I thought this was the next Mass Effect at the time before release.... I really did, loved the mechanics but there was not much of a game story/lore unfortunately.
The fact that this game was abandoned still blows my mind. Controlling a javelin felt so good. I can't believe they didn't do whatever they had to in order to fix this games issues.
actually; there was tension between development studios. didn't want to share the work. which was due to management. i would have fired all the executives on these teams and replaced them .
not destiny killer. Nothing can kill destiny and nothing needs to. Destiny is an amazing game and this would have just been an alternative with a different setting and player perspective. They are different enough that neither would interfere with the other.@@jimjim1648
@@jimjim1648 Imagine if a studio like Bungie or Digital Extremes handled it, would be a nice game to play alongside destiny and warframe when both of those games goes into dry content weeks. Anthem would probably be still being updated to this day if a studio who knows live service handled it
@@jimjim1648 just like outriders amthem had the same fate sadly i love both games and they died way too soon but a destiny lol not even close but it would've been a real gem to play when there content drought
@@jimjim1648 It failed after the first month due to lots of bugs and late replies from the devs, and what really made the game die was them putting out a DLC at the same price as the base game on a still broken game. Greed = imminent failure.
Anthem feels like a group project were two of the members did their job flawlessly and all the other members remembered they had a presentation the night before, and threw it together as fast as possible.
The sad story is available to read, but the short version is that the people who had passion to create this game were so burned out that they left. All the people who actually created the game were at odds with leadership who couldn't provide a clear vision, so they kept having their work scrapped. It was a ship without a captain after Casey Hudson left, until they brought in Mark Darrah in the 11th hour to finish it up. He did an admirable job of pulling together something playable, but narratively there was nothing coherent to present. It was a hastily stitched together frankenstein. I think we all still want the Anthem that was promised at E3.
@@willmiddleton7932 warframe also looks like shit. i tried to play it, and the game is genuinely good, but the designs are all so fucking ugly that i felt i had nothing to grind for. the javelins scratched my halo/titanfall aesthetic itch so well.
The flight mechanics and aesthetics of this game are great. I was hopefully waiting for a refactor of the gameplay. Hope to get back to you one day, Anthem. With love, A fan
I still think about this game all the time. I was so excited for this up to release. I played the beta with a friend and had a great time with it. And now anytime I think about this game I just get depressed. The sheer amount of missed opportunity and disaster that makes up Anthem hurts my soul and I’ve never recovered. They’d probably get it right with a second go but that is never going to happen. Pain.
@@thathorrorshow4126 I saw it coming before launch. When your gimmick is Iron Man but then you turn around and limit the freedom, they nerfed it right before building the gate to let it come out of. They sabotaged their own crown idea through that overheat mechanic.
I think the fact that so many videos abut anthem get a lot of views proves this game had so much potential and a lot of people were hoping a day would come where it would be good.
This game could have been amazing and had a large following for years and years. This was the only game I’ve been excited for recently. Played the beta and knew what was going to happen
The flying and combat made this game so much fun to play, especially with friends. It's a real depressing shame how it was left to die so early in its life.
The true tragedy of Anthem is that it was the culmination of everything that BioWare had been building towards as a company; a self-fulfilling prophecy of crunch culture, directionless leadership, and desire to emphasis gameplay-loop driven minimization over all, each at the expense of what fans thought BioWare was all about, storytelling.
The crazy thing about this game is that major development didn’t start until the last 18 months before release. It was like BioWare didn’t know what they wanted to do with Anthem and then had to be pushed into getting the game out the door.
It's amazing and sad how Bioware went from Baldur's Gate 2, one of if not THE greatest RPG of all time...to Anthem, one of if not THE greatest failure of all time.
Fantastic review. I only remember the announcement trailer for anthem YEARS ago. never played. i appreciate how you go into depth on each mechanic and keep it very blunt on how it all REALLY IS. such a missed opportunity
Revisted after a few years. Core gameplay and mechanics were great. It's a shame they didn't keep adding more content. Cyberpunk proved you CAN come back from the dead.
There was such potential with this, the flying was one of the most fun gameplay activities I've tried, but that wasn't enough to prop up the rest of the experience.
