Thoughts on Anthem (pre-public demo)

Anthem has been a tricky subject for me. Honestly, it's something that's been difficult to wrap my brain around since its initial showing. It looks like a solid game, but a few things haven't been sitting well with me about it.

You see, I'm a 20-year BioWare fan, and I can't shake the feeling that this game is being made for everyone but me, if that makes any sense. I love solo RPGs with lots of player choice in them that affects the world around the player. This is something that Anthem is not, at least from what I've played.

It’s not what I expect from BioWare, but I also don’t want to be that asshole that crucifies a studio for daring to try something new. I badly want a new single-player RPG from BioWare, but that’s just not going to happen for a while.

Disclaimer - yes, I'm aware that not every game is made for me. Trust me, I get that.

So far, I've played the Anthem alpha and last weekend's VIP demo. I didn't really enjoy the alpha, but I've had a good time in the demo so far.

I'm really trying to keep an open mind and see if Anthem is something that will expand my gaming boundaries, much in the same way BioWare did to me with SWTOR. I wasn't really into MMOs before SWTOR, and both Star Trek Online and SWTOR acted as gateway drugs for me in the MMO space. Now, MMOs are among my favorite genres.

So, maybe Anthem will do the same for me with whatever genre it ends up fitting into. 

I've been trying to approach it as a totally new kind of BioWare experience for me, and that helped me enjoy the VIP demo.

I really like the single-player Fort Tarsis bits. The writing is predictably solid, and it's gorgeous to look at. I wish it was a little bigger and a bit more interactive, though. 

Going out into the world from Tarsis proved to be a little tricky, due to a known technical issue with the demo. Basically, I had to launch the expedition from a screen, let it crawl up to 95% (where it would stay indefinitely), crash the game, kill the game process, and then quickly re-launch the game to get a prompt to rejoin the expedition. Sigh. This technical issue REALLY bogged down my play time with the game.

Once I got in, it was fun. The flying is great, though I looked like a drunk hippo while doing it. It's fun, but I have a long way to go toward mastering it. 

The combat felt really good. It definitely has a Mass Effect feel to the gunplay, so I felt right at home.

Pugging was OK. I normally hate pugging, but this seemed OK. This game definitely needs text chat, though. Regardless, the groups I was in were OK, and once I got a little more of a handle on flight and combat, I felt like a real contributor to the group.

Still, I've kept questioning if Anthem is something in which I can really invest myself long-term. I'm likely going to give it a shot, but story, characters, and choice mean a lot to me, and while I enjoyed what I played, I wonder how much staying power the game will have with me. We'll see.

I'm also hoping that the technical issue that I described is fixed. That was a huge bummer and kept me from playing more of the demo than I did, especially with hot sexiness like Resident Evil 2 remake at hand.

I'm hoping this weekend's demo lets me dig a little deeper and get a better sense of the game. I want to find what the game's loop is like and get a sense of how much story even matters in the game.

I'll report back next week about my thoughts with the public demo. I really hope I end up loving this game.

-Blaine