Anthem - The Review (2019) 

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"Wanna go for lunch sometime?" Dialog Choices: "Nope" or "No"

At least the microtransactions menu is 4k 60 without load screens.

I love how relevant Anthem's failure as a topic still is today. We learn and study about it in Game Design school! Lmao

12:23 Incredible in-depth dialogue tree right there. A choice between "Nope", or "No". Sophisticated!

Well, Wolfenstein: Young Blood was a fitting ad for this particular video.

"enemies just dont make sound" me: remembers the _absolutely terrifying_ banshees in ME3 with unexpected fondness

Bioware's modern dialogue choices, everyone: "Nope" or "No"

"If it achieves this and only this, then perhaps Mass Effect didn't die in vain" ... I felt that line

EA: Interesting and In depth story!!! Real game: Dialogue options of “No” and “nope” Real interesting

Monitor voice actor is Andrew Wilson As he is the villain of real-life Anthem

I just spent 45 minutes listening to a video about a game I don’t plan to buy, simply because I enjoy how well you express your thoughts. Good stuff.

Glad to know that 4 years later this game inspired Todd Howard to make his own loading screen video game

I am not surprised, I am not angry. I am just sad

Why can't I boy the boy in this game?

That level 3 guy quick playing into the final campaign mission is just hilarious. Bioware have lost their goddamned mind.

Back again to watch through this given the recent Kotaku article... so many shadows finally cast into light.

And we can't blame EA for "rushing" Bioware. This game has been in development for 6 years.

46 MINUTES "This is part 1..." Bruh

Watching at 0.5x = SkillUp's drinking problem exposed...

“Part 2 will cover Anthem’s endgame...” This aged beautifully

I remember back in 2011/2012 my favorite game companies were Bioware and Bethesda always waiting for their next project with impatience. How far they've fallen since...

This review has more depth than Anthem's story.

Instructions unclear: got stuck in a loading screen.

Man, when you played the clip about how silent the ‘social’ space is, it almost hurt. As many flaws as it has, destiny 2 has absolutely nailed what a social space should be with the tower. Someone’s always talking, conversing. A whisper, questioning the loyalty of a faction. A civilian remarking on your cloak, or inquiring about your adventures. A balcony you can climb down to where an npc gets away from the noise. The high courtyard where the vanguard and shaxx offer services feels busy and official, while the secret basements where the imperial emissary and the drifter hide feel dark, seedy, and covert. The bazaar is bustling, the hangar utilitarian and spartan. I have played the game for over two years, and while wandering its halls I will still hear an occasional new voiceline, or discover a new nook in the roof beams where my favorite character used to read love stories in his spare time before his death. It’s moments like that that really make social spaces more than a hub of exposition like anthems.

SIX YEARS!? THIS took SIX years?

Its quite sad to see that the once glorious and anticipated PC games are slowly turning into Hi-Res mobile games

"Do you wanna grab a bite?" "Nope" < > "No"

Now you can apply the "Just play Warframe" argument to Anthem as well.

12:22 State of choices in gaming 2019: Choice A) nope Choice B) no

“Anthem” *loads your loading screen*

I do hate it when they give you multiple dialogue choices but then give you the feeling that every choice would garner the same response.

25:35 the fact that a new player can randomly join a session that is in the middle of doing THE FINAL BOSS is insane

This review totally sold me on the game. I downloaded "Knights of the Old Republic" right away and saved my $60 that would have gone to "Anthem", thank you.

Okay I don’t usually comment, but I just wanted to say what an articulate and well-thought out review this is. Regardless of whether people agree your arguments or not, there’s no denying that you express yourself extremely clearly and do a fantastic job of supporting your points with pertinent visuals. I’d never seen one of your videos before, but you’ve gained a new sub. Keep up the awesome content!

>Anthem 2 now there's a depressing thought

Now that Anthem has dug its own grave and EA has finished padding the soil tight, I take one last look of this game that should, but just couldn't..

Imagine if the villain was called the Monitizer.... lol 😂

WTF, YOU CAN MATCHMAKE INTO THE FINAL MISSION. THE FINAL MISSION!!!

To the people blindly brushing aside all criticism with "don't listen to the haters" need to understand something. When people are dropping criticism on the game it's because we WANT to like the game, we were excited for the game just like anyone else, we WANT to play it, we WANT to be able to look at what the game offers and say to ourselves, "yup, i can easily put 100 hour into this". but there is a bevy of serious issue that need to be addressed before it gets to that point, bluntly dismissing all criticisms with "haters gonna hate" will hurt the future of this game more than your defense helps it. Hearing all of this criticism myself is heartbreaking, i was so excited for this game, and while i still love the moment to moment gameplay, it really needs an overhaul in certain places before i can sit down and dump a 100+ hours into it.

