The ANTHEM VIP Demo weekend was a train wreck. Any hype for the thing was quickly buried beneath a mountain of technical issues, from connection errors and constant lag to infinite loading screens and game-breaking bugs. That said, EA and BioWare had managed to straighten stuff out -- at least partially -- by Sunday, and so we were able to finally sink a number of consecutive hours into the demo.
But before we go any further, we need to remind everyone that this article is based solely on the VIP Demo, as if that wasn't already clear enough. Anything that you read here, be it praise or criticism, could be flipped on its head once the final game is out in February.
Now let's be honest, the ANTHEM "VIP Demo" wasn't really a demo, was it? Not in the traditional sense, anyway. If anything, it was a beta -- a clearly unfinished build of the game that crumbled within minutes of going live due to server stress. And even when it was working, our time with the "demo" was plagued by bouts of lag. Enemies would shoot at us and we'd only receive damage five seconds later. We'd watch as other players skated across the environment before teleporting into the air. There were even enemies that we simply couldn't kill because our attacks weren't registering.
We're going to give BioWare the benefit of the doubt here and say that the full release won't be as bad as this, but it's not just the technical failings of the demo that have us a little worried. There are structural elements to ANTHEM that have us scratching our heads, and design decisions that make us question its eventual quality.
First thing's first, we certainly don't think that ANTHEM's going to ship with the same level of polish as something like Destiny. You can say what you want about Bungie's loot shooter, but it's an immaculately presented game. By comparison, ANTHEM often feels janky, and it's awkward to look at. Enemies don't animate very well and you can sometimes find yourself getting caught on parts of the environment. The demo was noticeably rough around the edges, and truthfully, we don't see the finished product being a whole lot better.
There's also a real disconnect between what happens inside of Fort Tarsis (your hub area) and outside in the wilds. You experience the former in first person, and this is where you meet secondary characters. Being thrust into a different perspective once you're done with a mission is jarring enough, but Fort Tarsis feels so bland and weird. Most non-playable characters just stand around in the same spot -- there's no life to anything. You can engage specific characters in conversation and sometimes pick up new missions, but coming back to this eerily quiet hub after an action-packed outing is bizarre.
As for the conversations themselves, this is where BioWare attempts to cram some good old dialogue options into the equation. ANTHEM appears to be all action outside of Fort Tarsis, so this is where you're going to learn about your allies and supposedly shape your character's personality. However, the dialogue choices presented in the demo don't inspire much confidence. Most just seemed to be there for the sake of it, barely changing the outcome of the conversation, if at all. Maybe the full game will give you some options that carry weight, but we kind of doubt it. If anything, it seems like the dialogue choices are only in here so that ANTHEM has even a whiff of BioWare-style role-playing to it.
Speaking of BioWare, the Canadian developer has said numerous times that ANTHEM is playable solo, but it's always tempered that by reiterating that it's a co-op experience first and foremost. And yeah, it's a pretty accurate description based on what we've played. Going solo in ANTHEM is going to cause you headaches. Some enemies have shields or armour that make them an absolute pain to take down alone, often requiring a teammate to flank them if you're looking to fight efficiently. What's more, combos -- using special abilities to 'detonate' targets that are on fire, or poisoned, or electrocuted -- are obviously way more effective if you've got multiple allies firing off at the same time.
Fortunately for ANTHEM, this is where we start to talk about the things that we actually thought were pretty cool. The aforementioned combo system is fantastic fun, and watching all the pretty explosions is a treat. In fact, almost all of the visual effects in the demo looked especially impressive, even if they did make our PS4 Pro's fans kick into overdrive on occasion.
Gameplay-wise, it's easy to see ANTHEM's potential. It feels like BioWare has pulled the combat from Mass Effect: Andromeda (one of the most enjoyable parts of that game), tightened it up, and added a hefty dose of punch. Gunplay is surprisingly twitchy and satisfying, while special abilities recharge quickly, making it feel like you're constantly embedded in the action. Movement is great too, a mixture of weightiness and momentum-based agility that you'd expect when piloting a mechanical suit.
