Anthem... 4 Years Later

if there was ever a game I never thought I'd go back to that game would be handsome back in 2019 the release of Anthem was vudatz as one of the largest commercial live service failures of our lifetime and it did not take long before the game to be abandoned by the general public leading EA to desperately announce that they would remake the game from the ground up under the codename Anthem next not the worst way to make the most of an atrocious situation at least it would be free after all but has fate with habits Anthem next was canceled in 2021 as interest in the AP plummeted so far that it was clear the best course of action was simply to cut losses and move on and as quick as it came Anthem was soon forgotten over four years later I wasn't sure what I'd find going back to this Dead game Dead games die for a reason I wasn't sure if anyone was going to be playing and I wasn't sure if I'd even like it but away from the hype and practically any expectation I sat down this month to give Anthem one last chance before it's ultimately shut down forever so when you start Anthem it becomes immediately apparent that you've got just about everything you can imagine for an epic game here you play as a mercenary freelancer who Dons a robot suit called a javelin the game begins with some pre-rendered cut scenes that are pretty cool and as the player it seems like there's some interesting things happening pre-rendered cutscenes are typically made outside the game's main engine so they could have been made at any points and it makes you wonder if they were created before or after the actual game given the chaotic development of Anthem there's no way to know for sure anyway the visuals look amazing and the characters seem Lively as you're pushed through the giant walking robot so it's clear EA has an imaginative art team at least the intro section afterwards is boring but at least the conflict you're thrown into with all the futuristic sci-fi elements with the invasion and the cataclysm seem like it could be the starts of an awesome story and game they built a compelling style of game here with a unique setting a unique time and some very unique visual Decor you factor in the possibility of a modern combat system with Iron Man style flying an open world full of activities big bosses multi-stage quests fat Loot and customization and fulfilling progression and compelling characters driving that exciting story and damn does this not sound like the most amazing thing ever that is the potential of Anthem that so many speak of after the prologue you take control of your javelin in the first mission you fall from the sky smashing down into the jungle floor as the game fades in with Gorgeous music the camera pans to the player giving his striking view of the Jungle path leading to a majestic waterfall and beautiful scenery the lighting is absolutely incredible and as you jump off the platform and soar into the skies taking in the breathtaking valley floor below carved by a Cascade of molten lava you say to yourself wow this is going to be the most epic game ever the flying feels excellent the game is beautiful the open world is Serene and unique you flip open the map and you see this magnificent World awaiting you and you get this warm fuzzy feeling like perhaps you're in for something special where anything can happen this is the next gen futuristic action loot hunting Adventure that we all wanted right I wish while Anthem does have more going for it than people give it credit for It ultimately drops off very fast the problem is the pretty window dressing simply doesn't last long shiny graphics and a couple solid features will only get you so far the best games of Our Generation do not skimp on all the other things the story of Anthem is an issue forever ripe it's a cobbled together mess of Simple Story threads and repetitive missions that do not take advantage of its open world clocking in a whopping 10 hours it flies by fast and before you know it it is gone looking back on it's it's a disappointing foundation and not memorable in any way it just doesn't do much of anything the missions suck the villain is dressed up well but not fleshed out it doesn't do much with your Pilots can you remember anything about the character you actually played probably not for Tarsus is the Bland City from which you launch all of your quests and stare into the empty eyes of the various NPCs you meet begging for them to give you an exciting Mission or have something interesting to say but they don't the supporting casts are a handful of characters that don't extend beyond the basic functions they serve annoying kid who craves power crippled guy who forgives you to move to the next plot points and sterile woman standing near the forge who gives you missions is this the best that we could do the game's one surprise is cliche and the Gang gets back together moments can be seen from a mile away way it's amateur story developments at best bioware's long-standing commitment to character work is absent in this game and the biggest sin was not giving the material or time to build that strong sense of self that we want from these characters and forgetting to build a memorable story to support some of its otherwise successful elements perhaps you can excuse the need for any deep storytelling or character growth this is a looter shooter right but can you not when the game has so few other great features I would say when everything in the