[ad_1]
It's just a little bit of history that repeats itself. Or Anthem the publisher Electronic Arts hopefully hopefully.
destiny had a rock throwing too, you see. His movement and shooting seemed good at first, but the RPG elements that allowed players to play for three-digit hours were overwhelming and undercooked. In those early days, people loved to play destinybut few really understood it.
Then, lightning struck.
Two weeks after launch, the Vault of Glass raid was released. This outstanding event promised the best booty, but at a cost: it required six players to beat, and finishing the game meant solving a series of cooperative puzzles while facing the toughest and most imaginative opponents of the game at the same time. time.
That did not solve all the problems, but Vault of Glass gave destiny players something to achieve. And honestly? It was enough. The heaviest layers of rules and systems would be refined over time (after tons comments from the players), but the raid gave destiny exactly what was missing: the goal.
Five years later, Anthem, from BioWare, the famous creator of Dragon Age and Mass Effect, is struggling to find the same footing, even if the strengths of this new game await you to the skin. At the moment, nothing in modern video games beats the frantic joy of hovering across the sky in your Iron Man-esque Javelin and raining hell on extraterrestrial enemy mobs. struggling to fight back.
welcome to Anthem
The first 10 hours of Anthem are defined by these thrills. Commands click quickly, even in a more complex keyboard-mouse configuration, and an extended tutorial turns the exposure of the beginning of the game into two hours. Regarding all the unclear systems I've mentioned? Not even a concern that much later.
The only sensible choice you have to make from the start is your Javelin, although it definitely sets the tone for what is coming. There are four different types of Bleach, each with different playing styles, from Colossus heavily armored to oversized pistol to quick and agile interceptor, which excels in hit-and-run tactics. (There's also the Storm, which unveils by far the elemental magic of space, and the Ranger, a kind of well-balanced hangman.)
You choose your Javelin just after a Ranger-only tutorial, and you're told right away that it's something you're going to be stuck with for a while. (Subsequent Javelins unlock at levels 8, 16, and 26, although such details are unclear before.)
Without touching any of the other combinations, having to make a split second decision before you can play, you feel paralyzed. For many, this will mean a jump to a web browser, perhaps even YouTube, so that an informed choice can be made. But all the exercise speaks to one of the AnthemThe fundamental problems: this is not explained very well.
Your javelin is just the beginning. Each of the costumes can level up. Your pilot, the person inside the suit who can walk around and discover the story between the missions in a place called Fort Tarsis, also gets up to speed. There are factions that are leveling up. There is something called Alliance Levels that is leveling up. For what purpose? This is not immediately clear.
At the moment, nothing in modern video games beats the joy of skyrocketing in your javelin.
Even for your pilot, the leads to AnthemThe most basic unlocking (more javelins, more slots for weapons / gear, etc.), BioWare took a non-standard approach. Most video game players understand that to advance in a role-playing game, you have to gain experience, or XP, by fighting enemies, completing missions, and progressing in the story. This is not quite the case in Anthem, however.
There is still XP, but you will only get it by completing specific challenges. These challenges vary from activity to activity and, as far as I know, you can only see them in your Game Journal once you have started an activity. Even in this case, it's not necessarily clear what challenges you need to pursue – there are sub-menus on the submenus in the Journal – or how much XP you get for each.
The challenges themselves are simple enough that you often meet them by accident, only during the normal course of the game. But the lack of clarity is the real problem. You could move faster, but nothing really tells you where to look or how to understand what you are looking at. I realized that I had to upgrade myself after a friend went through it.
This is just one example, obviously glaring. Anthem is littered with rules that remain completely unexplained, but there is something particularly shocking in an RPG that does not tell you clearly how to level up. Not that it counts at the beginning. You are so busy managing with AnthemThe mechanical joys to notice. But then you reach time 10 (or more), and some realities begin to settle.
Uneven grind
At the tenth hour, you start to realize that AnthemThe quests feel a bit like this. This is not an illusion. The narrative context changes constantly, but the tasks actually placed in front of you are drawn from a surprisingly limited pool.
Sometimes you get in a circle and defend yourself while a meter fills up. Other times, you follow an on-screen tracking device to collect coins or collect floating "echo" keys that you transmit to a central locking mechanism. There are also goals to "kill all that is" and boss fighting straight.
The problem is that when you face the same five or six basic puzzles and solutions, during more than 30 hours of story missions, everything starts to blend. Why do you collect echoes for the nth time? Can you even remember?
(There is also another open middle-party quest that is linked to four separate Journal challenges, which is poorly explained and has already been torn apart as a major stumbling block for all players.)
At the tenth hour, you start to realize that AnthemThe quests feel a bit like this.
This is a disconcerting approach for BioWare, a studio that has a story so rich in history and gameplay marriage. Anthem divorce instead. All the important moments of the characters are relegated to Fort Tarsis, where your perspective shifts to the first person and where the action gives way to interpersonal chatter.
