Anthem: Bioware's next Mass Effect-like IP

[Gaidax]

Man, ive been wondering why my story wasnt progressing. Im at the "open the tomb doors" grind. Its horrible because I have no idea how to check my progress while playing.

Oh this is very easy

Press J - go to Challenges -> Expeditions -> Freeplay -> it's here.

Very user friendly... I know right?

What did you expect of a game that does not even have a bloody chat.

[kaelleria]

Man, ive been wondering why my story wasnt progressing. Im at the "open the tomb doors" grind. Its horrible because I have no idea how to check my progress while playing.

Open your cortex(J on PC) -> Go to Challenges -> Go to Expeditions -> Go To Freeplay.

They probably should have spelled this out a bit more than it is(not at all).

[WoWGoneBad]

Man, ive been wondering why my story wasn't progressing. Im at the "open the tomb doors" grind. Its horrible because I have no idea how to check my progress while playing.

This was my WORST experience, the Journal does not tell you what you need and the only way to find out is to go back to the doors to check progress. So what I did is I just did them one door at a time so I could remember what I needed for each one. In truth, all of them can be completed by just running the Freeplay events as they pop.

I was working on the second door(West) and didn't even realize that I completed 3(North West) and 4 (North) while working on 2. They should add objective progress to the journal rather than just completion progress. But that would be horrendous in coding I think lol

[Beazy]

Thanks for the info. Now I don't have to sit through loading screens just to view my progress!

/fistbump

[yasiru]

I dunno. For free, I can play Apex Legends.

For $15 I could get Hollow Knight or Darkest Dungeon or any similar such game.

For $60, you're talking anything from Assassins Creed Odyssey to Red Dead Redemption 2 to Spider Man to God of War, right now. Most of these games are considered 9-10/10 games. Where would you rate Anthem compared to that?

If that's unfair, then I'll just use Monster Hunter World as a direct comparison:

It's a 1-4 player always online game, with a solo story, with a world to explore that's broken up into zones and has a gear, loot and difficulty progression system that is immaculate. There's a horde of weapons to choose from, each with unique play styles that can be adapted into rolls of tanking, ranged dps and melee dps, some of them with multiple uses and they change how you interact with enemies. Each weapon has different combos, often different types of resource management etc.

At launch, the game had about 15 times the content of Anthem, ranging from unique hunt's, time limited events, crossovers with other games featuring unique monsters and so on.

Anthem is a mediocre and incomplete game.

All of this is fair criticism. But don't forget, that $15 that he is talking about grants you access to play a ton of games, not just Anthem. So $15 to try out Anthem while also getting to try all of the other games is a bargain, in my opinion. I don't have Premier on my PC but have Access on my xbox and for the $5/month I pay for it I can download and play like 70+ games.

[Lahis]

Man, ive been wondering why my story wasnt progressing. Im at the "open the tomb doors" grind. Its horrible because I have no idea how to check my progress while playing.

Apparently there is some 7th tier menu (possibly behind loading screen or two) that tells you your progress on it.

[Krille]

Yeah, sorry. I have played this game so far for 40 hours total and the reviewers are mostly spot on.

Heck, it even gets worse, because once story is done - that's it, you basically end up doing random crap you already did 500 times (because activity pool can literally be counted with fingers on one hand) for loot that is more often than not simply infuriating because there is just so many fluff affixes that getting an item you want WITH any sort of useful stats is like a unicorn, this all while wading through loading screens for just about any sneeze you can imagine.

Of course there are literal tons of various mechanical and technical issues, starting with many items and in some cases even abilities not working properly (for example bloody Ranger's ultimate does not combo at all, that's on top of often exploding on ceiling/rocks instead of targets), some completely broken double or even infinite stacking inscriptions that allow certain javelin to totally cheese the game and simply a lot of mishaps that just scream that this game needed another half a year of polish right there.

