Quick Look: Anthem: First Impressions

One of the things that really impressed me in the original Mass Effect was that you could make dialog choices before NPCs finished talking, so all the conversations flowed very naturally.

From what I've seen so far of Anthem (and of what I played in the demo), dialog choices pop up way late, and even then, you have to hold the buttons to select, so there's always unnatural pauses in the conversations. It's a weird nothing to nitpick on, but it's odd that they got it so right 10+ years ago and regressed on it.

Having watched this and a good chunk of the Beta, I'm feeling kinda numb. Bioware hasn't been great in a while, but this is just so thoroughly underwhelming. Even if it's actually a best-in-class One Of These, I don't have any interest in playing another One Of These. I did my time on Destiny and Destiny 2 and that's enough of that.

It also bums me out for what it represents about the market for western role playing games in general. I love the hell out of WRPGs, but the modern genre's completely dominated by quasi-MMO barely-an-RPG loot grinds like this and uber-long isometric throwbacks that all kinda blur together, with barely anything in between.

Basically, this is a long way of saying that I really miss Dragon Age Origins and I hope to hell that The Outer Worlds is good.

This reminds me a lot of vanilla Destiny 1. That's not necessarily a bad thing, the Taken King expansion really did a phenomenal overhaul of the base game. Having played the Anthem beta, I really like the flight controls and the suit powers/gun play was fun enough. The transition between flight and ground, as Jeff said, is really rough and needs to be ironed out. For me, this is a game that I'll check in on in six months to see what Bioware tweaks and adds to the game. This game has a good foundation, Bioware just needs time to sand off the rough edges. The wildcard is EA giving them the time and space to realize this game's potential.

@peteycoco: Not sure, but I don't like it. I find it annoying.

omfg yes, i'm glad someone else noticed that. it looks like there's a light source behind every character's teeth, and it's totally bananas.

Hoping this turns out well, but I'm willing to give it a few months before I jump in. Give them some time for bug fixes and the first wave of additional content. Been doing this more and more often for big games and it's nice to have my first impressions be more positive than the ones people have at launch.

As always, I'm bummed that when Jeff is down on a game, he'll find ways to complain about damn near everything. This got to the point of nit-picking about the Dominion as a name.

Woah boy, this game looks like a massive stinker. I'm surprised they think they can sell it like this!

I am LOVING this game.

"Anthem - Too much water" Jeff Gerstmann

Wow, what a bummer of a quick look. Should of brought some cheese for all this whine going on.

I find it hard to take their opinions when they always come off as so negative or debby down'ers when it comes to new IP's. They give Destiny a pass on the same stuff they call into question in Anthem and with the Division. Jeff and Brad should really just come out and say 'hey, were not going to give you an honest or unbiased opinion on this so...sorry!" and save us the time of commenting and arguing with each other.

Here's hoping by the time they make the Quick Look that they actually learn how to play the game *cough* Quantum Break...and stop putzing around playing willingly ignorant to give us a bad impression of the game.

Me too! This exactly. I'm not really into this type of game, but I want it to do well with the people who are because Bioware makes lots of games that I love and I want them to have success and be able to keep making more.

My only experience with Bioware games has been with the original Mass Effect trilogy, but this looks kinda bland in comparison. Those games had such an interesting world and characters and this one here seems very uninspired in that aspect.

Maybe the gameplays is fun, but Ithought Bioware strenghts always were in the world building and the writing of the characterrs.

@doctordonkey: This is something I've absolutely noticed. Borderlands 1 and 2, soldier class. Every Mass Effect game, soldier. Any time they let you pick something different Jeff says "I just want the guy that shoots the gun good."

I really wish he had tried Storm or Interceptor.

They don't seem to be giving this a fair shake, but honestly, the game kind of sucks.

It is improved technically from the "demo," but it's still marred with issues, crashes, soft-locks, just general all-over jank.

The story is pretty bad. Starts out kind of strong, but goes absolutely nowhere and just kind of ends. The main character suffers from the same issues that Rider did in Andromeda, there's no gravitas to him/her. They're just a fun-loving wise-cracking empty shell of a Nathan Drake. The characters don't really do much except give you exposition dump, and all the story is just shoehorned in with first person stuff. Villain is a big nothing. I don't think we can just blame the BioWare Montreal for why Andromeda had such terrible writing. Much of the same stuff is on display here.

