Bioware's "Anthem"

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kaid

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look this is a f2p indie game not some AAA from a big dev house, cut these fellas some slack

Well given the history of these multiplayer looter shooters from AAA dev houses falling on your face out of the gate seems unfortunately par for the course. I am glad div 2 didn't but they failed massively on the laund of Div1 so they already took their lumps so they better fucking not make the same mistakes twice. Then you get destiny 1 and 2 where you have an example of a polished game but one lacking loot wise and content wise until half a year plus into their dev cycle. The fact that destiny 2 had the same fucking problems AGAIN made me want to pull my hair out but now its a really good and fun game. Its annoying that these games get launched early and flounder a bit initially but anthem is unfortunately pretty much middle of the pack launch wise so far. Plus side their communications are pretty good and speed of fixing bugs seems good so the live team seems active and willing to listen to people which is always a plus.
 

Qhue

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On a lark I decided to fire up Mass Effect 1 to see if I was just being overly nostalgic about the Bioware of the past.

While the nostalgia does hit hard with the music of the first game the game itself is still as solid as it ever was. Makes me wish they would do a proper remaster and even more salty about Anthem's confusing lack of plot.
 

kaid

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On a lark I decided to fire up Mass Effect 1 to see if I was just being overly nostalgic about the Bioware of the past.

While the nostalgia does hit hard with the music of the first game the game itself is still as solid as it ever was. Makes me wish they would do a proper remaster and even more salty about Anthem's confusing lack of plot.

Um anthems plot is really obvious and basic. You start the game failing to calm the heart of rage and the rest of the story is getting back up on your feet working to improve where you are at until you are strong enough to assault the heart of rage again and succeed where you initially failed. It covers that pretty easily it is not the most indepth story line ever but it is there. But being a continual game closing the heart of rage basically ends your origin story for your character but the world does not stop when that happens.
 

Qhue

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It's a very thin plot and one that never answers the questions of:

1) Why are humans on this moon?
2) Why do javelins work but computers don't exist and radio is short range at best
3) What is the Anthem?
4) Why do all these people have different accents despite from being in one small area of the moon
5) Who are these new big bads?

I mean it's great that they spend all this time on side conversations like the German fashion dude, but sheesh try and help the suspension of disbelief with some world building other than JJ Abrams Mystery Box bullshit
 
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Hosix

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It's a very thin plot and one that never answers the questions of:

1) Why are humans on this moon?
2) Why do javelins work but computers don't exist and radio is short range at best
3) What is the Anthem?
4) Why do all these people have different accents despite from being in one small area of the moon
5) Who are these new big bads?

I mean it's great that they spend all this time on side conversations like the German fashion dude, but sheesh try and help the suspension of disbelief with some world building other than JJ Abrams Mystery Box bullshit

I can answer #3. The Anthem is a pile of hot shit. We stepped in it.
 

Bandwagon

Kolohe
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It's a very thin plot and one that never answers the questions of:

1) Why are humans on this moon?
2) Why do javelins work but computers don't exist and radio is short range at best
3) What is the Anthem?
4) Why do all these people have different accents despite from being in one small area of the moon
5) Who are these new big bads?

I mean it's great that they spend all this time on side conversations like the German fashion dude, but sheesh try and help the suspension of disbelief with some world building other than JJ Abrams Mystery Box bullshit
I'll take a crack at #4...
2000px-BioWare_2018.svg.png

And add 6) Why are all the white men jesters, nazis and/or twinks?
 

kaid

Blackwing Lair Raider
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It's a very thin plot and one that never answers the questions of:

1) Why are humans on this moon?
2) Why do javelins work but computers don't exist and radio is short range at best
3) What is the Anthem?
4) Why do all these people have different accents despite from being in one small area of the moon
5) Who are these new big bads?

I mean it's great that they spend all this time on side conversations like the German fashion dude, but sheesh try and help the suspension of disbelief with some world building other than JJ Abrams Mystery Box bullshit


They do answer most of those although a lot of it happens in codex entries although unlike destiny at least the codex is available in game.

First humans don't know why they are on the moon because they were enslaved for a long time under ground on a world where the surface is constantly and randomly being altered. What history they had was all oral and highly fragmentary.

Javelins appear to be pure mechanical with some psychic linking. That is why your cypher is important its not radio that you are hearing it is them basically telepathically or something along that lines to your javelin. That is also why one of your original crew can't pilot his mech effectively any more. The mental trauma of the failed attempt at closing the heart of rage basically gave him a mental block that prevents him from fully linking with his javelin. This also is why that armor of dawn we captured allowed emo boy to pilot a javelin. He is still a shit pilot but that javelins interface was so efficient that even a shitty connection was enough for him to be able to use it functionally.

The anthem is mystery because again humans were imprisoned for centuries and all they have is myths and half truths and broken randomly activating disaster machines to explain it.

They were from different cave prison enclaves so forming of dialects seems pretty reasonable and expected due to centuries of losing contact with one another.

The new big bads were the creatures who originally imprisoned humanity that we defeated and thought we exterminated when the humans rose up in rebellion.
 
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goishen

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*sigh*

BioWare fucked this story from the get go. If it's called Anthem, I had better learn WTF the anthem is in the first act.

This seems like a really creative guy (like Tim Burton) or a really really fucking dense guy. Same difference. Some people will be able to see nuance in the characters, and the rest of us "just don't understand".

Either that or a some insane thought experiment. Maybe both. Maybe somebody at BioWare came up with this thought experiment, handed it off to his retarded brother (or sister (actually, fuck that, no woman could come up with a story this shitty)) that nobody understands.
 
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kaid

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*sigh*

BioWare fucked this story from the get go. If it's called Anthem, I had better learn WTF the anthem is in the first act.

This seems like a really creative guy (like Tim Burton) or a really really fucking dense guy. Same difference. Some people will be able to see nuance in the characters, and the rest of us "just don't understand".

Either that or a some insane thought experiment. Maybe both. Maybe somebody at BioWare came up with this thought experiment, handed it off to his retarded brother (or sister (actually, fuck that, no woman could come up with a story this shitty)) that nobody understands.

Stuff like this is how we wound up with midichlorians.
 
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spronk

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i finished the campaign and tried to read most of what i came across and i had no idea of any of the stuff kaid typed, lol
 
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kaid

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i finished the campaign and tried to read most of what i came across and i had no idea of any of the stuff kaid typed, lol

It is a bit like destiny the story is more coherent but a lot of it is still in the journal stuff but at least anthem put the journal stuff in the game not some out of game website.
 
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a c i d.f l y

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...and yet... what story. It's like 1/5 of a story. It has no beginning, missing a lot of the middle, no climax, and no ending. It has characters with somewhat of a location and setting.... this isn't Minecraft, we can't build the rest.
 
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Vlett

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I'm not invested into the story, but I'm still loving the action. Still having the yellow problem, but I'm playing consistently.
 
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Xexx

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I am gonna wait till Y2 when the game is finally a game worth playing. By then combat will be even better, loot wont be so depressing and the legendary items will have unique assets.
 
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Cybsled

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First humans don't know why they are on the moon because they were enslaved for a long time under ground on a world where the surface is constantly and randomly being altered. What history they had was all oral and highly fragmentary.

So basically it is Stargate. The Gou'ald enslaved humans, then the Jaffa rebelled and got to keep some tech.
 
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kaid

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I think technically division 2 is a better more full fledged game as this. But cover base shooters really don't have a lot of sticking power for me. I find myself firing up anthem even as wonky as it is more than division 2. If they can fix the looter part of this shooter I think they may have something but depends how much of their player base they lose before that happens.
 
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