One of the most disappointing games this year is without a doubt Anthem. Ever since it first released, it was plagued with issues. The game’s mechanics are great. Flying around in mech suits like you’re Iron Man is a blast for hours. Certain environmental aspects also look beautiful.
Still, there are points where the game lacks focus. There isn’t really much of a story, and the missions that you do end up completing seem half-baked and get tiresome after a while. The cosmetic upgrades in Anthem are also poor. You can spend money on suit upgrades, but they don’t look all that different than the default aesthetics that your character starts out with.
So why have these challenges been present in a game that initially looked promising? Kotaku, the gaming website, recently put out a report explaining some of the issues that occurred during development.
In it, the report describes Anthem as being rushed from the start. Even the name Anthem wasn’t originally planned. Instead, the game was supposed to be called Beyond. However, obtaining rights to this name proved to be too difficult. This decision is pretty much Anthem in a nutshell.
As you might expect, BioWare — the developer of this game — wasn’t too happy with what they read.
They had this to say regarding the report, ”As a studio and a team, we accept all criticisms that will come our way for the games we make, especially from our players. The creative process is often difficult. The struggles and challenges of making video games are very real. But the reward of putting something we created into the hands of our players is amazing.”
The developer went on to say, ”People in this industry put so much passion and energy into making something fun. We don’t see the value in tearing down one another, or one another’s work. We don’t believe articles that do that are making our industry and craft better.”
It’s clear that BioWare and its employees were under tremendous crunch pressure. The game was in development for years, and Electronic Arts pushed for a release sooner than the game was actually ready for. Also, the miscommunication between departments seems to be apparent here. It’s unfortunate because Anthem had the chance to be an amazing game. Instead, it’s an expensive shell of a game that probably will be passed up by a lot of gamers.
Hopefully, BioWare can see where they went wrong and adjust their tactics going forward.
