Anthem Thoughts (post-public demo)

I think Anthem has totally won me over. I had a blast this past weekend. Most of the technical issues that hampered my experience during the VIP demo were gone, and I was able to play and explore as much as I wanted.

I also got to play with my oldest son for a while, which is always a great experience. It's fun, sitting in the same room and yelling at each other while we enjoy a co-op experience, whether it be The Elder Scrolls Online or Anthem.

The flying rocks, though I'm glad that I got a sexy new mouse at PAX South that lets me adjust my DPI with a few clicks. I had to turn my DPI down for the flying and the underwater stuff. Anyway, the flying is a visceral experience, though I do kinda wish it was infinite, rather than something that had to cool down every so often.

When you combine the flying and shooting, though, it really does feel kind of like Iron Man.

The combat feels like a heavily refined and cranked-up version of Mass Effect combat, which is pure joy for me. The shooting in this feels so good. It can be tough, too. You and your squad mates have to really give some thought to who targets who, and how everyone spreads out. I also found myself using terrain as cover a lot. It's a great mix of strategy and shooting them in the goddam face.

The little bit of the story that we got for the demo was also really cool. I really enjoyed it. I won't describe any of it here, in case you're trying to avoid spoilers.

The environments in which you use your javelin are fantastic. BioWare has done an amazing job of making the outer world feel alive. Plants and animals are everywhere, and the world is beautiful. They've also done a great job of infusing the verticality inherent to the game in the worlds. It feels liberating to be able to use 360 degrees of movement not only in traversal, but in combat, as well.

Fort Tarsis ... that environment needs a lot of work. At least in the demo, it's mostly pantomiming puppets, which really smashes the immersion into the game. It's people gesticulating at each other with no audio. I really hope that this gets addressed. I want to hear chatter and conversations. I want more people to be interactive. I want BioWare to bring their known strengths to bear in this area, and at least in the demo, they haven't.

Even the overall look of Fort Tarsis is kind of 'blah.' I really don't know what happened, but that's the one part of the game that needs a lot of attention.

Overall, though, I had a blast. This is going to be a fun game. I can't wait for February 22nd.

-Blaine

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

What's New?

I stayed pretty quiet on this platform last year. All my energy was going into a) keeping up with a busy life and b) streaming. And finding good porter beers.

I've decided that I want a more robust presence online, so I'll be posting here more frequently than I did last year (which isn't saying much, I know.) I don't know how often I'll post here, but I want to post more, and have them be kind of brief.

That brevity may be a challenge for me! We'll see!

So, to bring you up to speed ...

• PAX South 2019 was amazing
• I'm streaming KOTOR games on Tuesday and The Witcher trilogy on Friday
• Thursday nights are all about Star Trek right now (Discovery + The Orville), and that's totally awesome
• I've been on anxiety meds for about a year now, and they've helped tremendously; the bipolar thing is still a bit of an internal wrestling match
• the Resident Evil 2 remake is fantastic
• I'm on Instagram now!
• I've still got an amazing job, an amazing wife, two amazing kids, and an amazing Collie

Some of the things that I want to talk about in the coming weeks are the Anthem demo, the Division 2 beta, my Star Trek night, Resident Evil 2, my streams, and whatever other crazy shit comes into my head.

So, I'm streaming twice a week, and I'll be posting here at least a few times a week. 

If something in life has gone terribly wrong for you, and you want to keep up with what I'm doing, you can follow me at my Facebook page, my Twitter, and my Instagram.

If you want to keep up with my video work, I stream on Twitch, and then upload those videos to YouTube.

Thanks, and I hope to see you in chat during my streams and in the comments here!

-Blaine