What's even more shocking it's almost as if EA setting this game to fail - they should have sighed at Bioware and gave them a bit more time, but instead released it alongside Apex, which is bloody brilliant and it's like putting a piece of shit near bloody diamonds and telling you to pick one.

All in all still, EA is not at fault here - it did push back Anthem, but Bioware simply screwed that all up and I bet EA top hats simply said to themselves if this is what we got after delay, then probably another delay won't really do shit and maybe they are right.


P.S. That said, EA's damage control practices they shown last couple of days are nothing short of disgusting. So it's not like I am trying to whitewash EA here. All in all this state of game is on Bioware, but EA surely piled their own shit on top of that.

- - - Updated - - -

Agree on all the points except the one about Apex. It's a simple game to make and has a lot of server issues (more so than Anthem). Some of the stuff you mention are simply learn to play-things like not hitting rocks with ranger ultimate. The game is perfectly fine for a "live game"-release that is meant to evolve over time. The problem is the hyperbole from the negative side claiming its the worst game ever, clearly they havent played many games.

[Dextroden]

Agree on all the points except the one about Apex. It's a simple game to make and has a lot of server issues (more so than Anthem). Some of the stuff you mention are simply learn to play-things like not hitting rocks with ranger ultimate. The game is perfectly fine for a "live game"-release that is meant to evolve over time. The problem is the hyperbole from the negative side claiming its the worst game ever, clearly they havent played many games.

Oh it's not hyperbole. If 76 is an incomplete game with a cash shop and the worst game ever, this is indeed one too.

[Orby]

This game will no doubt have it's core playerbase that will love this game, but it isnt going to be the huge game EA would have expected. I see this game more akin to Evolve (yea remember that game lol), it'll have a great showing at first then just fall of the map in a few months.

Sad really for me this isnt my game and is not a game I expect from Bioware. But whatever I guess.

[Lindon]

This game will no doubt have it's core playerbase that will love this game, but it isnt going to the huge game EA would have expected. I see this game more akin to Evolve (yea remember that game lol) popularity it'll have a great showing at first then just fall of the map in a few months.

Sad really for me this isnt my game and is not a game I expect from Bioware. But whatever I guess.

Entirely possible. it all depends on how well Bioware updates the game with new content in the foreseeable future.

[dope_danny]

Bioware really has to. It's probably a life or death situation for them. If they don't turn the consumers' opinion on Anthem around and quickly, they are done.

Well the looter shooter part is probably going to be a wash since The Division 2 comes out in 3 weeks with an open beta before that to lure them away. Question is can the 'but its bioware!' crowd be convinced to stick around in significant numbers when they realise there isnt some huge dragon age origins style story to get lost in and its farm repeatable missions for upgrades if thats not what they want out of a bioware title?

[zealo]

Well the looter shooter part is probably going to be a wash since The Division 2 comes out in 3 weeks with an open beta before that to lure them away. Question is can the 'but its bioware!' crowd be convinced to stick around in significant numbers when they realise there isnt some huge dragon age origins style story to get lost in and its farm repeatable missions for upgrades if thats not what they want out of a bioware title?

Can't imagine they'd stick around for any significant extent.

There's a lot of people in that community that regards gameplay more as an obstacle they have to put up with to get to the story moments as the main appeal.

[SirCowdog]

Bioware really has to. It's probably a life or death situation for them. If they don't turn the consumers' opinion on Anthem around and quickly, they are done.

This is what I don't get:

PLAYERS: "Hey, here is problem X".
Bioware fixes it in less than a week, along with a host of other bugs/gameplay issues.
PLAYERS: "This game sux! EA cash shop! DIAF! 6 out of 10! Worse than Fallout76!"


I mean, seriously....wut? Other than a massive content drop(which takes a LOT of dev time to produce), Bioware has fixed every major issue identified by players, and yet players are still taking a giant dump on the game. It's fucked.

