Anthem (Bioware's new property)

Just want to summarize my initial impression (which is "not really excited"). What I expect from a Bioware game:

• An engaging story and meaningful choices.
• Interesting companions (and romances)
• Inclusitivity

Combat and scenery, while important, is not that important to me, which is why the trailer failed to give me any hype. I do think it's too early to make any judgments. But it would be hysterical and ironic if their "Bob Dylan of gaming" managed to alienate most of their old fanbase.
If they don't want to talk about it, chances are there's nothing to really talk about. Learn that hard lesson from Andromeda.

I guess I'm coming from a different angle, as someone who's been meaning to play a Dragon Age or particularly Mass Effect for ages but never had the chance or never got around to it, I have no preconceptions from my own experience of what a Bioware game 'should be'. I just want to tool around in a cool exo-suit and blow shit up :D Shallow yes, fun probably. Also, I don't expect the final product to look anything like that good, I think we all know by now that developers doll these things up for presentations. But I'm still interested, and I'll be keeping an eye on it.

Same. And I don't know how much of that we'll see.

They keep saying 'A Bioware Story the fans expect' but they've been kind of careful not to actually SAY anything about the story, characters, or world. Hell, that video on the last page was FULL of empty sentences like that. I think one of them was about how they showed us a 'rich immersive world/story' and I kept thinking 'Bitch where? Show me the receipts!'

I was given more of an Ironman vibe from how the suit was quickly able to zip around anywhere on the map and fire mini-missiles, not to mention how the jetpack from Just Cause 3 worked. And that might not be a bad thing; it would make quickly traversing the overworld a breeze, allow the player to take on epic-scale bosses, and feel like a one-man army.

Huh. That was... a thing. There must be some kind of story in this game, right? Right? Darn it, so pretty, but potentially so empty... And does this mean we won't be seeing another Bio Ware RPG until 2019 (at the very earliest)?

Ah well. Back to my Neverwinter Nights playthrough. Do you have anything to say about this, Deekin?

"Doom doom doom! Doom de doom! Doomity doom doom!" (I kid, I kid... mostly )

Gone to Faerie, no forwarding address. (AO3)

Looking at it this isn't going to be a story heavy game at all. They wouldn't be so dodgy about talking about the plot if it was.

Rather it's a good game or not is a whole other thing, but they've never emphasized gameplay this much while downplaying any story elements.

What's even stranger to me is that this is supposedly the project that a lot of Bioware's A-Team went to after ME 3 and Inquisition.

@InkDagger: And that's what makes me think this game does have a plot.

edited 13th Jun '17 7:03:37 PM by lrrose

Maybe they're frontloading on the gameplay because they have a reputation for mediocre gameplay? Everyone knows Bioware has awesome stories, so they felt they didn't need to advertise that right out of the gate.

Not sure that's the best track to take, as this thread makes clear, but I guess I could kinda see some logic in it.

I could understand doing that, but one would think that they could do the best of both worlds and show both.

When is this expected to release, again?

Oh God! Natural light!

Late 2018 apparently.

If they really are focusing on the gameplay then it better be phenomenal. Like the Javelin's have a lot of potential & I can already see myself flying headfirst into a squadron of enemies & then standing there all smug as their guns can't do shit cause I'm bulletproof making me really like Iron Man. Then I dash towards a grunt & stab him with a retractable blade in my armor.

There better be an immense variety of weapons.

edited 13th Jun '17 9:36:19 PM by slimcoder

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."

Does anyone else think "Anthem" is a strange title, especially for a Bio Ware game? It tells us nothing about the setting, story, or characters, and it doesn't scream "danger" or "excitement" or "adventure" or anything else you'd normally want associated with an action game. I'm puzzled.

Gone to Faerie, no forwarding address. (AO3)

I presume it has meaning in regards to the story. What that might be, I'm not sure, but I'm certain that we'll know at some point.

Oh God! Natural light!

They explained in an interview that an anthem is a rallying song for a cause bigger than you, and that's tied thematically to what the game is about.

Karpyshyn is writing Anthem. He did Kotor and ME 1-2.

x4

I've certainly seen other games that turn out to be generic shooters with oddly named titles. Not exactly something new.

Which I suppose disappoints me a bit. Athem sounds like an actually really cool title, but I've already said my peace on how I feel about what they've shown.

Is this game REALLY getting a good reception?

I've been looking over some You Tube and other internet sites and I've seen it been described as "The IP that's here to stay of E3 2017" and... I really don't see what's so impressive about this IP at all.

I'm not trying to shit on the game anymore than I when I said my piece, but I am genuinly trying to understand the reasoning as to if/why people are championing this title.

Yeah that sounds a bit like the media trying to take away SOMETHING from E3 that was new. But I haven't seen much across any sites about it beyond the initial showing; or even on Youtube.

Assassin's Creed and Shadow of War seem to be dominating those areas currently, but that could be because they're closer to the canoe as it were.

But this... yeah it looks fun but we don't have much substance on how it plays. Combat was a mess of effects and badly silhouetted enemies. It's like the mortar troops from Tribes mixed with Inquisition maps and Andromeda jink gameplay...

I am pretty meh, a Destiny clone isn't something I think Bioware can pull off.

Yeah, I do wonder what they're going to make to show that it's not like Destiny. The general plot (Humanity confined to one city and going out into the world and grabbing loot off of enemies) seems Destiny like but it depends on what they'll do to make it distinct.

That is the face of a man who just ate a kitten. Raw.

An actual plot would be a big step. They do seem to be more Sci instead of the Fi that Destiny is with more on Tech than Magic.

But yeah being a TPS instead of FPS is really the only big difference.

When Destiny 2 hits it will be the big tell.

edited 4th Jul '17 8:02:04 AM by Memers

I think that right now, most of the hype is based off of how pretty the game is. Which is not a good sign, since those sorts of demos almost always have their graphics touched up to be better than they are in the final release.

Bioware seems to be putting a lot of writing talent into this game, so I'm still somewhat hopeful, but we still don't really know anything about it.

Well when you look at the playable Battlefront 2 right now I don't think it's being touched up aside from probably running on a 5000$ computer.

This game is most certainly not getting good reception. Everywhere I see people's reception towards it are either negative or mediocre. That's just the media saving face.

Bioware really should have made a better opening trailer cause from what we all saw, its just another loot shooter with pretty graphics.

At least there are good writers onboard so I'm a little optimistic but I don't blame everyone else for not being cause they barely gave anything to be optimistic about.

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."

I think it's a little unfair to be writing this game off already, I just don't think there's enough information out therea about it to draw much in the way of meaningful conclusions. I'm interested in it, but not excited, and it will be probably be competing with Destiny 2 for that particular slot in my gaming life (unless Monster Hunter World fucks them both off :P).