Anthem - A Review

Renae · Feb 17, 2019

Now that I've had a chance to get my hands on Anthem, and I've put in some 8-10 hours. Here's my view of the game.

It's gorgeous. The story, the voice acting... my wife wasn't paying attention and was on the couch doing instagram stuff looked up and said "Damn, I thought you were watching a movie". That's the level of quality they put into this production wise.

Gaming wise... well, if you've played Destiny you kinda know what to expect in the basic's department. You aren't free to roam the world, there is a hub that all action starts from. However the hub is more a single player experience (there is a mp area but that's optional to enter) and while you CAN try to solo play the game, not really a smart thing to do. The match making so far has been decent and peeps actually try to achieve success.

There ARE bugs in the game, occasional video lag... and I have 16GB of DDR4 ram with a 1080 TI 11gb vid card, so... it's not my hardware.

But for the most part the game runs fairly well, and I've had a good time. The story drives me.

Jetboogieman · Feb 21, 2019

From what I understand, about hour 9 depending on how fast your paying you hit some kind of gigantic grind wall of a mission where you gotta go out and get a bunch of crap and it was really annoying and pissed off a lot of people, supposedly it’s being changed for full launch tomorrow, did you hit that?

I’ve heard mixed stuff about the story, just from the Beta I thought some people were a little harsh on the gunplay, I thought it was ok, I mean, it’s not revolutionary, but it’s not awful.

I found the general gameplay loop somewhat compelling during the Beta, but I was worried about content on launch, micro transactions and the technical competence of the game, I’m about to do a post about that style of micro transaction, I mean they don’t have a whole lot right now so we’ll have to see where they go with it but I don’t think the game will sell well and I do fear for the future of BioWare, we shall see.

Renae · Feb 22, 2019

Jetboogieman said:
From what I understand, about hour 9 depending on how fast your paying you hit some kind of gigantic grind wall of a mission where you gotta go out and get a bunch of crap and it was really annoying and pissed off a lot of people, supposedly it’s being changed for full launch tomorrow, did you hit that?

I’ve heard mixed stuff about the story, just from the Beta I thought some people were a little harsh on the gunplay, I thought it was ok, I mean, it’s not revolutionary, but it’s not awful.

I found the general gameplay loop somewhat compelling during the Beta, but I was worried about content on launch, micro transactions and the technical competence of the game, I’m about to do a post about that style of micro transaction, I mean they don’t have a whole lot right now so we’ll have to see where they go with it but I don’t think the game will sell well and I do fear for the future of BioWare, we shall see.

Here's my full review:
Do you hear the Song of Creation? Do you hear, the Anthem? – Nevermore Esports

Do you hear the Song of Creation? Do you hear, the Anthem?

That is the central question of the new offering from EA/Bioware, which has entered into the Warframe/Destiny style game play. Building the experience around a very strong single player story and hub but the action of the game is best experienced in a group setting. You, are a Freelancer, think of a gun for hire, doing various missions for different factions and groups within Fort Tarsis. I’ve hit level 16 and the explanation of where this is taking place, is this an Earth colony? Is this some strange new Earth set in a distant future, isn’t clear at all. As they refer to the world as Bastion, I can only assume, not Earth.

Renae · Feb 22, 2019

Jetboogieman said:
From what I understand, about hour 9 depending on how fast your paying you hit some kind of gigantic grind wall of a mission where you gotta go out and get a bunch of crap and it was really annoying and pissed off a lot of people, supposedly it’s being changed for full launch tomorrow, did you hit that?

I’ve heard mixed stuff about the story, just from the Beta I thought some people were a little harsh on the gunplay, I thought it was ok, I mean, it’s not revolutionary, but it’s not awful.

I found the general gameplay loop somewhat compelling during the Beta, but I was worried about content on launch, micro transactions and the technical competence of the game, I’m about to do a post about that style of micro transaction, I mean they don’t have a whole lot right now so we’ll have to see where they go with it but I don’t think the game will sell well and I do fear for the future of BioWare, we shall see.

