor, weight, heat management, ammo capacity... just copy battletech you stupid, dumbfucks!! But no these dopey retards spend 6 years reinventing something into mediocrity. I actually agree with one reviewer that thinks they may have scrapped and redesigned the entire game a few years ago, it would explain why everything is rushed and the state of the "open world" being a single biome, with almost no interesting locations.

I sincerely hope EA does drag Bioware out the back and give them a coup de grace to the back of the head, the studio is an embarrassing joke currently.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/02/25/anthem-review/

Wot I Think: Anthem

Hello, it’s me, the resident BioLiker, here to tell you wot I think of Anthem, a game about which you probably already have opinions, whether you’ve played it or not.

Anthem is a shoot ‘n’ loot online game where you, a hero mercenary with a special mech suit, and a squad of matchmade or real life buddies save a lush alien world from certain alien doom. It is, basically, EA’s go at doing a Destiny game-as-a-service game, but they used BioWare to do it, so a lot of people are already upset it isn’t a new Mass Effect game, even though it was never meant to be. Like football, or rugby, or indeed anything with a half-time interval, Anthem is a game of two halves. To guess which one I liked more, ask yourself the following question:

When was the last time someone said ‘my favourite bit of a BioWare game is the combat’?

Not that the main story in Anthem is anything to write home about. It’s a sort of standard ‘big bad man is going to end the world, you’re a wisecracking gun for hire and must stop him,’ sort of thing. But Fort Tarsis really grows on you. It’s the hub you go to between missions (there’s a Launch Bay too, a version of the hub that’s supposed to be more social, where you can hang out with other players, but functionally it’s a grey box and everyone ignores each other).

At first I had barely any interest in it or its denizens, but as time went on I was impressed at how small stories were built, layer on layer, whilst making you feel like you were actually involved. Every time you go back to the Fort, there’s someone to talk to, all very pretty to look at and acted very well. Though you only have binary dialogue options, you can change how things flow, a little. You might persuade two women, who’ve both lost their businesses, to work together, and eventually a new bakery stall will appear in the market. The barman, voiced by Jack McBrayer, asked me for dating advice, which got worse every time I went back to chat to him.



It took me ages to realise I had an email inbox in the game, which even includes a spam filter! And by the time I did realise, there was an email there that made me think “Oh no, if only I’d read it sooner, maybe…” These BioWare-y bio-bits are done with a shockingly light touch, and I was the more happy for them because they’re so well done in a type of game that doesn’t usually have room for something like a detective radio play, where the detective is an alien bunny. But ultimately it serves to make Fort Tarsis feel like a separate game, rather than making the combat side more interesting.

Anthem’s combat has most in common with Mass Effect: Andromeda’s rocket jumping shooty bangs, so it’s at least the best version of combat that BioWare have done for a long while. But still, the various guns you pick up all feel weightless and identical, a means to make magic numbers float in the air, rather than feel like you’re actually hurting a big frost dog or angry rock monster. It seems unlikely you’ll have a favourite gun in Anthem. It’s a bit of a downer in a shoot ‘n’ looter when neither of those are very compelling.

Luckily the javelins, the combat mech suits that are the new toy in Anthem to lure players from, say, Destiny, are good fun. They’re the star of the show, so the bulk of character customisation is reserved for your big metal babies. This is also where they’re trying to get you to part with your real life money. New fabric patterns or armour looks for your jav can be bought in the market; smaller cosmetics are easily afforded with in-game earnings, but the full armour pieces are pricey to encourage actual real spending. But when you combine all the different slots and materials and patterns and colours you get for free, you can create a beautiful monstrosity with no need to spend. It’s not really even noticeable in the middle of a firefight anyway — though the end mission screens end up as uniformly hilarious catwalks of four tasteless rides that have been very pimped.



I’m a fan of the flying, though, because it does give fights an extra dimension (i.e. up), and there’s a kind of tethered freedom to it. You can zoom up and down, but must stay mindful of overheating, and if you go into free fall you suddenly feel very heavy. Each of the four javelins feels a bit different to drive, and can dramatically change how you’re playing. The Storm, my favourite, has you hovering over the battlefield, flinging out explosions and lighting like a one person artillery, while the nippy litter Interceptor encourages jumping in and out and around to confuse and flank, and the Colossus is a big heavy lad that lets you stomp around behind a shield and fire really big rockets.

