Is Anthem dead? With the game currently giving its players the silent treatment and BioWare having several big names jump ship, you wouldn’t be blamed for thinking so. Anthem in its current state is certainly a better game now than it was at launch, but it still suffers from a range of issues of which the primary one is that its the most boring thing on Earth since DSTV launched the Post Office Entertainment Service channel. [Editor’s note: I’ve actually been playing Anthem since it dropped on EA Access, and it’s actually not bad at all. There’s a ton of promise, and a fair amount of fun to be had now, despite its glaring limitations – Kervyn]
Anthem may not have much life in its bones currently, but over at Kotaku there was a spark of hope that the live service Iron Man simulator could actually be, and brace yourselves for this one, exciting. Reports from the site indicate that Anthem is currently being heavily retooled behind the scenes, the entire game being stripped apart and rebuilt into a title that could be compared to what No Man’s Sky did with its NEXT update.
How Anthem will play, its overall mission structure and what it’ll look like are all under a microscope across all of BioWare’s various studios as the company looks to salvage the project that at this point is simply too big to fail. “We spent a few months just tearing it down and figuring out what needed to change fundamentally (a lot),” one of Kotaku’s sources on the project said.
And we’ve been rebuilding for another few months since.
The biggest hurdle right now for Anthem is how it plans to introduce its grand rebuild plan. BioWare have no idea how they’ll do this currently, whether it’s through a massive expansion pack ala Destiny’s Taken King, several updates or a brand new game entirely that would create Anthem 2.0. Whatever the plan is, BioWare is gambling big on this rebuild focusing on maintaining the established lore of Anthem and overhauling the social elements, the world and progression through it so that major gripes can finally be addressed.
This version of Anthem is currently in a state of deep experimentation, even after the departure of BioWare head of live services Chad Robertson and lead producer Ben Irving. A part of me wants Anthem to be fully realised as the game that it was hyped to be, instead of the broken at launch poster child of everything wrong with live service games that is currently running on life support and the scant goodwill of a faithful few.
Everyone deserves a second chance, and I’m a big fan of comeback stories. Hopefully, Anthem can find the magic that BioWare truly needs.
Last Updated: November 18, 2019
Admiral Chief
November 18, 2019 at 11:08
Step 1
Remove the live service kak
Step 2
Wait for fans and gamers to respond
Step 3
Watch people enjoy what we actually want
Hammersteyn
November 18, 2019 at 11:08
More COD, that’s all they ever want. That or FIFA
Admiral Chief
November 18, 2019 at 11:12
Dude, I actually want some CoD action. It looks finally worthy of my attention
Hammersteyn
November 18, 2019 at 11:17
I’ll eventually pick it up because apparently it’s really good this year, just wandering what Bobby has up his sleeve
Jonah Cash
November 19, 2019 at 18:01
FIFA for the win!!!!!
Hammersteyn
November 20, 2019 at 08:12
There you are XD
Kromas
November 18, 2019 at 11:12
Even if they pull ALL of the live service kak the massive lack in content is still a rather big problem.
Kromas
November 18, 2019 at 11:12
[Editor’s note: I’ve actually been playing Anthem since it dropped on EA
Access, and it’s actually not bad at all. There’s a ton of promise, and
a fair amount of fun to be had now, despite its glaring limitations –
Kervyn]
Glad you enjoy it but fact of the matter is that the game is not that great and nothing was as promised.
I would however have them rather pull a No Man’s Sky Next on Mass Effect Andromeda than Anthem.
Hammersteyn
November 18, 2019 at 11:12
But this is EA, you have to pay them to fix their mistakes.
Kromas
November 18, 2019 at 11:17
If you properly fix Andromeda and then after that release a new DLC people will pay for said DLC.
Admiral Chief
November 18, 2019 at 11:17
Mass Effect >>>>>>> Anthem
Pariah
November 18, 2019 at 11:17
I’ll be honest here. ME has by far the better RPG gameplay. ME was ALL about the story. But Anthem’s actual action gameplay far surpasses what ME can offer.
If they can somehow marry the two of those things, then that’s first prize.
Kromas
November 18, 2019 at 11:17
Andromeda had amazing combat the already utilized verticality and the sheer variety of combat options was the only good thing about that game.
Hammersteyn
November 18, 2019 at 11:22
Even Andromeda
Pariah
November 18, 2019 at 13:27
Without mentioning the 2nd half of Anthem’s story – Owen alone surpasses what Andromeda did. Both in facial animation and in character.
Pariah
November 18, 2019 at 11:17
Anthem has promise. A lot of it. The gameplay loop was great, and the suits felt amazing to play. There was just nothing to be said about the content. The first half of the story was great too. The second half, well, yeah.
Kromas
November 18, 2019 at 11:17
The lack of content for a live service game of that magnitude was rather unacceptable. The gameplay loop also got super boring super fast due to the lack of variety in enemies as well as that invisible bug that had you die 500 times for no particular reason.