I haven't had issues with the microtransactions. I haven't used them! Nor felt a need too. I did buy the Colossus Epic Awesome skin... with coin, I earned in game. The grind wall isn't a "grindwall" so much as it's a gear slowdown to do the next big mission. You have open 4 tombs, each tomb has requirements like so many melee kills, or items gathered... It took me not long to finish them. In fact I held off till lvl 18 to finish the last two, at that point though I wasn't getting new missions, everything slowed till I passed that hoop. It wasn't a big deal and I didn't mind it. I do love the colossus but I'm rocking it with the Storm... so not sure which I'll stick with.

Jetboogieman · Feb 25, 2019

Well unfortunately, I know you’re enjoying the game Renae, but it would appear Anthem and BioWare may be in trouble, big trouble, critical reception has been dismal and certain sales figures we can get a hold of, that we can possibly use to figure out how the game is doing, shows the situation may be catastrophic and given how EA reacted to the relative failure of Andromeda... it’s extremely worrying what they might do to BioWare.

I think in this case shutting down BioWare would inflame the situation, their stock price is sure to suffer because of Anthems performance coupled with BF V, the cancellation of another’s Star Wars game, but somewhat balanced against the relative success of Apex Legends... shuttering BioWare would be a sign of weakness and desperation that would make all that worse, I think those fears are a little overblown but it’s certainly not impossible.

I may still want to buy the game, it’s possible some of the structural issues with it can be fixed and I think based on my Beta experience, an updated anthem with hopefully more and better content down the road at a discounted price will probably make me a happy camper.

Renae · Mar 1, 2019

Jetboogieman said:
Well unfortunately, I know you’re enjoying the game Renae, but it would appear Anthem and BioWare may be in trouble, big trouble, critical reception has been dismal and certain sales figures we can get a hold of, that we can possibly use to figure out how the game is doing, shows the situation may be catastrophic and given how EA reacted to the relative failure of Andromeda... it’s extremely worrying what they might do to BioWare.

I think in this case shutting down BioWare would inflame the situation, their stock price is sure to suffer because of Anthems performance coupled with BF V, the cancellation of another’s Star Wars game, but somewhat balanced against the relative success of Apex Legends... shuttering BioWare would be a sign of weakness and desperation that would make all that worse, I think those fears are a little overblown but it’s certainly not impossible.

I may still want to buy the game, it’s possible some of the structural issues with it can be fixed and I think based on my Beta experience, an updated anthem with hopefully more and better content down the road at a discounted price will probably make me a happy camper.

I know they are, that sucks, I am having a blast almsot level 30

Fishking · Mar 8, 2019

Renae said:
Now that I've had a chance to get my hands on Anthem, and I've put in some 8-10 hours. Here's my view of the game.

It's gorgeous. The story, the voice acting... my wife wasn't paying attention and was on the couch doing instagram stuff looked up and said "Damn, I thought you were watching a movie". That's the level of quality they put into this production wise.

Gaming wise... well, if you've played Destiny you kinda know what to expect in the basic's department. You aren't free to roam the world, there is a hub that all action starts from. However the hub is more a single player experience (there is a mp area but that's optional to enter) and while you CAN try to solo play the game, not really a smart thing to do. The match making so far has been decent and peeps actually try to achieve success.

There ARE bugs in the game, occasional video lag... and I have 16GB of DDR4 ram with a 1080 TI 11gb vid card, so... it's not my hardware.

But for the most part the game runs fairly well, and I've had a good time. The story drives me.

I've watch youtube vids and talked to friends and I hear their complaints but most of them are irrelevant to me, as they mostly don't revolve around my #1 priority for this type of game. That is, is the gameplay, controls, combat, ect all smooth, good, and fun. Most of the complaints have not been about the combat gameplay but around bugs, lag, ect…all those things can be ironed out but if the gameplay itself is flawed at it's core, then there's no saving it. You'd have to redo basically the entire game.

I'll continue to my current strategy and waiting it out for a bit to see if they fix the most glaring issues and then buy it if they do.

P.S. Modern gamers seem so whiny these days. They expect perfection out of the gate but anyone with a little bit of perspective knows that games only really get broken when it gets released and all the players figure out ways to break it (not to excuse just utter trash though).

