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Anthem Review Thread

Kyuuji

Kyuuji

The Favonius Fox
Member
Nov 8, 2017
32,614
Some of the things you read makes you really question the design direction and playtesting.
I mean come on.. in a looter shooter..

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https://www.polygon.com/reviews/2019/2/20/18232256/anthem-review-pc-xbox-one-ps4-bioware
 
Dalik

Dalik

Member
Nov 1, 2017
3,532
InRainbows said:
"The endgame, the reward for powering through the campaign, similarly suffers from drudgery. Strongholds are considered to be the pinnacle activity in Anthem. Only three Stronghold missions are available at launch, and the third one culminates with shooting a large dude for 35 minutes. There's no strategy; my squad just shoots at the same large dude for 35 minutes straight."
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If you took 35 minutes to kill a boss maybe shooters aren't for you and your squad.
 
bbq of doom

bbq of doom

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,606
Socivol said:
😂😂😂 I do wonder why they said it was seamless open world last year when we know that's not the case. With the amount of load screens it's hard to believe that was ever the case.
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Other than some caves, the world itself is seamless. It's getting there and doing something meaningful with it where an onslaught of loading screens and menus come into play.
 
bbq of doom

bbq of doom

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,606
Claven said:
The point is that the nature of how the game is put together and what engine it uses is what determines the frequency and length of the loading screens.
Sure, they say they'll attempt to decrease their length in the Day 8 patch, but that really tells you nothing, plus the frequency will stay. It's not something that can be patched out easily, or even at all.
You can continue to believe in the Jesus Patch that will magically fix everything wrong with the game in 7 days when they didn't manage to do it in 6 years, but your belief won't make it so, I'm afraid.
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Just like the GB crew discussed, it's gonna take months of iterative changes to get this to a place where it doesn't get in its own way--if that's at all possible given the tech behind it.

And Given BW/EA has literally seen this situation with other loot shooters such as Destiny, Division, Destiny 2, and other GaaS such as Siege, Sea of Thieves, For Honor, etc., it is absolutely bewildering and, quite frankly, unacceptable.
 
Vire

Vire

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,591
bbq of doom

bbq of doom

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,606
Vire said:
That is wild, almost gamebreaking to me... People want to blame EA, blame this, blame that and the other.

Design and technical decisions from the top down at Bioware made critical mistakes with this game. Period.
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When all is revealed I'd be surprised if BioWare gets away "unscathed" from the reality of its development.
 
MillionIII

MillionIII

Banned
Sep 11, 2018
6,816
Mockerre said:
It feels like there was no love behind it.

Destiny comparisons are the most apt. Even though Destiny 1 was gutted before release and had a non-story (up until The Taken King), it has a striking artistic and visual identity. From the world design to the different enemy races, everything was meticulously designed. From the distinct looks of the alien races, each unique, with a clear ideology behind it, to the post-post-apocalyptic worlds. Even the UI of that game had a ton of love poured into it.

In the end, even without a narrative, Destiny had a coherent, unique techno-fantasy world to fall back on. Anthem reminds me of Dawngate, EA's answer to LoL.
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I agree. Destiny's lore is great, Bungie even made two lore books that you can purchase outside of the game that were curated by a lore youtuber and in parts written by acclaimed fantasy writer. Everything I saw in Anthem was cliche and generic, the world is boring, dead and visually repetitive, you don't understand why you're fighting what you're fighting (did enemy factions even get an introduction mission?) the story is almost a 1:1 to Destiny 2's story; a bad guy wants to use the powerful machine to kill everyone and guerrilla fighters are trying to stop him. Only that in Destiny 2 it was done better and the missions were more interesting; you can actually see how deadly the red legion are and it comes across in the world design, cutscenes and endgame content.
In Anthem there is no danger, no reason to fight anything, no carrot on a stick to keep you shooting at the mobs, you're the most pathetic "superhero" in existence with a suit that can't stop malfunctioning. Where are the cool bosses? mini-bosses? everything is either a Titan, four legged tank or a big creature, and the game is not shy of throwing them all at you in a single mission. Enemies are braindead, they don't do anything in the open world(they don't fight other factions) the game makes no effort to give them a backstory and exposition.

Destiny makes you feel like a badass, when you get a new subclass they make sure to give it a mission and let you go ham. Every class has 3 subclasses with skill trees that you can change, you will find non of that in Anthem. The game hates making you feel cool, no customization options without paying, no unique weapons, you don't even get a cool gun after finishing the campaign, it's just baffling that people even compare it to a game like Destiny.
 
Darkstorne

Darkstorne

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,892
England
darkwing said:
meanwhile Destiny 1 released several years ago allows you to manage your inventory while loading
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That was such an awesome QoL feature. There really is no reason for the inventory screen to be locked behind so many loading screens in Anthem. I didn't think Bioware could design a slower and more frustrating inventory than Inquisition's but... here it is. You can only blame Frostbite for so much.
 
zombiejames

zombiejames

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,020
Kyuuji said:
Some of the things you read makes you really question the design direction and playtesting.
I mean come on.. in a looter shooter..

