I also think that Bioware cut the content too much for their own good. A big miscalculation from their part. Wasn't there some picture of planned Anthem releases? I doubt this is all that they have come up with during these year.
Nah, they didn't cut content. If they did, a lot more would be on the road map now - especially considering the launch reception.
They bit over more than they could chew, and - in retrospect - they were in over their heads with this one.
I won't drone on about the challenges of developing an entirely new IP and adapting an engine like Frostbite for something as complicated as a cooperative multiplayer game that has the most absurdly responsive and mobile movement I've ever seen in a game. Beyond that, the asset fidelity is at the highest of levels - and creating big chunks of content in a game like this takes much, much longer than you might assume if you compared it to games like, say, Warframe - which is essentially a lego-like structure with an engine that was developed around that particular game.
Also, they might have started development - on some level - 6 years ago, but I think it's pretty clear that they haven't been in full development for that long.
Seems to me that they've iterated a lot and changed a lot, which is just how modern game development works when you're trying to come up with something special and new.
The expectation of a polished multiplayer game with endless content on this level - on a first attempt - might be reasonable from the point of view of an entitled consumer, but it's just not what happens in the real world.
If you look at Destiny and Division - at launch - they were incredibly barebones in several ways, and they had their share of issues.
I will grant that Destiny was more polished but it had next to zero content - and Division felt more complete, but certainly can't compare in terms of the core gameplay.
Some people call Anthem the perfect storm - which is the culmination of consumer expectations combined with consumer dissatisfaction with modern big-time publishers - and I think there's some truth to that.
Again, I'm not kidding around when I'm saying this game is doing certain things that go way beyond what other games ever did within this segment.
In fact, I will go so far as to say the majority of critics out there have been too fast on the trigger, and that the level of quality inherent in things like the combat and the movement only really becomes apparent after you've played a while and you feel just how responsive the game can be.
You'd think such things would be obvious - but they're really not - at least not unless you have a very significant amount of experience and desire to dig deeper.
The nuances of the movement and the arsenal of class distinct diversity go beyond something the average critic would pick up on in the first few hours of play.
I've never seen so many "I'm loving the game, what's the problem?" threads for any other game on Reddit - and I've followed a LOT of them.
We live in a weird culture when it comes to modern critics and YT celebrities.
In any case, I can't get the game and the critical reception to match up - no matter how hard I try.
I'm usually pretty good at accepting that sort of thing, but in this case it's too off. Something just isn't adding up.
Anyhow fun to read your observations Dart, even though I'm not playing this.
I guess that's always something. I don't think Anthem would be getting much attention around here even if it was rated 10/10 by all critics.
The Watch just isn't a place for modern games and evolutions of genres like this.