Jetboogieman · Mar 10, 2019

Fishking said:
I've watch youtube vids and talked to friends and I hear their complaints but most of them are irrelevant to me, as they mostly don't revolve around my #1 priority for this type of game. That is, is the gameplay, controls, combat, ect all smooth, good, and fun. Most of the complaints have not been about the combat gameplay but around bugs, lag, ect…all those things can be ironed out but if the gameplay itself is flawed at it's core, then there's no saving it. You'd have to redo basically the entire game.

I'll continue to my current strategy and waiting it out for a bit to see if they fix the most glaring issues and then buy it if they do.

P.S. Modern gamers seem so whiny these days. They expect perfection out of the gate but anyone with a little bit of perspective knows that games only really get broken when it gets released and all the players figure out ways to break it (not to excuse just utter trash though).

I think this issue goes a bit further than that, I think the problem is, is that any seasoned gamer, understands that there may be kinks to be ironed out after launch, especially with online games, this problem goes way, way back to the age of MMOs, even WoW launched in a bad state.

It's selective and heavily based against certain games publishers, that so heavily monetize their games now that when it launches completely broken, and they're charging full price, maybe a season pass plus a dizzying amount of microtransactions in game, I think it is used as the basis to fling the mud, but I don't think gamers expect perfection out of the gate.

Fishking · Mar 10, 2019

Jetboogieman said:
I think this issue goes a bit further than that, I think the problem is, is that any seasoned gamer, understands that there may be kinks to be ironed out after launch, especially with online games, this problem goes way, way back to the age of MMOs, even WoW launched in a bad state.

It's selective and heavily based against certain games publishers, that so heavily monetize their games now that when it launches completely broken, and they're charging full price, maybe a season pass plus a dizzying amount of microtransactions in game, I think it is used as the basis to fling the mud, but I don't think gamers expect perfection out of the gate.

Maybe...but I don't know if I can agree with you fully. Everything that I see is that younger gamers are very whiny and complainy if everything isn't perfect, and even if it is basically "perfect" they will still complain. I mean...some games I like but just won't bother playing because there are just too many a-holes (e.g. League of Legends).

Jetboogieman · Mar 10, 2019

Fishking said:
Maybe...but I don't know if I can agree with you fully. Everything that I see is that younger gamers are very whiny and complainy if everything isn't perfect, and even if it is basically "perfect" they will still complain.

I dunno man, I don't get that sense at all, I think the most vocal people I see out there as far as gaming goes, in the youtube space especially are people my age and older, that have an extensive understanding of games that goes back really far, those of us who remember how games used to be, for better or worse, a standalone release, not updateable after launch, a straight up transaction that was what it was.

Everyone knows bugs will exist and depending on how gamers feel about the game, is whether the bugs will affect the game negatively in terms of sales and critical reception, let's take battlefield 1 for example, a game laiden with visual glitches and bugs at launch, but there was such a great feeling about the game after Activision had gone into space with COD: Infinite, people laughed and enjoyed the bugs.

Take Fallout New Vegas, a game almost completely broken at launch, but with such an amazing world and strong narrative, they didn't care.

Now take Fallout 76, a game no one asked for, completely ****ed, in many ways still ****ed, has microtransactions and technically, recently made one of them slightly pay to win... People, not as kind.

I mean...some games I like but just won't bother playing because there are just too many a-holes (e.g. League of Legends).

Yeah well that we can agree on, there are gaming communities so toxic it blows my mind, LoL, DOTA 2, CS:GO, Overwatch.

My first real online gaming started with Xbox Live many, many years ago, I saw that change over the years where unfortunately, the unwashed masses got involved and the feeling of anonymity and not being face to face, gave douchebags everywhere the idea that they could be the absolutely worst versions of themselves online and unfortunately we find ourselves in this place today where I pretty much mute everyone, the only other positive experience I used to have and this is a long time ago, but LOTRO had quite a mature playerbase and so you didn't have snotty kids ****ing up your day, but even then man, oh god, Guild Drama, it's amazing how adults get into pretty bull**** in guilds sometimes.

Fishking · Mar 10, 2019

Jetboogieman said:
Yeah well that we can agree on, there are gaming communities so toxic it blows my mind, LoL, DOTA 2, CS:GO, Overwatch.

