Anthem: Bioware's next Mass Effect-like IP

[Big Thanks]

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.

I dont mind doing the same content again...and again...how many times necessary to build a different playstyle with legendaries and masterworks.

All looters are repetetive in nature. I dare anyone here to show me a looter that is not repetitive

Ive sinked more than 1000 hours in Monster Hunter 1...and that game never saw a single update and it was just doing the same thing over and over and over again.
What kept me playing was the social part though...but thats a different story for another time.

[Dextroden]

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.

And I'd apply that to things like the division 1 and eso. They can be a risky buy, but are easy to get into if you were paying $15 dollars anyway. These games seem like they would do better being attached to games pass where their content could grow without that "I paid full price for this?" feeling.

And I'd apply that to 76, too. It'd have been accepted easier if it was something you could have tried with less sting.

[Dhrizzle]

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

It's vaguely feminine but not to the extent that it blows my mind having a male voice, if anything the rear end looks like a slender guy wearing chaps which might be the source of some confused boners.

[Lindon]

In my eyes the interceptor has the "typical" female form. Slim waist and widening at the hips, long slender legs, not to bulky overall and maybe(?) a hint of a chest. It is a little subtle I think but the feel you get when looking at is that it is female.

The colossus is fairly a-gender I guess since it's just a metallic blob and I have a hard time actually even calling it "a-gender".

The Ranger is probably the one I would label as "true a-gender" since it has no really distinctive female or male visuals.

The storm is fairly manly with it's broad chest, wide shoulder and fairly muscular look.

[Edge-]

Or...we could look at the suit design and how it thematically fits with the suits respective roles.

Colossus? Huge, big and tanky, which is what the suit is designed for.
Ranger? Pretty standard armor designed for general combat focused on a more balanced approach.
Storm? Bulkier than potentially expected, but much cleaner in its lines without pieces of armor jutting out everywhere, and with the use of cloth which is a stereotypical signifier of "casters"
Interceptor? Minimal armor, sleek lines and smaller in size as it's the more "assassin-y" armor that's designed to look far more mobile than the rest.

I mean, why are we even ascribing gender signifiers to armor to begin with? I'm all kinds of confused.

[Big Thanks]

I mean, why are we even ascribing gender signifiers to armor to begin with? I'm all kinds of confused.

Me too How did this conversation started? >_<

[Dextroden]

Me too How did this conversation started? >_<

Because people were confused by how twinky the infiltrator looks. Like, it's perfectly fine that the high speed melee suit is lighter, but that thing is LITHE even compared to the ranger.

[Edge-]

Because people were confused by how twinky the infiltrator looks. Like, it's perfectly fine that the high speed melee suit is lighter, but that thing is LITHE even compared to the ranger.

But like...isn't that the whole point of the suit? That it's supposed to be faster/lighter than the ranger as it's not armed with the kind of heavier weaponry and isn't designed for the same kind of closer quarters combat? Again, it seems to make plenty of sense why they'd go with that design without needing to delve into gender signifiers and stereotypes.

[Katchii]

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.

The game does suffer from to many load screens, no denying that.

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.

You have to Launch each session, depending on what you're doing, before you go out in the field, yes. The only time you have loading screens is when you're on missions or contracts and you're too far from your squad for too long. There are none of those in Freeplay, ever You're just out in the field with 4 people, but you're not expected to stay with your squad, you can do whatever you want....In my Freeplay sessions I don't ever even see them except as little blue dots with nametags away in some far corner of the world from me.

Want to check the loot you're getting while playing? You can't. Gotta load back into town then load the inventory.

Yeah, I really do hate this. They need to change this and need to make it possible for you to equip things out in the field, having to go through the expedition completion screen and forge every time you want to equip anything really kills the excitement for item drops because you don't know what you're getting.

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.

If you're on a contract, stronghold or otherwise directed mission, waypoints and stuff aren't necessary since the game provides them to everybody already. They're only needed in Freeplay, but the waypoints exist in Freeplay for the events that pop up, there's just no way to tell people where everyone is going. They do need to implement something like a ping system here.

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.

I've never seen or experienced this, but killing things too quickly for the game to register isn't a problem with just Anthem that happens to me all the time in other MMOs.

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?

Those random rolls could cause things to end up with some weird synergies, like a Sniper rifle that increase assault rifle and ice damage or a Aassult rifle that increased Blast damage and gathering percentage. I saw VERY few that were completely worthless, just worthless to ME since I wasn't building that way. Looters have a shit load of loot variation for this very reason, everyone will find a LOT of worthless loot but what's worthless to one person may be perfect for another for some reason.

