Anthem was one of the biggest reveals for both the EA and Xbox conferences this E3, with its slick graphics and flying mech gameplay. The short demo has been widely well-received, with most of what was shown marking a big departure from what Bioware is usually known for. For some fans, however, it’s too big of a departure from the Bioware formula, judging from the responses on the studio’s social media pages.
We don’t know all that much about Anthem yet, but what we’ve seen so far definitely seems to resemble Destiny or The Division far more than it does Mass Effect or Dragon Age. Fans of the classically story-driven, single player RPGs are wondering why Bioware has strayed into the ‘looter shooter’ realm of other big publishers — especially when multiplayer has never been the studio’s strong point.
What happened to deep single player story based games guys?
— XxXbox One XxX (@TheBaconBoots) June 11, 2017
While Anthem has been met with a lot of excitement already, this attitude couldn’t be more removed from the reception it’s been receiving on Bioware’s own social channels. These are the top comments on the studio’s two Anthem-related Facebook posts (click to enlarge):
In a blog post introducing the game, EA admits that Anthem doesn’t look much like a standard Bioware game:
Today we unveiled Anthem, EA’s newest IP. Our team at BioWare hand-crafted an entire new world, and equally as important, an entirely new experience. This isn’t like any BioWare game you’ve played before – in fact, it’s unlike any game we’ve ever made at EA.
Many gamers were sure that Anthem looked familiar from somewhere, however, even if it is new for EA:
THANKS BIOWARE FOR BEING SO INNOVATIVE AND FRESH #e3 #bioware #anthem pic.twitter.com/61IWFkGo4k
— Lauren Ritchie (@no_im_spartacus) June 12, 2017
Doesn’t just look like Destiny, it basically is Destiny.
— Oweeeeeeeen (@owster4) June 11, 2017
Our new fucking game with an original artstyle and world aka the fucking graphics card and zbrush robots pic.twitter.com/GPpaP9LOsi
— Circumsoldier (@Circumsoldat) June 11, 2017
So I’m guessing I can’t get something like Mass Effect 2? Having a romance character, having a deep story. Nope. Just Destiny 2.1
— Joseph Meszaros (@joeman999) June 11, 2017
But one of the biggest reasons the reaction to Anthem has been so polarised is a sore spot for many Bioware fans: Mass Effect: Andromeda.
According to an investigation by Kotaku’s Jason Schreier, the focus on Anthem (then ‘Dylan’) meant that many skilled devs were pulled off the Mass Effect title to work on the new IP. In the eyes of many fans, Anthem is ‘the game that killed Mass Effect: Andromeda‘.
[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/06/the-story-behindmass-effect-andromedas-troubled-five-year-development/” thumb=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/03/MassEffectAndromeda-2017-03-15-22-31-55-864-410×231.jpg” title=”The Story Behind Mass Effect: Andromeda’s Troubled Five-Year Development” excerpt=”In 2012, as work on Mass Effect 3 came to a close, a small group of top BioWare employees huddled to talk about the next entry in their epic sci-fi franchise. Their goal, they decided, was to make a game about exploration — one that would dig into the untapped potential of the first three games. Instead of visiting just a few planets, they said, what if you could explore hundreds?”]
Most were quick to notice that Anthem‘s showcased scenes wouldn’t have looked out of place in a Mass Effect game, and reactions ranged from “why couldn’t you have made this game Mass Effect?” to “I hope Anthem is worth it.” Those who loved Mass Effect: Andromeda through its flaws are worried that ‘their’ game is going to be abandoned for Anthem. Others simply don’t trust Bioware to put out a quality, polished game after their messy Mass Effect release.
That’s it? A pretty Destiny clone? I didn’t see anything that makes me want to play – certainly nothing thaf warranted tanking ME:A #letdown
— Master K (@Jedi_Master_K) June 11, 2017
hey, bioware? yeah i’m — look
anthem looked cool
the flying is — and the coop looks really nice but uhcan you
can you fuck aliens, or
— Anthony Burch, sorry (@_anthonyburch) June 12, 2017
I kinda feel like this is what Andromeda could’ve/should’ve looked like ?
— Evelyne (@wookieeways) June 12, 2017
so this was what was worth more time and effort than banding together with the other studios to get Andromeda launch ready? Better be good!