It's also impressive that you're able to call upon your ability to fly and hover at nearly any time, adding a unique feel to each encounter. Just having the option of leaping into the air and zooming away from danger is liberating, and levitating above creatures that primarily use their limbs to attack opens up a whole world of possibilities when it comes to combat tactics. All in all, it's damn good fun -- surprisingly damn good fun.
We've got mixed feelings on ANTHEM, then. The moment-to-moment gameplay shows clear promise, but it's everything surrounding it that's forcing us to be cautious. The hope right now is that the finished product, which launches in under a month, shows a dramatic improvement over what we've played. BioWare could well be onto something here, but it needs to be in a much, much better state come the 22nd February.
What did you think of the ANTHEM VIP Demo? Did you get to play much of it? What are your hopes for the game at launch? Hop in your Javelin and crash into the comments section below.
Comments 17
My thoughts were its Destiny with worst shooting but better looking world. I agree the Fort Tarsis stuff was slow and dull seemed a strange decision to do that in first person mode. The gunplay was ok nothing special Destiny's is so much better. Moving on to the loot the guns seemed a bit meh to me didnt really feel very futuristic just standard assault rifles, snipers, shotguns and hand cannons. But as this was early in the game the cool guns could come near the end of the game at higher levels think they missed a trick by not giving you a legeandary/exotic level gun to play around with to show the potential.
The flying was fun and the world look good. I played with 3 Mass effect lovers and they all were commenting on how it was a lot like Mass effect and they were liking it. So it seems if you love Mass Effect you will likely like Anthem.
While I expect the horrendous bugs and issues to be fixed by launch, I seriously worry for the amount of content.
We just played 1 of the 3 strongholds and after a couple of run throughs we were then blasting through it in no time at all. In the final release there will be 3 new ‘harder’ difficulties but it means replaying them over and over on the same small amount of content.
As paid DLC is off the table we are relying on EA’s ‘live service’. In Battlefield 5 so far, ‘live service’ equates to 1 map (also only available in a single game mode) in almost half a year before 1 more map comes out late March. Besides the lack of maps they are basically just drip feeding the odd gun or skin here and there which probably should of just been available at launch anyway, but wasn't ready. I feel EA are playing the nice guys saying ‘free dlc’ in form of live service, but making it so awful that people beg for paid DLC again.
So, based on the live service of BFV and apparently Battlefront 2.... I really fear for Anthem come 2 months after launch. Gameplay was very nice but they need to double or even treble the amount of strongholds to match the number of strikes/raids that Destiny reached.
The trailers and screenshots looked really nice. But I've seen some gameplay and it actually looks quite bland, boring and generic. Too bad though.
I'll be giving the demo a try at the weekend but I doubt I'll be buying the game. If BioWare remade the original Mass Effect with this combat then I'd snap it up.
So just some points from the Demo weekend (be real, closed beta).
Water: There is no combat, it's just movement. Whether it's just load masking, really don't know. I remember during the alpha that there was a door you had to interact with while underwater on amission, but again, it's always movement/traversal stuff, not combat. Whether there is something more significant that will be done in water when the full content is online, totally unknown.
Connection/Load Issues: The struggle was real for a lot of people. 2 of my friends couldn't get in until Saturday morning, while I was able to get in on Friday with no login issues. The 95% load then freeze bug happened to everyone, repeatedly. You'd kill the game, relaunch, rejoin your expedition and move on. They know it's one of the biggest issues from this weekend, so I imagine they're working to solve that and the initial login glut before the open beta this next weekend.
Crashes: i only crashed once to the blue "report the error" screen, and only kicked back to Fort Tarsis from a stronghold mission once. This doesn't mean that Stronghold runs were problem free beyond that, just that a true crash was rare. Had a couple times where someone got booted during the last fight on the Stronghold, and when they reconnected, were on the the wrong side of a locked door to the boss room.