Kervyn Cloete
November 18, 2019 at 11:53
Yeah, I’ve never seen that bug. And also by the time Anthem hit EA Access, they had fixed up a number of bugs and bad design decisions that annoyed the crap out of me at launch. Combine that with a truly gorgeous world and some really solid combat mechanics and it’s been enough to keep my friends and I entertained for about two months now.
Kromas
November 18, 2019 at 12:06
Oh I am sure it has been fixed by now. The lack of decent content is still a major issue for me. The variety of enemies is less than that of Fallout 76 and Fallout has like 4 types of enemies!
The world is very pretty and the flying is fun but at some point you will shoot the same enemy over and over again and not even get anything useful upgrade wise and realize there really is no end game.
Pariah
November 18, 2019 at 13:22
I never experienced that bug. In fact, never even heard of it until now. And yeah – that’s a lack of content which is Anthem’s issue. But that’s literally what I said, so.
How’s Fallout 76’s story, btw?
Kromas
November 18, 2019 at 13:27
Really enjoyable actually. The main issue people had with it was that it is told via environment. The first hour of 76 has more story content than the whole of Anthem.
Also the invisible enemy bug was one of the top issues people had at launch and still persisted months later. Not sure how you missed that entirely. Must have been super lucky and never visited the forums or reddit.
Pariah
November 18, 2019 at 13:32
Yeah I stay away from Reddit. It’s a cesspool. And random lore you find – well Anthem had tons of that too. It’s so sad to me how they have the barebones of something special there but didn’t actually get it past the first third of the development process.
Kromas
November 18, 2019 at 13:37
Did not say random lore you find. Said environmental lore. Starting and ending quests is usually based on events that happen and/or dialog through pa systems/robots/computers/audio tapes. ie no humans to talk to and have various moral options to choose from.
Pariah
November 18, 2019 at 13:42
Potato potato.
Kromas
November 18, 2019 at 16:40
Random lore you find is too much to even compare. In fact I just stopped searching for it after a while as it would take me months to clear a single town unless I wiki it.
Pariah
November 18, 2019 at 16:45
Yeah, except you also described world exploration there in Anthem. Almost to a T. Only there’s less of it and it gets repetitive after a while. And then there’s still the lore you find lying about. Funny enough, that was all the boring part. And that’s what you’re saying was great about F76 so it really seems at odds.
But honestly. We’re probably always going to disagree on this. So I’ll leave it on this note: I apologise for throwing shade at F76. I also will respectfully note the similarities and disagree that F76 did it better. They both sucked at story in my personal opinion, with some moments of greatness in there somewhere.
Kromas
November 18, 2019 at 16:50
Enjoy the games you enjoy. I am currently mad at Bethesda because of Fallout 1st but I still find it hard not to think about logging back in. The same can’t be said for me and anthem the only time I ever think about that game is when an article comes out.
Kromas
November 18, 2019 at 16:55
The flying was fun. That I will give the game.
Son of Banana Jim
November 18, 2019 at 11:27
You know, I would love for them to take a look at Mass Effect Andromeda and improving it, for all the memes that game generated, I recently started replaying it, and maybe it’s because I’ve softened my stance on it, but I’m a lot more forgiving of all its many issues.
Kromas
November 18, 2019 at 11:32
I never thought it was a bad game but it was a bad game compared to mass effect 1-3. Also they really rushed the engine switch and the voice acting was terrible and the story was middling and the amount of species you interract with is tiny. I did like the end as that dysen sphere was awesome.
Son of Banana Jim
November 18, 2019 at 11:32
Oh definitely, I think that’s the biggest issue I had with it, it was a massive step backwards.
Kromas
November 18, 2019 at 11:32
Would have loved to see a DLC that deals with the missing ARKs.
Son of Banana Jim
November 18, 2019 at 11:47
But hopefully, they’ll get their act together and make a decent Mass Effect 5 (that’s not live service)
Son of Banana Jim
November 18, 2019 at 11:41
Absolutely agree with you!
Son of Banana Jim
November 18, 2019 at 11:37
Speaking of EA games, I recently played a little bit of the multiplayer of Battlefield V (with the new Pacific update), and for the most part, I think they’ve gone above and beyond. They’ve almost fixed the game after the controversy that raged when it was announced and released.
But… I just can’t deal with the female screams though. I don’t know why it is, but playing a war game and then hearing female voices scream for help, just doesn’t do it for me. It’s the weirdest thing. I have to mute the game to play it… :/
Son of Banana Jim
November 18, 2019 at 11:41
Just in case someone with the sensibilities from the Mary Sue complain – I’m not saying the female characters trigger me. It’s kind of funny and cool to have a british asian lady reviving me after I was mowed down by german artillery… it’s just the sounds. There’s something far too visceral about female screams, and I honestly can’t explain it.
Anyone else have the same issue? Or should I call my therapist?