— Russell Walters (@russellawalters) June 10, 2017
When you screw up your flagship title game so bad you have to start a new one to try and make people forget #AnthemGame
— Jordan (Jcubed) (@TheRealJcubed) June 12, 2017
Mass Effect: Andromeda aside, many players simply prefer contained, single player games with a deep focus on characters and story. Not only are Bioware well known for this style of game, they’re also one of the few studios who actually develop them — while Destiny-esque shooters aren’t exactly rare in the AAA market. So if Bioware stops making their classic narrative-driven style of game, what’s left?
For many who don’t have friends they can play with, or simply don’t like interacting with real people in games, titles like Mass Effect and Dragon Age offered an escape into a fantasy world filled with interesting, well-rounded characters they could connect with. Now, these gamers feel like they’re being pushed aside so Bioware can court the online multiplayer market.
no thanks i have enought shared worlds, i want games that i can play solo and not require to be online, i expect more from you @bioware
— Carlos Miguel (@Arukkard) June 12, 2017
Should us ME fans be worried? Are you guys gonna table future Andromeda/ME titles? Andromeda was a masterpiece. Don’t let it end there!
— Ryan (@Whiskey_Grin) June 12, 2017
Why did EA buy Bioware if they move further and further away from the reasons that made them want to buy them in the first place?
— ZombieMan (@voteDC) June 11, 2017
While it’s been said that Anthem can be played all the way through as a single player game, it’s still yet to be seen whether the experience will be lacking if you don’t play with friends, or if it will retain that distinctive Bioware focus on narrative at all. Anthem‘s lead designer Corey Gaspur has assured fans that there will still be a focus on single player, though has remained tight-lipped on what form it will take:
That type of detailed information will come sooner to launch. The SP experience is very important to us. Sorry for the delay in response.
— Corey Gaspur (@CGaspur) June 12, 2017
Of course plenty of people are excited about the shiny new game — but Bioware’s core, rpg-loving fanbase is wondering if they’ve been left out in the cold.
Comments
93 responses to “A Lot Of Bioware Fans Are Pissed At Anthem”
Seems silly to tie a developer down to a genre. Let them do what they want to do.
That said, I am definitely wary of Anthem after playing Destiny.
It’s not that silly to be disappointed when you consider that developer is known for producing a genre that is in the minority to say the least.
The kind of demographic who would enjoy Anthem surely have a plethora of options elsewhere. It’s disheartening to see Bioware move so far from the singleplayer RPG’s that made it so successful in the first place.
Totally agree about pinning down a dev to one genre. Blizzard makes plenty of genres and they all seem to do okay.
I must admit I’m a bit leery of this game though simply because it looks like what ME:A should have been and it also looks like a Destiny clone.
You can’t call this a knockoff of the knockoff of Halo! This is honestly what Destiny should have been!
I actually think this game is going to do really good and I completely hate Destiny with a passion!
I agree with what @thierrymon said you can’t tie a developer down they need to have to freedom to make new things or make things better! You say stick with ME but I say watch what you wish for seeing as BF, COD, and Halo fans said the same thing and all of those games are overly played out just pure SSDD
Don’t Infinite Warfare this game before it even comes
Yes but Blizzard is an independant (of EA) studio. Bioware is simply a brand name stamped onto some EA games. (just like Maxis and Bullfrog and…)
This is sorta like if Kellog’s stamped the Kashi trademark on cookies that should be under the Keebler trademark. It’s a different situation. Well, to be fair it’s like if Kellog’s stamped the Kashi trademark on some Kashi like puffed rice cookies that sold really well, and then decided to stamp it on some more Keebler style snickerdoodles.
Responses aren’t that different from when it was announced that Bioware was making The Old Republic MMORPG
What I remember of the SWTOR reveal was generally pretty positive. Lots of excitement, right up until the game came out. The main gripe people had was the graphics looking cartoony (especially at reveal, where it had a more stylized look IIRC)
I seem to recall a lot of complaints that it was going to be an MMO instead of a normal KotOR sequel. I know I was certainly disappointed about that.
I didn’t buy TOR, ever, because I don’t MMO. I mean, it’s fine that Bioware made it? But I’m not going to buy/play it, and that’s fine too.
Anthem I will not buy at launch, (If it’s actually a ‘western RPG style’ game, I’ll buy it on discount later like I did with the first Mass Effect and first dragon age) and since at launch is kinda an important time in the market… *shrug*
This trailer strikes alarming comparisons to The Division’s reveal, in terms of the team-mate banter and drop-in & out.
