BioWare's Anthem Catch-All

JeremyK wrote:

From what I’ve seen this really doesn’t look or feel like Destiny at all. Looks more like a mix of Mass Effect and Warframe.

This may not be your grand-pa's Bioware, but this sounds awesome.

I’ve never played Destiny which probably impacts my viewpoint a little, but Anthem looks kinda ‘not bad’ where I’m coming from. Not enough to pre-order for sure, but all in all it’s looking pretty solid. So far. I did like the use of Muse for the cinematic trailer too. *Cough*

It’s clearly a much more action orientated game than Bioware normally put out. Given all the changes it makes me a little worried that Dragon Age 4 is never going to seethe light of day. On the other hand I wonder if they are trying to work out how to make that still in a post Witcher 3 world.

When it comes to EA games I no longer see a trailer or even gameplay and imagine the amazing, rewarding gaming experience I'm going to have. I know that any game can easily end up being sabotaged by a willingness on EA's part to kick things out the door when the aren't done to a satisfactory standard. From what I'm hearing that could very easily be Anthem's fate.

I'll wait and see. I really hope this is something special and I absolutely adore the end product but I'm not excited at this point.

Malor wrote:

The company we loved is gone, long since digested by EA. All companies that disappear into that maw are eaten, and Bioware was no exception.

That is not entirely fair.
It is more like EA eats them, then they come out at the other end, and the monster keeps playing with the sad remains to humiliate it once in a while. *cough* Command & Conquer Mobile *cough*

MrDeVil909 wrote:
JeremyK wrote:

From what I’ve seen this really doesn’t look or feel like Destiny at all. Looks more like a mix of Mass Effect and Warframe.

This may not be your grand-pa's Bioware, but this sounds awesome.

I have to disagree. I see zero Mass Effect here. They already said that character interactions and story only happen in the cities in first person and that there is no story interactions out in the world when on a mission.

I think the structure will be: Talk to someone in town who tells you about a thing. Suit up. Find that thing. Shoot the thing a lot. Rinse and repeat.

PaladinTom wrote:
MrDeVil909 wrote:
JeremyK wrote:

From what I’ve seen this really doesn’t look or feel like Destiny at all. Looks more like a mix of Mass Effect and Warframe.

This may not be your grand-pa's Bioware, but this sounds awesome.

I have to disagree. I see zero Mass Effect here. They already said that character interactions and story only happen in the cities in first person and that there is no story interactions out in the world when on a mission.

I think the structure will be: Talk to someone in town who tells you about a thing. Suit up. Find that thing. Shoot the thing a lot. Rinse and repeat.

Maybe not Mass Effect, but you just described the open world portion of Warframe.

Is it cover based like Mass Effect or movement like Warframe?

PaladinTom wrote:
MrDeVil909 wrote:
JeremyK wrote:

From what I’ve seen this really doesn’t look or feel like Destiny at all. Looks more like a mix of Mass Effect and Warframe.

This may not be your grand-pa's Bioware, but this sounds awesome.

I have to disagree. I see zero Mass Effect here. They already said that character interactions and story only happen in the cities in first person and that there is no story interactions out in the world when on a mission.

I think the structure will be: Talk to someone in town who tells you about a thing. Suit up. Find that thing. Shoot the thing a lot. Rinse and repeat.

As I said, awesome!

PaladinTom wrote:
MrDeVil909 wrote:
JeremyK wrote:

From what I’ve seen this really doesn’t look or feel like Destiny at all. Looks more like a mix of Mass Effect and Warframe.

This may not be your grand-pa's Bioware, but this sounds awesome.

I have to disagree. I see zero Mass Effect here. They already said that character interactions and story only happen in the cities in first person and that there is no story interactions out in the world when on a mission.

I think the structure will be: Talk to someone in town who tells you about a thing. Suit up. Find that thing. Shoot the thing a lot. Rinse and repeat.

Guess you didn’t play much of the mass effect multiplayer.

This game is just hitting me right in my sweet spot. Looks so, so good.