@@Akurokuma They got to write it off as a tax break, basically everything they had been pumping into it went toward EA's tax bill for the year. They saw the diminishing interest and weighed potential profits, cutting their losses for the tax break was more valuable than running the risk of it continuing to bomb. As a note, corporate taxes cycle in March, Anthem Next was canceled just before the cutoff of the tax year.
I was so excited seeing the trailer for this, but after I saw the dumpster fire it released as, I skipped over it, I was really excited for video game Ironman.
Videos like this are good for developers and anyone who might buy the IP down the road. With how far indie development has come, all anthem needs is to be acquired by somebody who cares and it could come back. Unlikely but possible
I've revisited the idea of trying it out several times a year since it came out. Never pulled the trigger until I saw this video and realized I forgot to cancel my EA play subscription and can do it basically for free today. Visually it still looks great imo, and I think we're passed the 2010's era 'space marine shooter' fatigue that definitely didn't help it when it released. Definitely does seem unlikely in total considering how much money EA/BioWare sank into it (therefore how much they would probably demand for it in a sale) but it has always looked like it could be a great game if somebody with deep pockets would pick it up and invest in it.
A rational gaming industry would take the failure of Anthem to heart and either work to make the live service model more sustainable and less excessive or abandon it entirely. The countless live service failures over the last few years makes me think the industry will never learn its lesson. They’ll always chase the dragon thinking a pot of gold lies at the end of it.
They really have no reason to learn that lesson. Tons of games with live service make tons of money. Until people start voting with their wallets universally across the board nothing will change. 2K just announced that their new NBA game will cost, at the highest tier package, $100 plus another $20 for a season pass. Why a sports game needs a season pass is beyond me but I would bet money that the sports gaming demographic will eat it up. Consumers only have power against corporations when they work together and while there are pockets of consumers that refuse to fight back there will always be companies trying to capture what that other space has. I'm pretty black pilled on this issue, I personally think we already lost and it's only going to get worse from here. The younger generations have been trained to think these kind of predatory practices are normal but "good". With block chain tech being inserted into games it's only going to get worse from here.
The problem is that even predatory live service games make plenty of money. Genshin Impact, Cash of Clans, and FIFA all have multiple ways of spending on micro transactions and are all “pay to win” yet they make the most money. Even “good” games like Destiny 2 have extremely greedy designs when you think about it. Needing to spend HUNDREDS of dollars to actually play the story, and spend even more if you want to customise your character. When suits see the success of those games they don’t need to make a good game or good live service system. They just need one that is “good enough” to keep the whales coming.
Anthem is not live service and never was. They never updated it. They never added content. That is not live service. They simply have rotating micro transactions for cosmetics. It being live service was not the issue, because it wasn't live service. The issue was fraudulent advertising that what you pay for is a game that will receive updates for 6 years to come when the game never received any content ever on top of lying about what content is in the game on release.
only way it will is when the audience stops being sheeps to it - a live service never works out, cause its product first game second, about making money than being a game, and once its done so much is gone, there's no true benefit to the consumer
as one of the people that actually got to test the 2.0 Anthem reboot before it was cancelled... it was everything they had promised I truly and wholly believe that it would have saved the game but EA got cold feet and nuked it in the eleventh hour it was basically done, ready for release and they just didn't care. That is the true tragedy to me.
@@brucemaximus3797 there was some smoothing out and filling in to flesh it out some more but nothing massively substantial at the time it was cancelled. 2.) was mostly about fixing loot/content drought dungeon and build variety. There was quite a bit of chatter from the devs that were working on about sweeping expansions to the world and lore but those weren't ready yet at the time of the cancellation.
friendly reminder EA only cancelled it cause bioware was putting in zero effort. EA had to force bioware to put the flying BACK into the game. everything that went wrong with the game was cause of bioware, not EA
@@mlgrocket considering EA loves to ruin games, I’m less likely to believe it’s 100% BioWares’ fault. It’s more likely EA put up unreasonable deadlines and BioWare couldn’t keep up. Tale as old as time, especially in the gaming industry
the sad thing is, me and my friends were so excited for this game on release. seeing the way that the javelins controlled and my immediate gravitational pull towards interceptor gameplay. even now, i don't even remember making any memories on that game. it was supposed to be this amazing experience where even just flying around made you feel like an absolute unit, but it ended up just being exactly the same experience from the moment you finish the prologue. i genuinely wish that SOMEONE, somewhere could breathe life back into this game- but gone are the days i guess.