Granted, it’s EA & Bioware, not Ubisoft & Massive or Acitivision & Bungie. Lets see how it goes.
I thought it looked to follow an identical sequence to our first look at Destiny back in 2013, pre-mech sequence aside. Player character is joined by another player in an open area, they take a short trip through a cool environment with scary-looking monsters, they come across and defeat a group of established enemies while showcasing visually impressive class-specific abilities, and get rewarded with an impressive-looking exotic weapon. The only thing missing was a boss fight.
Wary it won’t be as good. I get ya.
I might be totally out of touch but are there really that many MMO based FPS out there?
I can basically think of destiny and the division as the core of that market
Its not an mmo fps, the label gets thrown around like 4 player instanced based coop is somehow larger scale than it is. Planetside is an fps mmo, maybe even MAG, other than those two I can’t think of anyothers.
Yeah, I wasn’t really sure on the label. Was more a comment on people saying this style of game (whatever it is) is crowded. Might point was it doesn’t seem very crowded at all.
Also Firefall. Which incidentally this looked to draw from visually a fair bit.
Another 2 I can think of are Firefall which no one plays anymore and Planetside 2.
There’s actually a lot more than you’d think. Borderlands, warframe, firewall. Then there’s been the countless military shooters with weapon unlocks as progress and load outs (me3 and andromeda’s own multiplayer). All convey a similar sense of game mechanics.
Most of those military based shooters that I have seen are basically MP arena based shooters. The loadouts are part of the game but not the core.
As stated above the 4 player instanced based coop is more the genre. Borderlands is similar but that is more of a traditional FPS with co-op rather than something designed around it.
Warframe is close (although 3rd person) but very much in the repeated run and loot gameplay so probably the same market. Firefall seemed kinda DOA to my knowledge
I think the point of that comment was implying why are Bioware trying enter a segment of the market where the same supposed experience can be found elsewhere when you could instead be working on your next title that’s full of legendary Bioware story and RPG touch.
Not supporting that opinion at all as I think it’s quite an unjustified demand from these so called fans, just interpreting what they may be trying to say that isn’t a social media snippet.
I for one am excited as competition means bungie are kept on their toes and us consumers have choices.
It might keep Bungie on their toes, but I don’t care for Bungie’s product anyway, and it removes toes from the foot I like. Ultimately I will vote with my money, like I always do. Maybe I’ll buy it, maybe I won’t. Maybe someone else will start offering the type of experience Bioware is famous for, and Bioware… like Obsidian entertainment and Black Isle before it, will fade away once it switches out of it’s genre.
I just had to make an account to say that Obsidian at the least is still alive and kicking. They nearly shut down after a cancelled game following New Vegas, but the success of their game Pillars of Eternity kept them alive and well. They’re sticking to their rpg roots and reviving the isometric rpg genre.
Warframe doesn’t fall into the MMO FPS genre, it’s third person and isn’t similar to an MMO such as Destiny or WoW. And there isn’t but a handful of weapons that need mastery level to use; it’s more you need to farm for resources and participate in events .
It’s not strictly the genre. No Man’s Sky caused a lot of people to get sick of the vague similarities between that and this. Titanfall isn’t the same genre but it’s a solid reminder that these games rely on the playerbase. We’ve seen a lot of games doing a bad job of their attempts to redefine their genres and it’s tiring.
I’m not usually a retro guy, I like moving forward, but I think the industry needs to slow down and remember that there are genres to work with instead of trampling over each other to claim new grounds. There’s so much stuff that would be right at home in a genre but instead has something stuck on the side to make it ground breaking.
Right now it feels like it’s hard to find great games in traditional genres which is why people think there are too many of these games out there. Too few everything else feels like too much Destiny.
“Bioware’s core, rpg-loving fanbase” I would put myself smack in the middle of this. They are my favourite dev and have been for a long time. As for Anthem, bring it on. Why should they stick to one type of game? If anyone can do a Destiny style game justice imo its Bioware.
Provided “Destiny style” doesn’t mean soulless skinner box simulator.
And soulless skinner box simulator is certainly the impression I got from that trailer filled with rip-offs – sorry, homages – to Star Wars Ep7, Dead Space, Just Cause, Halo and the Dark Knight.
If you look at “BioWare’s” track record since their acquisition by EA, there’s been some pretty significant flaws that have been becoming more prominent in their releases.
