What's wrong with Anthem exactly?

FuryV

As many others I'd been waiting for a long time for Anthem to come out, although as soon as it was released I saw it had been getting extremely bad reviews.  What exactly went wrong?  Is it really THAT bad of a game, or are people exaggerating?  What I've heard so far about it is that there's hardly any content, especially at endgame, but does this necessarily mean it's ALWAYS gonna be like this?  A lot of games have launched and received bad reviews straight away, yet made some necessary changes and ended up being a must buy (Elder Scrolls Online for example).

What makes The Division 2 far superior to Anthem?  I keep seeing articles claiming that Division 2 is everything Anthem SHOULD have been.  Is Anthem destined to become a game comparable to Fallout 76, and lose all of its players, or do you think it'll be able to turn things around and get people playing again?

It's a shame as I've wanted to play a brand new looter/shooter for a while now and had always been set on Anthem, but if I'm gonna be investing my time on a game over the next year or so I'm finding myself being drawn more towards The Division 2, which is weird considering I always preferred the looks of Anthem.

simsalabim77

Anthem is a husk of a game with bad design decisions, bugs, and broken systems throughout. It is essentially a paid-for beta right now. They knowingly released a woefully incomplete game and charged full price for it with micro-transactions on top of it all. As consumers and hobbyists of this medium, we should be disgusted with this practice. 

I hope Anthem fails horribly. I want the failure of this game to send a message to these studios and publishers that this is no longer an acceptable business model.

I am completely fed up with the toxicity of the AAA games industry - their practices are openly hostile towards consumers and employees alike. Publishers having record years and firing 800 employees, or a game selling 7.3 million copies to be called a "disappointment" is disgusting and it makes me feel very sorry for passionate people who work on games. Rushing half-baked games to market and charging full price plus yearly passes with the intention to patch them over the course of year(s) is openly hostile towards consumers. 

Ridelynn

I haven't played release - just the open beta.

Load screens killed it for me primarily. On the PS4 it was awful. Trying to run a mission - "you're too far from your group"... >BAM< 90 sec load screen to get dropped somewhere only to see they have moved on yet again...

TheDarkrayne

The Division 2 has a really dynamic and massive endgame with 'constant' action and plentiful, meaningful loot that pairs well with a proper character progression system AND an alternate endgame progression system. Anthem doesn't have any of those things.

That's the simplest way to say it.

Gdemami

There is nothing really wrong with the game.

Although BioWare probably should have make more/better effort at promoting the game for what it is, which might have then save them from stupid comparisons to games like Destiny, Diablo or "Division 2 is everything what Anthem should have been".

But I guess that is a price you pay when you make something little different...

blamo2000

I thought the combat was fun and the story/characters where so bad it ended it being great (the part I saw up to, which was to the meeting with the lady making the weird guy eat food) - but for me, it had nothing rpg-wise.  No rpg mechanics, no character development system.  Nothing.  Yet, was still somehow labeled and promoted as an rpg.

I was disappointed since their last game, ME:A, had hands down the best rpg systems of all 4 MEs, so I figured Anthem would have something worth playing.

MadFrenchie

Gdemami said:

There is nothing really wrong with the game.

Although BioWare probably should have make more/better effort at promoting the game for what it is, which might have then save them from stupid comparisons to games like Destiny, Diablo or "Division 2 is everything what Anthem should have been".

But I guess that is a price you pay when you make something little different...

You're edge lording too hard here.  It's making you sound dumb.

Roin

Except with a lot of that missing...

Wizardry

I consider every game to have rpg aspects,you are in essence role playing a character in a world that is suppose to come off as real and believable.
If it all looks fake,feels fake,no immersion then it is nothing  more than a bunch of computer code with graphics.
just like  i complain about lazy ass cheap factions games giving us only 2-3 factions,this game right out of he box did not have enough choice in characterisation from class to actually looking like more than the same mech different color.

So then seeing them blatantly copy paste the same model in some cases right beside each other,you can see this was a rushed lack of effort game.Sure models get rehashed in all games but you can make it look less obvious.

Then the flying aspect.It became very apparent the cost cutting idea and why flying,they needed a way to just pretend there was this world but in reality just empty space with hub drop ins.They didn't want to have to populate the entire game world so just let players skip over it by flying.If you removed flying,then you would see just how weak sauce the game is.

One of the reasons i detest flying gimmicks in my games,it tries to cover up bad game designs by giving players that gimmick so many love,well idc about flying at all so it had no effect on me.

Maurgrim

They butchered Mass Effect Andromeda, then they made a half baked game called Anthem, now I'm really worried they will ruin Dragon Age as well.

alkarionlog

Maurgrim said:

They butchered Mass Effect Andromeda, then they made a half baked game called Anthem, now I'm really worried they will ruin Dragon Age as well.

like inquisition was much better, just use the same 3 combos over and over and heal, heal pot out, just fast travel to the closest camp and repeat, also mages are useless

Kajidourden

The TL;DR from someone who is critical of but bought Anthem:

The moment to moment gameplay and combat in Anthem is AWESOME, the combo/elemental system looks and feels amazing, especially as they continue to address bugs.  The problem is, everything else is kinda "meh".  Not a lot of content and (until the most recent patches) stingy loot.  

Personally, I still think the gameplay is great but I haven't picked it up since I hit level 30 because I'm waiting for them to add in more content.  I know if I play now i'll get burned out by the same 3 strongholds and such.  

Panther2103

It didn't feel like a full game to me. Every mission felt exactly the same (same issue the original destiny had on launch too), loot was broken, they had the worst ways of managing equipment I've ever encountered in a game (you had to leave the mission, re load into the loading area, then re load into the mission just to change one piece of gear). The story was bland, no side missions felt like they had any weight, every character felt generic and didn't add to the story. The only thing it had going for it was the good combat, and cool flight design. Unfortunately for me and every friend I had interested in the game, it just wasn't enough to hold our attention longer than the first week. 

Phry

TheDarkrayne said:

The Division 2 has a really dynamic and massive endgame with 'constant' action and plentiful, meaningful loot that pairs well with a proper character progression system AND an alternate endgame progression system. Anthem doesn't have any of those things.

That's the simplest way to say it.

True, and that is before you get into all the technical issues that are still as yet unresolved. The Division 2 is awesome, got it yesterday from the Ubisoft Store and .. WOW.

Derros

While both games boil down to, kill dudes and get drops Division 2 gives more variety or at the very least more perceived variety than Anthem does. For me, this is mostly served by the interesting environments of DC. Anthem's environments, I really couldn't tell where I was at any given time in the open world, its all green and cliffs with some ruins here and there, whereas Division has museums, the Capital Building, The JFK Stadium (I believe), Police Stations, loads of interesting places. 

Anthem also had TONS of loading screens, which prompted me to get an SSD because of how many and long they were. Go into a mission, load screen, get back, load screen, change your loadout, load screen, go back out of your loadout (since you can't launch missions from there), load screen. Division 2, after you first load in, there are no more load screens unless you fast travel or join someone else's group instance. Anthem's gameplay flow is broken up WAY too often, and I'll say Ft Tarsis is just a pain to deal with and grows very stale after the story is over. 

I was also hit with many many bugs in Anthem, missions wouldn't update, so I couldn't progress, they would update but they kept tethering my squad and I back to the previous mission point over and over so we couldn't progress, the sound would cut out completely, and I got a few crashes. The mission issues weren't infrequent either. The only issues I've had with the division 2 so far were the skill bugs that shut down skills early. This was a bad bug, but it was fixed within a few days.

Anthem's loot, during the first month I played, was very lackluster I rarely got masterworks or legendaries, the end game items with interesting effects, but got tons and tons of epic drops that I had already grown out of. With the Division 2 I'm showered in interesting loot, set pieces right from the start, then more and more gear with talents, then mods for armor and skills, loads of things to try out, and the weapons within any given category feel very different and LOOK very different, with Anthem, not so much. Anthem also requires you to finish the current mission, or return to Tarsis to see what you picked up, whereas Division tells you and allows you to use something right when you pick it up.

Lastly, for the open world free play, Anthem had no map markers to tell you what was going on where, so most of the time I was flying around aimlessly hoping an event would activate, Division's map is very clear about what is going on where, so I know where to go to find gameplay, or just wander around exploring stuff.

Disclaimer-I stopped playing around the March 7th, so some bugs and loot may have been fixed since then, but I got it through EA access and my sub ran out and I dont really see myself renewing just to give anthem another go, too many other games I want to play and too little time.

CitizenX007

What's wrong with anthem? Both Bioware and EA are SJW cesspools...have you seen the female faces in "character creation"? Very manly looking indeed! That's what's wrong with Anthem.

SpottyGekko

I wonder if the whole "you must return to base to see what your loot is" mechanism was specially added so that they could later sell you Cash Shop "convenience items" that allow viewing the loot on the spot ?

cmacq

At this point the MTX part is non-existent so don't know what people are talking about there. There is a patch coming next week that will improve things. It was released too early but it is a lot of fun to play. The combat is not at all comparable to Div 2, it is fast and furious rather than move to the next cover kill something move to the next cover etc.

There is a lot of potential in the game but it's going to take while to flesh out. Contrary to what a lot of people are saying I believe it will be around for a while. Sales have been better than the reviews would seem to merit.

Kajidourden

CitizenX007 said:

What's wrong with anthem? Both Bioware and EA are SJW cesspools...have you seen the female faces in "character creation"? Very manly looking indeed! That's what's wrong with Anthem.

Someone needs to get laid.  

gunklacker

Kajidourden said:

The TL;DR from someone who is critical of but bought Anthem:

The moment to moment gameplay and combat in Anthem is AWESOME, the combo/elemental system looks and feels amazing, especially as they continue to address bugs.  The problem is, everything else is kinda "meh".  Not a lot of content and (until the most recent patches) stingy loot.  

Personally, I still think the gameplay is great but I haven't picked it up since I hit level 30 because I'm waiting for them to add in more content.  I know if I play now i'll get burned out by the same 3 strongholds and such. 

perfectly stated.....

where Division 2 is a complete game.

rojoArcueid

Kajidourden said:

The TL;DR from someone who is critical of but bought Anthem:

The moment to moment gameplay and combat in Anthem is AWESOME, the combo/elemental system looks and feels amazing, especially as they continue to address bugs.  The problem is, everything else is kinda "meh".  Not a lot of content and (until the most recent patches) stingy loot.  

Personally, I still think the gameplay is great but I haven't picked it up since I hit level 30 because I'm waiting for them to add in more content.  I know if I play now i'll get burned out by the same 3 strongholds and such.  

That's exactly how i felt with the open beta so i skipped the purchase until they fix (and complete) the game.

A $20 dollar DLC for The Witcher 3 has more content than Anthem that costs $60.

LackingMMO

I didn't read all the comments but here's the thing. Anthem is actually a really fun game. That is also the problem, its very fun but there is just not enough. If the game was 40 then great, is you HAVE EA access, don't miss it. The game however is very shallow, with that I mean its very much the same mission over and over, very little variety. Javelines are very cool but with 4 and not much customization with loadouts it feels like all for nothing at times. Updates to fix things are very slow to come out, events are few and far between and not much incentive to do them. Each patch seems to cause performance issues elsewhere.


Don't get me wrong I have a blast playing anthem, it is fun but now that im playing division 2 I don't feel a need to log into anthem. In Div2 I can see and feel there is more to do in just the first couple hours of the game then what I can get in anthem after playing the entire game. I really hope anthem comes together and I would say give it a go but just know what your getting into as well.


Its a good game that is lacking but with a good future should bioware/ea keep there end and actually deliver what they say. Things still need to be added that imo should have been there at launch.


In short, good fun game but not worth 60.

CitizenX007

Kajidourden said:

CitizenX007 said:

What's wrong with anthem? Both Bioware and EA are SJW cesspools...have you seen the female faces in "character creation"? Very manly looking indeed! That's what's wrong with Anthem.

Someone needs to get laid.  

No...I have principles and standards - these are qualities that are not present in the typical gamer - that's why you're confused.

Kyleran

Think about this. Despite Anthem being reportedly sub standard by some accounts, it was the 2nd best selling EA title at launch (after MA 3,  another slagged on title) and is only behind Kingdom Hearts III for most sales in 2019.

They made over $100M despite officially selling the game for six days in Feb.

Coupled with.their success with Apex, is it any wonder EA doesnt really care what some people think.

Gamers will buy practically anything these days if enough hype is applied, why would they bother to change?


https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-03-20-npd-anthem-was-the-best-selling-game-of-february

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-03-22-superdata-apex-legends-had-best-ever-launch-month-for-a-free-to-play-game

Kajidourden

CitizenX007 said:

Kajidourden said:

CitizenX007 said:

What's wrong with anthem? Both Bioware and EA are SJW cesspools...have you seen the female faces in "character creation"? Very manly looking indeed! That's what's wrong with Anthem.

Someone needs to get laid.  

No...I have principles and standards - these are qualities that are not present in the typical gamer - that's why you're confused.

"Principles and standards" Muh hawt vidja gaem chiks!

Sure thing dude.

AlBQuirky

Rhoklaw said:

Well, I guess it doesn't matter how good you used to be at making games. Soon as you join Electronic Arts, you're cursed to be a cesspool of trash no matter what you do.

And still sell millions of copies!