Anthem: Bioware's next Mass Effect-like IP

[Big Thanks]

The game is bare of content and has a few issues that most new online games have, and some loot issues that are being addressed. Calling it a hackjob that's barely glued together just sounds like overstated sensationalist crap.

Be critical of the faults it does have, don't blow them out of whack.



The game is low on content and has some loot mechanics issues, which are both being addressed. It doesn't have chat, no idea if or when this will get addressed. It has too many loading screens, for sure. That infinite loading screen issue in the video you linked is only an issue if you're not keeping close with your group for whatever reason. They extended the timer to 30 seconds to give people time to catch up once it starts and it teleports you directly to where your team mates are so you shouldn't ever get into an infinite loop like that if you're keeping up and doing the objectives.

When was this video taken?

Sorry

Could you shed light on how is the "endgame variety in content" of Anthem?

Im going to buy it tomorrow

But by all the reviews and information i got...we need to accept the fact that "endgame variety in content" is...laughable, pathetic, a meme, its bad etc
Nothing we can denny, right?
Im still going to buy it because it seems fun

[kaelleria]

The game is bare of content and has a few issues that most new online games have, and some loot issues that are being addressed. Calling it a hackjob that's barely glued together just sounds like overstated sensationalist crap.

Be critical of the faults it does have, don't blow them out of whack.



The game is low on content and has some loot mechanics issues, which are both being addressed. It doesn't have chat, no idea if or when this will get addressed. It has too many loading screens, for sure. That infinite loading screen issue in the video you linked is only an issue if you're not keeping close with your group for whatever reason. They extended the timer to 30 seconds to give people time to catch up once it starts and it teleports you directly to where your team mates are so you shouldn't ever get into an infinite loop like that if you're keeping up and doing the objectives.

When was this video taken?

Eh that's a bugged contract... But the change today should make it slightly better.

[stellvia]

Nobody hid the fact that Anthem was being sold as a service. Knowing that, why is it such a problem that they're attempting to provide a good service? Yes, the launch product was not in a perfect state. It probably should have had more content, and been polished a bit more.

I didn't want to comment in this thread again, but this is like, the understatement of the century. There are just so many things in all facets of the service that are wrong, and they've been mentioned before so I'll refrain from re-iterating. This is not a case of "could have been better, but they're trying". To call this an attempt at providing good service is to twist and redefine the very concept of good service.

[kaelleria]

Sorry

Could you shed light on how is the "endgame variety in content" of Anthem?

Im going to buy it tomorrow

But by all the reviews and information i got...we need to accept the fact that "endgame variety in content" is...laughable, pathetic, a meme, its bad etc
Nothing we can denny, right?
Im still going to buy it because it seems fun

Endgame activities are basically 3 different pools -
Strongholds - Basically dungeons. There are currently 3. We should get a 4th in March. You are guaranteed a Masterwork ability on GM1+
Contracts - Randomized missions that can pull different enemies, locations or objectives. The Legendary variety of this guarantees a Masterwork component on GM1 or higher.
Freeplay - Mostly open world stuff with different world events. If an event is going on enemies may be themed or offer different rewards such as cosmetics. So far we've seen 3 different events, Outlaw Outrage, There Be Giants and Shaper Surge.

[D3athsting]

Holy sh*t why i'm downloading a 46gb patch?

[kaelleria]

Holy sh*t why i'm downloading a 46gb patch?

You're not. It's verifying what you have.

[Big Thanks]

Endgame activities are basically 3 different pools -
Strongholds - Basically dungeons. There are currently 3. We should get a 4th in March. You are guaranteed a Masterwork ability on GM1+
Contracts - Randomized missions that can pull different enemies, locations or objectives. The Legendary variety of this guarantees a Masterwork component on GM1 or higher.
Freeplay - Mostly open world stuff with different world events. If an event is going on enemies may be themed or offer different rewards such as cosmetics. So far we've seen 3 different events, Outlaw Outrage, There Be Giants and Shaper Surge.

Ok thanks, not as bad as i thought.
Is still bad compared to other looter games for sure but seems enough for me (desperate person for a looter with fun gameplay)

[stellvia]

The game is bare of content and has a few issues that most new online games have, and some loot issues that are being addressed. Calling it a hackjob that's barely glued together just sounds like overstated sensationalist crap.

I'd say that's pretty accurate. In a game where the goal is acquiring loot via repetitive grinding and they want you to value your character, they also stated they wanted you to not have to worry about keeping a schedule and be able to just jump in and have a group and play and feel like a hero and be immersed in the world, etc... and yet:

Every part of the game client operation is designed to break up gameplay flow and take you out of the moment. You can't quickly chain through missions because you have to load the scoreboard, then load Tarsis, then load free roam, then load the next mission, then you are outside of range and have to load to catch up to them. Want to check the loot you're getting while playing? You can't. Gotta load back into town then load the inventory. Want to know where everyones quests are or have someone in your group point out something you need? You can't. No waypoints or pinging, on top of the no chat and no guarantee others have a mic or voice enabled.

