History YMMV / Anthem2019

** Following a news story that Anthem was apparently "Do or Die" for Creator/BioWare, and that if the game fails, the studio "could look very different in the future," many of their fans felt like EA was forcing them into a HeadsIWinTailsYouLose situation with regards to Anthem. If the game succeeds, then Creator/BioWare will support it with continued development and we will get fewer of the single-player, story-driven games that the fans expect from them, and if Anthem fails, Creator/BioWare might be dissolved completely and absorbed into EA like so many other studios.

** The way that the player gains experience. Defeating Enemies doesn't directly give experience. Instead, Experience is earned by completing Feats. Such as killing enemies with weapons, killing enemies with abilities, killing enemies with your Ultimate, Gathering Resources, scoring Multikills, ect... Since these Feats always award the same amount of experience, but the amount of Experience needed to level up increases from level to level, the average player will start experiencing massive slowdowns as they get to higher levels.
** The fact that Weapons cannot be changed in the Field. If you want to equip a new weapon, you need to exit the activity, return to Fort Tarsis, go to the Forge, Equip the new weapon, and then exit the Forge. The process is clunky, and requires [[LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading about four different loading screens to accomplish]].
** Reviving is widely considered to be awful. If you're downed in a no-respawn zone, you can't spectate your teammates and there's no option to self-revive after a certain period of time, leaving you to stare at your "Waiting for Revive" screen until one of your allies to revives you or you finish out the encounter. If you do have the option to self-revive, then instead of reviving right where you were downed, you get a loading screen and are placed back on a Strider or the Fort Tarsis spawn point, far away from where you were downed. It's even worse if you're on a mission because you'll end up being outsider the tether zone and have to sit through another loading screen while you're teleported to your teammates.

** The VIP Demo. While most people who played it agreed that the mechanics were quite solid and fun, quite a few were put off by the bugs and glitches in the demo, as well as subpar performance, and major server issues that prevented a significant number of people from logging in for quite some time. The fact that it was advertised as a demo of the finished game and not an in-progress beta made many people concerned, as the game was scheduled for release not even a month later, that the game would face a rough launch. [=BioWare=] assured people that the Demo build was six weeks out of date and missing quite a few of the bug fixes (and even features) that are present in the final game, but some still remain unconvinced.

** The Dominon assault on Freemark was restricted to a single cutscene instead of a playable mission. Had the battle been a playable tutorial, it would've introduced players to the world and setting through immersive gameplay.
*** Granted, they ''kind'' of do this with the tutorial mission involving trying to silence the Heart of Rage, but I think we can agree that the aforementioned route would have been a better move.

** There's been quite a bit of online backlash over the banning of Gladd, a notable Twitch streamer. According to Gladd, he was banned by Bioware for manipulating the economy of the game by taking advantage of a bug where chests dropped masterwork gear more often than usual and streaming it online. Fans were quick to point out the holes in Bioware's logic of why they would go out of their way to ban a player who was just opening chests for an extended period of time, and why they would protect a loot economy that's not [=PvP=] or trade focused.

* GoodBadBugs: The Gentle Touch Marksman Rifle has a very funny bug. Every time a bullet is fired and hits a target, the gun gains a stack of a buff called "Striker's Balance" that reduces the recoil of the gun by fifty percent. However, once three stacks are reached, the bullet will fly off to the right of the crosshair by a significant margin, requiring the user to aim well off to the left of the target to make the shots hit.

* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: The Colossus is by far the most commonly used javelin amongst players. This is because it has much higher attack power and durability than the other javelins, comes with a shitload of health, is the only javelin that can use heavy weapons like Autocannons and has a cool, menacing look to it. Its only real weakness, the lack of a regenerating shield to protect its health, is also offset by the massive tower shield it comes with that absorbs a lot of damage before needing recharging.

** "It's not a Delay." [[labelnote:Explanation]]After the announcement that EA had delayed Anthem to early 2019, EA CEO Blake Jorgensen tried to tell people that it "Wasn't a delay." He offered the explanation that they were trying to release Anthem during a quieter quarter so the game wouldn't have to compete with other games like Call of Duty or their upcoming Battlefield game. Many people pointed out the ridiculousness of the statement, [[DistinctionWithoutADifference as regardless of the reason, it is a delay]].[[/labelnote]]

* SoOkayItsAverage: The game received lukewarm to middling reviews after release, with many critics noting that on a whole, the game is solid and competently put together, but they also felt that it lacked the charm of Bioware's storytelling, and that the gameplay doesn't feel unique or polished enough to differentiate itself from its competitors within the genre, such as the ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}'' series.

** Following a news story that Anthem was apparently "Do or Die" for Creator/BioWare, and that if the game fails, the studio "could look very different in the future," many of their fans felt like EA was forcing them into a HeadsIWinTailsYouLose situation with regards to Anthem. If the game succeeds, then Creator/BioWare will support it with continued development and we will get fewer of the single player, story-driven games that the fans expect from them, and if Anthem fails, Creator/BioWare might be dissolved completely and absorbed into EA like so many other studios.

