https://youtu.be/jZizDqnz7oY
Anthem is Bioware's attempt at making a Destiny except with rad exo suits and flying.
It is like Destiny in that there are a handful of classes, no set roles, recharging abilities as well as an ultimate, fun traversal, a bunch of aliens to shoot, some story about some ancient macguffin or another I think, and nice graphics. The mission design is kind of also go to X location and shoot things until you go to Y location from what I have seen.
It is unlike destiny that honestly the combat isn't as good when compared to something made by a house that almost exclusively makes FPS games. None of the guns are as punchy, nor does it have something similar to hitting the weak point for massive damage. I think I like the dialogue/characterization of the NPCs more. Traversal has a bit more management to it since you can overheat but skimming a river is sure cool. The loot system is basically how all gameplay customization is done. Your loot is not only guns but your active abilities(like your class ability and grenade in Destiny), and passive armor bonuses. I haven't messed with it so far this demo but there is a crafting system to make items for all of the above too it seems. The cosmetic system is also miles above the shaders. You can customize not only paint color but material type for six different categories as well as decals, clean and dirty shaders and unlockable part types. This seems to be where any of the microtransaction stuff might come in. Oh and probably the emotes too.
I dunno what else to say really cause I really only know what I know from playing the demo. You can play it too this weekend if you have a fast enough connection to download it. Or on the 15th with EA Origin Access Premier, or the 22nd when the game actually comes out.. or... I dunno I'd have to look at the chart again.
I don't know if anyone around here is interested in it but I'm definitely gonna pick it up for either PC or PS4.
Also this is just an excuse to make people look at my good good javelin designs.
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My connection was real bad but that's probably because I am on wi-fi
When it wasnt laggy, I had a lot of fun. The shooting is solid and all of the movement is fun as hell. I really appreciate the sense of weight and momentum that the Javelin has, the brief moment where you are just falling mid-air before your thrusters kick in is so SATISFYING. I even like the arcing descent crash landing you get when you overheat, feels real neat.
I haven't unlocked my class yet so just the default Ranger but I had a good amount of fun, and the visual customization options are RIDICULOUSLY in depth.
The first-person bits in the fort are definitely awkward, you move SO slow and the weird baby step sound effects you get are hilarious but the writing ain't bad. The stuff with Matthias was pretty entertaining.
Seems neat! Probably gonna buy it!
Steam
PSN: Robo_Wizard1
Also ya the very first thing the alpha did was put you through an actual tutorial mission where it explained how to use all your stuff. No idea why they didn't include it in this demo. It really needed it.
They've already said you will be able to run in the finished game.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
My large metal son
When it's not crashing it's really fun
Steam
Steam ID XBL: JohnnyChopsocky PSN:Stud_Beefpile WiiU:JohnnyChopsocky
I like the gameplay a lot and will probably get it
But my 2 biggest complaints are:
A) this was a terrible slice of the game to choose for a demo. There is no tutorialization, no context for basically anything in the world and the story bits we see, and having a hub area where literally everything besides a handful of main characters pops up a NOT AVAILABLE IN THE DEMO screen is a real bad experience.
And this game will live and die on how much there is in it at launch. The exploration feels really good, the combat is fun and the customization is very in depth, but if they don't have enough content in there to keep it feeling fresh then that will wear thin very quickly. There needs to be a much larger map, more activities and a lot more loot options (like, if all Assault Rifles handle exactly the same the only difference is the rarity, for example, then that is going to be super unsatisfying) in the game at launch or this is probably gonna fizzle out hard.
I want this game to do well, and I am almost certainly going to buy it (barring any early coverage revealing it has major problems like my potential worries) but I am a little worried.
The Division really stepped their game up like three months after release, but too many quit because there wasn't anything to do in that time and never came back.
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honestly as time goes on i just have a lot of problems with the first person hub town in general beyond the lack of running
it feels lifeless even by hub town standards, and having NPCs that are trying to have Bioware Monologues at you who then swap back into generic "How's the weather?" style drivel was really jarring
the invisible walls and segments you can't go are very noticeable, and being in first person both doesn't add anything and makes it feel like a separate game bolted on to the mech game
it's just complicated enough to get lost in and simple enough to not be interesting
and it's weird because it's not particularly important? like it exists to be the downtime and glue between the actual gameplay so you can decompress, but it's just sort of obnoxious right now. and i've never really spent much time thinking about hub social spaces in this game so i'm really not sure what specifically they're doing wrong? so i just know that i think it's bad and it's annoying to interact with.