They're "fixing" it now, to be less random, which is good but I didn't really see anything "broken" about the way it worked before, but it certainly wasn't efficient if you're trying to far that perfect piece of gear.

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.

Agreed, weapons all look the same, and so do the abilities. The level 1 version of Ice Blast looks literally identical to the level 5, 16, 23, 29 and masterwork version of it. Agree they should fix this, but IMO that's a pretty easy thing for them to fix and pretty minor. The damage switches up because of how the bonuses work on the MW and Legendary gear, the abilities likely get more effective as well, but also probably need more specialized builds to maximize the specific ability effect vs guns which count as "gear" damage which is a lot more generic than "ice" or "fire" damage.

Needs work yes, but nor broken for sure, and will easily improve over time as they get more data and feedback and make changes. The game is the way it is now, that doesn't mean it can't change or get better.

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.

This seems like projecting to me. You're saying the game is forcing you to play in a way opposite to what how game play is intended. I say it's playing exactly the way the designers want it to play.

For the rest, I somewhat agree. Yes the missions are pretty straightforward and boring in design, but I don't really recall seeing that much, if any, more variety in any other shooter game.

It could definitely use a more varied overworld with Striders moving around, more events happening and just stuff, I imagine that's coming in the future (not a great answer I know) but most of the missions you're on are pretty on rails scenarios. The only real option for that is in Freeplay and they have a large list of things they're adding there as part of the roadmap.

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

I really think you're overstating things here. It's a completely viable product as is. Not worth the full price tag at the moment for sure, but you're discounting a LOT of things if you're trying to argue it's not a minimally viable product.

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But like...isn't that the whole point of the suit? That it's supposed to be faster/lighter than the ranger as it's not armed with the kind of heavier weaponry and isn't designed for the same kind of closer quarters combat? Again, it seems to make plenty of sense why they'd go with that design without needing to delve into gender signifiers and stereotypes.

Not saying you're wrong, but the visuals and playstyle fit the very typical anime trope of a female assassin/ninja. Very lithe, very quick and fast.

It's not like that can't apply to a male, but that stereotype is VERY frequently attributed female characters in a lot of media.

[Edge-]

Not saying you're wrong, but the visuals and playstyle fit the very typical anime trope of a female assassin/ninja. Very lithe, very quick and fast.

It's not like that can't apply to a male, but that stereotype is VERY frequently attributed female characters in a lot of media.

I mean...that's a pretty common trope for assassin's regardless of gender. They're usually supposed to be either unseen (Hitman), or they're "designed" to be hard to see/allow for easy movement. Ninja's, men, have traditionally been portrayed this way, for example. Sure, we get our "American Ninja" western movies turning big beefcake blonde dudes into ninja's, but traditionally they've been smaller builds with more form fitting clothing all in service of being stealthy.

[Sixnalia]

I mean...that's a pretty common trope for assassin's regardless of gender. They're usually supposed to be either unseen (Hitman), or they're "designed" to be hard to see/allow for easy movement. Ninja's, men, have traditionally been portrayed this way, for example. Sure, we get our "American Ninja" western movies turning big beefcake blonde dudes into ninja's, but traditionally they've been smaller builds with more form fitting clothing all in service of being stealthy.

Ninja Assassin is what I imagine for a figure.
And I could easily see that in the Interceptor.

Main character is portrayed by Rain from South Korea.

Funnily enough, he cross dresses in Speed Racer in a specific scene for the sake of deception.

[kaelleria]

Loot hotfix is now live.
Uncommon/Common items dropping at 30+ had an issue so they're holding off on that until more testing can be done. Hopefully it will come soon.

[SirCowdog]

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.

I was referring to Bioware's actions since the launch of the game. Their response time on identifying and fixing problems seems to be really good, especially those brought up by the players.

Now, some of the problems are going to take longer to fix than others. More end-game content isn't something they can just pull out of their ass on a week's notice. But even there they're doing some stopgap measures, like turning leveling missions into end-game variety by scaling them up. It's not a new stronghold, and it's recycling existing content, but it's at least SOMETHING.

IMHO this is EXACTLY a case of, as you mentioned: "Could have been better, but they're trying".