My first real online gaming started with Xbox Live many, many years ago, I saw that change over the years where unfortunately, the unwashed masses got involved and the feeling of anonymity and not being face to face, gave douchebags everywhere the idea that they could be the absolutely worst versions of themselves online and unfortunately we find ourselves in this place today where I pretty much mute everyone, the only other positive experience I used to have and this is a long time ago, but LOTRO had quite a mature playerbase and so you didn't have snotty kids ****ing up your day, but even then man, oh god, Guild Drama, it's amazing how adults get into pretty bull**** in guilds sometimes.

rofl...pretty much true here too, am I am admittedly just as guilty as the next guy. I'm way more understanding in gaming though, because it's supposed fun.

jmotivator · Mar 13, 2019

Jetboogieman said:
My first real online gaming started with Xbox Live many, many years ago, I saw that change over the years where unfortunately, the unwashed masses got involved and the feeling of anonymity and not being face to face, gave douchebags everywhere the idea that they could be the absolutely worst versions of themselves online and unfortunately we find ourselves in this place today where I pretty much mute everyone, the only other positive experience I used to have and this is a long time ago, but LOTRO had quite a mature playerbase and so you didn't have snotty kids ****ing up your day, but even then man, oh god, Guild Drama, it's amazing how adults get into pretty bull**** in guilds sometimes.

That was my experience in WOW, which soured me on voice chat in games in general, as well as avoiding guilds in all MMORPGs. The only reason I stuck with WOW as long as I did is they got a pretty descent PUG system built with dumbed down instances that allowed strangers to cooperate without voice chat to do even end game content.

In games like The Division (and probably Division 2) their is a class system, it seems, where team leaders will drop you from an instance if you don't have team chat enabled. But there is enough solo content in that game to make it a good solo experience for the most part, and you can over gear to solo most of the group content.

DH Kirkwood · Mar 13, 2019

Fishking said:
Maybe...but I don't know if I can agree with you fully. Everything that I see is that younger gamers are very whiny and complainy if everything isn't perfect, and even if it is basically "perfect" they will still complain. I mean...some games I like but just won't bother playing because there are just too many a-holes (e.g. League of Legends).

Jetboogieman said:
I dunno man, I don't get that sense at all, I think the most vocal people I see out there as far as gaming goes, in the youtube space especially are people my age and older, that have an extensive understanding of games that goes back really far, those of us who remember how games used to be, for better or worse, a standalone release, not updateable after launch, a straight up transaction that was what it was.

Everyone knows bugs will exist and depending on how gamers feel about the game, is whether the bugs will affect the game negatively in terms of sales and critical reception, let's take battlefield 1 for example, a game laiden with visual glitches and bugs at launch, but there was such a great feeling about the game after Activision had gone into space with COD: Infinite, people laughed and enjoyed the bugs.

Take Fallout New Vegas, a game almost completely broken at launch, but with such an amazing world and strong narrative, they didn't care.

Now take Fallout 76, a game no one asked for, completely ****ed, in many ways still ****ed, has microtransactions and technically, recently made one of them slightly pay to win... People, not as kind.

Yeah well that we can agree on, there are gaming communities so toxic it blows my mind, LoL, DOTA 2, CS:GO, Overwatch.

My first real online gaming started with Xbox Live many, many years ago, I saw that change over the years where unfortunately, the unwashed masses got involved and the feeling of anonymity and not being face to face, gave douchebags everywhere the idea that they could be the absolutely worst versions of themselves online and unfortunately we find ourselves in this place today where I pretty much mute everyone, the only other positive experience I used to have and this is a long time ago, but LOTRO had quite a mature playerbase and so you didn't have snotty kids ****ing up your day, but even then man, oh god, Guild Drama, it's amazing how adults get into pretty bull**** in guilds sometimes.

I regret to say that my dumb ass pre-ordered Fallout 76.

I'm not sure if younger gamers are whinier or not, or where the middle of that spectrum lies. I mean, are we talking about teenagers? twenty-somethings? Anyone under the age of forty? Before the Internet exploded into homes in America, my exposure to the gaming community as a whole was nada.

