Anthem Demo - Load To Nowhere (Jimpressions)

Jim. You were far too kind to this game. The demo was free and I still want my money back. The UI is the worst console port I've ever seen from Bioware, I feel like the UI is a harder enemy to defeat than the ones in the game. The gameplay has all the problems that Andromeda multiplayer did, with the movement and boosting. The customisation options are just doll dress-up for boys, and the bullet sponging is worse than Division on release, before they had to patch it. This is the purest example of Games-as-a-Disservice yet.

Tailen

I know. It sounds more like a paintgun firing line than a gun, and I sure don't see a suppressor or anything. Giant mecha suits, weenie guns... Although I admit at least the jetpack mechanic looks useful.

Trevor Bond

Bioware shooters always seem to have that weird popgun feeling and sound to them. Some of the assault rifles in the ME games sound big and powerful, but most of them just sound like beans rattling around in a can, and it rarely has anything to do with how good the gun is.

Adam McKinney Souza

Listening to the machine gun fire is um... disappointing. I mean wow. That sounds like the least impactful assault rifle ever. 'putputputputputputputputputputput!'

Trevor Bond

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzMuuhHuurgGGH! Sorry, I fell asleep to the dulcet tones of Jim's voice there. What game we're we talking about again? I hope folks can forgive me for not being hugely excited about Anthem. I basically never had any interest in any kind of team based year 2000's-onwards sci-fi shooter, particularly when it's online. But even if it wasn't being released by EA and it wasn't online and I wasn't utterly suspicious of the games long-term execution, I think I'd struggle to find anything interesting about Anthem. I realize this is a wholly subjective thing and I apologize if anyone loves games like Warframe, Destiny or Halo etc. (whenever new games get released in this particular genre my brain tends to automatically assume they are Halo until the trailer/advert says otherwise, including this one) but something about the look and feel of many 00's era sci-fi shoot em' ups just bores me to death. It all looks like the same armoured human dudes fighting the same variety of armoured alien dudes and hive spider monsters and quadrupedal tank robots over and over again. Also (and I'll admit this might just be a mega niche problem for me and about two other weirdos) is anybody else sick of it always being humans versus every other species? Warhammer 40k got the whole "destroy the xenos" thing right because within that settings given lore it made grim but inevitable sense, humans are bastards in 40k too. I'm personally done with that being the norm in warring sci-fi settings though. Would anybody else want to see more games where humans work and live alongside numerous other species? Or perhaps even act as the games antagonists?

Freakish Uproar

I played a bit this weekend and didn't expect much from it... but I actually really liked it. The combat feels a lot more fun than Destiny 2 to me. Ran into a few glitches and the servers were having issues which seemed to cause the infinite loading screens, but I was mostly playing outside peak times and had a really good time.

Dan

Just like Destiny 2, I will wait 3 months after release to see the state of the game.

noxamillion

Having recently replayed some DA:I and ME3 multiplayer, I was reminded that they can actually make quite good multiplayer modes. Even the support after release was always great, continual additions of new maps, modes, mechanics and classes. Suddenly made the decision to have Bioware make a mp-only game somewhat less insane to me. Still mostly insane though. I'd wager it'll be pretty good, better than most of the competition even, but I don't see myself paying money for it when I can just continue playing Warframe. Especially since EA monetisation tactics have gotten grubbier and grubbier as you've mentioned as well.

Hansbert Emmer

I'm glad you mentioned Tribes, because watching the demos of people playing made me think it's basically a modernized version of Tribes.

Michael Reddin

It looks like Destiny and Warframe had a baby...

You may wish to proofread things a bit, but the video is great

Thomas Halpin

This ... looks .... amazing! I worry about the jet packing flying though as I was terrible at Tribes and I am a really bad gamer so yeah very worried I won't be able to enjoy what looks like will be a great game.

Sean DeMarco

It's just Warframe with a $60+ initial buy in.

Brendan K McBride