[Sixnalia]

Loot hotfix is now live.
Uncommon/Common items dropping at 30+ had an issue so they're holding off on that until more testing can be done. Hopefully it will come soon.

Awesome, hopefully that second part can be fixed tomorrow, before the weekend.

Edit: Just got my second legendary looking forward to seeing what it is

[SirCowdog]

@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.

Okaaaaay, his analogy is off, though, because Anthem isn't charging anything extra for later additions to the game. It doesn't have lootboxes, and the MTX store is....minimal. In fact, one of the first things Bioware has done is introduce a bunch of cosmetic rewards from just playing the game.

So where's the hook? Where's the giant paid trap waiting to spring when you come back to the game in a month or two?

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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.

But if you buy with the sub, you get ALL THE OTHER GAMES to mitigate the lack in any one. Shit, I'll play the singleplayer of Battlefield 5 just because it's free, then go on to play Darksiders 3 just for shits and giggles.

That's not really an unfair trade. In fact in a lot of ways, that's actually REALLY good value if you haven't exhausted the library. :/

[Dhrizzle]

I was referring to Bioware's actions since the launch of the game. Their response time on identifying and fixing problems seems to be really good, especially those brought up by the players.

Now, some of the problems are going to take longer to fix than others. More end-game content isn't something they can just pull out of their ass on a week's notice. But even there they're doing some stopgap measures, like turning leveling missions into end-game variety by scaling them up. It's not a new stronghold, and it's recycling existing content, but it's at least SOMETHING.

IMHO this is EXACTLY a case of, as you mentioned: "Could have been better, but they're trying".

I strongly suspect that BioWare expected (or at least weren't surprised by) complaints about how the gear drops worked. It makes sense that they would rather have it set for a longer grind and make adjustments to shorten it, rather than have the current system and try to make it more difficult if people complained they geared up too quickly.

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But if you buy with the sub, you get ALL THE OTHER GAMES to mitigate the lack in any one. Shit, I'll play the singleplayer of Battlefield 5 just because it's free, then go on to play Darksiders 3 just for shits and giggles.

That's not really an unfair trade. In fact in a lot of ways, that's actually REALLY good value if you haven't exhausted the library. :/

*nods* If I hadn't got Anthem with my GFX card I would have totally gone for the subscription, if this game had turned out to be a dud I'd been planning on getting Darksiders 3 eventually anyway.

[SirCowdog]

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.

Edge's inbox flooding in 3.....2.....1........

XD


But on topic...I'd say to compare the way the Interceptor fights to something like Legolas with his daggers in the LOTR movies, or Vega from Street Fighter. The idea that men can't be graceful and have a toned ass is kind of....off. I'm a hetero man and I main colossus, so the butt on the armor doesn't do anything for me. But I chose a female character anyway, so the interceptor seems to fit better, thematically and literally.

However, what I AM is a big fan of skillful martial arts and choreography. You gotta look good when you're fighting(Prospero got that part right, at least), and the Interceptor does that REALLY well, regardless of gender. You don't even see your character 99% of the time anyway, so I don't really see the problem. Just unlock some more bulky armor pieces or something.

[Sixnalia]

New legendary I just got after the loot update
Retaliation of Garretus machine pistol
+200% Physical Damage
+175% Weapon Damage
+18% Gear Damage
+25% Ammo pickup

[SirCowdog]

Or...we could look at the suit design and how it thematically fits with the suits respective roles.

Colossus? Huge, big and tanky, which is what the suit is designed for.
Ranger? Pretty standard armor designed for general combat focused on a more balanced approach.
Storm? Bulkier than potentially expected, but much cleaner in its lines without pieces of armor jutting out everywhere, and with the use of cloth which is a stereotypical signifier of "casters"
Interceptor? Minimal armor, sleek lines and smaller in size as it's the more "assassin-y" armor that's designed to look far more mobile than the rest.

I mean, why are we even ascribing gender signifiers to armor to begin with? I'm all kinds of confused.

This is exactly where I'm at.

Colossus: Blocky, heavy armor, stompy, tank.
Ranger: Jack of all trades. Meh.
Storm: Wizard/spellcaster.
Interceptor: Martial artist.

I didn't ascribe any gender aspects to that. But then again, I chose a female character, so any gender tendencies probably just not as noticeable.

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Me too How did this conversation started? >_<

Sexy armor with skin showing being sold as a MTX option, supposedly. :/

[stellvia]

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).

I'm reminded of this meme pic: