That Xbox Press Conference just concluded and I don't have this often, but my jaw dropped looking at Anthem. It looks cool and right up my alley in terms of gameplay and progression (so far), but also just looks damn gorgeous. Tentatively excited to call it my second-Destiny.

What are you thinking of this so far?

It looks cool if you have the friends for it. I'm interested to see how big it gets and whether it lives up to that trailer hype. It's so weird to see a Bioware game without dialogue options though.

Need to see more, specifically mission structure and end-game systems etc, but looks promising. I fear it'll outshine Destiny when it comes to the peripheral stuff, but fall short when it comes to the combat.

It looks good but not for me. Selfishly I'd prefer BioWare focus on single player stuff.

That footage looked great, but I'm disappointed Bioware's new project isn't an RPG. I know they've been moving more and more toward making a shooter for several Mass Effects, but that's never been what I liked about Mass Effect.

Pro: it looks like a better Destiny.

Con: it looks like Destiny.

I am not at all excited for Bioware's next big IP being an also-Destiny. It was not at all what I expected, nor what I was hoping for. I mean, it's good that people who like Destiny will have another one of those. I'm just not one of those people.

It looks great, and I'll definitely play it, but we already have a Destiny. I come to Bioware for story and characters, and I'm not sure how much of that will be in this game. We didn't even see a token dialogue wheel appearance.

I know we still have DA4 coming and that will almost certainly be story and character focused, but I still can't say a co-op Bioware game without a strong character focus is something I've ever asked for.

@sergio: That's where I'm at. I'm not big Bioware fan to begin with, but this focus-tested co-op shooter isn't what I want from them.

I like that all the suits fly like Iron Man for the traversal, that looks fun. But whenever they stopped to shoot, it looked kinda like regular Mass Effect action, which wasn't my favorite part of those games to say the least. No cover, though. So who knows.

It could be good, but it's not exactly what I was hoping to see from Bioware's next project.

Yeah I was also pretty blown away. We have to see how it fits together but looks much more organic feeling than Destiny. It seems like it has exploration and the Just Cause looking flying really sold me, as well as the cool power weapons which remind me of Iron Man or Warhammer 40k.

As far as the story and Bioware stuff, who cares? They can try something different and for all we know the game has plenty of story in it. I think it's lame to expect a developer to always put out the same kind of games, and it's unrealistic when you have to face that the company changed. They put out a new IP which is cool, why want it to be just the same again?

The one thing great in Mass Effect Andromeda by the way is the combat. If this builds off where they were going with that, and hopefully nails a lot more around it, that's a great game.

It literally looks like mass effect andromeda(combat movement wise) but with a budget, smfh.

It does look good though, but man it really bums me out how much they shit on mass effect.

exactly. it looks sharp- but bioware have a lot to prove right now and the setup isn't innovative.

i say this as a person who 8 yrs ago would have played anything with their name on it.

I still just wish they would make a new Shattered Steel. :(

Not wanting Bioware to do anything different is especially annoying to me because one of the issues with their games is how formulaic they are. Your character set up, the choices and the dialogue wheel, the same companion set up, romance options neatly laid out before you, etc. Not that you can't improve that and change that up too but why not do something different?

Again, this is after saying we don't even know anything about the game story wise. For all we know it has lots of story, it just isn't a party based RPG. Fine by me.

Also:

It looks like just another open world co-op loot shooter, granted it looks graphically impressive, but otherwise it's just another one of those it seems like.

That trailer shown us very little, though. "Hey, it's a co-op thing in a big world. And ... there was a quest that went unresolved because ELECTRICITY VOID."

So from the footage in the show I am curious if there's going to be story stuff in the 'hub' and you'll be there by yourself and you meet up with your friends outside the wall. Similar to how The Division handled it as opposed to Destiny's social hubs. Also curious how it handles playing solo considering they talked about needing more people for certain things, which makes me wonder if they're having things in there that require you to be a full squad and as such locking you out if you're not a social player per se. Nevertheless, it looked potentially more interesting than it's teaser reveal made it out to be.

Also funny to me most everyone says "Destiny could have been great but fucked it up" (and I've seen many of those people say Destiny 2 just looks like Destiny 1 again) and now they don't want someone else to take a crack at really delivering on the basic premise.

It looks absolutely gorgeous but that's where the entire thing stops for me. My heart sort of sank when it became "...and team up with your friends to take on the open world!" There are plenty of online open-world co-op multiplayer games to choose from, more still in the pipe, and for Bioware to make that kind of game their new flagship thing - I just feel like it means my interest in the Bioware of a decade ago is well and truly finished. I don't want every game to be Destiny.

Personally it doesnt bother me that Bioware is branching out. They had their shot at another Mass Effect and they blew it. Theres going to be another Dragon Age for those who want a dark fantasy RPG. (I didnt mind DAI so i'm on board) This looks cool, I hope it has an interesting story and characters, something other loot shooters sorely lack.