narrative fronts is very shallow it shows a blatant disrespect to the team members who did put their heart and soul into the project the voice actors the animators in the world design Crews who all did a terrific job with the material they had you might disagree but storytelling has a large impact on the overall enjoyment of Anthem because every Mission has narration that is a unique instance of the game World this is part of the reason why it was so difficult to get new content out for Anthem as time went on everyquest is a told slice of story with a voiceover either way anthem's endgame missions are up straight from the story anyway so you'll be going through them infinitely making story presentation a priority either way Anthem doesn't have enough enemies variance and Mission design and unique events or reasons to kill enemies in its open world to exist without its story Exposition hence the hybrid story based loot hunting genre it occupies making the presentation of its material again a priority obviously the writers of this game were forced to redo the story and the concept many times over that's poor management and Direction not just bad writing worst of all you don't make any choices that matter and no character is gray or pushed beyond the basic functions of good guy bad guy then you look at the actual writing which is so clumsy given the cast the uncomfortable job of trying to deliver compelling performances with the cringiest of lines the actors did the best they could with the amateur writing they were given and I do feel bad for them the story isn't actually that bad some of the story threads and backstory bits are pretty cool such as the war and the Freelancers the potential is through the moon but bio didn't cap capitalize on it who wants to play through a story that's just okay I don't Anthem is enjoyable in the same way a cringy movie might be entertaining but is never considered a good movie playable but entirely forgettable and almost disgraceful from a company renowned for their ability to craft some of the most compelling stories seen in gaming ever if you continue to dive into anthem's narrative issues you'll perhaps find the shared open world as one of the main culprits in Anthem the player queues up for activities emissions in Fort Tarsus which acts as both the in-game Hub and the place you're thrown into when starting any gaming session by holding down a button on your controller or keyboard a menu opens up for the player to select what they want to do then you wait through several loading screens while the game tries to match you with other players you don't fly out of Fort Tarsus or anything like that it actually doesn't connect to the game World thus it's basically a virtual menu if you think about it it's pretty convenient game design but it showcases the lack of cohesion between the game's playability and its actual open world space it's at this point that the game has you following Quest icons from one objective to the next while a cipher relays information to you from time to time every Mission tells you exactly what to do which isn't much defend the area kill a horde of spiders until the bar fills up you don't go off the beaten path ever and you don't have to navigate anything yourself this is par for the course in many games but the vacuum of Anthem gives you no opportunity to interact with it otherwise even in free play there's no open world cities no important characters to talk to in the actual world and certainly no feeling like the world has been lived in at all the only things there are to do are time trial races and open world events which you guessed it has you doing the exact same things as virtually any other [ __ ] mission in the game in a normal open world game you'd have cities to explore real Dynamic events characters to meet in the world and a large amount of interesting quests and secrets to find you might even do a quest that takes you three hours you'd at the very least see NPCs walking around with actual names instead of having a cohesive world or really any of this you follow breadcrumb trails and loading screens that act as cheap narrative transition devices you revisit the same areas over and over and complete the same basic Loop Ad nauseam I don't know about you but I feel like a robot when I play this game no pun intended Anthem to me feels like blocks stuck together not a natural ecosystem built for immersive adventure and that is a true sign that they did not take advantage of the beautiful world that they made it is a backdrop only for superficial gameplay design which sucks and after a while it gets really boring doing yet again another collect 12 shiny orbs in the sky obviously this wouldn't be so bad if Anthem had a great loot system and proper end game balancing and a variety of options for play but it doesn't this has always been anthem's death kneel you might be able to justify a bad story but you can never justify these things Anthem has a loot crisis it always has but the worst part is there's just no content the early days of Anthem started off with abysmal drop rates for gear and it did get better over time but the loot grind just isn't worth it considering the lack of fun things to do anthem's late game involves doing pretty much two things repeating legendary missions or completing seasonal strongholds on whatever difficulty you can manage these get rotated once per week so get ready to do the same stronghold again and again and again and again and