I think that with the rise of DLC in console gaming, we've seen a lot of sketchy stuff happening with companies charging people for content that's already on the disc, and the over-reliance on incremental updates to make up for unfinished games. Fallout 76 is an example of a lot of us rubes getting duped by the promise of, 'Well, they'll make it better . . .right?'

Personally, though, I don't have a very keen eye for what I consider to be minor technical hiccups, but everyone else seems to think is the end of the world. Frame-rate drops in Nier: Automata don't bug, don't take me out of the game, and don't seem to interupt what I percieve to be fluid combat. If I had a keener eye, I'd probably try my hand at writing reviews.

Jetboogieman · Mar 13, 2019

jmotivator said:
That was my experience in WOW, which soured me on voice chat in games in general, as well as avoiding guilds in all MMORPGs. The only reason I stuck with WOW as long as I did is they got a pretty descent PUG system built with dumbed down instances that allowed strangers to cooperate without voice chat to do even end game content.

In games like The Division (and probably Division 2) their is a class system, it seems, where team leaders will drop you from an instance if you don't have team chat enabled. But there is enough solo content in that game to make it a good solo experience for the most part, and you can over gear to solo most of the group content.

I tried the division when it came on Xbox games pass and although I stopped playing just cause it wasn’t my cup of tea, definitely saw the allure and I think Ubisoft is definitely the lesser evil of big three, them, Activision and EA, even though ubisoft has some of the same scummy business practices, at least they understand that their products have to be of some quality to keep players engaged, they could have easily abandoned Siege or Division when they didn’t do so well at launch, but they kept with it, they improved and they listened to the community for the most part and I think if the second Armageddon of the gaming industry comes they’ll be one of the survivors because they at least understood how to do that much.

I think EA is in trouble, they have a severe lack of products at the moment and the ones they do have besides the sports games are failing, the “live service” game model that they’re all rushing to is unsustainable and not just because the consumer will become monetarily tapped out but because time is finite, there’s only so many hours in the day one can give to any number of live service games out there, games like Anthem even though I think it still has potential despite all of the trouble so far, is just too late to the game most probably.

But then again games like Star Trek online have sustained themselves with a player base of a few thousand for years now so anything is possible.

Lethargic Aptitude · Mar 13, 2019

jmotivator said:
That was my experience in WOW, which soured me on voice chat in games in general, as well as avoiding guilds in all MMORPGs. The only reason I stuck with WOW as long as I did is they got a pretty descent PUG system built with dumbed down instances that allowed strangers to cooperate without voice chat to do even end game content.

In games like The Division (and probably Division 2) their is a class system, it seems, where team leaders will drop you from an instance if you don't have team chat enabled. But there is enough solo content in that game to make it a good solo experience for the most part, and you can over gear to solo most of the group content.

The idea behind (in the Division) of dropping people without mics is team organization. Which I can understand. The funny thing though is that for a long time I had no mic. I made friends anyways and I was to their exception to the rule on mics (mainly because of skill). But I ran to many PUG's that simply were rude asses. While I never was booted for no mic, I have been booted by noobs because I was not running the popular meta they seen on youtube.

WHich brings me too....the real problem with games lately is youtubers and streamers ****ing up games by insisting what the meta is or how the game should be played. Or they just simply hate on a game because that gets them views.

jmotivator · Mar 14, 2019

FreedomFromAll said:
The idea behind (in the Division) of dropping people without mics is team organization. Which I can understand. The funny thing though is that for a long time I had no mic. I made friends anyways and I was to their exception to the rule on mics (mainly because of skill). But I ran to many PUG's that simply were rude asses. While I never was booted for no mic, I have been booted by noobs because I was not running the popular meta they seen on youtube.

WHich brings me too....the real problem with games lately is youtubers and streamers ****ing up games by insisting what the meta is or how the game should be played. Or they just simply hate on a game because that gets them views.