Each has a different ultimate attack, and slots for special attacks that are unique to the javelin type — the Storm gets elemental attacks like enemy seeking fire explosions or ice lances, the Interceptor has throwing stars and poison grenades, the Colossus has, like, reallybig rockets — but the intricacies aren’t really explained. Creating damage combos is a key part of the combat, and attacks are assigned as either primer, trigger or damage to do this, but I neither understood that aspect of combos or even knew it existed until guides man Dave told me about it. On the other hand, the complexity of most missions boils down to wait for quest marker, follow quest marker, shoot enemies at quest marker. I imagine you’ll muddle through.

If it were just that, Anthem would be… fine. It’s a lovely enough place to action your way around. Ooh, look at that nice waterfall, those giant toadstool rock formations. But there are so many frustrations to fight through! So many little annoyances that add up to you getting cross whenever anything happens! There’ve been a couple of patches, including the big pretend day one patch, that have made the game more stable, but when I played over the weekend I still got bugs: I still lost all sound, I still got missions that didn’t trigger their completion, so the four of us stood around throwing emotes at each other, waiting for someone to leave first and break the others out of the bug.

Loading screens are shorter now, but there are still too many of them. Missions average about 15 minutes a throw, so proportionally you’re spending a lot of time doing fuck all in Anthem. You load into a mission, then don’t spawn on your squad, so they’re miles away and that triggers a catch up timer, before you then have another brief loading screen to spawn on your squad, like, ideally, you would do to start with. After a mission, you have to load in to your loadout, then load out of the loudout screen into the hub of your choice, to then launch a new mission and load into that. There’s no way to change your loadout on the fly between missions, or launch a new mission straight after completing one.

Say you want some uninterrupted play time. Freeplay lets you zip about the open world map and engage in world events, like how in Destiny some kind of something will happen on the way to your mission. Except, unlike in Destiny, you don’t get advance warning that an event is about to happen, it’s triggered by someone flying close enough, so your travels will be mostly aimless. And unlike in Destiny, only three other players will be in the world with you at a time, and unless you know each other you’re unlikely to actually play together, so the events are boring and take longer, and the whole experience is lonely and, again, frustrating. And to launch a proper mission you have to loud out of free play, back to the Fort or the Launch Bay, and then… It’s just tiny fiddly steps everywhere, tripping you up, getting in the way of you playing the game. Mounting, hair-tearing, exhausting, defeating frustration.

Reviewing a games-as-a-service game can be weird anyway, because they change. Anthem has already, in a week, and is going to change more over the next month (it has a roadmap). On top of that, with Anthem I feel there’s a lot to explain but not much to talk about, like watching a really involved reality TV show, and then realising that somehow nothing has happened over the course of an entire hour. I want to want to spend more time with it, because there are bits of it I really enjoy. But it needs more than the world map to change a bit, or have seasons, or better social interaction. It needs changes to how it actually works, which is a lot to ask. But the biggest fight I’ve had with Anthem so far is against Anthem.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

BioWare seems to have the same kind of problem Bethesda has, (as well as a number of developers) this weird tunnel vision where they're seemingly totally oblivious to anything anyone else is doing or has done beside the biggest titles. Everything BioWare seemingly wants to do in this game gameplay wise was already done better years before this even started development in the previously mentioned games, and other stuff like Vanquish, Outwars, and Starhawk. But apparently BioWare is too stupid to learn shit from stuff that came before them. Would have helped them to also look at the myriad of different mech related game to see if their was anything they did that could be incorporated into what they were going for. For what's seemingly meant to be a loot driven "RPG" based around power armor (even if it's a third person shooter) there seems to be little to nothing at all to do with the actual armor, and it sounds like there's only two sets of armor per class. What kind of fucking moron makes a loot based game and only puts two armor sets in when getting armor is seemingly meant to be such a big part of the game? BioWare. I wonder what the discussions were like when that idea first came up.

Yea this shows mind-boggling levels of stupidity, even more so in Beths case when they quite literally already have the model of a (fairly?) successful MMO in ESO... and then proceed to make F76 as if its the first MMO thats ever been made and fuck it up in every way imaginable. In Anthems case it just looks terri-bad on every level, from the reviews I have looked at the SINGLE feature that everyone agrees is good is: "flying around like Iron man and making 'splosions is fun"... for half an hour, and then you realize what a giant, generic, boring turd the game is.

As you said the complete lack of customization for the suits is baffling, this should be the core of the game! Upgrading suit systems and slots and making decisions on types of armor, weight, heat management, ammo capacity... just copy battletech you stupid, dumbfucks!! But no these dopey retards spend 6 years reinventing something into mediocrity. I actually agree with one reviewer that thinks they may have scrapped and redesigned the entire game a few years ago, it would explain why everything is rushed and the state of the "open world" being a single biome, with almost no interesting locations.