One of the very basics of scripting engines: graceful degradation, isn't built into Anthem. So if you blow up an encounter too quickly it breaks the mission and nobody gets credit. The game launched with completely random rolls which resulted in items having completely worthless bonuses for the item they were on. Yeah, they're fixing that now, but why was that designed that way in the first place? Weapons all look very samey and Masterworks don't have any unique models compared to common trash drops. All the apologists were coming out of the woodwork at the beginning about how the game wasn't about the guns, it's about the abilities... to somehow justify the terrible state the weaponry was in: And yet by the time you hit GM1+ that calculus has completely flipped around and guns do WAY more damage than the abilities do.

Then we get into the overall mission design: In a game that is supposed to be about jetting around and fast-paced action, the missions are the most basic of the basic design. Lots of fetch quests and area defense forcing you to play in a way that is opposite to how gameplay is intended. None of it makes you feel like "the hero". The preview videos and cutscenes show giant epic battles and Striders wandering the countryside etc... there is none of that in the game. The few that feature a Strider it doesn't even fucking move.

Anthem's release makes a mockery of term Minimum Viable Product.

[Big Thanks]

@SirCowdog

Here is your answer as to why companies want to delay content and not give us all since day 1.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0cdHps3mjM&t=9m11s

Seems like a solid opinion.

[Edge-]

@SirCowdog

Here is your answer as to why companies want to delay content and not give us all since day 1.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0cdHps3mjM&t=9m11s

Seems like a solid opinion.

Except that Anthem isn't charging for content. Except that giving some content, with a plan to deliver plenty of additional post-launch content is literally the business model for any online game as that's the only way to retain players.

He's literally comparing online games to single player games and now I think my brain has melted and is dripping out of my ears. You can't compare a game that's designed to be a wholly, self-contained experience without any additional support post-launch to a game that's designed to have longterm support from a full development team continually creating new content to retain players in the longrun, which they need to do to support continued development.

If he wanted to keep his criticisms strictly to, "these games launch without enough content" that's fine. But he's basically arguing that the whole model of online games in general is bad or evil...which is dumb as fucking sin.

[Big Thanks]

Except that Anthem isn't charging for content. Except that giving some content, with a plan to deliver plenty of additional post-launch content is literally the business model for any online game as that's the only way to retain players.

He's literally comparing online games to single player games and now I think my brain has melted and is dripping out of my ears. You can't compare a game that's designed to be a wholly, self-contained experience without any additional support post-launch to a game that's designed to have longterm support from a full development team continually creating new content to retain players in the longrun, which they need to do to support continued development.

If he wanted to keep his criticisms strictly to, "these games launch without enough content" that's fine. But he's basically arguing that the whole model of online games in general is bad or evil...which is dumb as fucking sin.

I find the ANthem situation of updates really strange.
My mind is telling me "no, Togabito, is impossible for a team/company to be this "good" in nature.

Yeah its amazing they are doing this kind of updates to a game without predatory things to make money.

Im in disbelief.

Im like..."no one is this good to players"
But i guess they were also good with The Witcher updates post launch...or so i hear.

[Dextroden]

Except that Anthem isn't charging for content. Except that giving some content, with a plan to deliver plenty of additional post-launch content is literally the business model for any online game as that's the only way to retain players.

He's literally comparing online games to single player games and now I think my brain has melted and is dripping out of my ears. You can't compare a game that's designed to be a wholly, self-contained experience without any additional support post-launch to a game that's designed to have longterm support from a full development team continually creating new content to retain players in the longrun, which they need to do to support continued development.

If he wanted to keep his criticisms strictly to, "these games launch without enough content" that's fine. But he's basically arguing that the whole model of online games in general is bad or evil...which is dumb as fucking sin.

With a purely you buy it, you own it model? Yeah, that makes no sense.

With some people paying monthly for access instead of buying it? Then there is incentive to stretch your content as thin as possible.

[Lindon]

I find the ANthem situation of updates really strange.
My mind is telling me "no, Togabito, is impossible for a team/company to be this "good" in nature.

Yeah its amazing they are doing this kind of updates to a game without predatory things to make money.

Im in disbelief.

Im like..."no one is this good to players"
But i guess they were also good with The Witcher updates post launch...or so i hear.

Every developer worth their salt will provide technical updates for their games. This is not really something to gauge if something is good or bad since this is the norm.

Where it starts to diverge is when developers start releasing updates which contain non-purchasable content. To my knowledge, there's very very few games that does not contain any kind of mtx and also provides free content updates.

Anthem in this regard is not being "nice to players". They are doing this to retain enough players to sustain a healthy revenue stream from their mtx shop.

[kaelleria]

Loot hotfix may drop within the next hour.

[Edge-]

With a purely you buy it, you own it model? Yeah, that makes no sense.

With some people paying monthly for access instead of buying it? Then there is incentive to stretch your content as thin as possible.