Tarsis is where most of the story happens, so they don't show a lot of what goes on in the demo. That's why so much is locked off.
Unlike what happened in the last demo weekend.
Satans..... hints.....
But the bones are there, and I'll probably pick it up as long as the reviews aren't like "uh there's fucking nothing here"
Apparently there will only be three Stronghold missions at launch, and running those will be a significant portion of the endgame, which...sounds a bit bare?
My Steam
Not a great sign
It is a fun little thing and is fine but is also like maybe 30-40 minutes long and nothing too flashy or crazy
The thing I am most worried about is the map
The area in the demo is fun to explore and very pretty but there better be a LOT more they don't show in the demo because that's gonna get real old to navigate real quick if not
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-02-01-biowares-endgame-for-anthem
https://variety.com/2019/gaming/features/anthems-endgame-how-bioware-hopes-to-hook-players-1203125590/
Steam
I usually look to BioWare games for the characters and story, more than the gameplay.
But this game kinda just looks like Destiny... where the story seems mostly like a tacked-on thing to make excuse for to shoot mans and get loot.
I think all we know are the broadest of strokes that suggest something akin to the start of ME:A — humanity long ago colonized a planet that at some point turned out to be extremely volatile in its structural integrity; at this point in history, they presume it has something to do with the relics of a "precursor" race, and uh... they are looking to get things under control? While various alien factions are trying to kill each other?
I mean it looks to me like it's just another co-op loot treadmill where everyone runs around killing waves of enemies and shooting the glowy bits of the big monster until candy falls out. Rinse and repeat until boredom overtakes.
I don't know, maybe it'll be awesome. But I am having a really hard time mustering any enthusiasm.
The little bit of story we got in the demo and have seen in videos from Alpha seems good enough to me
There seems to be some really cool lore from before humans became free. I think they used javelins to stage a revolution or something?
Also, Helena Tarsis and the Legion of Dawn seem cool
Satans..... hints.....
You can see a lot more map around the edges of the demo area but it warps you back if you try to go there
PSN: Robo_Wizard1
I'm probably gonna wait for the first sale to pick up the game proper, to help get an idea of what the end-game content etc is like, but I'm definitely interested based off this demo.
also the hub is really boring to me and I really worry about the AI being dumb as rocks. I dunno if it's some kind of leashing thing that's not working quite right, but just running away for a bit reliably makes enemies bunch up in the distance and not do anything while I shoot them. On top of that it seems like enemies don't quite know how to handle someone darting back and forth between cover for the most part
Flying around a fancy lookin new world might still be enough to make me want to play, though. I just really hope enemy behaviour seems less abusable in the full game, because that's not gonna work for me. Considering footage I've seen has included enemies literally T-posing and phasing out of existence I'm hoping my problems stem from bugs instead of AI working as intended or such
The voice acting is good and it's pretty and the flying is very fun and I'm obviously a big robot fan and grouping up with friends is very easy and I appreciate the design of the city
I don't....actually enjoy the shooting much though. That might change when I get to play a character that isn't entirely shooting, since I like to play a magic user whenever I get a chance to, but I'm also having a very hard time not directly comparing all the everything either to Destiny or to other BioWare works that were also made to cater directly to me, even if that ends up being a little unfair to the game itself
The conversation system feels empty, the writing with the characters feels wonky (though maybe that's due to the demo section chosen and having the build-up prior will help?), and as much as I appreciate the level of customization available in the robot section, it doesn't really appeal to me much in comparison to Destiny. (The big appeal there being that Destiny's armour system feels like a fashion simulator/dress-up game where I can make myself look like an Eldritch Space Queen, whereas making a slightly different robot feels more...like customizing a car in a Forza game than making a Cool Space Lady.)
I mean I'll probably still get it presuming my usual Gamer Crew does, because I am generally very forgiving of a co-op experience since they often just act as an excuse to be social with friends for me, but until I hear reviews closer to the release date I don't know that a lot of those concerns are gonna be resolved
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They have been very clear about that since it was announced. It is a multiplayer loot driven game, not a single player narrative.
Bioware is also working on DA4 for folks who want that style of game but I think it is perfectly fine for them to try another genre as long as they are up front about it
I guess some shit is going down? I dunno, i’m at work.
Demo ends at 6pm pacific btw.
Steam
The UI was rough and the stuff at the base and the story didn't really work for me. I'm also a little worried that every mission flooded you with a ton of junk items that didn't feel particularly interesting rather than a handful of meaningful items, but that's loot games in general.