Bioware is a pretty different studio from what it was years ago. The doctors are gone and their strongest/most inspired writers are either gone too or married to other projects (drew karpyshyn is probably locked into star wars for a while for example).
That’s not a slight on current Bioware, I just think Anthem is them making a conscious decision to play towards the strengths of the studio working on it. I have to admit I’m sad bioware doesn’t appear to be aiming towards their usual story focused RPG style game but at the same time I’d rather see something they are obviously passionate about and Anthem seems to be that.
Actually, fun fact, Drew Karpyshyn is indeed working on Anthem.
https://twitter.com/DrewKarpyshyn/status/874733025799663616
It’s still too early to make strong judgements about this game beyond “it’s pretty” IMO. Some people see Destiny, I personally see Borderlands in that trailer (and they have specifically stated that it’s up to 4 player coop, so Destiny/Division style psudo-mmo seems to be a no), but in the end, we just don’t know yet. We probably won’t really get a good look at this game until like next E3 probably since the launch window isn’t until fall 2018 and who knows if it’ll be delayed or change significantly between now and then.
People are comparing it to Destiny, Im comparing it to Firefall… and that did not deliver well.
Oh boo-fucking-hoo, Internet.
This is all the internet is these days, entitled jerks that bitch a moan as soon as something doesn’t go their way.
This is a completely new IP, not Mass Effect, not Dragon Age!
/grindingmygearsrant
God, the number of times phrases like “so this is what happened to my game” or “I expect better” really irks me…
I was thinking the same thing, don’t buy it. It’s that simple move on.
Some people care about certain types of games that are already rare and are getting more and more rare. They have cause to worry that number might tick down even more and it’s upsetting. It’s justified.
It’s finally happened. No longer content with controlling the creative freedoms of games studios to tell the stories they want to, gamers have now gotten to the point where they now want to control what games a studio makes…
There is nothing wrong with people stating what they would like. And when you have a long running studio producing games you like and they go in a different direction there is nothing wrong with saying “I would prefer you to make your previous style games rather than this style which I won’t enjoy so won’t buy. If nothing else if Anthem flops then the studio has an idea why. By the same token there is nothing wrong with saying hey this new game look amazing, keep making more like that.”
The salt around ME:A is another can of worms entirely
Kickstarter has basically made miniature tyrants out of us all.
Man, the self entitlement is off the charts here.
Bioware are just a group of people, doing a job and (you’d assume) trying to have fun while doing it. This sort of crying is the absolute worst. They don’t owe anything to anyone and I hope the negativity doesn’t get to them.
I really hate that word being thrown around, because it’s always used to shut down people who have a legitimate complaint out of hand. Bioware / EA are a business. They’re not entitled to our money. This is a transaction, and if they’re making something people don’t want, there’s absolutely nothing “self-entitled” about telling them that.
Yeah and you’re not entitled to dictate what kind of game they make.
The word is correct.
The comments in this thread make me happy. You are good people.
They make me happy too.
I’m cautiously interested in Anthem.
And wasn’t the other Bioware multiplayer game, The Old Republic, generally well regarded, with its story content supposedly being pretty good and solo-able?
SWTOR came saddled with a lot of grindy MMO bullshit that didn’t really serve the game and seemed to exist purely for padding (which with 8 class stories and 2 versions of each planetary story, it REALLY didn’t need). A decent chunk (all the scripted dungeon sequences and various hard-mode zones) was group-only, not solo-friendly at all.
That was all re-done recently, and made a much more solo-friendly experience, effectively making it almost KOTOR3.
Hah. So, I guess, sorta. Thanks, Transient.
For the most part yes.
But early on it could be hit and miss. the 8 classes each had their own storyline with their own leader writer/s and usually 2 or 3 story arcs with varying levels of connection to the previous arc. So you’ve got cases where the first half of the Consular story is very dull but gets better as it goes along and then you’ve the imperial agent’s storyline which ranges from good to fantastic pretty much the whole time.
Post-class story stuff like the expansion is shared between all classes so the quality is much more dependably good especially since they got Drew karpyshyn back writing for them.
A big overhaul they did a year or two back has made the game FAR better as a solo experience too.
How good was the Sentinel story!
I found it harder to stay interested with some of the other classes.
