BioWare is Preparing Anthem Reboot with Major Changes Coming

[Valantar]

Just chiming in to say the poll attached to this article is beyond stupid. I think the base concept of Anthem has some merit, but it's execution was rather terrible (full disclosure, I never tried it given the universally poor reviews). Having a new go at it seems like a good idea then, no? Yet the poll for some reason only has the alternatives of either already liking the game and thus being in favor of a reboot (how does that make sense?) or disliking the game and thus not wanting one (again, what?). No matter people's opinions on Anthem itself or the proposed reboot, this poll is incredibly poorly thought out.

 

[Franzen4Real]

I wouldn't write it off completely. FF14 is my shining example of a launch that was absolutely hot garbage and ruined the franchise. Then the company took the opportunity to completely relaunch it, took multiple years and is now I think objectively the best MMO you can play. If actually executed correctly, you can resurrect a failed MMO. Obviously this isn't easy.

a very good example of a re-boot done well.

 

[Assimilator]

Anthem doesn't need a reboot, it needs a mercy killing. There is nothing that EA/Bioware can do to make a boring copycat game completely devoid of any unique ideas, interesting enough that people will want to play it.

My guess is this "reboot" will consist of EA shoehorning in loot boxes and advertising that as the next big thing. Because it's EA, and EA is run by morons.

 

[TechLurker]

There are many issues with Anthem, but the one thing that made it stand out was the ability to jetback and jetboost almost anywhere. I just wish they did away with the stupid overheating mechanic, and instead of having fights in 2.5D (mostly ground combat with an occasional bit of flying), make it full-time 3D combat (effectively aerial dogfights, but with humanoid forms rather than planes or giant robots). I mean, about half the puzzles in-game are 3D, requiring diving or boosting up to find the parts, but combat is still like your usual Destiny or Division 2. Even the occasional floaty enemy isn't new; the Jetpack-using enemies in Anthem are just like the Cabal Commanders in Destiny; jump up, hover, and spam with their gun before coming back down.

If they wanted to make maps feel bigger or make it take longer to get to objectives, throwing some aerial combat en-route would be preferable to a forced landing to cool down the thrusters. Leave the overheating mechanic to weapon and ability waste heat and flame-based enemy attacks. That would provide that balance between spamming abilities/weapons against land-bound enemies while hovering with impunity with needing to make sure players don't overheat their armor and end up having to land or needing a way to cool off (like diving through a waterfall).

Rebalance the classes around the new flying and overheating mechanics, such as Storm-users having lower waste heat from ability attacks (or even being able to cycle it; becoming hotter as they draw heat away to create ice spells, but then absorbing that heat to fire flame spells), Colossi better able to dissipate heat allowing them to both better tank against flame abilities and using their own weapons/abilities longer before overheating, Rangers needing to balance heat vs the short CD on their abilities and weapon choices, and Interceptors quickly building up heat in melee combat but being able to channel it out as part of a heat-based melee ability (flame blades if you will) and as a sort of afterburner dump that speeds them up in one direction but reduces their ability to change directions (convenient for a sort of Interceptor jet-assisted dash-evasion, or faster flying).

 

[HD64G]

Imho not a bad game, just missing the strong story to keep you playing. Graphics well done, beautiful world, nice control and gameplay, dinstinguishable roles and abilities of the 3 player-types, not buggy after the first 5 months. Just boring without company due to the lack of an interesting story to follow to the end. But this genre is known for not having good story writing eh? Far cry series imho is very close to that aspect with the 3rd one being good enough to my liking.

 

[HM_Actua1]

I'm Glad they're going to do something with this game. Anthem has a lot of potential.

 

[acekombatkiwi1]

I will definitely play again, the game was really good until endgame which got stale fast.

 

[Totally]

Lol. There's no saving grace for EA is there. Micro-manage development and EA's at fault. Hands-off development and still EA's at fault.

I do agree that EA is guilty for nudging its studios to use Frostbite and Bioware paid for it by trying to frankenstein it for RPG a la ME Andromeda.

But then according to the Kotaku report the numb-heads at Bioware scrapped it and tried to frankenstein frostbite again for Anthem. That's sole on them.

At one point we have to admit that legendary studios aren't what they once were. Studios are compromised of people and the same people aren't just there anymore. Bathesda, Blizzard, Bioware etc. Hell even Dan Houser recently left Rockstar so I don't think it'll be same anymore too.

It's common sense, I'll explain with an analogy.

Too hot? Turn the heat down. Too cold? Turn the heat up. Food is arrives burnt/undercooked who else is to blame but the chef?

 

[Assimilator]

It's common sense, I'll explain with an analogy.

Too hot? Turn the heat down. Too cold? Turn the heat up. Food is arrives burnt/undercooked who else is to blame but the chef?

Your analogy is terrible because I have no freaking idea who the chef is.

But it doesn't matter anyway - once BioWare was bought by EA their fate was sealed, like every game dev that gets bought by EA. I'm gonna call it now: shortly after this Anthem reboot flops, EA will announce that BioWare is being disbanded.

 

[Totally]

Your analogy is terrible because I have no freaking idea who the chef is.

But it doesn't matter anyway - once BioWare was bought by EA their fate was sealed, like every game dev that gets bought by EA. I'm gonna call it now: shortly after this Anthem reboot flops, EA will announce that BioWare is being disbanded.

You ignorance doesn't make an analogy terrible.

 

[Sybaris_Caesar]

You ignorance doesn't make an analogy terrible.

Let me give my own analogy then. Bioware is the kitchrn. Bioware management is the sous chef of that kitchen. EA is the restaurant. EA corporate is the master chef or restaurant management if you will.

Bioware sucks because the sous chef of the kitchen sucks.

EA (the chief chef or management) told them to use restaurant's own branded tools (frostbite) to make dishes (games).

The tools were shit for anything other than a niche dish (battlefield/fps).

That would've been a problem unless they already fixed the the tools for their liking in a previous dish (ME: A). But the dumb sous chef of the kitchen got rid of it and told kitchen staff to modify the tools anew wasting time and resources (Jason Scherir report).

Not to mention the kitchen wasted years trying to do this and that. Ofc the tools were also to blame. Instead of creating sample dishes quickly and then throwing it away if it doesn't taste good, the sample dishes took a long time to cook and had to be thrown away anyway. (frosbite woes)

Hell, the only good part of the dish (flying) was in the final game was because the master chef (some swedish exec iirc) liked it.

But back to the sous chef. you couldn't even discuss same dish (looter shooter) made by other restaurant/kitchen (e.g. destiny, the division ) and inadvertently the flaws and how to correct those flaws on their dish (schreir report).

Now let's compare that to Respawn and Vince Zampalla and co. (the sous chef and his kitchen). They flipped the bird to the restaurant management and stuck with tools they are comfortable with (source for titanfall and UE4 for star wars... ughh.. idr the name).

Now you're gonna say aha! the tools are at fault mandated by the master chef (EA).

Yes and no. EA didn't force to use frostbite. Just that it'd be better supported by the technical team and free compared to other engine licenses they'd have to buy from their budget.

But then again it's a moot point because thr tools were already modified for similar dish (ME: A) but the sous chef got rid of it.

So the gist of it is, yes EA sucks but Bioware sucks more.