amazon Anthem reviews
The achievements that Bioware has achieved in more than two decades cannot really be measured. They built their names so well that every time they were named, everyone immediately thought of “the role-playing game guys have a great story!”. But they always preserve that quality in their own name, but never turn it into a recipe.
Bioware’s game may have never been considered more complex and in-depth than any competitor of the same genre, as well as rarely broke the sales charts, but the influence of their name is undeniable. They are an example, a source of inspiration for countless game lovers, artists and, of course, young game makers. They are torchbearers who lead the group groping inside the dark train lines of contemporary Western RPGs. They have left a great legacy that many video game titles today must thank.
And now with Anthem, they are no longer a standard builder, they are pursuers of the trend. Simply, because no dynasty can exist forever …
If you have to describe the content of the games from Bioware, you can use phrases like: ambition, full of greatness, greatness, and … starting in quite similar ways. In Baldur’s Gate, the player’s motive is motivated by the death of his foster father shortly after leaving Candlekeep not long. In Neverwinter Nights, you directly witness the collapse of Neverwinter castle and the raging pandemic of Wailing Death. In Knights of the Old Republic, you – an unnamed soldier, wake up on a Republican ship the moment it is attacked by the Sith. In Mass Effect, Shepard witnesses the prospect of Reaper returning to the galaxy’s annex in the near future. In Dragon Age: Origins, Warden must stop the invasion of Darkspawn … they all have one thing in common, which is to bring players directly into the conflict that occurs throughout the content of the game.
Anthem, basically, starts the same way. You are a Freelancer – mercenaries who are in charge of dealing with all forces threatening humanity outside walls. But the Freelancer team failure in the task of disabling the Heart of Rage disaster, taken by the act of appropriating the Cenotaph relic of the Dominion faction at Freemark capital, made people’s faith in them should be so shaky that it cannot be welded. And you set yourself new goals, that is to eliminate the raging of Heart of Rage, as well as regain the honor of fallen Freelancers.
Anthem’s beginning with a premise is not bad at all. The problem is, it is told to players in two cutscenes about 10 minutes long.
The first mistake that Bioware had, was … not the beginning of Anthem’s story in the event of the war at Freemark. The main Freelancer is actually involved in another general attack of Heart of Rage with about 20 allies, the campaign failed miserably and left only three survivors. The story then leaps two years to Tarsis stronghold, where our freelancers have heard about the day when Freemark collapsed as if it had never been told before. Beginning loosely and ignoring the rarely opportunity to cling to the connection between the main character and an event that plays a central role in the premise of the story, Bioware simply steps away from first road segment.
The rest of Anthem’s content, unfortunately, is not much better. The main plot of the game is about 15 to 18 hours long, but is led at such an unstable pace that the writer is not sure whether to decide if it lacks at least 5 hours or needs another 10 hours to create. Should be a stable script. Story lines can be described in the following way: you are asked to help -> you seek help -> you find something that can solve the problem -> what matters to the problem … problem -> you find plan B -> confront the main antagonist. This structure is not to be blamed if Anthem does not present every milestone in the extremely normal, nor does it bother to impose conflicts that ultimately do not satisfy satisfactorily.
Anthem’s world possesses many interesting concepts worth exploring, such as Manifold is an artifact of the Shaper creators, carrying the ability to amplify the nature of all objects, including living entity; Cataclysm is an unstable weather phenomenon that can turn wild life, shake earth and earth and cause waterfalls to flow backwards; Cataclysm can be suppressed by Echo globes possessing so much internal energy that they cannot be controlled. Bioware tried to create for Anthem the new science fiction motifs, which may not be very practical and always 100% logical but it is hard to deny that they are not creative, to deserve the premise of “a product unfinished products of the gods ”. But when creating the main story of the game, Bioware left them aside to favor the most clichéd script patterns possible: evil people express evil by … becoming stronger, where the ban can be accessed with a convenient “savior”, and more.
Even worse, despite his popularity with the game’s master character build, Bioware lost that label completely in Anthem. We are facing a catastrophe that threatens the survival of a whole world, and around Freelancer are people who have high positions but act like children, always playing and joking even when The life of innocent people is weighing millions of hair. One of the sub-characters keeps the smallest reason to face the main character, while the Haluk – Faye duo is simply the biggest bright spot of the game but there is not enough acting land for us and we also There is no chance to learn more about them. The heroes in Anthem do not overcome any significant obstacles, the task they give players faintly unbelievable, the goals that players pursue are not only vague but lacking impact, then what reason do we have to care about? Glory from this struggle is too easy-going?
In another move, perhaps Bioware recognized the main villain owning the engine and the plan as flat as the LCD screen so he gave him the title “Monitor”.
In the end, the content was bad but the presentation of the content did not help reduce the “pain” to experience Anthem’s story at all. Remember when Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was released in 2003, Bioware made the world admire the display of “choreographed” conversations with flexible swirling swirls, It depends on the person involved. It has opened a new standard of modern 3D role-playing games, where the conversation now has the opportunity to take advantage of cinematography to create unique communication in particular, and open wide language of video games in general.