I sincerely hope EA does drag Bioware out the back and give them a coup de grace to the back of the head, the studio is an embarrassing joke currently.

ESO is handled by Zenimax Online, not Bethesda.
And it's actually really good/severely underrated. Easily one of the best entries in the entire series, even from a singleplayer perspective. Heard it was shit at launch but I can't comment on that.

 

[User was nabbed fit]

The state of SJWare.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

The state of SJWare.

Anthem is actually a humor game. While they failed on a dialogue level in this regard they did managed to successfully integrate the comedy into the game's stats & mechanics. It's a joke.

 

[Gerrard]

This is what playing Diablo 3 and Destiny does to your brain. You think you should get all the best gear immediately after reaching max level and then complain that there's nothing to do. Even if EA doesn't kill his game the retarded players surely will.

 

[Space Nugget]

Anthem only managing half the launch week sales of Andromeda is disappointing, as Andromeda only managed half the launch week sales of Mass Effect 3.

 

[User was nabbed fit]

This is what playing Diablo 3 and Destiny does to your brain. You think you should get all the best gear immediately after reaching max level and then complain that there's nothing to do. Even if EA doesn't kill his game the retarded players surely will.

I think the point is more so that gear can roll a big fat zero. That being said, a certain level of reward does need to be reflected in high level loot, which is usually done through different tiers of affixes... and at the very least, those high level affixes shouldn't typically start at 0 (so they're not practically unusable).

 

[Gerrard]

This is what playing Diablo 3 and Destiny does to your brain. You think you should get all the best gear immediately after reaching max level and then complain that there's nothing to do. Even if EA doesn't kill his game the retarded players surely will.

I think the point is more so that gear can roll a big fat zero. That being said, a certain level of reward does need to be reflected in high level loot, which is usually done through different tiers of affixes... and at the very least, those high level affixes shouldn't typically start at 0 (so they're not practically unusable).

That's a bug and the guy who posted that is a fucking retard. The implicit properties are not randomized. The only real issue is with affixes in that you can get buffs that are useless for your class.

 

[Black]

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

who cares bioware died when they released balder's gater

 

[Reinhardt]

No Codex review? Darth Roxor i choose you!

 

[Angthoron]

No Codex review? Darth Roxor i choose you!

Are you gonna buy a review copy?

 

[Reinhardt]

We can ask Wrong Carlo.

 

[Infinitron]

Uh we have more important things to do than review MMOs

who cares bioware died when they released balder's gater

 

[Angthoron]

No Codex review? Darth Roxor i choose you!

Are you gonna buy a review copy?

Ah fuck it, I'll do a Codexian review. Haven't played it but:

ELEX did jetpacks first, and it did it better. This game tries to be a spiritual successor to Mass Effect: Andromeda and fails, however, the animations are slightly less broken and the world is a little prettier. Still, for a perfect open world experience with a jetpack-boosting protagonist, play ELEX instead.

+ It can be uninstalled in under 3 minutes

+- Copies jetpack from a better game

- It's a Bioware game
- Looter shooter
- Lame looting mechanics
- Bioware writing
- Bioware mechanics
- Not ELEX
- Always online
- Requires friends to have some kind of fun
- Requires Origin install
- Your money goes to EA



I will write 12 more reviews eventually

 

[Reinhardt]

MDK2 was ok.

 

[cvv]

No ELEX, no buy.

 

[Angthoron]

MDK2 was ok.

Yeah but as far back as 2000, BioWare took a beloved franchise's name and made it less offensive by changing MDK to mean Max, Doc, Kurt instead of Murder, Death, Kill.

Makes ya think, doesn't it?

 

[cvv]

Yep, this goes to the heart. It's not the stupid story or writing or shit like that, it's that for a looter game the loot is absolutely shocking. In one review I glimpsed a grid-like page with guns. I HONESTLY thought it's a page showcasing many possible variants of one gun, with various mods and custom shit. Holy shit no. It was a literal inventory, with different guns. ALL OF THEM LOOKED ALMOST THE SAME1!1 Also the disconnect of difficulty from the reward? Is there a more basic mistake in a game development than that? Like what the actual fuck Bioware?

Former Diablo 3 designer points out flaws in Anthem’s loot

It’s no secret at this point that Anthem’s loot game, much like the rest of the package, is severely lacking.