[Video Games]

Speaking of strange brand defence bunkum EA started a "#gamechangers" program to basically get youtuber to be essentially shills for EA. Which kind of explains the befuddling recent "EA haters be all like going down on my bois EA" defence for videogames big bad. But now they are getting a rude wake up call this morning after giving anthem mediocre reviews -not yongyea tier clickbait but honestly just calling it mediocre- https://twitter.com/Ggdograa/status/1098885724303024128

EA is now taking their reviews down and blacklisting them entirely. This is sound damage control and totally wont just be more bad press. Nope. Everythings coming up millhouse.

Why does every single western triple a game has to have some controversy?

[dope_danny]

Can't imagine they'd stick around for any significant extent.

There's a lot of people in that community that regards gameplay more as an obstacle they have to put up with to get to the story moments as the main appeal.

yeah i doubt anthem is going to appeal to the hamburger helper audience

[Puupi]

This is what I don't get:

PLAYERS: "Hey, here is problem X".
Bioware fixes it in less than a week, along with a host of other bugs/gameplay issues.
PLAYERS: "This game sux! EA cash shop! DIAF! 6 out of 10! Worse than Fallout76!"


I mean, seriously....wut? Other than a massive content drop(which takes a LOT of dev time to produce), Bioware has fixed every major issue identified by players, and yet players are still taking a giant dump on the game. It's fucked.

Because the technical issues are just a small little detail in the grand scheme of things. The lack of content is the big one.

Obviously it's nice that Bioware fixes the technical issues quickly, although these issues shouldn't exist in the first place.

[Eleccybubb]

I don't get why people are saying "oh let's see how Bioware updates the game"

The game should have been fucking ready to go. There's no excuse for it from any developer.

When did it get to this where we have to wait months or a year + for a game to get good? What happened to games being good or at least polished out of the door?

If this game does fail then I'm sorry but it's a case of EA/Bioware and "you reap what you sow".

[Dextroden]

I don't get why people are saying "oh let's see how Bioware updates the game"

The game should have been fucking ready to go. There's no excuse for it from any developer.

When did it get to this where we have to wait months or a year + for a game to get good? What happened to games being good or at least polished out of the door?

If this game does fail then I'm sorry but it's a case of EA/Bioware and "you reap what you sow".

What Happened to that wait and see stance?

[yasiru]

Speaking of strange brand defence bunkum EA started a "#gamechangers" program to basically get youtuber to be essentially shills for EA. Which kind of explains the befuddling recent "EA haters be all like going down on my bois EA" defence for videogames big bad. But now they are getting a rude wake up call this morning after giving anthem mediocre reviews -not yongyea tier clickbait but honestly just calling it mediocre- https://twitter.com/Ggdograa/status/1098885724303024128

EA is now taking their reviews down and blacklisting them entirely. This is sound damage control and totally wont just be more bad press. Nope. Everythings coming up millhouse.

WOW, that's bad! Makes me wonder what he did or said in his video though. Guys like Datto and Mtashed aren't giving it glowing reviews either, and even saying to wait until later before deciding to purchase, and nothing has happened to them or their reviews. After seeing this guy's tweet replies though I can guess he probably went overboard in his review.

For those saying game changers aren't allowed to give criticism on the game though are incorrect.

[kaelleria]

Speaking of strange brand defence bunkum EA started a "#gamechangers" program to basically get youtuber to be essentially shills for EA. Which kind of explains the befuddling recent "EA haters be all like going down on my bois EA" defence for videogames big bad. But now they are getting a rude wake up call this morning after giving anthem mediocre reviews -not yongyea tier clickbait but honestly just calling it mediocre- https://twitter.com/Ggdograa/status/1098885724303024128

EA is now taking their reviews down and blacklisting them entirely. This is sound damage control and totally wont just be more bad press. Nope. Everythings coming up millhouse.

This has been debunked already... Try again.
https://twitter.com/justbiglee/statu...20011203313664