That's not true either. You want to keep folks around so you may figure out what the "minimum" scope of updates require, but barebones updates don't keep folks around. You need meaty updates to keep folks interested in games. Especially at launch, where if you don't have a solid product you'll lose a helluva lot of players that causes other issues as getting paying players back is hard. SWTOR is a fantastic example of this. And Anthem isn't really set up for a F2P transition in the slightest, the minimum requirements (at least on PC) are too high, and I doubt they're technically set up for broader F2P monetization structures.

And Anthem doesn't charge monthly. They want folks staying around to keep the game populated and spend on cosmetics in the cash shop. Again, I think criticisms about minimal launch content are super fair (I haven't done a deep dive but it does seem that without relying on "BUT OPEN WORLD EVENTS!" that the content is pretty thin), but there's no benefit to launching an underwhelming game and needing to fight the hard battle of turning things around. That's far more difficult, risky, and time consuming than launching a good game and building from there, and it's not a strategy any developer/publisher would go with unless their options were essentially "Launch the game or go broke and don't launch it at all."

[Dextroden]

That's not true either. You want to keep folks around so you may figure out what the "minimum" scope of updates require, but barebones updates don't keep folks around. You need meaty updates to keep folks interested in games. Especially at launch, where if you don't have a solid product you'll lose a helluva lot of players that causes other issues as getting paying players back is hard. SWTOR is a fantastic example of this. And Anthem isn't really set up for a F2P transition in the slightest, the minimum requirements (at least on PC) are too high, and I doubt they're technically set up for broader F2P monetization structures.

And Anthem doesn't charge monthly. They want folks staying around to keep the game populated and spend on cosmetics in the cash shop. Again, I think criticisms about minimal launch content are super fair (I haven't done a deep dive but it does seem that without relying on "BUT OPEN WORLD EVENTS!" that the content is pretty thin), but there's no benefit to launching an underwhelming game and needing to fight the hard battle of turning things around. That's far more difficult, risky, and time consuming than launching a good game and building from there, and it's not a strategy any developer/publisher would go with unless their options were essentially "Launch the game or go broke and don't launch it at all."

Anthem doesn't, but EA does. And every month someone is willing to pay for access to the games while waiting for more Anthem content, that's another gain.

[daem]

Apparently, men don't have slim builds in the future because everyone is just so fuckin jacked.

Nah I'd be all for a slim build, it's mostly the rear (which we as players end up staring at the most), it's decidedly feminine and not a-gendered like Bioware was probably going for. Not sure if it was a mistake or they honestly think it looks a-gendered but, to my eyes it's not (especially compared to the others).

Problem is, you skew it the other direction and it probably looks too masculine instead. So in the end, someone would probably complain about it

[Edge-]

Anthem doesn't, but EA does. And every month someone is willing to pay for access to the games while waiting for more Anthem content, that's another gain.

Sorta kinda not really. That's their Origin Access sub thing, which isn't specific to Anthem in the slightest. You're not paying for new content with that subscription at all, that revenue isn't specifically tied to Anthem. That grants you access to that service, which provides additional features as well as access to the library of eligible games.

Not sure why you're trying to directly tie it or its revenue to Anthem. They may realize some of the revenues for Anthem from the preorders, but the longterm revenue from that subscription is no more tied to Anthem than it is any other individual game in the library. And hell, that services isn't even designed like an online game which is what we're discussing. That service is designed to function more like Netflix/Amazon Prime and other video streaming services, or other game streaming/subscription services like PS Now or whatever Xbox calls their subscription service.

[Katchii]

Sorry

Could you shed light on how is the "endgame variety in content" of Anthem?

Im going to buy it tomorrow

But by all the reviews and information i got...we need to accept the fact that "endgame variety in content" is...laughable, pathetic, a meme, its bad etc
Nothing we can denny, right?
Im still going to buy it because it seems fun

To be direct, there really is none. It's a pure loot grind using the 3 Strongholds that are there now, with Freeplay adding a lot more variety in activities, but providing less chance of loot dropping but giving the best method for gathering resources needed to craft your own gear.

If variety of content is really what you're looking for, I'd honestly wait. The game play is solid and I find it really fun to play, but after completing the story and doing all of the side missions, there's little else to do except grind the same stuff you already did as you were leveling up. There's no "new" content at end game.

[Edge-]

Nah I'd be all for a slim build, it's mostly the rear (which we as players end up staring at the most), it's decidedly feminine and not a-gendered like Bioware was probably going for. Not sure if it was a mistake or they honestly think it looks a-gendered but, to my eyes it's not (especially compared to the others).

Dudes got nice butts sometimes. I'm not lithe like that frame is (average build), but I've got quite the butt and have received plenty of complements on it over the years. I mean, why can't there be lithe guys with nice tight butts in the future? : P

Problem is, you skew it the other direction and it probably looks too masculine instead. So in the end, someone would probably complain about it

Yep. You can make some people happy some of the time but you can never make everyone happy all the time. I think they did a great job with visual diversity between the frames, personally, so even if I'm not the biggest fan of each individual design I appreciate that they worked to create more thematically appropriate visual designs that jive with each frames respective function.