This game will always have a special place in my heart. I had never played a looter shooter before this and fell in love instantly. I've put about 1000 hours into the Division 2 and thousands more hours into Destiny 2 since playing this.
Flying around with a collosus and transitioning fluidly into melee shockwave attack, afterwards following it up with a mortar strike on an enemy position and then going into your super ability making you able to shoot 3 or 4 mini nukes was such a great gaming experience. Closest I ever gotten to a mix of Hulkbuster and Transformers. I was craving that all my life after this failed game even more😢
I really do hope that someone gives another shot to an Anthem like game because this really had so much potential, but it's so clear that they weren't given the baking time it needed.
The game was in development for something like 7 years. If anything this game needed much better direction. Consider how the flying system, one of the few things people have a ton of praise for, was going to be removed until an EA exec told them to keep it in because it was amazing. *An EA exec.*
I would truly love for a game with the action systems of Anthem to be available, but with a team that wasn't so mismanaged. Flying, gunplay, and powers - Anthem did amazingly well at making all of those feel good... Then we have the loot, the loading screens, the empty world, the repetitive missions, the squad rubberbanding into more loading screens, the lack of content - so many things were bad and we were given so little reason to care that it killed any reason to want to play the game.
Great video, makes me wanna install my digital copy of Anthem and dive deeper into it further than just completing the tutorial/1st Mission or whatever. Could you possibly do a video similar to this, but on MARVEL'S AVENGERS?
Anthem is one of those games where the base aspect is so good and the premisse so creatively free that it had insane potential… unfortunately it never got the time to reach said potential!
no way in hell. everything was bad about this game. the town center; was bad, slow and pointless to even explore. the loading time. OH MAN. those are in a league of their own. the loot? garbage. you can't upgrade them; they all shoot the same. they all look the same. the hub? boring as well. that is why this game is rated as one of the lowest . its just bad. they had the story kind of enticing; but the same thing over and over again; just never made any sense. the skins were just icing on top of a turd.
@@ChickenMcThiccken "everything was bad" proceeds to cite everything other than the base aspects of movement, aesthetics and thematics lol... Dude, doesbt matter how terrible the game was, the idea of it was awesome, flying the Javelin felt great, the world was beastiful, the lore had a interesting premise and that was it, stop hating for the sake of hating, im not defending the failure, im just mourning the lost potential of the little good that there was. And no, not every gun shot the same way, if you see that as true for this game then every other FPS game out there that isnt Borderlands can be critised the same way by your logic.
@@vitorvena If anything was to blame for it's faillure, its lack of creative vision of what the game was supposed to be and complete out of control spending on parts of the game that doesn't even matter to the player. The gameplay is always key when designing a game and it seems like they nailed at least the basics of that. Having variety and long term structure into place to expand on that gameplay and give the players a wide variety of activities to do would have helped, but I believe they never really got around designing any of that. I believe they should not have designed the game as a live-service looter shooter. But as a challenge based game, with intricate missions and bossfights, that you can play through in multiplayer as well. Just a 25-35 hour playthrough, maybe a bit longer, but not outstaying its welcome. It doesn't even have to have a story in it, just solid gameplay, nice variety in enemies and weapons, basically everything that is already there that is good. It probably would have sold well enough to get money that can be invested in a more expansive multiplayer setting with a bit more thought behind it. They could have seen what worked and focused on those things. But as it stands now, you are right. It is sad this game never really got to fullfill anywhere close to its potential. Funny enough, what I described almost is a bit like borderlands. (and I dislike borderlands quite a bit)
@@pinobluevogel6458 Honestly i blame greedy executives at EA... the game was rushed af, they kept changing the vision for it shouldve been and there was more stuff like i think they were forced to use the Frostbite engine from games like DICE's Battlefield if i recall correctly... also, idk for sure, but i think it sold well enough to warrant continue support if it had just a few problems but unfortunately it had more than a few and EA being the greedy Fs that they are basucally did a rug pull with what they got a ran away.