Mass Effect multi definitely had/has movement but it is nothing close to Warframe's or something like Titanfall 2.

Watched some gameplay and it actually makes me sad. This has such potential, but because Bioware spreading their wings is a 'betrayal' there's just going to be so much negativity around it.

The gameplay looks slower than I expected, but the flying being integrated looks like fun.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

Watched some gameplay and it actually makes me sad. This has such potential, but because Bioware spreading their wings is a 'betrayal' there's just going to be so much negativity around it.

Star Wars alleged Fandom might have played Brutus to my positive opinions of such subcultures, but Bioware alleged Fandom were Cassius, Casca, Decius Brutus, and so on.

The gameplay video is... eh. It's pretty, but very hard to pick out enemies.

Bioware's never been good at combat or level design. This game's going to live or die on both.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

Watched some gameplay and it actually makes me sad. This has such potential, but because Bioware spreading their wings is a 'betrayal' there's just going to be so much negativity around it.

The gameplay looks slower than I expected, but the flying being integrated looks like fun.

It has potential, but, between the frequent rumors of development issues, the fact this kind of a game is something Bioware isn't known for at all, and the kind of meddling EA is known to do, some negativity is warranted.

If Dice came out and announced a new RPG, I'd be dubious, because it's not what Dice is known to be good at. If Double Fine announced a gritty FPS, I'd be dubious, because it's not what they do. Bioware doesn't have a track record at this kind of game at all, and throwing in the EA factor makes me hold up my hands and step back slowly.

I may pick it up based on post-release reviews, but my odds of pre-ordering are absolutely zero at this point.

Listened to the Waypoint Radio episode covering this and I'm legit enthused. They had a lot of good to say about the movement and combat feel.

PaladinTom wrote:

I have to disagree. I see zero Mass Effect here. They already said that character interactions and story only happen in the cities in first person and that there is no story interactions out in the world when on a mission.

I think the structure will be: Talk to someone in town who tells you about a thing. Suit up. Find that thing. Shoot the thing a lot. Rinse and repeat.

Sounds like quite a few games: Monster Hunter, Destiny, Warframe, apparently Mass Effect multiplayer (never played multiplayer).

vypre wrote:
PaladinTom wrote:

I have to disagree. I see zero Mass Effect here. They already said that character interactions and story only happen in the cities in first person and that there is no story interactions out in the world when on a mission.

I think the structure will be: Talk to someone in town who tells you about a thing. Suit up. Find that thing. Shoot the thing a lot. Rinse and repeat.

Sounds like quite a few games: Monster Hunter, Destiny, Warframe, apparently Mass Effect multiplayer (never played multiplayer).

Which is completely fine. In fact, I'll likely play this as it sounds like a blast.

But what it absolutely does NOT sound like to me is KOTOR, Dragon Age, or Mass Effect. I've seen reports that there are no romance options, which seems like it's jumping the gun. Do we know yet if there are ANY dialog options at all? My guess would be 'no.'

PaladinTom wrote:
vypre wrote:
PaladinTom wrote:

I have to disagree. I see zero Mass Effect here. They already said that character interactions and story only happen in the cities in first person and that there is no story interactions out in the world when on a mission.

I think the structure will be: Talk to someone in town who tells you about a thing. Suit up. Find that thing. Shoot the thing a lot. Rinse and repeat.

Sounds like quite a few games: Monster Hunter, Destiny, Warframe, apparently Mass Effect multiplayer (never played multiplayer).

Which is completely fine. In fact, I'll likely play this as it sounds like a blast.

But what it absolutely does NOT sound like to me is KOTOR, Dragon Age, or Mass Effect. I've seen reports that there are no romance options, which seems like it's jumping the gun. Do we know yet if there are ANY dialog options at all? My guess would be 'no.'

One thing they said that sticks in my mind is how they said the story happens in the single player areas. What does that mean in my mind? That the multiplayer areas are just shoot shoot bang bang with little to no story development happening in them. That doesn't sound like a BioWare game to me.