Cx2E7fP.png


https://www.polygon.com/reviews/2019/2/20/18232256/anthem-review-pc-xbox-one-ps4-bioware
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This is just mind-bogglingly stupid. I hope this is a wake-up call to Bioware and EA that they should go back to doing what they do well, but I fear (like with Bungie) that they've invested too much time and money on this grindy MMO-lite loot shooter thing to ever go back.
 
Dalik

Dalik

Member
Nov 1, 2017
3,532
carlsojo said:
This is kind of an asinine comment for a looter shooter where endgame bosses are bullet sponges. In particular with Anthem where higher tiers are just health/damage boosts for enemies.
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I've done every stronghold at GM1 and didn't take that long ever, and i imagine the review was played at normal/hard, so yeah, you gotta not press your buttons if you take 35 mins to kill a boss.
 
TinfoilHatsROn

TinfoilHatsROn

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
3,119
Gatti-man said:
So every frostbite game has insane loading screens? People assuming everything is frostbites issue are being extremely presumptuous.



Yup dude is trolling. "Day 8, Jesus patch, fix the game in 7 days" nonsense.
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Lmao, are you the one trolling? You're not even attempting to understand the actual issue and getting mad over what amounts to 'comedic' word choice.
 
Orangecoke

Orangecoke

Member
Jan 14, 2019
1,812
I suspect the game will get some 8's, but likely not many 9's. It's hard to imagine IGN giving it less than 8 after supporting the game so visibly for months.
 
Astandahl

Astandahl

Member
Oct 28, 2017
9,034
Frostbite should be used only by DICE though. Let other teams use the right engi
Kyuuji said:
Some of the things you read makes you really question the design direction and playtesting.
I mean come on.. in a looter shooter..

Cx2E7fP.png


https://www.polygon.com/reviews/2019/2/20/18232256/anthem-review-pc-xbox-one-ps4-bioware
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I knew that Bioware didn't have the right skills , time and resources to build this kind of game. Not only you have to release something which is either extremely different from the competition or at least way better, but you have to keep the game updated for years at a very fast pace. They should have stuck to single player RPGs. Moreover Bioware should ditch the Frostbite and use a different engine because it's clear that some things are not working out at all.
 

Wulfram

Member
Mar 3, 2018
1,479
zombiejames said:
This is just mind-bogglingly stupid. I hope this is a wake-up call to Bioware and EA that they should go back to doing what they do well, but I fear (like with Bungie) that they've invested too much time and money on this grindy MMO-lite loot shooter thing to ever go back.
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If they go back to what they do well, they'll get similarly shitty reviews and sell half the copies.

Probably they need to just sell out and produce the soul-less samey mediocrities that people want, instead of trying to offer something different.
 
Dalik

Dalik

Member
Nov 1, 2017
3,532
MillionIII said:
I agree. Destiny's lore is great, Bungie even made two lore books that you can purchase outside of the game that were curated by a lore youtuber and in parts written by acclaimed fantasy writer. Everything I saw in Anthem was cliche and generic, the world is boring, dead and visually repetitive, you don't understand why you're fighting what you're fighting (did enemy factions even get an introduction mission?) the story is almost a 1:1 to Destiny 2's story; a bad guy wants to use the powerful machine to kill everyone and guerrilla fighters are trying to stop him. Only that in Destiny 2 it was done better and the missions were more interesting; you can actually see how deadly the red legion are and it comes across in the world design, cutscenes and endgame content.
In Anthem there is no danger, no reason to fight anything, no carrot on a stick to keep you shooting at the mobs, you're the most pathetic "superhero" in existence with a suit that can't stop malfunctioning. Where are the cool bosses? mini-bosses? everything is either a Titan, four legged tank or a big creature, and the game is not shy of throwing them all at you in a single mission. Enemies are braindead, they don't do anything in the open world(they don't fight other factions) the game makes no effort to give them a backstory and exposition.

Destiny makes you feel like a badass, when you get a new subclass they make sure to give it a mission and let you go ham. Every class has 3 subclasses with skill trees that you can change, you will find non of that in Anthem. The game hates making you feel cool, no customization options without paying, no unique weapons, you don't even get a cool gun after finishing the campaign, it's just baffling that people even compare it to a game like Destiny.
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Anthem has real builds diversity with masterworks gears and components, destiny 2 has none. Imagine if you could have full exotic gear and weapons and you could change your grenades/class skills with gear slot. That's anthem.
 

Deleted member 29249

User requested account closure
Banned
Nov 1, 2017
3,634
Kyuuji said:
Some of the things you read makes you really question the design direction and playtesting.
I mean come on.. in a looter shooter..

Cx2E7fP.png


https://www.polygon.com/reviews/2019/2/20/18232256/anthem-review-pc-xbox-one-ps4-bioware
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Yeah is is irritating, it's like having to visit every fucking vendor in destiny to pick up some bounties. Why this stuff can't be just done with menus is weird to me.

The Javiln skills and weapons should be a menu interface. Load into the forge when you want to fuck with colors, emotes and armor parts.
 