Actual Gameplay: Not gonna lie, it's beautiful on a PS4 pro, with a 4k TV and HDR. While there was rubberbanding for me in Free Roam areas on Friday, i didnt really experience rubberbanding after that. Some did. At least those in my party really didn't. The transition from ground, to flight, to hover, and back, all works really well. It's like web swinging in Spiderman, it never really gets old. The mission maps feel really large and open, with really high "ceilings" so that you get the feel that elevation/flight changes your battlefield conditions. Some of the areas of the Stronghold run really played into that. Down on the ground was turning into pure chaos. Sitting on a high mountain ledge outside the immediate area of combat destroying things with a sniper rifle firing explosive rounds is immensely satisfying. The Javelins are very distinctive and unique both in their gameplay, customizations, and roles. You want slow, clunky, and a butt load of weapons, Colussus is your Javelin of choice (i played it most over the weekend). You want speed and melee, the Interceptor is your power armored ninja suit of choice. My friend played Storm almost all weekend, his take was "Total glass canon, but once I figured out the finesse behind it, i can setup combos for everyone for days, and still live." The weapon, components, and support loadouts change the javelins fairly significantly. Example being a Colossus that swaps out mortars from the Ordnance Launcher to a Shock Coil that generates an electric AoE field around him that wrecks shields for anyone near him. Or swapping out a Support component that allows him to taunt mobs in an area, for one that gives everyone a 33% incoming damage reduction buff. There are a lot of weapon, gear, component, and support component options, and some that are very particular to specific Javelins. You can stack a team with 4 Colossus, and have every single one of them with completely different loadouts.
Single/MP: With the exception of Free Roam areas, and Strongholds, the game can be set to private, and you can run solo. The mobs scale in strength and number based off the amount of people in it, so yes, you can solo in the game. There is no denying that it is meant to shine and encourage mp play though. Performing combos (1 player freezes a group and another drops explosive damage on them) gives bonus XP, playing with other people rewards additional XP. Loot you pickup along the way is awarded at the end of a mission/Stronghold/Free Roam, so it encourages seeing something through instead of "Oh, i got this gun i was looking for, im out". There was no forced voice chat or anything, and 85% of my matchmaker partners were helpful and fun. 15% were the "run ahead and die all the time" type.
Challenges: I like the challenge system. Complete challenges (like get 50 kills with the CloudBurst auto cannon on a collusus) and you unlock blueprints to craft your own gear. Not just the initial items, but increasing rariety as well (the usual basic, uncommon, rare, epic). Again, something where MP play pays off. Lot easier to wrack up combos with other people, though, you can loadout a javelin with the right gear so that you can do your own combos (a la Ranger javelin with a frost grenade and a seeker missile).
Javelins: Customize aesthetics to your heart's content. Originally in the demo they limited you to 1 to start with, and the ability to unlock one additional 2 levels later. Yesterday they flipped the switch and let you unlock them all. Played everything but the Storm.
They absolutely have some issues to fix. If they can resolve the big 3 (login issue, 95% load issue, and rubberbanding/latency for some), then i think they can probably get enough breathing room to get the game off the ground and fix/tune as they go from there. End of the day, there were very real problems, but for those that actually got to get into the content, it shined and looks to be a pretty awesome experience to jump in.
Just an after note: Destiny 1 did not launch in a beautiful bundle of perfect stable joy. It was a sh*t show that they had to patch the heck out of to bring along. They got there, and they took the lessons learned into D2 to make a much better (and smoother) launch. They also started with 1 raid and a handful of strikes. Comparing D1 or D2 at this stage of their roadmap to a new IP is not apples to apples. Yes, it is absolutely possible that Anthem will not have enough launch content to appease the masses, and if they don't, it will show, and they'll suffer for it. It's also just as likely that there will be a decent amount of launch content with additional content as time goes on. They turned Star Wars Old Republic F2P years ago, and they are still cranking out new content for it. At this stage, it's moot for me. I preordered before there was even mention of the VIP demo because Ironman suits + Bioware was enough to have me roll dice that it wouldnt suck. The rest will be what it will be once it actually launches.
@Overcrackkillz That's an excellent write up (as was Robert's, of course!), thanks for sharing your experiences!