Well, yeah, but in The Division, the mic chat was only really necessary in the absurd end game instances with contrived mechanics (I'm looking at you, APC mission)... it wasn't needed in the "shot everything that moves until it stops moving" team missions which happened to be.. all the other missions.

jmotivator · Mar 14, 2019

Jetboogieman said:
I tried the division when it came on Xbox games pass and although I stopped playing just cause it wasn’t my cup of tea, definitely saw the allure and I think Ubisoft is definitely the lesser evil of big three, them, Activision and EA, even though ubisoft has some of the same scummy business practices, at least they understand that their products have to be of some quality to keep players engaged, they could have easily abandoned Siege or Division when they didn’t do so well at launch, but they kept with it, they improved and they listened to the community for the most part and I think if the second Armageddon of the gaming industry comes they’ll be one of the survivors because they at least understood how to do that much.

I think EA is in trouble, they have a severe lack of products at the moment and the ones they do have besides the sports games are failing, the “live service” game model that they’re all rushing to is unsustainable and not just because the consumer will become monetarily tapped out but because time is finite, there’s only so many hours in the day one can give to any number of live service games out there, games like Anthem even though I think it still has potential despite all of the trouble so far, is just too late to the game most probably.

But then again games like Star Trek online have sustained themselves with a player base of a few thousand for years now so anything is possible.

I think the worst offender is World of Tanks. That game charges absurd money to unlock "premium" tanks in the game (we're talking a single tank costing as much as $60), and all but forcing players to spend real world money on ammunition capable of defeating the armor of some tanks.

they got in hot water with their fans a while back for releasing a tank that was practically invulnerable to all but premium ammo, but also had a main gun that was practically useless with anything but premium ammo. That tank was made for people who just wanted to dump money into a game rather than gain skill.

Jetboogieman · Mar 14, 2019

jmotivator said:
I think the worst offender is World of Tanks. That game charges absurd money to unlock "premium" tanks in the game (we're talking a single tank costing as much as $60), and all but forcing players to spend real world money on ammunition capable of defeating the armor of some tanks.

they got in hot water with their fans a while back for releasing a tank that was practically invulnerable to all but premium ammo, but also had a main gun that was practically useless with anything but premium ammo. That tank was made for people who just wanted to dump money into a game rather than gain skill.

It’s a shame, the core gameplay elements of WoT and actually world of warships is pretty good, but the grind for non paying players is just absurd, but it is free to play and so they get away with it.

Although there’s plenty of free to play games that aren’t pay to win such as Fortnite and Apex that despite some level of scummy monetization at least realize in the space they’re occupying that pay to win has drives away a good chunk of player base.

Lethargic Aptitude · Mar 14, 2019

jmotivator said:
Well, yeah, but in The Division, the mic chat was only really necessary in the absurd end game instances with contrived mechanics (I'm looking at you, APC mission)... it wasn't needed in the "shot everything that moves until it stops moving" team missions which happened to be.. all the other missions.

Stolen Signal and Clear Sky comes to mind, hell most exscursions. And the lengendaries. While you can do those without needing to talk it is much easier if you do. And if your in a team running the DZ a mic is important. Survival, Resistance, Last Stand, and Skirmish all better experiences with a mic.

jmotivator · Mar 14, 2019

Jetboogieman said:
It’s a shame, the core gameplay elements of WoT and actually world of warships is pretty good, but the grind for non paying players is just absurd, but it is free to play and so they get away with it.

Although there’s plenty of free to play games that aren’t pay to win such as Fortnite and Apex that despite some level of scummy monetization at least realize in the space they’re occupying that pay to win has drives away a good chunk of player base.

Yep, and I actually enjoyed Planetside 2 even though 90% of the weaponry in the game was locked behind a grind/pay wall

Anthem - A Review

Renae

Jetboogieman

Somewhere in Babylon

Renae

Renae

Jetboogieman

Somewhere in Babylon

Renae

Fishking

Jetboogieman

Somewhere in Babylon

Fishking

Jetboogieman

Somewhere in Babylon

Fishking

jmotivator

Computer Gaming Nerd

DH Kirkwood

Jetboogieman

Somewhere in Babylon

Lethargic Aptitude

Political Parties = Corruption

jmotivator

Computer Gaming Nerd

jmotivator

Computer Gaming Nerd

Jetboogieman

Somewhere in Babylon

Lethargic Aptitude

Political Parties = Corruption

jmotivator

Computer Gaming Nerd