Do you remember ANTHEM? I do. Despite Mass Effect: Andromeda’s disappointing release, I felt sure that BioWare would be back with a bang, with an attempt at the shared-world shooter, no less – my favourite genre.
Of course, what we got just simply wasn’t good enough.
Anthem launched last year as a buggy mess, with a lack of content and direction and a narrative formed of cliche after cliche. It was such a disappointment that the game was barely mentioned at EA’s E3 event, nor did it make an appearance in the company’s recent financial report.
Even more damning was Kotaku’s report on the development of ANTHEM, showing a studio wilfully ignorant of similar titles, overconfident in its ability to turn a directionless ship around.
With ANTHEM 2.0 (or ANTHEM Next) on its way as part of a "substantial reinvention", what changes do BioWare need to make to help get this Javelin in the air again?
1) Fix the bloody bugs
When ANTHEM launched, the game felt barely held together. Between locking up consoles, to frequent crashes to the dashboard, to invisible walls that prevented progress and even deleted saves, no part of BioWare’s title felt like it worked as intended.
Since then things have definitely improved, but loading times are still longer than we’d have liked. Add to that instances of enemies not spawning, or the occasional loot drop simply not dropping, and you’ve got a recipe for frustration.
Whatever comes next, we hope it's tested thoroughly.
2) Fix the tired and unrefined loot system
On the subject of loot, there were issues with it from the start, with the only “fixes” coming in the form of short-lived patches that showered players with fresh items.
In a game so lacking in content, offering loot to chase as a reason to play can not only keep players logging in, but also make that smaller content base a little more appealing by providing multiple ways to play through it.
Unfortunately, BioWare chose the wrong hill to die on – throttling player progression by allowing just a trickle of usable loot surrounded by items to be dismantled for no real reason.
Add to that an issue where weapon effects (known as inscriptions) are often confusing and unhelpful, and the entire loot progression needs a hard reset.
3) Fix the poorly planned store
One thing ANTHEM nailed is its visual customisation suite. Players can customise almost every aspect of their flying robot suit, from colours to materials and decals.
Add to that a ridiculous insistence on a rotating store, and you’ll grind all of your cash simply to find the item you wanted has been rotated out, or you’ll face the dilemma of whether to risk seeing what’s coming next week in case it offers a better alternative.
Or you can, you know, spend some real dosh to ensure that your Javelin's fashion is up to date. Make the store respectful of our time, BioWare.
4) Add some quality content
We’ll get more into the weeds of this later, but ANTHEM is severely lacking in content. The open world is beautiful in places, but it’s so vapid that it just isn’t fun to explore.
Add to that the dullest “paint by number” mission structures and all of a sudden, flying around as a space-age Iron Man loses its excitement.
Simply, ANTHEM needs a lot more quality content for players to chew through on a regular basis.
5) Add a real endgame
For months, ANTHEM's Cataclysm was the shining hope that players looked to for a fresh piece of content that many hoped would be akin to a raid in something like Destiny or World of Warcraft.
Unfortunately, BioWare essentially released a time trial mode with a blue filter over the map. Okay, that’s an oversimplification, but as much as the Cataclysm has grown into a fine experience, it simply isn’t endgame content.
Between that and the game’s version of difficulty levels seemingly focused on boosting enemy health to make them bullet sponges, alongside the aforementioned loot problems, and even the most diehard fan will find it difficult to feel enthused about logging in.
A proper endgame that keeps players coming back is an absolute necessity.
6) Fix the shambles that is Fort Tarsis
Fort Tarsis, ANTHEM’s main base of operations, is where your character returns to in-between missions.
Unfortunately, it’s the dullest place in the game, stuffed with thinly written characters and frame-rate drops aplenty. There’s also an entirely separate area where you can find other players, the Loading Bay – although that feels similarly abandoned now.
