Anthem's future will reportedly be decided this week

[midian182]

Recap: Remember the run-up to Anthem’s launch in February 2019? Electronic Arts had hyped the game as being a revolutionary, Destiny-like multiplayer loot shooter, but, as we’ve seen so many times before and since, the final product never lived up to the promises. According to a new report, EA will decide the future of its title this week.

Anthem arrived two years ago with a slew of problems: repetitive missions, long loading times, unsatisfying mechanics, clunky UI, lack of end-game content, and so on. Problems made all the worse by the bugs and performance issues. All of which contributed to the game’s Metascore of 59—and a user score of 4.0.

But EA was determined not to give up on Anthem. In November 2019, we heard that the company was planning to revive it with a massive overhaul that would give players the game initially promised, with a revamped loot system, Javelins, Artifacts, and more. The update was referred to internally as Anthem 2.0 or Anthem Next.

Things weren’t looking rosy for Anthem Next when Executive Producer Christian Dailey, who had been posting updates on some of the planned changes, left the team as part of a BioWare management shakeup last December.

According to a Bloomberg report, EA execs will this week decide whether Anthem Next is worth the resources being poured into the project. BioWare previously revealed that the team consists of 30 people, but the publication’s sources claim a complete overhaul of Anthem will require at least triple that number.

Many game companies now look at No Man’s Sky as an example of how an overhyped game that disappointed at launch can be turned around in time, but Anthem’s core design might be too broken to fix.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/88569-anthem-future-reportedly-decided-week.html

 

[winjer]

I thought this game was dead already...

Just let Anthem rest in peace and let Bioware make some good RPGs. Like in the old days.

 

[m4a4]

Honestly, I still love the idea of the game (Iron Man) and want to see it actually become something more. Still haven't found a game that comes closer to scratching that itch.

Picked it up when it was $10 and I got my moneys worth.

 

[BSim500]

I thought this game was dead already... Just let Anthem rest in peace and let Bioware make some good RPGs. Like in the old days.

As much as I'd like the same thing, the truth is all the old-school talent has long left. As the departing senior designer of BG2, NWN & DAO said : "Looking ahead I knew that I wasn't going to be satisfied with what Dragon Age 2 would be. I'm not the same person I was when I started, and BioWare certainly isn't the same company". Even prior to Anthem, Bioware was already halfway a hollowed out shell of its former self trying to catch up to its pre-EA past. I fully expect it to be in that same infamous EA graveyard by 2025.

 

[terzaerian]

I fully expect it to be in that same infamous EA graveyard by 2025.

In retrospect, it's better they killed off Westwood sooner than later; that way the studio at least got to die with dignity, instead of being puppeted around for decades as a grotesque display the way Bioware's corpse has been.

 

[Nobina]

Anthems future has been long decided.

 

[DAOWAce]

Just release the E3 client; it's a better experience than the launched game... even if it's basically just a tech demo with nothing to do.

 

[Adi6293]

Honestly, I still love the idea of the game (Iron Man) and want to see it actually become something more. Still haven't found a game that comes closer to scratching that itch.

Picked it up when it was $10 and I got my moneys worth.

Same here, got it for £8 and put 60 hours into it. The game has really good graphics, flying is good, shooting is good and so is the soundtrack, I really hope they do something with it because there is so much potential

 

[NoahJP]

Honestly, I really hope EA/Bioware put some work into Anthem. The game is awesome it just needs more story and more missions. The loot and XP ranking systems are fine as they are for the time being IMO, it's the lack of story and repetitive missions from contracts that short-circuits the gameplay because everything is worn out too quickly.

 

[nejc02]

Why did they do the downgrades if the elements were already placed there? Or did the 2017 version go through some heavy post productions?

 

[Peter Farkas]

I really liked to play with Anthem to be honest. Audio and visual effects were just awesome.
I liked some of the npc characters too. Unfortunately the missions are way too much the same all the time which makes it bad for replays.
I would want to see at least a DLC driven by deep story and tricky missions that may need a bit of thinking or have impactful decision points.

 

[CrisisDog]

I loved the original Destiny, and hung around with Destiny 2 until recently. The "free to play" isn't free, I feel like I have to pay for seasons now. And, with them now removing previous campaigns / worlds to free up on storage space, I have no way to finish some of the story line that I missed out on.

So...

Out goes Destiny 2, and for the insane price of $5 during various Christmas sales, I picked up Anthem for both PC and Xbox. And so far, I really am enjoying the game experience. It's similar to Destiny, but yet different enough to keep me coming back for more. I'm nowhere near endgame as I only play a few hours here and there, so I can't comment on what happens in the long haul, but it has kept me entertained for the last month or more so far.

 

[Puiu]

Why did they do the downgrades if the elements were already placed there? Or did the 2017 version go through some heavy post productions?

It was definitely just a canned demo. It was their "vision" which turned out to be way too ambitious for the time, money and talent they had.

 

[Ray Marden]

It's dead.

It has a neat idea but isn't fully fleshed out and was essentially a single, empty world. 2.0 is a bad idea if they want to do something with Anthem; it needs a complete redesign as a new game.

EA is back and BioWare is a joke.

 

[poohbear]

I bought it on sale for $10 and I must say the graphics blew me away! THIS is what next gen gaming should look like! The mechanics are fun and the concept is unique (Ironman baby!)...but the repetitive missions and lack of mid to end game content had me bored after 2 weeks. The story in the campaign was also a yawn fest, but man those graphics are gorgeous! Definitely worth $10-$15 though.