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[Catphish]

Spent a few hours with it last night; the intro mission, the first solo mission, and one group mission and, unfortunately, I'm not really feeling it.

The intro mission was rather silly, particularly from a story perspective. So, you have this society built around the idea of fortified cities and Javelins, who protect the people from this never ending chaos brought on by the relics, leading one to think that conflict and strife are the norm. Yet, at the first defeat, the people of the world turn their backs on the Javelins, and now the revered warriors of history are instantly forgotten, their statues covered and their order scattered to the four corners?

That's dumb.

The dialogue is cringe, and the voice acting is mediocre at best. Owen's animation is really cool, but he's annoying. And that animation quality is not consistent. Owen looks amazing, Zoe looks like something out of 1998.

Gameplay-wise, it feels to me like it's trying to be Destiny, but not coming close. Bungie's gunplay curbstomps that of Bioware's. You take away the flight element, which still hasn't entirely clicked with me, and I don't feel like Anthem brings anything unique whatsoever.

I may try to spend some more time with it over the weekend but, if it hasn't grabbed me by now, I don't think it's going to. Shame, really. I'd been anticipating this for awhile now.

 

[waylo]

So, over on the "other" forum, I see a ton of people saying performance is better than the demo, but I'm not experiencing this. At 1440p, the game still runs just as bad. With a 4790k, 1070, and 16GB of RAM, with a mix of medium and high settings I fluctuate between 30-50 FPS. Very, very rarely does my game ever hit 60 or more.

On top of all this, I've been bored out of my damn mind with the game. All the dialogue is nonsense and means absolutely nothing to me. They touched on it in the Giant Bomb video and it's absolutely true. "The convergence of the Anthem holodex is infusing with the blah blah". Throwing a million different sci-fi sounding words at you every second made me tune out so fast.

Then you have the mission structure. Go here, press F, fight a few dozen enemies. Congratulations, you finished the mission. Now do it again for someone else. It gets repetitive after 20 minutes of playing. And these are the main story beats, these aren't off-shoot missions.

Also, the loading times are pretty bad. I'm on an SSD and still sitting at load screens for 30 seconds. I thought there weren't supposed to be load screens by the way? It was supposed to be one "seamless world". Meanwhile, one mission had like three of them.

I can't recall the last time I played a game and had to shut it down out of pure boredom after an hour.

 

[Freeman76]

That's not correct, anyone can open the chest but the loot coming out is not shared.

What? That's exactly what i said. Its a shit system.

 

[Redneckerz]

It absolutely does not. You are out of your mind. You cannot convince me otherwise, but then again, I was an adult when the 360 came out. Not a child.

Well if you want to be real pedantic, that screenshot in particular does showcase a visual fidelity similar to what you would find on last-gen.

However, and that's the difference, you and i both know that's not representative of the game. Its an out-of-place shot, used in this context to frame as if the entire game looks like that.

And that's just obviously bull.

 

[Typhares]

What? That's exactly what i said. Its a shit system.

Sorry I misread but then I don't understand your point. Everyone gets loot out of every chest. That's pretty much how every loot game has worked. Why is it shit?

 

[shark sandwich]

2 hours in, still undecided.

The thing I hate most is the protagonist’s dialog. His response to EVERYTHING is to make some detached, sarcastic quip, and it’s never funny, witty, or charming. It feels like he’s making fun of the game rather than being immersed in the game’s world. I wish they would’ve either given him some actual personality or else made him silent like in Destiny.

 

[Typhares]

My current jav:

 

[SkinnerSw33t]

2 hours in, still undecided.

The thing I hate most is the protagonist’s dialog. His response to EVERYTHING is to make some detached, sarcastic quip, and it’s never funny, witty, or charming. It feels like he’s making fun of the game rather than being immersed in the game’s world. I wish they would’ve either given him some actual personality or else made him silent like in Destiny.

Listening to DatModz stream, I'd definitely pick the female voice actor if I had a do-over.

 

[VertigoOA]

Even tho I have an X and Pro... I can’t bring myself to touch the trial.

There’s lots of things that just seem boring. Granted I was watching streams and that’s something I don’t do but it did kill any leftover excitement.