Vire

Vire

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,591
MillionIII said:
I agree. Destiny's lore is great, Bungie even made two lore books that you can purchase outside of the game that were curated by a lore youtuber and in parts written by acclaimed fantasy writer. Everything I saw in Anthem was cliche and generic, the world is boring, dead and visually repetitive, you don't understand why you're fighting what you're fighting (did enemy factions even get an introduction mission?) the story is almost a 1:1 to Destiny 2's story; a bad guy wants to use the powerful machine to kill everyone and guerrilla fighters are trying to stop him. Only that in Destiny 2 it was done better and the missions were more interesting; you can actually see how deadly the red legion are and it comes across in the world design, cutscenes and endgame content.
In Anthem there is no danger, no reason to fight anything, no carrot on a stick to keep you shooting at the mobs, you're the most pathetic "superhero" in existence with a suit that can't stop malfunctioning. Where are the cool bosses? mini-bosses? everything is either a Titan, four legged tank or a big creature, and the game is not shy of throwing them all at you in a single mission. Enemies are braindead, they don't do anything in the open world(they don't fight other factions) the game makes no effort to give them a backstory and exposition.

Destiny makes you feel like a badass, when you get a new subclass they make sure to give it a mission and let you go ham. Every class has 3 subclasses with skill trees that you can change, you will find non of that in Anthem. The game hates making you feel cool, no customization options without paying, no unique weapons, you don't even get a cool gun after finishing the campaign, it's just baffling that people even compare it to a game like Destiny.
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I am watching through walkthrough's now and I'm just stunned that

1. The ENTIRE campaign is located in the same jungle ripoff Avatar world.

2. There is little to absolutely no variety in boss fights. I think I've seen a Titan 4 or 5 times just hopping through the walkthrough.

What did they do for six years? Really? If I was EA I'd be pissed.
 
Decarb

Decarb

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,675
Kyuuji said:
Some of the things you read makes you really question the design direction and playtesting.
I mean come on.. in a looter shooter..

Cx2E7fP.png


https://www.polygon.com/reviews/2019/2/20/18232256/anthem-review-pc-xbox-one-ps4-bioware
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There was a thread on reddit sub that defended this stuff saying that "it will stop people from quitting the activity as soon as they get what they want, so its a good design decision to hide the loot you get until you finish the activity." It was upvoted to 1K+ too I think. That mental gymnastic just blew my mind.
 
Toxi

Toxi

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
17,552
carlsojo said:
This is kind of an asinine comment for a looter shooter where endgame bosses are bullet sponges. In particular with Anthem where higher tiers are just health/damage boosts for enemies.
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Complaining about bullet sponge bosses in a co-op loot-based game seems to miss what would happen if you gave those bosses less health or made them flinch more: The players would roll over them.

Monster Hunter gets some damage sponge complaints too, and that's a series where it's actually possible to stun lock endgame bosses with a dedicated group.
 
FunkyMonkey

FunkyMonkey

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,419
got a month of origin access premiere for this game and yikes. ill catch up on other games instead. 4 load screens to equip loot in a loot game is bullshit
 

Deleted member 22750

Oct 28, 2017
13,267
Dalik said:
I've done every stronghold at GM1 and didn't take that long ever, and i imagine the review was played at normal/hard, so yeah, you gotta not press your buttons if you take 35 mins to kill a boss.
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They said in other reviews / impressions that it was like that.
 

Deleted member 29157

User-requested account closure
Banned
Nov 1, 2017
82
Weird that people are excited for it to do poorly. I get EA sucks but jeez...

RE2 and KH3 really set the bar high early, huh?
 
Vic Damone Jr.

Vic Damone Jr.

Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,699
Voke said:
stop with the politics in a REVIEW thread.

My goodness guys....I give ZERO fucks about other peoples political views in the gaming industry whatsoever, whether I agree or disagree with them.
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MiniJunkie said:
This. Really just interested in the topic at hand (Anthem reviews).
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Fuck that, he's a shit person and doesn't deserve the views. Sorry if calling out shitty people is too sharp for your bubble.
 
Orb

Orb

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
9,465
USA
I'm still just completely baffled by the decision to make the first mission you launched in the beta spend forever on a loading screen, then put you into a world with nothing to do but fly to a waypoint for 20 seconds, then immediately stick you back on another long loading screen. That just strikes me as someone completely blind to what makes their game good or bad. It was an instant fun suck.
 
Blizzcut

Blizzcut

Banned
Dec 13, 2017
747
Vire said:
What did they do for six years? Really? If I was EA I'd be pissed.
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EA will not care if it sells gangbusters, that's the sad reality of the situation on that front. People want to know why most core gamers have a major issue with EA and its because of games like Anthem being put on full display and severely lacking in every way imaginable.

What really grinds my gears is those same people making excuses about other GaaS games that were more successful a year or two down the road, but we aren't talking about then, we are talking about now! a full 60 dollar title! It's inexcusable! Mediocrity/half baked games should never be encouraged but that's what EA wants you to believe in today's market.
 
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