Oh.. of course.. I typed a nice long thoughtful comment up last night about your earlier comment only to have my phone freeze and not let me send my message. Then, I go out of my way to find this thread and your comment again, type up another nice long comment, submit it, then scroll down a bit farther and see that you had already learned Drew K is writing for Anthem like an hour after your first comment. T.T
SWTOR was several really, really good KotOR sequels trapped inside a terribly uninspired MMO that was severely hamstrung by being built on a game engine that was woefully unfit for the purpose it was sold for, and using a lot of class design that was cribbed straight out of Vanilla World of Warcraft, which Blizzard had subsequently streamlined out.
They eventually iterated on it to the point that it does the job, for an MMO. Has its fun moments. The class stories are excellent and the main world storylines in each area were pretty good. Not going to ever knock KotOR II’s writing off its perch but Bioware’s never been as good as Obsidian.
Eugh, the Hero Engine was so poorly optimized during the beta and vanilla release. Too bad they couldn’t grab a version that was 2-3 iterations later and port it all, would have been slightly better.
It still stuns me that an engine supposedly designed for MMOs was so utterly bad when used for an MMO.
Almost like they took it in an unfinished state and never fixed it…
What good writing was that? “Kreia bitches no matter what you do” or “Follow a walkthrough if you want to turn your companions into Jedi”? Hell, the game I received was slow as hell at the start and rushed and nonsensical at the end.
I’m excited for it I must say, looked really fun and if I can enjoy that fun with my wife then that makes it twice as exciting for me personally. Bring on the co-op shooters! Got Farcry 5, Destiny 2 and now this, it’s a good time to be a husband and wife gaming team!
I’ve never really been much for shoot and loots. I have trouble letting go of items, I’d rather have something I can hold onto and upgrade and maybe finally ditch later down the line for a better item. its the only thing I didn’t enjoy about BotW, constantly having to swapout for new weapons.
Grunt. Destiny’s story was bullshit, The Division’s story was bullshit. Why? Mostly because your characters were ancillary to the story. Destiny straight-up credited your saving of the world to ‘all those brave Guardians’, to avoid making the player’s character actually important, instead assigning the credit to the playerbase as a whole. The Division didn’t even bother to go that far, your mute, expressionless player-avatar doing nothing but serve as a dummy for the handful of story NPCs to emote at as they asked for lists of things to be provided then fucked off into irrelevance.
Both of those games’ E3 reveals focused on the player’s experience as a social activity, with the player avatars as just that: player avatars. Not individual characters in their own right, with anything actually grounding them in the worlds they were exploring, or any involvement in the world’s people or places. No relationships that grew or changed, no conflicts of politics or ideology, no characters that grew or changed, no lasting impact to their actions when it all gets reset for respawns.
Bioware have done very well in the story-telling arena, but what their E3 demo tells me is that they intend to follow the trend of ‘player character is not a real character’. Just a vehicle for actual characters to bark briefings at and run errands, with no meaningful relationships, conflict, personality, growth, or stakes.
Story? Hm, I guess there’s a reason there are monsters to kill, but what’s MOST important is you get some mates together and go kill those monsters, right? Don’t overthink it.
The saving grace appears to be that first bit at the very start, with an NPC making apologies to you. THAT is what we need to see more of, that is what needs to be front and centre to reassure us that ‘Freelancer’ isn’t the new ‘Guardian’.
Freelancer was a great game, by the way. Not…you know, the kind of freelancer you were talking about, but…great game still.
Right?!
I’ve always thought Freelancer would have made an amazing basis for an MMO.
The Discovery mod for Freelancer was great.
I just want a competent game where I can get a sense of exploration and immersion into that world’s universe. Whether it falls in line with their past titles or has RPG mechanics is inconsequential as long as they deliver on those. This applies to almost any studio for me.
The real Bioware died a long time ago.
They could not have picked a worse way to show off the game, not a worse time to debut it. Right after ME: Andromeda slipped out like a wet fart, on the back of a Dragon Age sequel that was mediocre, and in the same E3 that every man and their dog is making a Destiny-alike or an Open World Shooter or both. And even worse, right after Mass Effect was shelved for the forseeable future, with the apparently reason being that Andromeda was sabotaged by Bioware Edmonton pulling all the core staff off to work on this thing.
They’ve already alienated their core pretty badly, and then initiated a bit of a perfect shitstorm with how they handled the reveal. The fact that a developer needed to take to twitter to assure people the game even has a single player component says volumes I think.
There’s also a lot of people who were burned hard by Destiny and are pretty wary as a result.