I’ll get it day one on PS4 but I dunno.... just seems off

I could give zero fucks about the story btw and I’ve played every bioware game since kotor.

This game rests on its gameplay and it looks like mass effect with flight and 1,000 loading screens. Seems like they massively fucked up with the instances on the map.

 

[Manstructiclops]

The game is a pile of shit, no doubt about it. I'm still playing it though til the trial ends.
Andromeda was no accident, this is literally bioware now.

The charactars are all insufferable, wobbly dickheads.
Main voice is like listening to some sarcastic west coaster chatting bollocks in my ear every 5 seconds.
The UI is a holocaust.
Baddies/enemies are all shit. I mean... The supposed insect scar are all humans in red armour. The evil empire is all dudes in blue armour. And the wildlife just makes me think these twats never played lost planet 1 and 2 - just copy those creatures for fucks sake!.
You spend more time in loading screens than actually playing (this is on an SSD, god knows what the consoles are like).

Endgame/loot/itemisation etc is all a wash at this point, I can't imagine it being anything less than a fuck up however considering this is still half a game.

 

[shark sandwich]

Listening to DatModz stream, I'd definitely pick the female voice actor if I had a do-over.

Is it that much better? I’m debating whether to start over. Not sure how much more I can take of this douche acting like he’s too cool and ironic to be in the game.

 

[voidenberg]

I wonder which characters are gay/non binary/transgender. I NEED TO KNOW.

 

[Hendrick's]

What's going on with the gamma on Xbox One X? Anyone else feel it is set too low?

 

[SkinnerSw33t]

Is it that much better? I’m debating whether to start over. Not sure how much more I can take of this douche acting like he’s too cool and ironic to be in the game.

I wouldn't say much better, but I find her less annoying.

 

[Northeastmonk]

I wonder which characters are gay/non binary/transgender. I NEED TO KNOW.

Someone should make a cosmetic to match this:

I have to wait till the WW release.

 

[shark sandwich]

I wonder which characters are gay/non binary/transgender. I NEED TO KNOW.

EA is saving that announcement for the next time they need to drown out negative press.

 

[TeamGhobad]

Its fun but quite a few aggravating things. Little cunts who rush off on their own seems more of a problem in this game, you have no time to take anything if you want to keep up xXAdHdSnipezXx while he tries to beat the world record time for no reason.

Also, chests arent shared, so whoever gets there first gets the chest. I really enjoy the basis of this game but those are enough to make me consider cancelling my preorder to see if they iron this out at all.

how is the story? i personally not feeling it that much when i played the demo.

 

[Catphish]

how is the story? i personally not feeling it that much when i played the demo.

In my short time, I find the story to be nonsensical and trite, really.

It's a bad attempt to make something original out of extremely familiar and over-used ingredients.

 

[TeamGhobad]

In my short time, I find the story to be nonsensical and trite, really.

It's a bad attempt to make something original out of extremely familiar and over-used ingredients.

its the reason i checked out. in the demo get the amplifier and then he turns into triplets its just meh.

 

[SkinnerSw33t]

I like the big ideas of the story. The world in concept and aesthetics is really nice.

The execution of your personal story is pretty dreadful.

Fortunately, that really doesn't matter to me long-term since it'll fade away if this is a looter shooter I stick with.

 

[Hendrick's]

how is the story? i personally not feeling it that much when i played the demo.

There really isn't a story. I mean they barely even bothered and with what's there, they shouldn't have done even that.

 

[VertigoOA]

Stop asking about story in a multiplayer game. It’s the least important part of this game. If that’s what you want I would just walk away.

And it will be buried in text and lore like destiny. Hell I like the end game story beats to destiny ... best parts are what happen after the campaign and how they rolled it out has been engaging for hardcore players. But it’s completely under the radar (as is the dreaming city to some extent).

Speaking of dreaming city... to unlock it after the campaign it was a bit of a chore and unclear to most. I have hardcore friends who’ve been playimg for years and had no idea it was a thing... anthem gating progress behind that in the main beat of the campaign is a problem and even more of a promblem if it’s as convuluted and poorly tracked as I’ve read.