"Wanna go for a bite or something?" 1. No 2. Nope WTF Bioware

Echelon had a very insightful comment regarding Anthem - it doesn't feel like six year in the making game, it feels as though it got rebooted several years down the line.

Your explanation of liveservice-games and its developement over the past few years...dude that was on point and so true, i couldn't even laugh :(

Well, there goes SkillUp's Game Changers invite.

Anthem's shelf life is exactly 2 years and 2 days.

What has been going on at BioWare for the last 6 years? EA

"Will you buy Anthem?" Nope No

It took Bioware 6 YEARS to deliver this skeleton. Those blindly defending this game are young bucks who never touched Jade Empire, Kotor, Baldur's Gate. RIP Bioware.

I loved that "you cannot unbake a cake" thats exactly whats wrong with people that says "Dont worry its beta, game is subject to change" Well thats the thing if you need to change the fundamentals you need to start over to such a degree that you need to remake the entire enviroment, laws of physics and even models. Everything EA touches turns to shit, the level of touch would almost force a catholic priest to interviene

I really enjoy your explanations on these games. If there’s an opinion I trust, it’s yours. Instead of saying, “This is bad” it’s, “This is bad, and let me explain to you why with solid examples but also, here’s some of the good too” AMAZING. So amazing. I appreciate it. I appreciate what you’re doing. Thanks.

RIP Bioware. Press F to pay respects.

6 years of development time, none of which involved anyone actually playing it.

And I was worried that Anthem might steal Warframe players. Thanks for the free advertisement EA OMEGALUL

I seriously dont understand why people fell for this game, as soon as they showed their e3 cringe gameplay trailer, you shouldve known. This wasnt a game for gamers, its a game for people that play 2 hours a week and dont give a shit about good gamedesign

I almost wish Respawn Entertainment weren't as good as they are so I can completely ignore anything with EA's name on it.

"We'll fix it later" doesn't fly with me anymore when it comes to $60+ games. I don't care about the lives and personalities of the people making the game and how hard they worked. The product being sold needs to be up to certain standards. Gaming is THE ONLY industry where people buy a FLAWED and INCOMPLETE product for a lot of money. Not only buy on release, but pre-order. People give their money (laced with some fucking hope juice) before they even see the end result to companies that have very bad track records and then have the AUDACITY to defend the flawed end product. And they keep doing it over and over again. What the fuck is wrong with this picture, people? Like, how is this even a thing? If I shipped a product like that in my line of work I wouldn't only get disciplined, I'd get fired. And I'd get fucking sued. I would never work in the industry again. Ever. And the company that hired me would not exist anymore either. And even if it did, nobody would ever buy anything we produced. E-VER. Imagine if the car industry or the medical equipment industry worked like this. "You see Doctor, the life support machine has a number of bugs and operational flaws right now. But trust us when we say that a patch is coming in only a few months. You know, the people who worked on it had a really difficulty job and they love their work, but it just wasn't ready by the time we had to ship it. Do the best you can with it, we'll fix it soon. We promise." "Sure the new Honda Civic has breaks that don't work all the time and the engine might catch on fire if you drive it for more than 10 minutes, but you know... Our fiscal plan didn't allow us to delay the release any longer. The investors... You understand. Just, you know... Take the bus or drive it sporadically or something, I guess. We'll fix it soon. Thanks for the money though. It'll fund our next update." What if banking suddenly lost your money? "You know that money you paid to the electrical company? Yeah, we have new a payment routing system and... It's gone. We don't know where it went. Sorry. Keep using our services, though. In time we'll make it work." Point made. Rant over. On a more personal note, the first PC game I ever played was called Icewind Dale. My young Lord of the Rings fan mind was blown away by the CRPG genre. I soon discovered Baldur's Gate and Fallout. I still love those games. I missed the whole Mass Effect era because I was in college and completely out of gaming at that time. But I was hoping both Andromeda and Anthem were gonna deliver. Sadly they didn't. And I was expecting Anthem to be like this. Hopeful that it won't be, but expecting nothing good, sadly. It's sad that I can feel this way.

This review is still relevant even almost 2 years later lmao

6 years to make a game with EA resources? WTF was bioware doing?!

I'm using this video to fall asleep... not because it is boring . You just sound nice and make me feel safe lol

I can sense the sadness within Skillup’s voice :\

Man, I can't think of anything more enjoyable in my mech-suit, Iron Man simulator than having to run and hide behind cover all the time. Just like Iron Man.