@@vitorvena I read somewhere in these comments that EA could use it as a tax writeoff if they cancelled it while still in development. I don't know if that is true, but it definitely sounds like something EA would do.
I still play the game all the time, it’s mechanics are just so fun to me. One day I hope to purchase the trademark for anthem and get people working on it
Really liked playing that game. Controlling the javelin was a lot of fun. Its potential was through the roof, too bad that ceiling wasnt a breakable object and it just stopped the entire game in its tracks.
Great video, was a nice reminder of Anthem. My friend and I played this for a while and were sorely disappointed with what happened. Really wanted something new and fresh with similar Destiny vibes and this looked like it could deliver. Would be nice to have my money back 🤣
Honestly, they've got a golden gameplay set with Anthem. The flight, the maneuvering, just perfect. They could just lift that system into a new series with good story and loot progression, I'd be on it like white on rice.
This game was one of my most anticipated games ever. It was such a sad day when i started playing, to realize that the best feeling mechanics were thrown into a terrible story/experience.
I loved Anthem a lot. The potential was amazing, it still could be. If only it would be like Helldivers 2. I'll be forever sad Anthem wasn't what every one of us expected it to be. Still, had a lot of fun, even though I'll never pre-order a game again because of this game, I got my moneys worth. I really really really hope there's a future game that combines Anthem and Helldivers 2 into an amazing game. Hopefully without an triple A studio that gives the developers impossible targets. Thanks for the video!!
The absolute best part about the development was the developers seeing the game live at E3 and then going, "...OH! so THAT'S what the game is supposed to be!"
@@JordanSmith-yi3ji no they actually had a vision and knew what to do somewhat, the problem was their time management and they vastly overestimated the consoles, everything had to be scaled down which resulted in massive cuts. There's also the rumor that because of Keanu Reeves the story got changed to include him more
The sad part of the game, is it had the best like exosuit style and mechanics of any game ive ever played. Like even the base mechanics of flying down or going through water just to regulatw your suit was top tier.
I played Anthem when it came out and really enjoyed it, there just wasn’t anything to do after you beat the story and the dungeons. If they would have had 10-15 dungeons at launch and a better loot ecosystem, I truly believe this game would still be getting updates today. The gameplay just felt so buttery smooth. Haven’t seen another game feel so smooth as this. The flying, the swimming… i might have to redownload it lol
When this was coming out, I was playing The Division 2. A notable hater in an old group I was in kept saying that Anthem would kill TD2. To this day, TD2 is still alive, still getting content from time to time, and haven't heard from him since.
Game had amazing gameplay, weapons felt powerful, world was gorgeous. So much potential, could have been a real Warframe competitor, new Javenlins in every update, better raids/end game. Combos felt amazing, customization was good.
Back when anthem wasn't dead, i played warframe, destiny and it all at once. Sure progressing in 3 live services at once was tiring but damn it was so much fun. i wish anthem gets a reboot/sequel
This game perishing still hurt my soul . It really deserved to have a revamp and it's potential was so high. The movement and environment in anthem was by far one of my favorite I've experienced in a game .
There are like three aspects that are needed: 1. Do something to fix the server issues, it seems like a lot of people who stopped playing (according to the Xbox store reviews) stopped playing because of server issues 2. More content, mainly in terms of "types" of enemies, like some sort of different set of enemies each time you increase your difficulty. (Grandmaster 2 will have the same opponents as hard mode, I haven't played grandmaster 3 because I'm not that good) 3. There are a dozen social issues where you can't really interact with other players without having a 40% chance of the game breaking (if you join some elses squad and don't start a mission with them, like maybe if they went afk, you get locked into the squad with no way to leave even if you go all the way back to Fort Tarsis. The only way to leave is to use a SECOND bug where if you button mash while switching sections in the mission selection it opens a leave squad button)
I just got back on this game a week ago and all I did was just fly around, enjoy the mechanics. There is still so much potential in this game. Like those Annoying Renovation People say, "This Game has GOOD BONES". I still they will come back to it and give a little love someday..
