Ah, Anthem. Where to begin? The looter-shooter that was once proclaimed to be the “Destiny-killer” released in early 2019. Since its release, the game has been panned by critics and gamers alike. With developers leaving the project and moving elsewhere, the belief from many was that Anthem would be abandoned by EA/BioWare. That was until a report from Kotaku back in November.
In the Kotaku report, it was said that Anthem would undergo a significant overhaul in just about every phase of the game. A recent blog post from BioWare’s Casey Hudson has seemingly confirmed this report. Here’s what the studio had to say about the future of Anthem:
“Over the last year, the team has worked hard to improve stability, performance and general quality of life while delivering three seasons of new content and features. We have also heard your feedback that Anthem needs a more satisfying loot experience, better long-term progression and a more fulfilling end game. So we recognize that thereās still more fundamental work to be done to bring out the full potential of the experience, and it will require a more substantial reinvention than an update or expansion. Over the coming months we will be focusing on a longer-term redesign of the experience, specifically working to reinvent the core gameplay loop with clear goals, motivating challenges and progression with meaningful rewards ā while preserving the fun of flying and fighting in a vast science-fantasy setting. And to do that properly weāll be doing something weād like to have done more of the first time around ā giving a focused team the time to test and iterate, focusing on gameplay first.
In the meantime, we will continue to run the current version of Anthem, but move away from full seasons as the team works towards the future of Anthem. Weāll keep the game going with events, store refreshes, and revisiting past seasonal and cataclysm content ā starting with our anniversary towards the end of the month.”
Hudson also thanked the players who have stuck around and those who have provided feedback on the game since its troublesome launch.
Can Anthem Be Gaming’s Next Great Comeback Story?
That blog post confirms that Anthem will implement some huge changes, but we still don’t know what they’ll be. The earlier mentioned Kotaku report may provide a little more clarity. Here’s a snippet from that article:
āDetails on Anthem Next are hazy, but among other things, the gameās developers plan to overhaul the loot, the quests, the social aspects of the game, the difficulty, the progression system, and the world map. One person on the project said theyāre planning to change the gameās entire structure. Right now, the entire world of Anthem is set on a single contiguous map; separating the map into segments would allow developers to tweak and play around with those segments without worrying that they might create bugs and glitches all across the world. āWeāre also looking at breaking up the need to go back to [Fort Tarsis] after every mission,ā said the person, āand what a mission technically is. That was always a weird disconnect. [Weāre] trying to integrate the disparate parts of the game together.ā”
So, it seems that reports of Anthem’s “death” may have been greatly exaggerated. It’s going to take a ton of work and time but Anthem could potentially be gaming’s next great comeback story. Destiny, The Division, Rainbow Six: Siege, Sea of Thieves, and No Man’s Sky have all suffered from horrendous launches. Many people thought they would never find success and the studios should move on. We’ll see if Anthem will join those games or if those people were right declaring the looter-shooter dead on arrival.
What are your thoughts on Anthem? Would you return to the game with this major overhaul? Do you believe the game can make a comeback? Let us know in the comments below!