They had the bones set up for multiple end game raids, a continuing story with dude bro that stole the ancient armor or whatever, and plenty of tools to work with to add new weapons, classes, etc. They were like 90% the way there and then fricken fumbled it and doubled down, so the player base bailed.
If you want a really good write-up about Anthem, its development, and why it could only fail, check out Jason Schreier's long-form article about it. Eye-opening.
Lead Focus Tester: Okay… so test audiences are really loving the verticality and flight mechanics. They consistently rank that as the best part of the game.
Head Designer: I’ve instructed my team to implement an overheating mechanic which only allows players to fly for brief periods at a time.
Lead Focus Tester: Uh… maybe you misheard me. I said flight was the part of the game players lovedthe most. Almost everyone mentioned it as one of— if not the— best part of the game
Head Designer: No, I heard you just fine.
Lead Focus Tester: [long sigh] They’re gonna fucking hate that, dude…
Head Designer: Gamers will like what we tell them to like.
Or maybe because Bioware didn't make a single looter-shooter in their life, and the only "shooter" they made were the ME games, and their loot distribution was ASS in every single game they ever made (including SWTOR). Maybe they could've committed to it and fixed it to a place where it was actually good (like Bungie did with D1 and D2 for a combined 5 or so times - until they didn't), but I just don't think they ever really had it handled in the first place.
Also, as far as Bioware shitting the bed goes, by all accounts ME:A was a complete wreck and got "saved" (or at least thrown out of the door in a playable state instead of scrapping it after like 4 years and hundreds of millions of dollars spent on it) by EA who had to bring in multiple other teams - like the NFS one - just to salvage that particular mess. It also always had a very toxic work environment - the crunch for ME1 (which was partially before EA fully took over) was so bad that they basically lived in the office and held "screaming sessions" in the recording studio to not go insane. Don't get me wrong, EA can go fuck itself for so many reasons, but Bioware was dying with or without them, and I don't think it was particularly long for the world once the writing team started to leave one by one because of how horrible working there was. And that happened without EA.
It's easy to blame the publisher, but dodging every shred of responsibility is still somewhat unbecoming. Especially from Bioware. This was not Krafton and Unknown Worlds.
I would encourage you to check out Jason Schrier's autopsy investigation on Anthem as well as Kotaku's post release report on Anthem.
Long story short: EA gave Bioware everything that everyone would expect to result in a great game. Infinite money and creative freedom with the only restriction being that Bioware had 7 years to make the game.
EA checks in 5 years into that 7 year window, and Bioware doesn't even have an elevator pitch for the game, and that was supposed to be a couple months before the E3 gameplay reveal for the game.
The only reason Anthem even has flying is because EA's contact with Bioware was having lunch with Bioware's CEO and said contact mentioned that he had recently seen the new marvel movie (which at the time would have been either Age of Ultron or Civil War) and commented that he really loves seeing Iron Man fly around.
EA give Bioware everything and supported them even when they were down because clearly someone at EA believed in "Bioware Magic"; the only thing different now is that there are new bosses who don't believe in Bioware Magic.
If Anthem had gotten the CP77 or NMS treatment instead of being left to die in its crib, it really could have been one of the greats. Releasing in the state it did and trying to compete directly against the juggernaut destiny was at the time was just hopeless.
I got Anthem so late there was like... 2 people online. It was very solid as a single player game but was long into maintenance mode. Still wish they added an offline mode for it.
I have never been more excited for a game than I was for Anthem. I pre ordered the special edition and everything. My disappointment was immeasurable and has done lasting effects on my hope for games lol. I haven’t pre ordered a game since then and I am rarely ever interested in full priced AAA games now. They spent 7 years on a game with insane potential and even delayed it a few times to get it right and they were so far off the mark. I’ll never forget that
first teaser had me hyped, with every new look they gave about it my hype died down, when i saw that nonbinary scene making it to social media i knew that bioware needed to be put down, so yeah, back to playing origins for the 20ish time
I kept trying to give it a fair shake and every time I tried I came away feeling like I had just played some random game wearing the corpse of Dragon Age.
It was just such a clusterfuck of bad decisions.
You could REALLY tell that it was never really meant to be a proper Dragon Age game, it felt like it was a MOBA in the early production stages and then somehow got redirected into what it became.
I couldn’t put my finger on the primary reason why I dislike this game and you just hit the nail on the head for me; it feels like a MOBA gone wrong!
There were other things I didn’t like such as the art style ( though the game does look GOOD imo, just not what I expect from a DA game ), but the game feels like it was pulled in a couple of odd directions. Just didn’t feel fleshed out and kinda shallow.
I've actually been working my way through Veilguard this year, it's honestly not bad at all. Not sure I would feel the same had I paid full price for it, though.
Tbh i just appreciated the fact that I could pick up a game and hit play without having to fiddle with settings or download mods to not make it look like shite. I'm so fatigued by UE5 in particular that playing through Veilguard and having zero crashes, zero stutter, zero TAA blur, zero need for DLSS, zero ghosting and so on felt like a breath of fresh air.
Granted, I didn't play the other DA games so I couldn't care how it lives up to the legacy of the previous games, but for me - it was a pretty good action game, decent story, ran and looked amazing. Worst part of playing it was knowing it obviously would be the last DA game so I'd never get a sequel, and, of course, Taash.
Veilguard was too busy pushing real life politics (pull a bharv for misgendering me etc) than focusing on a fantasy world. Genuinely disappointing to see your favourite world of all time become a propaganda piece. Glad I didn't buy it and I won't be sad to see the back of Bioware. KOTOR, Jade Empire, Mass Effect, Baldurs Gate... All amazing games. What a shame it turned out like this.
Buddy theres literally like 2 or 3 scenes, max, involving one character, that relate to 'real life politics.' Of a half dozen companions, each of which have dozens of scenes, with dozens more group scenes, and dozens more non-companion scenes. You legit got ragebaited by shit that can fit into a Youtube short, in a game that lasts 50+ hours
Whereas I can't see what makes you cheer because, 100% predictably enough, your profile is locked due to 18+ content. Strange how that always correlates.
Dragon Age Origins was their last game I actually liked lol. Mass Effect 1 and 2 were okay I guess, but I would love if they had just made a sequel to Dragon Age Origins instead of any of the last 3 flops they made
Someone needs to show this to CCP/FC games in Iceland… please… our 25 year old mmo is being held hostage by failed venture capital funded crypto-shooter startup games.
Yeah it isn’t ALWAYS the greedy publisher fault, sometimes the creatives are at fault too
Like Xbox gave a blank check unlimited time and money with no management or oversight to studios like Compulsion, Ninja Theory, and DoubleFine. They then proceeded to put out small mid games that flopped. South of Midnight of all games took 7 years dev time and $100 mil budget
And the best part of the game - flying around like Iron Man - was only in the game was because of EA. Bioware has spent the last decade shooting itself in the foot.
EAs fault that they forced it into a live service. EA specifically said they don't believe single player games can work. They forced multiple things behind the scene.
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u/welzed11 7h ago
This is what happens when you put out 3 flops in a row back to back