For Anthem, Bioware neglected one of its greatest legacies. Instead of the dialogue that is specified in a third perspective with the technique of creating multiple frames through “cropping” the camera angle, talking to the NPC is completely encapsulated in the first view. You stand in front of them, witnessing them swing their hands while dancing to the topic while you are unlucky. You now have only two options for saying the words in each response, and their differences can be described as using two forefinger and one to flip the page, or licking the index finger to flip the page. It is extremely tedious and makes the conversations, which are written quite boring, become true torments. And remember that a game with a budget of less than 20 million Euros, owns 10 times the number of conversations than Anthem, can carry out dialogue in a standard third-party view.
Anthem is a “looter shooter” game, a branch of the modern ARPG that is made up of Warframes, Destiny and Tom Clancy’s The Division with each game owned strengths. But it still has plenty of room for a game to balance both content and gameplay. But with Anthem’s plot being thrown into the trash, it lost 50% of its advantages.
As mentioned in the original article, Anthem brings the feeling of shooting, general control is smooth. Skating, flying, skating in the sky are all packed in each button, and the mouse control is much better than the VIP Demo. But now when the official version of the game arrives, it doesn’t take long to expose the biggest flaws in its gameplay.
The writer is really surprised that in a game that allows players to hover over stations, Anthem does not ask to take advantage of any factor from that mechanism in direct combat. You can hover in the air, especially useful for Storm, taking the best view to drop all the rainbow colors on the enemy soldiers’ heads, and so on. Gliding is only used to move quickly from the starting point to the next area of the mission. Pushing people only to do one job is to help Javelin slide a short distance to hide in the barrier quickly. The game gives players the tools to increase the mobility of the Javelin, but the Javelin does not really need to take advantage of that mobility in combat. 95% of the time playing as Storm, the writer only repeats the same sequence: press Space to jump, press C to hover in the air, and repeatedly press Q and E to release the move to the top of the enemy. If you are looking for a “fuzzy” system, have depth and require mastering personal skills like Warframes, or at least make you consider the battle position as in The Division, then 100% you will be disappointed with Anthem.
But wait! It is a play in the main campaign phase. After level 30, you will be taken to the Endgame stage with the three highest levels of difficulty the Grandmaster is open. Here, Anthem becomes more difficult to force players to play games in style … shooting like Gears of War. Why? Because to compensate for the dull AI system, they are now capable of breaking armor and draining your blood with just two shots, while you spend about 150 Autocannons to take out a sniper. The writer hopes that you enjoy spending two-thirds of the time hiding behind a barrier in a game that allows you to fly like Iron Man if you want to experience these “challenges.”
The RPG system in the post-Jade Empire games of Bioware has little depth, but most are designed quite closely. With Anthem, character building has no quality. The game doesn’t have a personal skill board for Freelancer, but every upgrade you collect is for Javelin, with six components, two slots for special skills, one equipment support and two weapons.
The only “unique” feature in this system, which is the two special skills that you assign to Javelin, can create combos in battle through Primer and Detonator. You “dry” the enemy with Primer skill, they are subject to elemental or physical impact, then release the Detonator skill and they will dissolve faster than using common skills. The problem is, maybe the game doesn’t match the type of elemental effect, so no matter which skill you choose, you can create combos, as long as using Primer -> Detonator is fine. Some elements such as electricity can draw enemy shields better, some extra combo effects from each type of Javelin are more effective than single enemies, but in general this system doesn’t really make players use more brain in combat, even at GM difficulty.
In terms of weapons, Anthem possesses eight types of weapons with six “rare” levels that match their quality, but to be honest, only the highest-level Masterwork versions are worth mentioning because they possess several Unusual characteristics compared to lower rarity versions. Military equipment in Anthem is not only intrinsically tedious (the fictional world with all kinds of advanced exosuit does not have an energy gun?), But the Inscription is randomly assigned to make the writer frown. Many times: an LMG for some reason can increase 15% of the handgun ammunition automatically, an item not for Colossus will increase Autocannon’s index which is a weapon only possible used by Colossus, increased physical damage on equipment that supports the bullet barrier, or even increased accuracy when shooting from a hip (hipfire) with a sniper rifle – the problem here is that the game doesn’t let you snipe without turning on the aim.
Anthem is also one of the titles that enjoys numbers and terms, but doesn’t explain those numbers and terms well. The features from the equipment as well as the index in the game are displayed in the way that “only the new game understands” – the gear icon next to the Inscription indicates that this feature applies only to that item, if it is The body icon will apply to the entire Javelin, but the game doesn’t reveal it!
The writer encounters a number of very poorly described features, such as what is the basic + 20% speed of a special skill, “what is fundamental” when the game does not indicate the original index. of this move? Why not use “cooldown reduction” like any game with any other brain? Are damage from weak points and critical damage both separate or similar? Luck increases the chance of getting Legendary or Masterwork, but does the game never extract a few words to annotate it?