There's not much content. Not much endgame. Not much variation in loadouts. The environment is almost entirely the same in every zone.

This game is unfinished and bad. The core gameplay is competent, but that's it.

Oh, and that tombs mission? A critical path mission that forces you to perform checklists of open world patrol busy work in order to progress? Baffling that somebody decided that was okay to put in the game. You can't even track the quests properly for each individual tomb.

Great video to fall asleep to.

There is no such a thing an inbiassed opinion.

I uninstalled the VIP demo after about 30 minutes due to how poorly it ran on my machine (Ryzen 2600X, GTX 970). I had no intention of picking this game up, but I was bored this weekend and I am a Origin access subscriber so I got a 10 hour trial. Why not?

Turns out I am really liking the game, and the performance is much better than the VIP demo. Ended up subscribing to the full Origin premiere so that I can keep playing until I lose interest. The game is fun!

I went into it with a bad impression and ended up liking it after a couple hours, I don't know how Jeff can possibly hate something so much if he's actually trying to be impartial here. It's like he went in wanting to hate the game and is looking for every possible thing to confirm his preconception.

Writing and voice acting is atrocious

Jeff definitely isn't giving the game a great look in playing the most boring class in the most boring way imaginable for a game that relies heavily on power combos as its hook. But even with better combat I'm having real trouble seeing playing this over Destiny, or Warframe, or the Division, or the other loot shooters that have had more time to develop their systems, world, and content. The prime thing Bioware could have had going for it was their characters, worldbuilding, and story, and none of those look good here.

The game part seems serviceable but the world/world building itself seems to be one of the most dull i've seen in a long time, which is really surprising coming from Bioware.

The dumb "Jeff is set on hating Anthem" rhetoric cracks me up.

As if the current zeitgeist on this game isn't 50/50 on people thinking it looks fine versus everyone else thinking it looks awful. Jeff however is a monster for also thinking it's bad.

Oh the internet. The reason the people who contribute to it hate using it.

@panfoot said:

The dialogue trees (if you can even call them that) are definitely a step back from Mass Effect, but I'm actually interested in the world after like 16 hours of playing. Most of the missions do nothing to help, it actually took me flying around in freeroam to get interested in the world itself. There's a lot of ancient ruins and gigantic machines that made me want to know more about the world, specifically the past of the world when a lot of the lore in the game was established. Unfortunately the game seems to be set in a time when lots of people have forgotten about the distant past and what actually happened. It kind of reminds me of Lord of the Rings, where there's this deep history of ancient wars, but the timeline the story is set in doesn't concern itself with most of that.

I find it weird that BioWare created a name for themselves doing a certain type of game, and then when it looked like there was money to be made in MMOs, they made The Old Republic, and then when it looked like there was money to be made in loot shooters, they made this. I'm surprised they didn't try to put out a MOBA and a battle royale.

Reminds me of Destiny in regards to gameplay and ME: Andromeda when it comes to writing and character presentation. I was looking forward to this game pre-E3, but lost all interest since then. It seems lifeless and super generic.

Also: I feel Jeff is criticized unfairly on his approach to the game. It seems to me he was curious at first, but is just disappointed now. To me the issues the guys point out are valid.

There is such a demand for this type of 4-player co-op, loot-based game that I think this will wildly succeed as long as the core combat is okay which it seems like it is. The only issue is Division 2 is coming out so that may be the game people pick-up instead. I think Jeff is missing the point with this game: People put up with the bad stuff and overlook the story, because it's just an excuse to hang-out with friends online. Not saying that excuses it or it'd be enjoyable solo, but that's why Destiny took off in its first year.

lol poor Jeff, so underwhelmed

I feel like you could make that quest area look passable with a few tweaks. If they just had a jukebox playing some atmospheric music and added some non interactible NPC's that are loudly drinking & playing cards and that kind of stuff. That would already help a bunch. It just looks like everything & everyone that's inside that room is placed there with a purpose, ready to play their role as soon as you activate them. That character stepping into your view after the other character stopped talking felt like a musical. I guess that's one way to give meaning to the term 'space opera'.