@artisanbreads: I would agree with all of that but an open world co-op loot shooter isn't really anything we haven't seen before. Not saying it will be bad as i like those types of games, but an actual rpg worth getting through would have been cool, mass effect 4 was basically only a decent multiplayer co-op shooter with a tagged on story mode IMO.

I need to see more gunplay. So far it was your basic point at stuff and pull trigger gameplay. It did look pretty.

That is my reservation because some of the openness they are showing that is appealing (vs Destiny) to me could not come across. Destiny originally looked like that when they showed it too. You seemed to explore more and just flow into activities.

I don't know if you read the stuff about ME:A on Kotaku but the game makes sense after you do. I think the gameplay was the only part of the game they probably finished and worked on and didn't scrap and rebuild in some fucked up way. I think the ME:A multiplayer is great even with some issues (better than anything like it on the market). I've now played 120 hours of it which is nuts. My 2 cents there.

I'm still very down for some co-op loot shooting. I think it's a growing genre but I don't think it's over saturated, especially quality wise. And I think it's a genre that can grow a lot. I think it's primed to have some games come out that make the Destiny/Borderlands origins of it look quaint. As I am saying (and questioning above) I think there's tons of room for these games to have bigger areas, more complex quests, flow nicer. They could feel more just like a regular ass singleplayer RPG or maybe have stuff like Journey work really well where guys are joining up with you on the fly in smooth ways. I just see a lot of room for it to grow so I am happy more developers are. The fact that this seems like you can fly around Just Cause style and the exploration XP bonuses seems to suggest an open game in a different way than Destiny for example and I think that can make a bigger difference to game than some people may think on paper.

Some people are tired of third person shooting and RPG stuff on that but not me at least. But yeah a game that builds off the ME:A combat is just what I want to hear, even if it doesn't excite you ha.

They didn't show much of anything, really, which makes for a poor showcase for the game. I hope the “hook“ isn't that it's a co-op loot-driven shooter. Odd choice to end the conference with this one.

Edit: For the record, I'm sort of glad this isn't another story-driven game. Based on their latest offerings, Bioware hasn't been able to offer anything new in the way of storytelling.

Not what I go to BioWare for - the world looks very inviting and pretty, but a "me, too" Destiny-like co-op shooter is a no-sale for me.

Yeah this looks like the REAL Mass Effect trilogy follow-up game the people deserved tbh!

Indeed.

I honestly couldn't be more disappointed. BioWare have been one of my favourite developers for, well, as long as I've been playing video games - big budget, singleplayer, story-driven RPGs are my favourite kinds of games, by a long way - but I just don't really enjoy playing games with other people, and it seems like this doesn't really offer, well, any of what I tend to enjoy about BioWare's games.

Like, I actually love the idea of their mixing up their usual formula - getting rid of the traditional party structure, avoiding the usual 'saviour of everything' tropes in their storytelling, changing up the dialogue system - but there's a huge gulf between that and just making a co-op loot shooter. This whole reveal's genuinely left me super bummed out, after a conference with a lot of games I thought looked pretty cool. Like, I think part of it is that everything up to the 'and your friends' bit looked really cool, and even afterwards, the world and the basic gameplay - actual honest-to-god rocketeer jetpacks! underwater! mech suits! - really looked interesting.

Now, of course, BioWare can make whatever kinds of games they want, and I'm genuinely pleased that so many people have found something to love in what Anthem seems to offer, but... Well, it very clearly isn't for me, and I'm - selfishly, I know - really rather sad about that.

@artisanbreads: I read some of it but just given the fact they were given about half the budget of a modern AAA game of that size was enough to see all their money and resources went into this loot shooter instead. I enjoy them but bioware used to atleast try new things now they are just a shop to go at the latest trends i guess, and given the combat in Mass Effect is ok but not GREAT i'm still on the fence about this one. I wonder how long until they stop making rpg's all together? I guess there has to be another dragon age coming at least but after that i wouldn't doubt they stop and just become bungie.

I know it's a bummer for the dev team, since they'll probably be hearing "Not what I wanted from Bioware" from their fanbase a lot. But this is not what I wanted from Bioware.
It looks great, but I'll never play it. They completely lost me as soon as the players started talking and it became obvious what this game was gonna be.

I thought it looked very pretty, but the actual gameplay did nothing for me (apart from the traversal mechanics which seemed pretty neat). I'm not interested in playing another online open-worldish co-op loot shooter, especially one from a developer that has delivered nothing but disappointments of one degree or another for the past five years.

It looked fine I guess. Kinda like a modern AAA game, nothing really remarkable at all. Like, it could be good, but I'm really not seeing the hook.