The way Bioware does not bother to put in Anthem a current Javelin specific index that makes players guess what each piece of equipment is really unacceptable. How much javelin really has “buffalo”, how much damage both physical and elemental, how much cooldown is reduced, how much DPS of weapons … and more. The Gear Level does not reflect the status of the Javelin and is not helpful for players in optimizing their Javelin construction.
The breathtaking jungle scenery in Anthem makes it possible to enjoy the air in the sky. But that feeling gradually faded away when the quests in the game started coming.
Even if you perform the task in the main storyline, one of the World Event events that appears in a certain position in the world opens (similar to Public Event in Destiny), or Stronghold – three missions with a unique structure. lasting about 15-20 minutes (similar to Strike in Destiny), they all take place in a single pattern: fighting -> performing the task assigned -> repeating twice more. Even if you are protecting a group of people trapped inside the Strider, or collecting pieces of Echo to quell the activity of a holy relic Shaper, you will still have to smash a bunch of Scar or Bandit, then gather in a suit for a few dozen seconds, or find a beacon-based object four directions above the screen. The only moments that can make a player really stop in Anthem, are probably some of the tasks required to match the switch icon to the icon placed somewhere in the surroundings.
Although allowing players to fly with pleasure, Anthem is also delighted … cramming players into narrow corridors and paths, or the paths between the missions are so long that you can’t help but land in the middle to reduce heat load. Structure tedious tasks, tedious game screen design, Anthem is very interesting to push players into plus “other” behavior. For example, sometimes your teammates go up to the next area too quickly, causing the game to automatically close the previous area and let you get stuck until the automatic notification screen moves to the location teammate.
This message will also become the player’s closest friend because it will cling to you just like Mr. X: Trying to catch up with your teammates at the mission position? Too bad, this message will obscure Javelin’s heat and hit your game loading screen if you don’t catch up, even if you’re only two seconds away from them. Even if you are defeated, the game will be able to revive you somewhere on the other side of the Earth (having to sit and wait through a game loading screen) and because you are too far away, you will have to be teleported later. (waiting for one more time). Is it difficult for players to choose to move by pressing the button?
It’s not the only thing that pushes the pace of the player experience in Anthem. Most ARPG games will maximize the amount of time that players take part in the main gameplay loop, they will stop when they want to stop or when the game reaches the right time to stop. No one wants to find some good stuff that is forced to stop playing before being tested.
where can you get a Anthem online
Anthem – PlayStation 4: Buy it now
Anthem: Legion of Dawn Edition – PlayStation 4: Buy it now
Anthem (PS4): Buy it now
Anthem: Official Collector’s Edition Guide: Buy it now
This is a difficult habit for Anthem. Most of the in-game activities, from Contract, the main task to Stronghold are counted as “Expeditions”, once you join Expedition, you can only play in its framework and be forced to move. about Tarsis stronghold to continue another Expedition. You cannot perform multiple tasks at once, then go back to Tarsis to pick up the following, because there is no way to get quests in Freeplay mode (free play outside the open world). So there will be times when you have to sit up to four game loading screens just to cross a Contract for about 5 to 7 minutes, about Tarsis, it takes a lot of time to walk with the speed of running super bull to talk to the NPCs scattered here and there. Freeplay in the game is extremely meaningless when you can’t do anything except spread on the map to find treasure chests or join the World Event.
Another point makes the writer frown even more, that is the in-game activities do not bring any reward. In fact, the experience points that players receive after each Expedition are measured by your behavior during the game, while new items and weapons fall from treasure boxes or enemies. The designs used to make weapons or parts will appear after performing the following when leveling up the Faction, and the missions? Surely they don’t give you anything. New weapons? Is not. Coin used to buy decorations for Javelin? Is not. Experience points? Is not. Once completed, the mission is removed from the game’s diary and … all.
The last question the writer asked for Bioware: what did they do within 6 years of developing Anthem? A AAA product with a price of US $ 60 only owns an open world with a small scale and a repeating landscape, designing missions more stereotypical than MMORPG, the depth of battle is the “zero” number. plump, the plot is characterized by super amateurs, and above all – the extreme lack of content. They didn’t learn anything from The Division and Destiny, which was further revealed by Anthem’s Endgame stage.
What the game wants players to do after reaching level 30, the randomly created Contractes (which are actually sequential World Events) and the three Stronghold play levels at the GM level – and the score The most ridiculous: the third Stronghold mission called “The Heart of Rage” essentially reproduces the entire last mission in the main storyline, from the location, the battle area, the boss, and the conversation, the only The most cut off is the last cut scene.
Yes, Anthem’s Endgame content is that much. Not to mention the very limited number of Masterwork equipment in terms of art and utility, why the game dares to ask players to plow better but does not provide enough new content to challenge both the equipment’s skills player? There is no Raid, no Incursion, no PvP, not even a “fashion race”, what Anthem brings to the community are empty promises of new content “will arrive in the following months” . Spending $ 60 to buy a fully-featured game on this day next year, is this the biggest joke of the year for the joke made by Bioware and EA?