 

[Hendrick's]

Stop asking about story in a multiplayer game. It’s the least important part of this game. If that’s what you want I would just walk away.

Stop defending it not having a story. Bioware built this expectation and should be held accountable.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/kotaku...w-that-story-is-a-priority-for-1830921216/amp

 

[SkinnerSw33t]

There's a ton of story. It's just not very good. :/

I dreaded going back to Tarsis for my at least 3 "relationship building" conversations.

 

[VertigoOA]

Stop defending it not having a story. Bioware built this expectation and should be held accountable.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/kotaku...w-that-story-is-a-priority-for-1830921216/amp

Be held accountable? What do they owe you money instead? I’m sure disney promise a good story for the new Star Wars trilogy too... I still don’t see anything but shit there either.

It’s a multiplayer pve game. Not a choose your own adventure dating simulator. Thankfully they’re trying something new

 

[shark sandwich]

Be held accountable? What do they owe you money instead? I’m sure disney promise a good story for the new Star Wars trilogy too... I still don’t see anything but shit there either.

It’s a multiplayer pve game. Not a choose your own adventure dating simulator. Thankfully they’re trying something new

1. It’s a BioWare game.
2. Their previous multiplayer game (Star Wars: The Old Republic) had a decent story.
3. BioWare themselves said story is a priority.
4. I don’t think anybody is really expecting a top-tier RPG story. But many of us are wondering if it’s at least a step above Destiny, it’s primary competition.

Keep the damage control bullshit out of here. You aren’t doing the game any favors with posts like that.

 

[McCheese]

Here's my ranger. I know.. super original..

What are your graphic settings on?

It looks like PSO on the Dreamcast with those textures!

 

[VertigoOA]

1. It’s a BioWare game.
2. Their previous multiplayer game (Star Wars: The Old Republic) had a decent story.
3. BioWare themselves said story is a priority.
4. I don’t think anybody is really expecting a top-tier RPG story. But many of us are wondering if it’s at least a step above Destiny, it’s primary competition.

Keep the damage control bullshit out of here. You aren’t doing the game any favors with posts like that.

Damage control bullshit? Nah, I know what to expect and know what will actually keep this game relevant ... and story don’t mean shit.

Story will not keep players coming back or passed 40hrs. It’s the one and done casual appeal stuff for the scrubs who will complete the campaign, waste their money, and never play the game proper.

Thankfully bioware didn’t want to make the same dating simulator stuff again.

Can’t wait to see this game destroy all prior mass effect sales for reeeeeeeeee

 

[shark sandwich]

Damage control bullshit? Nah, I know what to expect and know what will actually keep this game relevant ... and story don’t mean shit.

Story will not keep players coming back or passed 40hrs. It’s the one and done casual appeal stuff for the scrubs who will complete the campaign, waste their money, and never play the game proper.

Thankfully bioware didn’t want to make the same dating simulator stuff again.

Can’t wait to see this game destroy all prior mass effect sales for reeeeeeeeee

How to respond like a sensible gamer:
“I like the story because...”
“It’s nothing special but this game isn’t as story-driven as their other games because....”
“It’s bad because...”


How to respond like a toxic jackass:
“Hurrrr you are wrong to ask about the story and you’re wrong to expect a decent one. Even though it’s from a developer who’s famous for their story-driven games and they said story is a priority for this game. Now I’m going to talk shit about their other games in attempt to deflect criticism away from this game.”

 

[VertigoOA]

How to respond like a sensible gamer:
“I like the story because...”
“It’s nothing special but this game isn’t as story-driven as their other games because....”
“It’s bad because...”


How to respond like a toxic jackass:
“Hurrrr you are wrong to ask about the story and you’re wrong to expect a decent one. Even though it’s from a developer who’s famous for their story-driven games and they said story is a priority for this game. Now I’m going to talk shit about their other games in attempt to deflect criticism away from this game.”

Keep crying. It’s a multiplayer game. Not a story based dating simulator.

I actually played andromeda. It was okay. Story was shit there too but it played well... not well enough where I think they can deliver with anthem but need to see what the actual end game javelin builds end up like. Could be fun, even if the shooting is balls

 

[SkinnerSw33t]

What is the deal with the freelancer's link world event?