** The [[https://www.ea.com/games/anthem/acts 90-day roadmap]] was not received well by some players. The game at launch was fairly content-bare, but some were willing to give [=BioWare=] some slack because the first content drop, Echoes of Reality, was a three-part expansion, starting release in March 2019, according to the general roadmap released before the game. However, when [=BioWare=] released the 90-day Roadmap, many players were quite disappointed, as only Part One of Echoes of Reality is coming in March. With part Two in April and Part three in May. On top of that, most of the content seems to just consist of Freeplay Events or stuff like the expanded progression system, guilds, leaderboards, Legendary Missions, and Stronghold Challenges that should've been in the launched game. All told, the only actual new content in the 90-day roadmap is a single Stronghold coming in April, and the Cataclysm coming in May. For a game that many feel is very light on content already, the fact that the next ninety days hold very little in terms of content is very worrying, and only furthers concerns that the game was rushed out by EA in order to come out before their 2019 fiscal year ended in March. The Cataclysm being released in May is a point of particular contention because many players feel like three months is way too long to wait for the game to release what is supposed to be the Pinnacle Endgame Activity.

** The game's convoluted release schedule has drawn a lot of ire online. Similar to ''Battlefield V'', the game has multiple release dates depending on whether or not you're an Origin Access subscriber. Premier members on [=PC=] get full access to the game a week early, Other subscribers on other platforms get a ten-hour free trial a week before the game comes out, and everyone else has to wait until a week after the game launches to play it. Quite a few people who play on console or don't want to subscribe to Origin Access Premier are upset that they'll essentially have to spend a week dodging spoilers while some people get a week-long head-start on the game.

** The game's convoluted release schedule has drawn a lot of ire online. Similar to Battlefield V, the game has multiple release dates depending on whether or not you're an Origin Access subscriber. Premier members on [=PC=] get full access to the game a week early, Other subscribers on other platforms get a ten-hour free trial a week before the game comes out, and everyone else has to wait until a week after the game launches to play it. Quite a few people who play on console or don't want to subscribe to Origin Access Premier are upset that they'll essentially have to spend a week dodging spoilers while some people get a week-long head-start on the game.

* NeverLiveItDown: Just like how ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' was forever remembered and ridiculed for its horrible facial animations, ''Anthem'' is already being remembered and ridiculed for its [[LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading constant loading screens]], no matter how many times Bioware tries to patch it.

* SoOkayItsAverage: The game received lukewarm to middling reviews after release, with many critics noting that on a whole, the game is solid and competently put together, but they also felt that it lacked the charm of Bioware's storytelling and romance, and that it doesn't really manage to differentiate itself from its competitors within the genre, such as the ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}'' series.

* NeverLiveItDown: Just like how ''MassEffectAndromeda'' was forever remembered and ridiculed for its horrible facial animations, ''Anthem'' is already being remembered and ridiculed for its [[LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading constant loading screens]], no matter how many times Bioware tries to patch it.

* NeverLiveItDown: Just like how ''MassEffectAndromeda'' was forever remembered and ridiculed for its horrible facial animations, ''Anthem'' is already being remembered and ridiculed for its constant loading screens, no matter how many times Bioware tries to patch it.

* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: The Colossus is by far the most commonly used javelin amongst players. This is because it has much higher attack power and durability than the other javelins, comes with a shitload of health, is the only javelin that can use heavy weapons like Autocannons And has a cool, menacing look to it. It’s only real weakness, the lack of a regenerating shield to protect its health, is also offset by the massive tower shield it comes with that allows it to absorb a lot of damage before needing recharging.

* DifficultySpike: Going from Hard to Grandmaster 1 is brutal at first. Mostly because the difference in Health and Shields given to the player by Masterwork Components vs Epic Components is massive, going from a few hundred to well over a thousand, sometimes even several thousand. Once you get those compnents, it's much more manageable.

* SoOkayItsAverage: While the game is solid and competently put together overall, many felt that it lacked the charm of Bioware's storytelling and romance, and that it doesn't really manage to differentiate itself from its competitors within the genre, such as the ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}'' series.

** Even if you do a majority of the sidequests, contracts, and other activities available to you, you'll probably be around level twenty by the time you defeat the Final Boss. However, the level cap of the game is Level Thirty, leaving players with about ten levels worth of grinding. This is a big issue because you can't play Grandmaster difficulties until you reach level thirty, and outside of a small selection of Masterwork weapons, Masterwork and Legendary loot don't start dropping until Grandmaster One.

** The three strongholds were disappointing to say the least. One stronghold is a repeat of a story mission you already played in the campaign, the second is a repeat of the final boss fight, and third simply recycles a boss that you had fought previously in the campaign.
* ScrappyMechanic: Free Play mode is seen as one of the weakest parts of the game, since it essentially boils down to aimlessly wandering around the large but rather barren open world hoping you'll stumble across a world event or rare boss, since none of those are marked on the map or announced when they spawn.