IMO it looks okay. The E3 footage was pretty much builshit though, it’ll never look that good on a console. Maybe on an ultra high-end PC. It’s the exact opposite of what I wanted from Bioware, though. I was willing to ignore them wasting resources on multiplayer modes in previous games because I didn’t have to engage with them if I didn’t want to. Now I have no choice, their next tentpole release is built around that. It’s going to have an uphill battle to convince me to care. But I’m okay with that. Plenty of other games out there. If Bioware wants to ignore their history and fanbase to chase the flavor of the week then I’ll just buy games from companies like CD Projekt, who make better RPGs nowadays anyway.
Nowhere at all is it stated that it is an only multiplayer game. They’ve consistently stated that they want the content to be accessible to everyone regardless of Single or multiplayer.
See, that’s the problem. They had to have one of the developers take to twitter to tell people that. It’s an utter botch of a reveal. That information should have been front and center.
It’s also exactly what they said about Destiny, and sure, you can solo that. It’s the most dreadfully hollow, boring experience you could have in the game, but you can definitely play the “story” content solo.
This is basically how I feel about Blizzard, who are now making incredibly popular games… that I give ZERO fucks about. In fact, games that I actively dislike.
It’s forcing me to accept the fact that one of my favourite studios for damn near two decades has stopped making the kind of games that made me love them in the first place.
So… good for them, I guess. Bad for me.
Yep, basically. This is basically me with Bungie – I grew up with Pathways, Marathon, Myth… I bought an Xbox at launch for Halo, did midnight launches and everything. I literally got into programming because as a teenager I wanted to work for Bungie.
Now though? I could not care less for them or their products. They just don’t make the sort of games that drew me in back in the day.
I think we’re seeing Bioware go the same way and it’s pretty sad (and probably EA’s fault).
It kinda just happens, though. Marathon was amazing, and I think it had a more interesting story than Halo. And Myth was soo good. But unfortunately those games are behind us.
I really liked Baldur’s Gate back in the day, but I distinctly remember it had some problems, especially when it came to rewarding good vs bad. And now my tastes have sort of changes so that the spiritual successor Torment just makes me sleepy from having to read so much text.
We saw it with Bethesda. I was in the community forums when the community was trashing the upcoming Oblivion for not having the same depth or level of worldbuilding as Morrowind. I mean, I was one of them. There were even some who criticised Morrowind for lacking the ridiculous abundance of Daggerfall (I was not one of them, because quality over quantity). I kinda had to learn to stop thinking so critically and take each thing on its own merits. Lest I become as bitter as the No Mutants Allowed community.
At least for me, Arkane Studios nailed fresh takes of Thief and System Shock well and they have my eternal love for that. They seem to understand what made those games great for me. Also, CdProjectRed, who seem to also understand that what makes a game good isn’t just a having a lot of stuff to do, but interesting stuff to do.
Me too, I would love Bungie to make another single player game, that has splitscreen and co-op, but is campaign driven.
I *still* play Halo, and yeah, I’d also love for Warcraft 4 to come out, balanced for single player and not for e-sports.
Warcraft II and Halo were just such *fun*, I’m too friggin time constrained to get good enough to have fun in online play, I want a campaign and story to disappear into that I can play over 6 months of drop in drop out.
Is this dude still waiting for a Warcraft 4? I don’t think we’ll ever see that unless it’s a prequel or something. After World of Warcraft ends… I’m expecting World of Warcraft 2.
I started getting concerned and nervous when Starcraft 2’s campaign was rushrushrushrushgogogo you must have nuclear-missle-directing-cyborg-ninjas-in-five-minutes-or-lose apm-rules-all garbage as an homage to the style of play that was so popular in the esports scene at the expense of the single-player casual.
I got more concerned with Diablo 3 launched online-only, updates to force the general/public group chats on every time you launched the game because too many people were turning it off and playing solo, and a loot drop system that forced you to the auction house to buy your way past the gear-checks you didn’t have a hope in hell of passing based on the random drops you’d get in your own game.
When Hearthstone came out as their next big release, I joked, “The only way I could care less about Blizzard’s new game is if it were a MOBA.”
Then they made a fucking MOBA.
‘Project Titan’ was a big hope for me… until they dashed that hope, ripped out the wind-up toy guts of it and converted it into a TF2 clone. ….To baffling, alarming, disheartening critical and commercial success. Me, personally, I love the look of that world… I just wish they’d make an actual fucking game out of it, not this PVP match bullshit.