The random chatter during the missions feels like i'm watching Ace Combat, Dynasty Warriors or a very serious EDF. I get that japanese games have been doing quite well recently, but i can assure you that it's not for the barrage of teammate chatter.

In regards to the story.. i feel like that's always a challenge for these kind of games. Option 1: you play singleplayer and get to take your time with the characters on your own leisure. By being matched with rando's that might not care for the in-mission revelations / storydumps / setpieces, you might be mostly preoccupied sticking near the front of the pack to actually do the mission. Taking your time to actually watch & listen to the plot-critical is often not in your best interest given that the group that might've played this mission before will just move on.

Option 2: you play with friends and (hopefully) get to settle on a decent pace that gives everyone a good grasp of the story + action in the missions. If you are all getting through the content at the same time, you might all spend a similar time in your storyhubs as well. If you're not all going through the game at a similar speed, you will always feel like you're making people wait whenever you're doing your personal story bits. I remember racing through the storyparts of guild wars 2 and not retaining much of it because a friend that was outleveling me was waiting on the outside. I played the first half of Destiny 2 and didn't have this problem a lot, but it felt like that was mostly because the storybits were so simply stated that it just felt like each planet-trip had 1 objective and all the characters would only talk about this one objective until you make a trip to a new planet. It works, but it doesn't make you feel like there's an epic story unfolding neither.

So yeah, in the end it always feels like i'm making a sacrifice one way or another. I do think the flying looks pretty neat, and if they made the water react more to you skirting over it at high speeds, it could look & sound very enjoyable to make your way from water to water.

A little known fact: the real Destiny 2 is actually called Doki Doki Anthem ;)

Since I have a year of EA Origin Premier (blame drunken enthusiasm for Battlefield V for that genious purchase) - I tried Anthem for a couple of hours. The flying is fun, but the shooting is just "ok". I've loved BioWare storytelling in the past, but this game's story really isn't grabbing me in any way.

Also - the way it tries to force multiplayer is a turnoff. I don't have any RL friends that play this kind of game, and I've basically never had a good time playing with random people in any game like this ever. Partly because I'm kinda bad at this type of game - and don't want to mess up other people's playtime, and partly because I'm a fairly anxious dude. I have the same problem in games like Apex Legends.

I hope BioWare gets the resources to improve the game - It's not an unsalvageable mess like ME:A.

@cr0ssbow: Jeff didn't select the mission and instead went into quickplay which will put you in any mission that is already started and needs people. Hence why on his second attempt when he actually selects the mission it works fine. That menu is not the best UX though so I can see why people are having issues there.

@creutzfeldt:

I don't think you can hold random people back in this game. In the most recent beta all you really have to do is shoot bad guys. If you become separated from them at any point and get too far away from them, the game automatically warps you to where they are. There were missions where I didn't do anything except shoot aliens because the randoms I played with already knew the mission so they did everything.

IS it the Frostbite engine that's so bad that it causes endless loading screens or is it Bioware's implementation of it? The constant loading between everything is ripping me out of the game that I otherwise am enjoying pretty well.

@doncabesa: Respectfully... If the shooting isn't the focus of this game... what is? Boring seeming conversations with dull NPC's?

I haven't played the demo/beta and I haven't watched much of Anthem so I could be very wrong but really the shooting seems to be the main focus?

"Shaders in Destiny are hidden behind a paywall to some extent."

Huh? In both Destiny 1 & 2 I've always been drowning in free shaders, and have no idea what Brad is talking about here. There is a TINY set of "paid" shaders that are all readily available for free as well. I feel like Destiny has some of the most misunderstood microtransactions of any game, as they have never been intrusive, forced, or predatory in any way, and yet I still hear people talk about them in a negative context. It's so confusing.

Hm. I think this game has some potential (great sense of scale, neat art direction), but I feel like I should wait a few months for the first round of community feedback. If EA wants that shared-world shooter money, I’m hoping they’ll give Anthem room for course-correction; Destiny got much better as the community got more involved, and I’ve heard good things about how The Division evolved. Maybe not now—the shooting doesn’t quote look like my bag, and I’d like to see how the endgame shakes out—but I might wait for it to go on sale.

