STORY AND GENERAL
I have always been an advocate for games that have BioWare involved in creation. Though for myself as for many others I know EA Games has put their agenda first most of the time. We saw this with Mass Effect Andromeda and Battlefront 2 and to some extent Anthem shows EA again in the mix.
For me Anthem has a story it wants to tell but can't really because of the way the game is designed. The main story begs to be played alone but keep pushing for groups play. This detracts from the campaign on so many levels. The immersion that we found in so many BioWare titles and their stories, favourites like Neverwinter Nights, Dragon Age, Mass Effect...these games compelled me, pulled me in and I wanted to play them.
Anthem wants to do this but can't get there because its story is not nearly complex enough and loses the immersion as I said, being forced to play the game in a group and when I say forced I don't mean literally but I do mean that the games design compels you usually because the events are a bit tough to solo on hard difficulty or higher. Read below for more on group play mechanics.
PERFORMANCE
The game is a bit on the demanding side but plays rather well and looks very good. When the effects and fights get hectic though you are gonna feel the drain on your system unless you running a solid gaming rig.
Loading times have been worse but are a bit better, still the loading gets frustrating really fast because they so frequent and they eventually take up a rather bit of time. This would need more work.
BUGS
After the patches the game is better on loading and crashing, especially during the demo periods with server crashes and such. Still happens though as of the time I post this review.
Sound issues that were abundant in the demo still plague the released game however, when the sound simply cuts out completely and the game requires restart.
GAMEPLAY & MECHANICS
The gamplay is fun and fluid. Its fast action and feels good. Combos are also a fun mechanic that makes the gameplay interesting and necessary at higher levels to do right. That and evasive playing to minimise damage is challenging when damage is coming hard, fast and from several directions.
This can make it overwhelming sometimes though and you can get downed very easily. This brings rise to another point where some mobs come across as completely overpowered and seemingly just one shot you. It creates frustration and a feel that things are not yet balanced well, which will hopefully be fixed in future patches.
Another problem the game faces is reviving squad mates, this is a good feature and compels players to work together, help each other and coordinate as well as have awareness of your surroundings, status and that of your team mates. However reviving has some issues like when a titan boss is casting waves of energy that damage you just as you were revived by another play, instantly downing your javelin again. This is a poor design and would be better executed if you get a short 2 second invulnerability to get up on your feet.
With squad playing, the biggest issue I have faced is the communication system of lack thereof. Whatever the laws regarding text chats and yes it would be hard to text chat in a game with this kind of pace, the text chat should still be an option to coordinate and it can be moderated to prevent any bad player behaviour. There are ways to do this and should be done, hopefully EA can appeal this new law/regulation and thats not to put a finger in the eye of players with disabilities, but don't disable the rest of us because of it.
VOIP in the game is all but useless, so far I have been trying to talk to people and it simple doesnt work, I have enabled it and use the broadcast button but my squad mates never reply, why, is it a bug, a choice...what? Because for a team based game that promotes playing with others there are no ways to communicate effectively. This gets really frustrating during puzzle solving, asking for revives or just coordinating and getting to know the people you playing with. This is a major fail on the game developer side.
CONCLUSION
The game has solid potential but does many things wrong or not at all eg.
- a real hub for players to get together inside or even outside their suits would have been better, with chat on a local, global, private, group channel as we see in many games and MMOS.
- Factions could have been nice and some aspects of PvP could also change things up for those interested.
- Guilds, pacts, organisations etc, ways for players to belong to a group where they can take on events, stronghold or raid like events as a group, even go against other groups in some ways.
- It needs content to sustain it longer and give players reason to keep on with it.
The game has potential, but unless utilised sooner rather than later, it may end up as just another EA games attempt to subdue the already peeved fans and guess what EA...we not that stupid to fall for bullshit...we want a quality game across the board on all levels of its design and the implementation.
I recently played and completed the new Metro Exodus game and enjoyed it thoroughly, BioWare should take a page out of their book for a good story, or from CD Project Red who are now setting the standard.
This game should have had a great story to play solo or in a team (if you care only to rush) and it should have group play that promotes communication, participation and building relations with other players. It should also have much more content to keep players busy and not get bored doing the same thing over and over again with little or no point apart from doing it all again, on harder modes with better gear.