again do them all day long until you get enough materials to visit one of the four tombs for a level 80 gear roll and then repeat it all over again because the game has essentially only three dungeons it gets vomit inducing very fast equally because the gameplay in strongholds is designed the exact same way as virtually every other mission in the game kill enemies gather orbs defend the area and Kill Boss the same boss you've killed five thousand times already the gameplay is fun but there's not much of a reason to play Beyond seeing your guys power score go up as you wander the vast empty space of anthem's end game picking up the same items and skills with just different numbers attached to them loot is plentiful but 95 percent is a big steaming pile of Salvage material and the game is entirely dependent on RNG a little leeway would have been nice like having the ability to re-roll single inscriptions not free but for a very high price because Anthem has no re-roll system and a billion affixes the probability of getting exactly what she wants is one in a million the huge amount of inscriptions makes God rolls extremely rare and it just serves as a mean to artificially inflate play time and dilute the loot pool re-roll systems to Target certain abilities is a very nice feature for these types of games currently you have to spend Master work Embers to re-roll the entire item this is The Game's crafting system and feels overly punishing when you roll 30 legendary items only to have five that are actually useful looters are personified by you wading through a sea of gear but there's nothing wrong with softening the edges fishing for the right stats via crafting is worlds apart from re-rolling and that's exactly what the game needs the gun playing flying though is amazing and it almost saves the whole damn thing I can tell you firsthand I had a surprising amount of fun playing Anthem in fact it surprised me how much I was looking forward to playing Anthem every day the core mechanics are so refreshing amidst the Sea of other Mech action games Anthem truly feels in a league of its own at least the core of it was way ahead of its time and that's what makes the whole game so frustrating the shooting dashing flying spell Combos and doing all the cool movement tricks while you blaze through the air gives you a rush like few other games can the various things you can do with a jet pack make it really immersive such as the hover combat and using jet boosts and air Dodges and combats the game has a great sense of style and the animations are easily some of the best in the biz there's an innate satisfaction in the stylistic ways you can combo and kill your enemies it's a crunchy weighty explosive beautiful Symphony Anthem isn't Madonna but the game is hot as [ __ ] one of the best parts of Anthem is the distinction between javelins many games that have classes don't do nearly enough to differentiate them and as a result they can feel pretty samey in terms of actual gameplay Anthem offers four classes which is the perfect amount not sacrificing quality in the name of quantity every Javelin offers a specialized way to play and the part of the fun of Anthem is switching between javelins to get new gameplay experiences and as a side note the greatest irony of Anthem is that it never succumbs to class fatigue you know that feeling that now I have to go back and do all of this Con content all over again just to get back to the point where my current character is because Anthem basically has no end game you'll be doing the exact same content on repeat with every single Javelin no matter what item level they actually are that is irony at least playing as the new Jabs feels different controlling the beefy Colossus is seriously different than playing ninja as the Interceptor all the Jabs have unique suits Powers animations flying mechanics and animations and roles on the battlefield crash landing and nuclear melee bomb as the Colossus feels nothing like the spinning nosedive attack of the Interceptor these individualized classes where would add a lot of play time for me and finding gear for each was the sole reason I kept playing in spite of the repetitive nature of the game build crafting is limited there's not a ton of skills but there's enough to make hunting it all down worth it I guess it is a shame that so much of the Cosmetics are locked behind a rotating seasonal store though the Cosmetics are awesome probably the best part about killing after Javelin I guess it rewards long time players and it could be worse but having only one piece of armor per reset Purge Evelyn was a huge letdown for someone who was only going to be playing for a few weeks and speaking of Cosmetics why are there no cosmetic drops they should have added some to the high tier loot pools instead of plopping them into the in-game store that would have been a really nice small step to add some excitement to the mundane loot system that supports the otherwise great combat system but either way you slice it the fall off is just so damn high that I never felt compelled to max out my javelins I've never played a game that had me saying this kicks ass for the first 15 minutes only to have me mutter I'm getting bored thereafter there's no reason that this hot spicy gameplay should nosedive so fast but it does because the activities in the world and the narrative structure actively sabotage it great shooting and flying can't save the tedium of Anthem not for any serious