Hopefully BioWare can turn Fort Tarsis into the kind of hub area that makes Destiny’s Tower such a homely location. Having a home that you don't actually want to come back to is never a good thing.
7) Whatever you do, don’t charge for the update
It feels a tough ask of EA, but BioWare simply cannot charge extra for a revamped ANTHEM -- not after fans who stuck by the studio have essentially beta tested it for an entire year.
No Man’s Sky received sizeable updates after its divisive launch, and we’d love to see the same happen here.
In summary, BioWare knows that there is something to be saved by saving ANTHEM, be that in the game’s underlying combat or simply the studio’s own reputation.
ANTHEM won’t get another chance at a launch, but with any luck it can help win at least a few fans back to the storied developer – after all, nobody wants a game to fail.
And, if you were one of the folks who picked it up for £5 in the last few months, you'll hopefully have a lot to look forward to as the future of ANTHEM is revealed.
Do you agree with Lloyd's assessment of ANTHEM? If BioWare really can fix all of this stuff, would you come back? Try not to crash your Javelin into the comments section below.
Comments 14
Basically everything but the traversal and combat mechanics. It's not going to charge for the new version outright, it's going f2p with a big store and a season pass. That's my guess.
They also need to make it so 2 people on the same internet network can play at the same time, you can't take your system to a friends house and play, you can do it with Destiny and Division
Only 7?
I do wonder of it's worth getting pre owned because prices will rise a bit if the update actually does it justice
just torch it. some issues are fundamental, and not fixable without building from the ground up, and i doubt people have enough good faith in bioware to believe they'd get a do-over right.
I got 500hours and did not run into the above mentioned bugs.
There are in general only a few bugs left I guess. Question is how many new ones they will introduce with a huge update.
They will need to give us a long long public beta of the new update to ensure all the issues get ironed out properly.
They just need to make actual content. It is like playing Destiny on 1 location all the time.
@Bagshot I am actually more of a casual player. When you join discord and ask around, some people have spent far more time.
I played since early access and always had a break during content drought. And then I spent around 100 hours per season. Cataclysm even more.
It’s really not that much when I compare myself to others.
1) make the game good
2)stop letting the game be bad
3)make the menus less of a mess
4)don't tie random task lists to story progression
5) allow running in the hub world
6)delete all dialogue that's an attempt to be funny
7)streamline mission loadout so you don't go through 3 45 second load screens to play a mission
8)Compensate people who bought the game thinking it wouldn't be poop with an armor suit or whatever.
Scrap the game make a real Bioware game.
@tatsumi "I am actually more of a casual player"
There is no such thing as a 500H casual player on any game. It doesn't exist. I don't have 500H on any game and not a casual gamer at all.
And yes, that is a lot for any game and compared to most people who play games. It doesn't matter if there a couple people who managed to put more into Anthem.
I hope they can do it, but it seems like so much needs to change that it would basically be a different game, just with the same customizable iron man at the centre of it. Just doesn't seem worth the effort though, even if it turns out well. Hope I'm wrong.
Endagame like Destiny? Coming from a die hard Destiny player that made the jump to PC when the game went to steam I can tell you that not even Bungie has figured out how to make a live service game, they have however figured out how to alleviate the playerbase of their cash to get the coolest stuff in game while recycling everything else but the cash store.
Destiny Y2 was an example of how live service games should work, maybe not the 3rd season so much, but current Destiny is a shallow experience that looks only to engage your wallet.
FF XIV on the other hand is a much better example.
Bioware screwed up big time. I actually deleted all trace of it from my PS4 and trashed the disc. I went and bought all the DLC and expansions for Destiny 2, which I already had and am having more fun with that.
Anthem had a character and story base that had phenomenal world building potential. There were characters in Fort Tarisis each of whom could have provided all manner of story driven game play but as you say, we got missions by numbers that quickly became mind-numbingly mundane. Raising it to its full potential I think is nigh on impossible and like other people have already said, it should be torched.
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