Takes an inordinate amount of time to start it seems.

 

[Screamer-RSA]

Keep crying. It’s a multiplayer game. Not a story based dating simulator.

I mean fuck us for expecting a certain standard in a product right? The car's wheels wobble but that is okay because the interior is nice.

 

[VertigoOA]

I mean fuck us for expecting a certain standard in a product right? The car's wheels wobble but that is okay because the interior is nice.

Garbage metaphor but yea pretty much “fuck you” guys for wanting something they clearly showed you it wasn’t. Perhaps actually look at the game for what it is instead of what it never was.

THey showed us what the game was. There were lengthy developer walkthrus. You should’ve realized what is was when they opted to talk about gameplay instead of speaking on having cast Freddie prince jr as something to give a shit about

Thankfully bioware isn’t making the same game again. Kudos to them.

With said, expect tons of drive by nonsense for this game because you can’t bang liarra

Metro looks like an excellent narrative based single player game. That’s clearly what it is to! Go figure.

 

[Allnamestakenlol]

There's a ton of story. It's just not very good. :/

I dreaded going back to Tarsis for my at least 3 "relationship building" conversations.

First time in an "rpg" where I stopped bothering with talking to random NPCs for flavor/story. Instead, just run through Tarsis, talk to the quest giver/NPC, and get on with it. They may as well just made it a text interface where you pick your quest and click START.

 

[VertigoOA]

First time in an "rpg" where I stopped bothering with talking to random NPCs for flavor/story. Instead, just run through Tarsis, talk to the quest giver/NPC, and get on with it. They may as well just made it a text interface where you pick your quest and click START.

It doesn’t help that most of the npcs lacked character or charm. Or that slow walking speed (it was maddening in the demo).

I’m concerned that what is there is just overly serious without any humor. I hope not.

 

[lefty1117]

I sense a piling-on trend developing here, which is so common in internet communities these days, and I find myself in disagreement.

The same things that several people are ripping the game over, I actually quite like.

- The story has much more depth that is only hinted at in conversations, if you're willing to pay attention.
- I find the characters to be pretty entertaining overall. Yes lots of Whedon-like quipping, but it sure beats constant moaning, downtrodden end-of-the-world dialog that would have been the other option for these people considering the situation they're in.
- Combat is fast, fun, and interesting.
- There appears to be level balancing or something going on behind the scenes, so that you can still be very effective if you're matched up with a higher level group
- Definitely some Andromeda DNA in here. I'm fine with that. I liked Andromeda, I just felt it lost momentum in the story and became too Ubi-like with way too many activities about halfway through.

Some minor quibbles -
- They don't make it clear enough, in my opinion, about the way to create the synergies between primers and activators for the combo system.
- Why only a female shaped interceptor? They should have had male and female shapes for all of the javelins IMO.
- One of the people in my house keeps getting disconnected, even though I'm fine. I suspect some firewall port stuff going on.

Overall I am pleasantly surprised compared to what I played during the demo. I think the demo was just too narrow and they should have started it from the beginning with a time limit on it, so that players could see the threads tie together from the beginning and it all would have made a bit more sense. I think the demos did more harm than good, and now some people will be negatively predisposed (and will tell their friends, who will tell their friends, etc).

 

[Stuart360]

So, over on the "other" forum, I see a ton of people saying performance is better than the demo, but I'm not experiencing this. At 1440p, the game still runs just as bad. With a 4790k, 1070, and 16GB of RAM, with a mix of medium and high settings I fluctuate between 30-50 FPS. Very, very rarely does my game ever hit 60 or more.

On top of all this, I've been bored out of my damn mind with the game. All the dialogue is nonsense and means absolutely nothing to me. They touched on it in the Giant Bomb video and it's absolutely true. "The convergence of the Anthem holodex is infusing with the blah blah". Throwing a million different sci-fi sounding words at you every second made me tune out so fast.

Then you have the mission structure. Go here, press F, fight a few dozen enemies. Congratulations, you finished the mission. Now do it again for someone else. It gets repetitive after 20 minutes of playing. And these are the main story beats, these aren't off-shoot missions.