Esports, always online, social multi, PVP focus… these are the directions of Blizzard, now.
I am no longer their audience. It makes me sad.
From a different perspective, I found Starcraft was pretty fun for me and I’m probably the epitome of casual. Diablo 3 was crappy at the beginning with the auction house, but they got the message, fixed that and I found it good too after that.
Heroes of the Storm I just started recently, not being a big fan of MOBA’s and it’s really streamlined and lots of options to play offline and learn if that’s what you like (like I do).
Times change and like most businesses they’ve changed too, but I don’t think they’ve completely disregarded fans of their old titles.
The story has potential, Drew Karphyshyn is at the helm supposedly. Considering he did the original KotOR and ME’s 1 & 2, I think it’s got a bright future.
The variable is, how is it going to be told.
I’m sure there’s a great story there with talent like that. My worry is that it will be like Destiny,
– Everyone is the hero -> No one is a hero.
– Never ending enemies and bullet sponges for the heroes to shoot at.
– Same level again and again.
– Randomized loot drops.
– Find 5 other online buddies that would make the experience enjoyable.
– No true ending.
I’m doubtful as to how they can work a great story in there. Plus it will be always online. They attempted “Shadow Realms” a while back and was really trying to get to this space. For their sake I hope they succeed.
Not pre-ordering for sure.
make the same game every iteration : get complaints.
Try something new: get complaints.
Release a trailer with not much information: get complaints.
Release a trailer with nearly no information: get complaints
Incorporate some ideas from incredibly popular franchises that have sold huge numbers: get complaints
The internet is pretty good at complaining over nothing. I say good luck.
The idea that Andromeda suffered for this project is pretty fair though
I don’t mind they try something new, I do mind it totally looks like they went and gutted the ME:A team so for Anthem.
At this stage, I’m not worried ME:A has been abandoned because I’m somewhat sure it has, I mean I’ll be pleasantly surprised if they announce a DLC but I won’t be surprised if the game just fades away.
I’ll judge Anthem on its own like usual but I’m setting my bar low (for now)
I am a little bit pissed. I dont play online multiplayer games AT ALL.
So from them being a bastion of Deep Single player RPG to this.
Its a bit disappointing.
im not pissed , but i am disappointed they gutted the team on andromeda to make another destiny clone, to the extent its not only killed off another andromeda game but also things like dlc as well.
It looks like the gameplay of Destiny and the art style of Titanfall 2.
That gun looked pretty fucking sweet, though.
People are going on about Destiny and what I see is a mix of different styles and possibly a return to TRIBES gameplay :O
So yes, I’m interested.
Classic article written by Negative Nancy over there. Would be nice to see the excitement as well as the disappointment, you know give two sides of the story.
If a company wants to make a certain game, they are free to do that.
In the same way gamers on forums are free to whine and speculate.
I feel the same sympathy for bands who experience backlash for exploring different genres when the fans want a sequel to the previous album
how is this news and why is it being even reported? the vocal minority hates something a big game developer does. thats not news, just another day of the week that ends in the letters d, a, y.
Unfortunately the Bioware that made some of the greatest RPG’s of all time, is dead. Those devs have left the studio and the Publisher now pushes them into whatever they think will sell well. If it fails to meet sales expectations it will be closed down and consigned to the dustbin of gaming history like so many others. This is the stark reality of AAA gaming.
there’s going to need to be a lot of tequila and lemons to deal with amount of salt out there.
it would have been interesting to see how Andromeda had panned out if they’d left the skilled devs in place to work on it. i havnt played it yet, ill probably wait until its in the $9 basket.
Anthem looks amazing and looks like a game that my friends and i will enjoy getting in to.
i do hope they dont spit in the face of the fans who love the story driven solo adventures.
or im hoping they let the Edmonton team go back to working on an Andromeda sequel to honor the loyal fans.
im keen, time will tell obviously though.
I’m pretty keen too, it looks like great fun.
As for story, they have confirmed Drew Karpyshyn of KOTOR/ME is the writer, so here’s hoping something great comes of it.
oooh, that’s awesome news about the writer. definitely stoked.
haters gonna hate
nothing like Destiny. these complainers are bunch of ass holes for sure. Anthem is way more interesting and I can see more depth and possibilities from that gameplay.
Damn, one can really see some fine examples of Stockholm Syndrome in some of those comments in the article.
EA ruined bioware