amount of time the story and the lack of an integrated open world are huge culprits but the others are a complete lack of enemy variety bad enemy encounters and AI that barely functions for an x-gen game the program features of Anthem are ridiculously basic enemies and anthem for which you can practically count on one hand are very generic and are either one shot kills for your jab or bullet sponges that act as gear score checks meaning you either have mobs of ants to AOE or guys with shields that have a billion HP for the most part enemies have absolutely no combat strategies whatsoever outside of locking on to a single player when they get too close and raining down more Firepower than World War II if you have a high enough gear score you survive otherwise you don't this gets taken to ridiculous Heights when moving up Grand Master difficulty tiers where enemies will go from barely tickling you to instantly one-shotting you with her Titanic health bars this scaling just isn't Fun and points the lack of thoughtful game design harder enemies does not have to mean thicker life bars and Laser Precision instant death I understand that our Javelin is supposed to kill thousands of enemies in our time with the game but that doesn't mean you simply disregard enemy variety or mechanics most of them have absolutely no Ai and just shoots or runs straight at you and this design doesn't Force the player to adapt to much outside large enemies such as Titans there are simply no enemy tactics to speak of you never get flanked they never work together they are fodder or sponges only and that makes the gameplay far too simple worse advancing difficulty tiers changes nothing new mechanics are never introduced and you never have to change up how you play unless you're in gm3 worth some teamwork and communication is necessary AI should be smarter at higher difficulties flat out a trend in minigame is just the front load game content as Publishers know only a small portion of their players will finish their titles let alone complete the hardest content due to generous refund policies in the PC gaming markets makers are often encouraged to tailor A Game's progression to get their titles Beyond this danger zone and by doing so you end up with a game that's really fun for a few hours and then stale by the end of the game perhaps some of this staleness could have been alleviated through more play variety but there is none the game desperately needs a Loadout system similar to what Mass Effect Andromeda did with its profile system the profile system was ultimately flawed in Andromeda but it would have been perfect for Anthem since Anthem limits you to two active abilities having only two abilities One support skill and one ultimates with no ability to change them outs without going into a menu is really Bare Bones for me it gets really boring since two abilities doesn't give you much to play with not to mention it gives you basically one combo since you'll be usually selecting One Prime and one detonate ability when setting up your Javelin so get ready to do your one combo over and over the animations are amazing but there's no reason we couldn't have fleshed out this system more you could easily see Anthem adding in more abilities or a simple profile system with the use of a quick swap button if I had two or even just one more set of skills for setting up custom combos I would have had so much more fun in Anthem within the ocean of its repetition when I go back to playing old games I can typically find a better appreciation for them and they end up being more enjoyable outside the hype unfortunately for Anthem my extended play time this year did little to change my opinion of the game I feel the exact same way I did years ago the gameplay and the flying were good enough to keep me interested through anthem's lackluster story but when time came for the end game there was nothing there every time I would log in the same pattern would happen I would have a blast for an hour but then things would go downhill at unrivaled speed I'd run the seasonal dungeon blow some [ __ ] up and collect orange engrams along the way I'd even find groups on the reg in gm3 there are still people playing Anthem and playing with others increases the Mayhem and fun exponentially therefore the first dungeon of every play session was really fun what thereafter was less and less and less when I realized that this was all I'd ever be doing I began to withdraw from Anthem heavily I would never experience anything more or less than this repetitive cycle of missions that I had already done 10 times over grinding that never ending gear score yet again I would never meet any cool characters I would never experience a great story and I would never see the potential fulfilled of this could have been Masterpiece this made me so sad that I can't express it in words I would just be chasing a dream that I wanted following in the unfinished shadow of Anthem a shadow that swallowed one of the great Concepts in gaming and one that took for granted unparalleled potential [Music] thank you [Music]

Channel: Downward Thrust

Views: 1,586,536

Keywords: anthem, anthem gameplay 2023, anthem game 2023, anthem game, downward thrust, years later, anthem review 2023, anthem review, anthem retrospective, is anthem worth, is anthem worth it 2023, is anthem worth playing now, anthem bioware review

Id: o7GT6XNZ27w

Length: 19min 25sec (1165 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 22 2023