Honestly, it reminds me of Medal of Honor Warfighter in a way. EA was putting out a modern military shooter in order to compete with Activision's Call of Duty, and now they're putting out a co-op, loot based shooter to compete with Activision's Destiny. It'll probably end up better than Warfighter, and probably be more of an actual competitor to Activision, but it still just looks like a bland "me too" AAA game.

It looks great, but I'm going to echo what everyone else says and say that I'm not really interested in a coop shooter from Bioware. I'm way down with them shaking up their formula, but I like what they do with solo story based games.

I am going to give them the benefit of waiting to see more though, before I judge it too harshly.

Visuals look great, but gameplay looks derivative. Now we have a slightly clearer picture as to why Andromeda turned out the way it did.

I'm not so sure. It's conflicting. On one hand I want developers to try new things and to not fall into similar tropes from past games. On the other, it feels like with each new game Bioware takes one step back from what made games like Kotor and Jade Empire so unique and take larger steps toward making safer bet games that appeal to larger audiences. Anthem feels like the culmination of this process.

I thought it showed a lot of promise and it's definitely a thing to keep an eye on. I guess that's all we can expect at a show like this, right? I liked the freedom of the jetpack and how it seamlessly went from flying to underwater and out again. I agree with those that say it looks like a better Destiny. Also, I think it might be fair to say that this is where EA/Bioware has been putting all its top tier development resources and not Mass Effect Andromeda. The facial animations looked like a generational leap forward versus a game that just came out a few months ago.

i like Jetpacks. that's all i can say.

My first takeaway is "This is what Andromeda could have looked like." It's incredible how drastically different the two games look. I'm glad EA took a risk with Bioware for a new IP, but I hate how they threw the Mass Effect license into the garbage.

Truly the Bob Dylan of video games.

It is possible because EA owns them. But the thing I would say overall is that RPGs are in such an entirely different space than when Bioware first started in the space (and I think did amazing work for a long time). Now every game just about has XP and ability trees. Action RPGs are not throw away in their RPG elements and get real deep. I think Witcher 2 and 3 are my favorite RPGs ever and they are both also action games.

And of course, you saw Bioware gradually add more actiony combat to their games over time (and make hits doing it). I am not sure what people really want exactly. Them to make a real CRPG? I would actually think that's cool but most people who might say that probably don't even actually want to play that game. And also by the way, Baldur's Gate could be played co-op online. They were ruining their games all the way back then.

I think overall it's just better quality in what they are putting out actually but that's not a snappy thing to say. They lost so many key people over time now. In the Witcher 3 CD Projekt for example does things in a similar way to the recently criticized Bioware games in many ways overall but they just have such a higher quality.

The studio has already changed over time so I guess I would say it's not surprising, but also as a long time fan it's actually welcome. Change is good.

I don't mind it at all. I think it looks gorgeous as hell and the action looks like a good way to shoot some stuff, but I was expecting a little more beyond loot-n-shoot. I mean, the working title was "Dylan" like Bob Dylan because apparently they wanted their new game to be a work that was remembered forever, but I'm failing to see anything particularly transcendent about it. Hopefully the pieces come together in the end.

@kirkyx: I can't say you won't be right but I'll just say we don't really know anything about how this game operates. It might still have a good story component and stuff. I would also bet they give the singleplayer attention because they are Bioware and also know games of a similar variety have been torn apart for not doing that at all. But we will see. As a Bioware fan, as I mention in my other post, I also have gotten tired of how by the numbers their games are and similar. I find the romance for example off putting now and it usually just comes off as gross to me how people lay themselves out for your character and how much of it is handled.

I liked the jet pack flying bits. But I'm not sure I want a Destiny-like game from Bioware. Then again, I'm not sure what sort of game I do want from Bioware these days, except Dragon Age 4. Need to see more.

It's kinda baffling to me that people are already judging it without playing it. It'd be understandable if it were a story-driven game, but an action game? Those games live and die by how well they feel to play.

That being said, I don't know if Bioware has the pedigree to deliver on the mechanics / handling front. We'll have to wait and see.

I've been disappointed in Bioware's output for the last 5 or so years and have more or less written them off as a developer to pay attention to (Andromeda's poor reception was basically the final nail in the coffin) but there's still something weird and slightly depressing about that name being put next to what is basically a Destiny competitor. Oh, that demo showed pretty well and seemed to have promise, but it's so far removed from what the Bioware name used to mean to me.

I keep trying to think where i know that actor from. Looks like some TV comedian but i got nothing.

Wonder if he'll become the "Peter Dinklage" of this game.

I was hoping for something a lot more "Bioware" in the direction of Mass Effect or Dragon Age. Instead it seems like Destiny. Hopefully it has some sort of story element.

Is it going to be an online only pseudo-MMO? If so, I'll pass.

Can BioWare actually make an action game with shooting that feels better than Mass Effect? If not, I'll pass.