This separation has some sense for the game. Anthem apparently wants to be, of course. the Destiny-Grind style for ever better loot is supposed to carry you well beyond the bounds of intrigue. Fort Tarsis is here for all your story needs, so you can let yourself go and just to play once you get dressed.
It's also completely useless. AnthemThe punched plot of is sown with questionable motivational characters and unearned twists. When an ally betrays you late in the game, his reasoning is comparable to that of a five-year-old girl. And when that character reappears a few hours later, ready to help for whatever reason, your own freelancer is pretty cool with him.
Do not even get me started on the final boss and next cutscene, which solves the story with all the subtlety of a disconnected power cord. (This comparison is more relevant than you think, believe me.)
If you manage to persevere despite all the headaches of history and all the unnecessary obstacles to progression – probably a commitment of 30 hours minimum – you will be rewarded AnthemThe end of the game There are new contracts to pursue, as well as the highest master and legend booty you will get mainly with the newly unlocked Grandmaster difficulty settings.
It's here that everything really s & # 39; collapses.
A big (master) mess
AnthemThe idea of higher difficulty challenges comes down to enemies who have more health and do more damage. This is not a sin in itself, but all the toughest encounters – most are relegated to high-level Stronghold missions – effectively cancel AnthemThe greatest strengths of.
The strongholds of the fortress and boss battles regularly steal enemies that make flying virtually impossible, even for a few seconds. Anthem the fight is literally built around mobility. All Javers behave differently, and some work even better in the field. But having the ability to hit the jets and fly at full speed at all times or attack from the top is an integral part of the tactical game of Anthem.
This ability disappears in each of the reversal fights of the final phase. This is not just the damage you suffer when you are fully exposed in mid-flight, although it is painful too. It's also the fact that the enemies never seem to be missing and that many of their attacks can overheat the jets of your Javelin, which kills your ability to fly.
When you associate this with a boss with a seemingly bottomless health pool, the only sensible strategy is to find a protective element, to hide behind and to nibble the boss until you reach the end of the day. ;he falls. The biggest of these bosses are not even susceptible to combos, one of the most advanced features of Anthemis the fight.
Players have already begun to determine how to use the system.
Such a boss fight took me 40 minutes to clear. My team did not play a single game on the screen even once; we spent our all 40 minutes in the boss room to perform this windblowing maneuver. There was no strategy, no real thought required. Also not fun. We were all too happy with this fortress. So the fight apparently worked out as planned.
Players have already begun to determine how to use the system. If you make a match in a particular fortress, you will quickly find that the squads play in the first two drops of loot, and then they stop before the last stretch of the boss. This is not an accident the players have discovered how to "cultivate" the Fortress for loot purposes, because playing the game as planned is a chore. It's a difficult start.
There are a lot of bugs too. Loading bugs, graphics, performance bugs, etc. I do not want to spend too much time dealing with the individual problems that I have encountered, because these are the problems that BioWare will strive to solve quickly.
It's an important thing to remember, too: Anthem It's a great game with (the studio probably hopes) a long life in front of him. It was a whole year before the first destiny really found his foot. I think it's important to get to know the problems Anthem is facing, but much of his current problem – even the approach of the difficulties of the final game – can be corrected over time.
This is also where we return to my starting point. destiny did not survive because the players gave the benefit of the doubt to an unequal match. He survived because there was a rewarding experience to find despite other issues. I am not sure Anthem to that.
Where is the finale?
The basic mechanics, by which I hear the basic actions of flying and shooting, is great. The arsenal is smaller than it could be and does not evolve much as you deepen the game, but every firearm you recover has a power unique. Even the upgrade and battle rules, unclear at first glance, become sticky as you master them.
All this is the substance of AnthemFoundation undeniably solid. But it does not make sense. No moment of glass vault on the horizon as far as the eye can see. BioWare has released a roadmap for development outlining what to expect in the coming months, but the details are frustrating.
It can be intentional. Games like Anthem and destiny live and die by their communities. BioWare needs people to play Anthem before you can understand what's wrong with the game and how to fix it. But I would also say that some of the problems we encountered should have been anticipated. This is no longer 2014. destiny began by popularizing a new subgenre, but five years later, players are tackling these types of games with intrinsic expectations.
That's where Anthem failed. It sounds like a game that invites you to spend hundreds of hours for loot, but that does not reward that work enough. Having all the best equipment does not change the fact that AnthemThe most difficult challenges are the "sponge" bosses who depend on patience rather than tactics.
You will see a lot of chatter in the coming weeks about AnthemLong loading times and buggy performance. Everything is true But it is also a temporary situation, and not necessarily the reason to stay out of the way. Even in its current state, it's worth it for 30 hours here, as long as you can go beyond the dull mission design and absurd twists – which I've done with joy.
The real problem is the lack of purpose. Why does this game exist? What kind of experience is he trying to deliver? This may not be destinybut Anthem is a similar breed of online game and he needs fans to get on board. BioWare will never be a deeply committed community if it can not give this community something to achieve.
[ad_2]
Source link