All of that being said, I’m not sure who this video is for. Like, I get that the enthusiasm about Anthem has mellowed at GB West, but I still don’t feel like I’m given what I need in order to make an informed choice about whether or not this game is for me. I never get a sense of what gameplay options are available or what the little moments outside of the main story are like. GB West doesn’t enjoy the game; that’s fine, but I don’t know whether or not I would share the same reservations, and I don’t know enough about the rest of the game to decide for myself. I get a sense that this game wasn’t given a good, honest chance to show off what it can do or how it plays, and that kind of perfunctory demonstration leaves me feeling under-served as a consumer.

I think what Brad is getting at is In Destiny shaders are a RNG drop even for the very basic stuff if you want something specific you have to buy it or wait and hope it drops sometime if ever, whilst in Anthem there are no drops for shaders / decals the basic stuff is just there only the premium quality stuff is what you pay for either with real cash or grind in game currency.

yeah, wish they would have just waited for a coop gameplay vid with people who actually wanted to play the game.

Man, this just looks/feels/sounds so lifeless. Maybe it's because I'm so used to Destiny, but the 3rd person camera makes it feel like everything is at arm's length. Destiny feels so visceral, enemy reactions to getting hit, gunplay, etc is just right in your face and feels so good. When I look at this, everything feels empty.

I sense a bit of bandwagon-ing going on in the comments which is pretty par for the course. Would be more into this personally if there was a good way to grind single player Diablo 3 style maybe with bot companions and not have to be laser-sharp skilled to hang with other players.

This has to be one of the buggiest games I’ve played in a good while. Fallen through areas that haven’t loaded in. Enemies or quest objectives don’t zone in. Getting spawned in locked off zones that I can’t escape. Just so many awful bugs I’m surprised they released it like this after all the time and pressure they had on this to be good.

I’m enjoying playing but it feels like it has no legs. Like every zone is the same jungle or grey ruins. The is a lack of enemy types that provide interesting encounters. The amount of times you have to load and their length is atrocious. It doesn’t help that the game can’t let you be further than a few feet from your partners before it rips you to a loading screen for being too far behind, when many times it would have been quicker to let me continue to catch up to them.

Fairly disappointed so far, but I hope it shakes out to be a fantastic game sooner rather than later because mech suits are cool and fun.

Generally I value Jeff's opinion on games... for some reason on this game... I feel like he is actively trying to dislike it. Like he is seeking for reasons to hate this game. In this video and in the podcasts he is picking every single detail about this game to dislike... even some that aren't there or are only part of the alpha/beta. It seems personal or something. Kind of annoying actually for somebody who enjoyed the beta (first time I've actually found feedback from Jeff annoying really).

I'm finding the number of people harping on about Jeff's apparent negative opinion pretty astonishing, since when have Quick Looks only been positive?

I'm not saying quick looks have to be positive at all. I have been following Giant Bomb since day 1... I've seen and heard it all. I actually didn't even read other people's comments, I just posted this after watching half the video and from the last couple Bombcasts. He seems supernaturally down on this game in a way that goes above and beyond the normal 'jaded Jeff' I am used to. He is treating this game like it killed his cat or something... it's like he decided he hated it about a year ago and it just waiting for it to suck. And maybe it does suck.. I don't know. More so than any other game though I've seen he seems to have a bone to pick on this one.

(as a reference.. I'm an old dude, I am married and have two kids and a cat a full time job in IT.... I don't have time to follow the Internet.. I don't know what 'people are saying' about this game... my opinions are based solely on my experience with the beta, my years listening to and watching Giant Bomb for years, and watching the video above and listening to recent Bombcasts).

Was this video recorded at a funeral?

This game seems just poised to "underperform". The bad taste of previous Bioware developed Andromeda (even though it was a different team), the luke-warm response to EA's BFV by players, and the overall feeling towards EA (outside of Apex Legends). At least I can say that I am not really interested. I bet I would play it if it was much cheaper, but no way I buy a loot game like this at this time.

This game looks spectacularly pedestrian. Pretty sure Bioware will not exist this time 2020.

Yes, Bioware's. *drum riff*

Wow this does not look like something I would want to play. What happened Bioware?

Hidden behind RNG and hidden behind a paywall are two very different things. I guess it's just odd to me that I constantly hear about Destiny having some horrible microtransaction system from GB and many other critics, but as someone who has played both games since launch, I have yet to see the system people describe.