If you ignore the fanfare-less way Anthem rewards loot, the actual loot itself is uninspired, and lacks the variety other loot shooters have.

Stepping away from the end product for a moment, there’s an interesting design conversation to be had about BioWare’s decisions with regards to itemisation, frequency of rewards, and how loot is ultimately doled out.

In a lengthy post on Anthem’s subreddit, Travis Day, former Diablo 3 systems designer who currently works on Dauntless at Phoenix Labs, explored the game’s many missteps when it comes to the loot game.

Day started off by talking about what they called “dead inscriptions”, which are affixes that do not affect the item they rolled on, despite the description implying otherwise. This causes player confusion, and further complicates matters.

As to how loot itself is acquired – mostly Strongholds, Day lamented the lack of clear difficulty tiers. Fighting the final bosses of all three Strongholds, Day realised the Tyrant Mine was the easiest. Because Anthem doesn’t assign clear difficulty tiers to each of the three Strongholds, players will follow the path of least resistance, which in this case is the Tyrant Mine.


If BioWare intended for each Stronghold to have a set difficulty, the loot rewarded should reflect that. If they’re all supposed to be roughly the same difficulty, then Day suggests differentiating the loot and bonuses in order to make running all three more interesting than sticking to the most efficient route of just doing Tyrant.

Day also touched on the lack of granularity in difficulty. For example, after gearing up to a point where Grandmaster 1 is trivial, Grandmaster 2 represents a disproportionately higher challenge. You can go from feeling comfortable in GM1, to getting one-shot in GM2.

This discourages players from pushing to higher difficulties, where they should feel challenged and not overwhelmed.

The post is incredibly informative, and should be read in its entirety. If you’re looking to hear more about Travis Day’s experience working on Diablo 3 and plenty of other Blizzard games, he has a GDC talk that’s also worth your time.

 

[J_C]

Yep, this goes to the heart. It's not the stupid story or writing or shit like that, it's that for a looter game the loot is absolutely shocking. In one review I glimpsed a grid-like page with guns. I HONESTLY thought it's a page showcasing many possible variants of one gun, with various mods and custom shit. Holy shit no. It was a literal inventory, with different guns. ALL OF THEM LOOKED ALMOST THE SAME1!1 Also the disconnect of difficulty from the reward? Is there a more basic mistake in a game development than that? Like what the actual fuck Bioware?

Former Diablo 3 designer points out flaws in Anthem’s loot

It’s no secret at this point that Anthem’s loot game, much like the rest of the package, is severely lacking.

If you ignore the fanfare-less way Anthem rewards loot, the actual loot itself is uninspired, and lacks the variety other loot shooters have.

Stepping away from the end product for a moment, there’s an interesting design conversation to be had about BioWare’s decisions with regards to itemisation, frequency of rewards, and how loot is ultimately doled out.

In a lengthy post on Anthem’s subreddit, Travis Day, former Diablo 3 systems designer who currently works on Dauntless at Phoenix Labs, explored the game’s many missteps when it comes to the loot game.

Day started off by talking about what they called “dead inscriptions”, which are affixes that do not affect the item they rolled on, despite the description implying otherwise. This causes player confusion, and further complicates matters.

As to how loot itself is acquired – mostly Strongholds, Day lamented the lack of clear difficulty tiers. Fighting the final bosses of all three Strongholds, Day realised the Tyrant Mine was the easiest. Because Anthem doesn’t assign clear difficulty tiers to each of the three Strongholds, players will follow the path of least resistance, which in this case is the Tyrant Mine.


If BioWare intended for each Stronghold to have a set difficulty, the loot rewarded should reflect that. If they’re all supposed to be roughly the same difficulty, then Day suggests differentiating the loot and bonuses in order to make running all three more interesting than sticking to the most efficient route of just doing Tyrant.

Day also touched on the lack of granularity in difficulty. For example, after gearing up to a point where Grandmaster 1 is trivial, Grandmaster 2 represents a disproportionately higher challenge. You can go from feeling comfortable in GM1, to getting one-shot in GM2.

This discourages players from pushing to higher difficulties, where they should feel challenged and not overwhelmed.

The post is incredibly informative, and should be read in its entirety. If you’re looking to hear more about Travis Day’s experience working on Diablo 3 and plenty of other Blizzard games, he has a GDC talk that’s also worth your time.

This is what happens when a company is working on a game which is out of their league. Bioware is not fit for a game like this, never was.