Same, dropped $100 on a game they promised a road map for and didn’t get a dime back when they cancelled the roadmap. How that isn’t stealing/illegal is beyond me but NEVER again, I know that much.
literally me, I pre-ordered it and it turned out as a disaster..... now I am once again really really tempted to buy Starfield 100$ premium edition, trying to fight off the urge till the end of this month so that it goes away lol
There are a few games out there like Anthem that were a real heartbreaking experience. It was one of those games that I really wanted it to succeed and redefine the genre. I wanted it to be the next greatest game ever. To watch it fall was to watch such a great concept backed by a company with such a great reputation fall flat on it's face. It's the game that should have been, and I still scratch my head as to why it wasn't. can't tell you how many times I hoped I would see news that it was moving forward and things were looking up. Severe copium.
Those closing words struck my heart. I cant say how much I wanted this game to become something great, a game that would allow me to live out a dream of flying through the air in a mech suit through mountains and rivers, and a beautiful planet teeming with nature and relics from times past. it breaks me to hear the words I've feared hearing and wished wouldn't be said brought to reality that, like you said, I'll never get to experience anything more in Anthem then what's in there now.
So sad, played this game at the beginning of the year, but nobody came in to the group, so I couldn't play it... So much potential that went down the river....
As the others have mentioned this as well , I also thought few times about this game, obviously as I am here writing this. That game really has the potential, I actually would feel glad to see some sort of reboot of this idea tho.
I've seen a few of these types of videos about Anthem but this one was by far the best. Not too long, not too short, well written, objective with a good dose of personal opinions shared, etc. Great job, subscribed.
@@rxf_Warframe overall is better, but it doesn’t feel better. Flying around and initial combat in this game is so good. I do love Warframe though and wish it felt as good as this.
@@adad87821 I blame EA. The skeleton for a Mass Effect type game is there. You can see it in the dialog choices, story, etc... you can tell it was supposed to be so much more
My Uncle worked on this game through an animation studio know as Trigger fish (south African based) and he told me that the game was awesome to work on however whilst still working on animations and so forth his company's contract was suddenly cut along with all unreleased work previously done, he said there was no warning or anything EA just cut the contract and left. Trigger fish's contract was cut about one and a half years after the game launched btw.
It feels the greatest to control your character out of every game I have played. Now they just had to build a game around it and not blatantly lie about every aspect and we had ourselves a deal.
People get all weird about saying you there are any good qualities to subverting that becomes meme-panned for being bad. Anthem from start to end for me was an absolute blast. But the game held no end game content as we all know and it just felt like I played through a single player Mass Effect with the occasional party. Was there loot? Yeah. Was there any reason to play for more after you beat it? No.
@@karsonkammerzell6955 Yeah, it was very short for a full prized AAA title though. And of course they blatantly lied about pretty much every aspect with their marketing.
@@samuelhunter4631Yo that's an excellent point. If it's such a well-developed world then why does nobody remember it. Being pretty isn't the same as being memorable.
@@HueyTheDoctor It's name is Coda. But I had to search it. I was asking the entire time I was doing the main story what the planet's actual name. I really don't recall them ever mentioning it anywhere in the game. Probably in a codex entry somewhere but as someone who legitimate liked the game but was just ultimately disappointed despite the hours I've played, I could not recall having that annoying question ever answered throughout the entire time.
Damn, Imagine how the developers must feel. As an artist it is so infuriating to see a piece of art not meet its full potential. Like you said, it could’ve been a masterpiece.
I remember they accidentally patched the game to make loot drop rates more tolerable, not once, but twice. They had those patched within a few hours, but the bugs like starting equipment doing more damage than lvl 20 legendaries took weeks to fix.
I’m a big fan of old games like Titanfall 2 and anthem and a lot of others. And they just feel so good playing and ANTHEM is my second favourite. Really close to Titanfall 2 as my first favourite. They never should have died
I completed half of the missions with a friend. It was so much fun in co op mode. This game had so much potential. I still play it just to fly around the jungle. When the anouncement of canceling for good was made it was a sad day. I had high hopes for the sequel.