Also, the loading times are pretty bad. I'm on an SSD and still sitting at load screens for 30 seconds. I thought there weren't supposed to be load screens by the way? It was supposed to be one "seamless world". Meanwhile, one mission had like three of them.

I can't recall the last time I played a game and had to shut it down out of pure boredom after an hour.

Imo it does perform slightly better than the beta. I was getting 40-60fps in the beta in the open world, with the full release i was getting 50-60fps. I still hate flucturating framerates though so i locked the game to 30fps and pushed the rez to 1440p. I still find a locked 30fps smoother than a flucturating framerate.

 

[Allnamestakenlol]

<snip>

Definitely some Andromeda DNA in here. I'm fine with that. I liked Andromeda

I feel like this may be the defining difference for many of us. I absolutely despised Andromeda -- it was one of the biggest disappointments in a modern game for me.

 

[VertigoOA]

I feel like this may be the defining difference for many of us. I absolutely despised Andromeda -- it was one of the biggest disappointments in a modern game for me.

Pretty sure he only means the combat; I mean... it looks the same but with jet packs.

Andromeda is the best “playing” mass effect. It just comes off as sterile as a whole; the ubisoft comparison is apt.

 

[Stuart360]

The actual story seems pretty tacked on, and is basically short cutscenes or dialogue after every few missions. Its almsot like devs were like ' see we are Bioware, our game does have a story, dont worry guys'. I still really like the gameplay though.

 

[Allnamestakenlol]

Pretty sure he only means the combat; I mean... it looks the same but with jet packs.

Andromeda is the best “playing” mass effect. It just comes off as sterile as a whole; the ubisoft comparison is apt.

For sure, the combat in Andromeda was the best in the series, but the story, writing, enemy design, and some of the environments were just plain trash tier sci-fi. I see a lot of that in Anthem, too.

 

[SkinnerSw33t]

I really do like the combat. A lot. I've already purchased the game.

 

[Hendrick's]

So I'm liking it more than the demo, but the matchmaking is shit and he mission structure so far has been very average. I think there is potential here, but this game is definitely undercooked.

 

[SkinnerSw33t]

Can't disagree w/ that. No doubt this was pushed out the door early by EA.

 

[Hendrick's]

Can't disagree w/ that. No doubt this was pushed out the door early by EA.

Yeah, the combat and exploration are fun. Not sure if I will be buying yet or not, but I have certainly gone from no chance in hell to having my finger on the trigger.

 

[AltogetherAndrews]

Yeah... I actually like it quite a bit, but Bioware is going to have to keep at it if they expect people to stay in their world. I'm currently happy with it running a lot better on the x, but there is certainly room for improvement.

And enemies really need to show more, uh, emotion when they are being demolished. But I guess I should be happy that they don't just vanish.

 

[Catphish]

Yeah, I'm out. Uninstalled.

Definitely didn't expect to be this disappointed with the game.

Honestly, this is probably the end of my Premier sub, as well. Madden didn't do it for me, FIFA didn't do it for me, BFV came real close, but lack of meaningful content failed to prolong my interest, and, to me, Anthem is a dud.

Bleh.

 

[voidenberg]

The honeymoon phase didn't last long. I guess that's it for bioware.

 

[VertigoOA]

The honeymoon phase didn't last long. I guess that's it for bioware.

A lot of pve players that I do trust seem to be enjoying it so far. It all rides on endgame tho.

I’m also completely convinced this started as mass effect online Much like how Destiny was halo 4.

 

[McCheese]

During the demo Bioware kept saying..
"It'll be improved when it's launched, the build is x months old!"

Fair enough, so I paid my £10 to play the launch version this weekend, and having a lot of the same issues! Boss's glitching out, getting stuck in load screens, lack of cosmetics, interrupting load times, cut scenes flat out not working, etc etc.

Now Bioware are on twitter saying..
"It'll be improved in the day-one patch"

It's maddening. Implying they somehow have a "finished" version of the game just around the corner when it's looking increasingly like they are just hoping to wing it.