Anthem Review: Multiplayer loot shooter misses the mark

[Julio Franco]

Every once in a while, a game comes along that that does something surprising, different, memorable. Anthem is not one of those games. Anthem's core idea of "jetpacks plus guns" works excellently on its own, but nothing else in the game quite lives up to it.

Read the full article here.

https://www.techspot.com/review/1800-anthem/

 

[m4a4]

Yeah, it looks like one of those "better in a few years" types of mmo's (like the first Division and Destiny).
Though the gameplay I played in the demo was certainly the best ironman-like I've seen so far...

 

[QuantumPhysics]

I'm actually angry about the number of games that have been made which would have been perfect in design for EXO SQUAD, Space: Above & Beyond or Babylon 5, but are being built around generic, forgettable universes which closely resemble Halo clones.

The sandbox, Battlefield 4/ Battlefront style gameplay works perfectly for war games like Space 2063 or Teknoman or Exosquad.

The Robotic Suits (power armor) is underused.

I could take the Battlefield 4 mold and build an award winning game out of Exo Squad, Babylon 5 or Space 2063.

Instead, the developers come up with crap.

Halo clones and half baked, garbage that resembles Borderlands.


Even Far Cry: New Dawn was a total let down. Why? Why would you be trying to make Far Cry resemble a Borderlands RPG clone? Why???

These game developers are turning out trash and expecting us to support it.

 

[Capaill]

So, a gorgeous game let down by a complete lack of things to do or reasons to do them. Do they think players will still be coming online in a month's time to play this game? For all there is to do in it, they should probably have created a free to play, pay to win multiplayer game with a Battle Royale mode and milked it for the few months that it will last.

 

[BSim500]

"BioWare games in these series have ambitious narrative arcs augmented by consequential player choices, but also intimate and heart wrenching side-stories revolving around non-playable allies whose own goals, motivations, fears, and hopes take on equally compelling drama and urgency of their own."

Unfortunately that Bioware as described above died when EA acquired them just after Dragon Age Origins and told them to make Dragon Age 2 : The 'Casual Audience' Edition... Seriously, all the key Bioware personnel who knew how to make RPG's including Baldur's Gate / NWN / Dragon Age's creative directors (Mike Laidlaw & James Ohlen), Lead designer (Brent Knowles), writer (David Gaider), Jade Empire designer (Kevin Martens), etc, have all long jumped the sinking Bioware ship and already moved on. Today's EAware is just a hollow shell heading for The Graveyard (tm) to join BlackBox, Bullfrog, Criterion, Dice, LucasArts, Maxis, Mythic, Origin, Pandemic, Westwood, etc.

 

[Burty117]

BlackBox, Bullfrog, Criterion, Dice, LucasArts, Maxis, Mythic, Origin, Pandemic, Westwood, etc.

I forgot just how many great studios they've killed! What a shame. Criterion, Bullfrog, Westwood, I spent countless hours in some of their games...

 

[Mr Majestyk]

EA is a scourge and the Metro group are morons for joining their game shop. If EA, Ubisoft and Activision were wiped off the face of the earth it would be a great day indeed.

 

[Evernessince]

Unfortunately that Bioware as described above died when EA acquired them just after Dragon Age Origins and told them to make Dragon Age 2 : The 'Casual Audience' Edition... Seriously, all the key Bioware personnel who knew how to make RPG's including Baldur's Gate / NWN / Dragon Age's creative directors (Mike Laidlaw & James Ohlen), Lead designer (Brent Knowles), writer (David Gaider), Jade Empire designer (Kevin Martens), etc, have all long jumped the sinking Bioware ship and already moved on. Today's EAware is just a hollow shell heading for The Graveyard (tm) to join BlackBox, Bullfrog, Criterion, Dice, LucasArts, Maxis, Mythic, Origin, Pandemic, Westwood, etc.

I remember reading an opinion on Kotaku about 1 year back in which the author apparently asked heads of certain EA studios if EA pushed microtransactions to which they all replied "no".

I questioned in the comments at the time these words, there has been a clear trend for years in EA games pertaining to the use of microtransactions.

The answer to that is more clear now then it was then. EA pushes micro-transactions, their record of games makes that absolutely concrete and only becomes more obvious as more and more games are added. In addition, the game quality always falls. I can't think of a project under EA's command in the last 10 years that was made better by an EA acquisition.

EA is the valeant pharmaceuticals of game publishers. They buy game devs, jack up the overall cost with micro-transactions, and count the money they made from brand recognition as customers suffer.

 

[amghwk]

One of the most over-hyped games in recent times.

I wonder if people are still engaged in pre-orders.

People should wake up and demand good games rather than following the hype and pre-ordering.

Read the reviews and demand demos like how they used to bring out those days before buying!

Pre-ordering just brings out more trash than guaranteeing a great game.

 

[poohbear]

Perhaps in your review you can compare how it fares with its competitors? I picked up the Division when it was on sale on Steam for $8 and was completely drawn in! How did I miss that game??? I'm not one for MMO games, but the Division was really addictive for a good 50 hours! So much to do, great character progression and the story was unique. So, how does Anthem compare to the Division and Destiny?

 

[Burty117]

Perhaps in your review you can compare how it fares with its competitors? I picked up the Division when it was on sale on Steam for $8 and was completely drawn in! How did I miss that game??? I'm not one for MMO games, but the Division was really addictive for a good 50 hours! So much to do, great character progression and the story was unique. So, how does Anthem compare to the Division and Destiny?

The Division was crap at launch, so was Destiny but not to the same extent as Anthem.

You can't really compare them in their current form as both wipe the floor against Anthem due to years of patches. However, even comparing their launches, Anthem is particularly bad, messing up the loot in a looter shooter shouldn't be possible, Anthem managed it.

 

[Evernessince]

Perhaps in your review you can compare how it fares with its competitors? I picked up the Division when it was on sale on Steam for $8 and was completely drawn in! How did I miss that game??? I'm not one for MMO games, but the Division was really addictive for a good 50 hours! So much to do, great character progression and the story was unique. So, how does Anthem compare to the Division and Destiny?

Both games have RPG elements with bullet sponge enemies. The Division is open world through while anthem has a hub you then load into missions from. You might have seen it before but YouTubers like AngryJoe have pointed out that often you spend more time in the loading screen then playing the game in Anthem.

The story of Athem has been widely panned. If you are looking for a good story, Anthem is not your game.

In addition, there is little mission variety. The division's just does a much better job at variety.

You can go read up reviews for yourself to get the full scoop. I personally wouldn't recommend anthem over $20.

 

[LenovoX]

Big game producers are among the biggest liars of the planet (after politicians)... you pay gold and they give you trash