Hammersteyn
November 18, 2019 at 11:47
I blame Hollywood, they misrepresented war by mostl showing men doing the fighting, men dying and men screaming. We’ve been desensitized to men suffering. They need to fix it.
Son of Banana Jim
November 18, 2019 at 11:53
That’s the reality of war though, young men sent off to die on foreign soils. It’s not just Hollywood though. Of course, there have been “fighting women” throughout history, from Celtic/Viking shieldmaidens to female archers, but those were few and far between.
PS: I’m not sure I want to be desensitised to the suffering of women though lol.
Hammersteyn
November 18, 2019 at 11:53
No one does, but blue hair Twitter complained about representation and now you have the screams of women to deal with while you’re trying to relax.
Son of Banana Jim
November 18, 2019 at 12:06
That’s really the thing, how can you relax to that…?
It’s just completely messed up. Last night, I was trying to capture a zone, and as the counter is ticking down, a shell hits the squad next to me, and all I hear are lady screams… I nearly switched off the PS4. I just couldn’t anymore.
Hammersteyn
November 18, 2019 at 12:12
Watched a video and yeah, cringe. Representation is fine in games, we all play them. But maybe tone tone the screams? I mean it’s a video game, not a report from Special Assignment.
Original Heretic
November 18, 2019 at 11:37
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2423e1b697758cdfbfe6db840596f5a2a133c8dce068bab279fb22f1d617ed1f.gif
Llama In The Rift
November 18, 2019 at 13:12
Here’s hoping it’s more single player friendly. Then sure, lets give it a try
Son of Banana Jim
November 18, 2019 at 16:06
I’m definitely over these team up with randos games. I just want to play alone, explore on my own and not have to deal with Timmy 10years old.
Son of Banana Jim
November 18, 2019 at 11:22
If they are rebuilding it – I hope they don’t try to charge folks who originally bought the game for (freaking) R1000 a fee for the rebuilt version. That would be a dick move! If they pull a Hello Games and give those people version 2 for free, then I will not only tip my hat to Bioware, but I might just give them a nod of approval.
However, let’s be real this is Bioware, they’re as scummy as Bethesda and Blizzard.
Pariah
November 18, 2019 at 11:22
BioWare isn’t the scummy one here – it’s EA. But yes, EA are easily that low.
Son of Banana Jim
November 18, 2019 at 11:27
Just like with DiCE, Bioware is part of EA now. The memories we have of the good DiCE or the good Bioware are just that… memories built on nostalgia.
Pariah
November 18, 2019 at 11:32
Yeah that’s sort of my point. BioWare isn’t BioWare. It’s EA.
Son of Banana Jim
November 18, 2019 at 13:37
Oh, yeah… don’t disagree there.
Pariah
November 18, 2019 at 16:45
Yeah I need to explain what I mean better. Not even sometimes, a lot more often… >_<
Hammersteyn
November 18, 2019 at 11:53
Gamers : Bioware is so awesome, they only release classic games
EA : Challenge everything.
Kromas
November 18, 2019 at 11:27
Bioware is at fault here as well based on that kotaku article.
Son of Banana Jim
November 18, 2019 at 11:32
I’m not a fan of Kotaku, and I think everyone here knows it, but that Jason Schreier article is required reading. It’s just amazing how Bioware dropped the ball, and here’s the thing, it wasn’t the first time. They just seemed to have had some decent luck in pulling things together at the last minute.
Kromas
November 18, 2019 at 11:37
I am no fan either but the internet was abuzz about the article so I did read it.
Son of Banana Jim
November 18, 2019 at 13:32
lol, I found an archive link, so they didn’t get the click. (Insert maniacal laughter)
CrAiGiSh
November 18, 2019 at 11:37
BioWare – how the mighty have fallen and it is a true shame 🙁
Son of Banana Jim
November 18, 2019 at 11:37
If only we could go back to 2011 and tell them not to release Dragon Age 2 – because they really haven’t been the same since then.
CrAiGiSh
November 18, 2019 at 11:41
I saw the signs “downfall” when they joined EA and released Mass Effect 3 … 🙁
Kromas
November 18, 2019 at 11:47
I am sure they were part of EA when 2 dropped. Also 3 had the best DLC ever made for a game in the history of ever.
CrAiGiSh
November 18, 2019 at 11:47
Could be, I can’t remember.
Also never played the DLC, which I probably should have.
I just remember when ME3 got released and when “importing” your character from ME2 – there was such a stuff up and EA/BioWare just said “Oh Well, tough shit”.
For me that was the first sign of things.
Kromas
November 18, 2019 at 11:47
The Citadel DLC is worth so much praise. 10/10.
CrAiGiSh
November 18, 2019 at 11:53
Dam, I think I even bought it … *sigh*
Was just so fed up with the game once finished but maybe I should take a look.
Son of Banana Jim
November 18, 2019 at 11:47
Sigh! I really disliked 3 but at least we have the good memories of Mass Effect 1 and 2.
CrAiGiSh
November 18, 2019 at 11:47
Right in dem feels.