Sounded like they will have story, but it will be story told through changes in environment, new events, like maybe enemies invade an area, maybe something happens that drastically changes the weather in an area and so on, rather than talking to NPCs etc. Talking very much seems to be limited to the city. And the stories in the wild will be global changes for everyone at once, and not directly tied to your progress - how that will ever work I have no idea.
It truly does not sound like Bioware though. On the other hand, as much as I want old Bioware games, maybe the whole perception of what a Bioware game is, is good enough reason for them to try something different.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

Listened to the Waypoint Radio episode covering this and I'm legit enthused. They had a lot of good to say about the movement and combat feel.

That's what got me very interested as well. If the movement and combat is fun then they've nailed two of the pillars. Just need to get the mission structure, progression, and exploration down. No small task and Bioware, as a company, is in uncharted territory. However, they surely have hired people who have done these similar games before.

Is it uncharted territory though? People seem to forget they have an MMO which is structurally very similar to what they seem to be going for here. The comparisons keep going to Mass Effect & Dragon Age when there's a far more cromulent example.

The only thing that's actually new for Bioware in Anthem is the combat and they seem to have hit it out of the park.

Plenty of storytelling in their MMO however - if I wanted to be harsh/truthful it is the only thing it has going for it. Also in the open areas.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

Is it uncharted territory though? People seem to forget they have an MMO which is structurally very similar to what they seem to be going for here. The comparisons keep going to Mass Effect & Dragon Age when there's a far more cromulent example.

The only thing that's actually new for Bioware in Anthem is the combat and they seem to have hit it out of the park.

My only counter is that the MMO is made by a different team in a different location and Anthem is made by the Edmonton team. Most people just don't consider TOR a "true" Bioware game. Personally, I'm hoping Anthem redefines what is a Bioware game and they can move on from all of this. Many important narrative figures have moved on (Laidlaw, Gaider, Karpyshyn, and Helper) and with the general negative reaction to Andromeda, the new narrative leads can take things in a different direction.

As far as I know, Mark Darrah and the other leads have not had much experience in open world games. I imagine there's got to be some workforce and knowledge cross-over. My biggest concern is that the people who wrote a lot of the good original KOTOR, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age content have left the company and well I really liked Andromeda, it was still a disappointing story and with too many bland characters. Given that they've moved all resources over to Anthem and seem to be giving it a lot of time to grow, I'm hoping that it was time rather than talent or direction that was the problem with their previous games.

Shadout wrote:

Plenty of storytelling in their MMO however - if I wanted to be harsh/truthful it is the only thing it has going for it. Also in the open areas.

They brought in the lead writer for Mass Effect 1 & 2, Drew Karpyshyn, and, apparently, really breathed life into the story of that game.

Vector wrote:
Shadout wrote:

Plenty of storytelling in their MMO however - if I wanted to be harsh/truthful it is the only thing it has going for it. Also in the open areas.

They brought in the lead writer for Mass Effect 1 & 2, Drew Karpyshyn, and, apparently, really breathed life into the story of that game.

They also redesigned the game itself. It's more of a single player game now with multiplayer hubs. Story is definitely great now.

I should get back to it...is what I keep telling myself. I probably played for about 70 hours at launch and really enjoyed it but burned out on the MMO trappings after a while.

Shadout wrote:

Plenty of storytelling in their MMO however - if I wanted to be harsh/truthful it is the only thing it has going for it. Also in the open areas.

Very true. Well done story with escalating quest lines that happen in a way that feels natural despite being scripted. Agonising to play however with the old school mmo mechanics.

Anthem by all accounts solves the latter problem, and there's no reason to believe that the story part can't possibly be at least as good as Old Republic.

Honestly though, if the game is fun to play story is very much secondary to me. I'll be happy to take Warframe quality story.

One has to think they might have just wanted to try something different after so many “Bioware” games.

But a Bioware game is just an RPG. And Bioware's not a person, it's a company. I find it odd that you would change the entire genre of the company like that. And it's weird that they seem to be shifting away from what's been their one shining strength for several decades now.