The javelins themselves have me really interested in this game but so far I'm nto convinced the content will be there to back it up, which will probably make it a pass for me - at first anyway. If it builds in quality then it might be something I pick up later.
even if you were to forgive all the technical issues, i still didn't think it was all that great. i'll just copy what i wrote in one of the other articles.
not once did the matchmaking work for me, every single time i had to restart the game and use the "resume session" prompt - even that didn't always work, and sometimes it put me in a completely different mission than what i wanted to join - one of the missions i joined it right at the very end, and there was no option to re-do it that i could find. could be a problem if the game has a linear progression through story missions, and disabling public matchmaking really is not at all advisable. the game would continually freeze at in-game loading screens (loading screens in an open world?!).. the "leaving mission area" reloading was a constant problem - the transporting to lead player is going to be a huge annoyance imo - the loading times are long (they were long in the alpha as well, so it's still not clear they'll be able to speed these up) at one point for me it loaded into the intended area only for the lead player to have moved on so-far, it went almost straight into another transporing to area load. respawning never worked (when alone it meant having to restart), and it's not clear whether respawning is or isn't possible when there are others. it ran very poorly (and caused my fan to go into overdrive), i don't know if it was framerate or what since it wasn't choppy or full of screen-tear, but it just didn't feel slick or smooth. going around fort tarsis felt like such a massive lifeless chore, like walking through fields of treacle with lead boots. turning round in tarsis actually made me feel a bit queasy. the flying was crap.. maybe it was the controls (which had no customisation options) but it was too easy to get stuck in the scenery. the shooting pretty average. the stronghold was just a linear 'collect' mission through caves that ends in a damage-sponge boss protected by loads of ads. it doesn't exactly give off the impression that game is going to do all kinds of new stuff that hasn't been seen before. not sure what kind of reward you got since it froze on loading the mission complete screen for me. even if it is a 6-week old build, there are technical problems and issues present here that weren't in the alpha before christmas which was an even older build. there are still some of the same issues too. the discs have already been pressed.. so i imagine there'll need to be a fairly big day-one patch.
Great article, now I know that it’s not the best game to play solo, therefore this is not for me.
The issue for me is that the game does not have much of a personality. It takes parts of Destiny and Warframe, and combines them with the latest Mass Effect games. The flying/traversal is unique, but as a whole the way it plays and the way the narrative is done feels somewhat dull or generic to me.
It's not really a single-player game though, so my expectations are unreasonable I know.
However, I have two gaming friends who really want me to buy Anthem and play it with them when it launches, but I have no interest in it. I enjoyed playing Destiny with my friends, but I don't think I would enjoy playing this one. Destiny still felt unique in some way, it had a personality. I don't get that from I've seen of this game so far.
I think there are definitely unknowns regarding the story content. For the alpha, they started you at the very beginning with the opening tutorial like mission with a couple follow-on missions that actually gave you a starting point and point of reference with the story. The demo (beta, hate calling it a demo) dropped somewhere farther in the soup at level 10 with no point of reference or context for the story. Pretty much how I'd expect a D2 player to feel without knowing anything about lore or story from D1. So in that respect, it makes it hard to judge the story content quality. I enjoyed the story part much more in the alpha just because it slowly lead you into the story. Your Cortex would populate as you went to fill in the story details and references, instead of dropping you in partway then telling you "now go read this encyclopedia on this other screen to understand what is going on and what anything means.".
Fort Tarsis/1st person walking definitely needs some help. At a minimum, add a sprint option. Nobody wants to saunter to their Javelin.
Performance is a mixed bag, and it's a bag they need straightened out. I was playing on a PS4 Pro with 150mbps service, my 2 friends were on original PS4's. 1 with 500mbps and 1 at 60mbps. Outside of the insanity that was rubber banding hell in free roam on Friday and Saturday morning, we didn't really experience much in the way of performance issues once we were actually in the mission or Stronghold (getting booted counting as connection issue not performance), but obviously there were a lot of people who had consistently crappy performance. I know a friend on Xbox said the frames per second were abysmal to the point of unplayable Friday and most of Saturday but seemed to stabilize Saturday night. Can't speak to what I didn't see though, can only say what I saw.