I had so much fun with the game it's sad they never fixed it up. So much fun raining lightning down of heads of mobs and priming them for extra burst damage. Just the flying was great. All they needed to do was keep the updates coming.
god i loved this game im so fkn sad still years that have gone by im just waiting for a game pretty much like this but that keeps going with big pop and good content
I just brought the game yesterday and boy... I wish they continued to work on it more and add more content cause the game feels great and I love how every match I jumped in always had someone to play with
I just re downloaded ANTHEM! JUST AS FUN as it used to be! I missed ANTHEM.. I was surprised to be invited to a chat party within an hour of logging in.. Most ayers I found are on GM3, BUT you still find players on All difficulties! Still having soo much fun.. I wish you were able to enjoy ANTHEM like I still do..
I LOVED this game or maybe I still have a small place in my tiny heart for it, to bad the devs gave up on this to soon because I really enjoyed it. Hopefully they revisit this and try to revive it.
The gun and power sounds of this game was my favorite part. The “wind up” sound of the storm javelin’s lightning strikes, and the thumps of every shot of an LMG. gave me chills every time.
@@Tuberuser187 Ooof it's been over 6 years since I've played warframe. Does sound like that too lol! At least the constant release of frames was a good motivator, and expanding game modes seems to have worked out well. They alienated me, felt too distant from the core gameplay loop/power fantasy that I had picked up the title for.
@@Tuberuser187Difference is that Warframe was a hail mary project by a visionary with no expectation. Anthem was made by the biggest name is scify games and fucked up so hard that they practically shut down or at least had to become a completely different company now.
I announcably found this to be the game that really touched bass with me and unfortunately died, this had everything I wanted but was shorted, its like they say... it's to good to be true! It was a bright but short light...
It is really a remarkable feat - to first successfully create the feeling of being Iron Man in a video game, and STILL managing to kill a game centered around that almost immediately. I really don't even understand how this game is not a paradox.
I've worked on Anthem's short movie and I realized I never checked out gameplay from the game itself. It's such a weird feeling, seeing the large sci-fi structures scattered on the landscape, javelins and town environments that brought so much pain and stress to me and my colleagues. Very surreal, fever dream-like feeling. Can't say working on this is any of my happy memories.
I truly believe that if they did actually go ahead with the revamp it would have been a good contender. I loved Anthem and I hope something like it comes back around again. They can literally look to D3/D4 and how their launches -> show that listening to feedback and giving better loot//more power more often actually is fun to keep the loop engaging. So sad to see it go.
The cancellation of anthem to be has always been tragic. As a destiny main we REALLY needed the competition. And nothing felt as good as piloting those javelins. And when they announced they were redoing it i was very excited. And even followed ghe development. And then it was cancelled. And here i am. Still playing destiny because nothing can top it. Hopefully the first descendant does what anthem couldnt.
DEstiny got better once Bungie left activision, they embraced the more mmo elements such as build crafting and the 2.0 class systems. Only downside with destiny is becuase they went solo the loss of money was noticable and the game really gets stale. When D4 game out i stopped playing D2 i want to come back becuase the new season looks decent bbut i just cant bring myself to do it becuase the grind gets super mundane quickly.
Really appreciate this retrospective. I may be biased because I love Anthem, but you did a fantastic job in highlighted what Anthem did right and not just what it did wrong. The art/animation team did phenomenal work on this game and that's what depresses me the most about it dying. I wish I could have seen more of this world.
I pre-ordered this game, played through it multiple times. The flight mechanics kept me coming back because, who wouldnt want an awesome iron man flight simulator. Mr. Thrust definitely hit the nail on the head here, it couldve been amazing and il be sad to finally lay it to rest. RIP what couldve been!
I actually enjoyed anthem once I finished it It was a fun game to play when so intoxicated I couldn't play anything difficult but wanted to feel like I was overcoming a challenge It really does feel awesome to play when just sitting back and taking in the spectacle of it all
I would really love to see anthem make a comeback in the future and this time made properly it would be awesome to see another No Mansky like story one can always dream!!!
A normally hate grindy games just farming loot and upgrades. But I had an absolute blast with this, for about a week. It’s such a shame because it had so much potential.
I still remember loving anthem when playing it and while some of my friends laughed at me for it I stood by it on the fun I had while playing it. But I never disagreed with the sheer lack of time there was. It was all over just after it started
I remember hearing that some higher up manager or CEO tried the flying out and when they were in the process of deciding whether or not to scrap the flying entirely and it was one of the main things he liked about the test demo so thats the reason it wasn't cut.