Mission replay is absolutely an issue. I just don't know though if that was as an issue just related to alpha/demo, or if it will be the same at launch. There have been tooltips saying you can replay a mission a from the map, but i know it was disabled in both alpha and demo. Only way you were replaying a mission you completed is if you matchmaked and landed in one, or if you were partied (premade) with someone who hadn't completed a mission in which case as the party leader, you can select it, even if you personally no longer had that mission. I'm going to assume you will be able to replay those in full release, otherwise, yeah, content burn is gonna be real. On the matchmaking side, I never solo matched myself into anything, I was either solo in missions and set to private, or i had 2 others, launched the Stronghold, and had our 1 vacant spot filled by a pug. We never failed to get our 1 pug.
Totally agree about getting pulled forward by the leader. Highly annoying. If Free Roam areas are going to have artificial boundaries that send you back into the zone, that too is going to be annoying and disappointing. I haven't seen details yet (that i know of) regarding how the free roam is supposed to be implemented at launch. My hope is that all those zones will be connected, and that the artificial boundaries were just gating off areas they didnt want players going to during the limited content/context of the demo.
I'm a total D1 and D2 fan. I just don't consider D2 a good comparison because it is built on the story, lore, and character development of a whole other game (D1), and the extremely harsh lessons learned from D1. Heck, even D2 post Forsaken is a vastly improved game over original launch (Gambit, where have you been my whole life?!). The early days (i.e. the 1st 6 months) of D1 were rough. It was pretty, and the gameplay were fun, but nobody could follow the story. The Dinklebot cost them a crud ton of money. And it wasn't until they got a Cayde 6 centric expansion (thank you Nathan Fillion) that folks suddenly went "Man these other Guardians are awesome!". I chalk that squarely in the column of a big win by improving their story/dialogue writers. There was a long slow walk though from launch to Taken King.
Bungie made it's name on Halo. It's what gave them the buzz for people to be so hyped for a new IP from them when they first announced Destiny. Even though they didn't deliver much of what they talked about during development, they did bring the game along to a place that most people were happy with. They learned from some brutal missteps so that D2 was a good follow-up. Bioware has been known for doing good story content, writing, and RPG's for a while. They suffer from the same high expectations, that also gets clouded by the crapstorm of distaste (rightfully earned) for EA and the way they do business. The open beta this weekend will either improve opinions, or confirm for some that it's a visually pretty crap sandwich. Come launch time, it'll have the goods to make people play, or it'll be a bitter disapointment....or somewhere in between. By then, there will plenty of reviewers, streamers, and commentators throwing out how they see things, and the gaming population will do the rest.
At least i know if it does turn out to be a crap sammich, i can be content that it won't be my first or last roll of the dice (Damn you Monster Hunter World!!!!).
Thanks for the review, and the great write ups from others. I think I will shelve this one and wait and see what happens in the first month or so after launch. I never pre order any more (don't trust 'em), and am pleased I didn't with Anthem
Feels to me like EA wanted to cash in on the Destiny craze, so they pulled the best (?) parts of Andromeda and tried to cobble something together. It's very worrying they had THIS many problems with online stuff, considering Bioware Austin (the team who has been working on SWTOR for 8 years) was assisting with this game.
Time will tell if this game turns out to be good, but it's going to take a LOT of time to convince me this isn't another bad Bioware game.
Oh no... Sounds like not much has changed since the Alpha test.
Everyone in Alpha mentioned how strange the fort was. I mean it is similar to the base in The Division (your frieds vanish to their own base) but it is seamless in the division and it is the same 3rd person view.
I still liked the world and playing the first mission in a team. Hope they can do some magic by the 22nd 🙄
There were 3 Strongholds?! xD
I barely was able to participate in the only one I could see, but I didn't see any other strongholds.
It was a bit of a mess, made me cancel my preorder, will hold on until the reviews and gameplay start coming in, definitely not a day one, I'll probably wait a two months before I make a decision but it is looking like a resounding no for me.
@Its_badW0lf There are three strongholds in the finished game, only one was available in the demo.
@ShogunRok only three..?
Doesn't seem like much when it's most of the endgame as it is. Oh well, I've made my choice in any case, waiting for you guys to play it and review it so I don't have to.
@Its_badW0lf We've got your back!
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