20 layers of irony, every single ad on this video was an anthem ad.

Borderlands 2 is still the dopest looter shooter ever made !

5k dislikes? This is one of the most honest reviews I've ever seen, I don't get people.

11:42 ahh yes Dragon Age: Oranges. My favourite Bioware game.

I got an Anthem ad in the middle of this.

"Say goodnight Anthem." *punches game in the face*

Anthem is the dark souls of loading screens.

This video aged like a fine wine now that Anthem is officially dead.

R.I.P. another EA'd game 2019: Here lies Bioware, closed by EA

Can we all stop and appreciate how boss of a man Seagull is. He was genuinely worried about this rando he never met that he would spoil the ending to himself. Most players (Most likely me included) wouldn't even noticed him joining.

Not trying to be nasty or anything, but I don't understand how people can still talk about "the real Bioware". It's so blatantly obvious that the Bioware that we love so much does not exist anymore and in fact hasn't for many, many years. There's no A or B team. Well, maybe there's a B team, but certainly no A. Even Mass Effect 3 was a regression in many ways. Both in terms of story telling and also from a technical and artistic perspective. I remember seeing a video from Bioware once (I think even before ME3 was released) where they tried to appeal to young graduates. And looking at their games, I'd say their promos were a huge success. Bioware has fallen alongside EA. And expecting anything more from them than from other EA studios is just setting yourself up for disappointment. (edit: should have watched the video 10s longer before pausing and commenting. you pretty much said it, too)

The 6.2K people that downvoted this video is the reason that the gaming industry is the way it is today....

"Do you think 7 days is enough time". I have had that exact debate with die hards multiple times. Every time I get hit by 4 or 5 people defending the hell out of this game telling me fixes can be made in a day, 7 days is enough time, PC is being used as a launch test, etc.... The state of delirium by others is comical.

12:21 *No or Nope* Wtf?

As you said, if people are enjoying it, that’s great. But I’ve been absolutely stunned at how many people are defending this game. Just because you’re enjoying it doesn’t mean you can’t acknowledge its flaws and problems.

I'm so glad this video was retroactively vindicated. That's why I watch this guy. Every time he gets shit for calling out a game, he is ALWAYS proven right in the end. Love to see it :).

Did 12:22 literally just have No or Nope? What the hell lol

We need borderlands 3 lol Also it sucks how Anthem fans are gonna dislike you for no reason. I’ve been watching you for a long time and know you love games like Borderlands, diablo, destiny and you (and me) wanted anthem to be good. You’re just telling your opinion which a lot of people agree with (including me). Sadly you don’t deserve the hate from the anthem fans just for stating your opinion. Anthem has one problem with me and that it’s trying to be so much without doing anything or figuring itself out. EDIT: I’m not talking about the dislike bar. (Read the 3rd reply)

6 years trying to bodge the Frostbite engine into something resembling a open world looter shooter is like trying paint the Mona Lisa using wax crayons

One of the main bioware people said they wanted to make the game "un-memeable" after the whole debacle with ME: Andromeda. Well the issue with an un-memeable game is that it's utterly forgettable.

A year later and I'm still enjoying the hell out of monster hunter world.... Wish more games could be like that🤷🏽

>Sees SkillUp uploaded a review >Sees it's a 46min monster >immediate pauses to get comfortable and take it all in

The Day One patch notes have been released. As expected, they fix almost none of the things critcized in this video. Because most of the things criticized in this video aren't small technical problems you can just patch out: they're fundamental design problems installed by a dev team incapable of delivering a fully functional game, let alone their grand vision. Even with the problems they _have_ acknowledged & addressed, when your game has been in development for 5+ years and it takes people playing the game _a few weeks prior to launch_ for you to realize that your UI is atrocious, your combat encounters are broken, and your loading screens are a nightmare, then as a development team you've either been too mismanaged to make changes, too incompetent to see the problem, too arrogant to care, or too lazy to do something about it.

"You cant patch in soul"

12:23 The dialogue options are Nope, and No. Lots of choice there.

"B" is a bad letter now for gaming companies - Bioware Bethesda Blizzard

is this a good game? Nope. No.

I can pick this game up for $10 right now if I wanted, and I still have no desire to jump in.

The Old Republic was a blast of an mmo to play, the story was just so good. Thanks for mentioning it!

Remember last year when everyone was like "Ya im not playing D2: Forsaken I'll wait for Anthem." Funny how things work out.

What I don't understand is why they had Drew Karpyshyn be a secondary writer under Jay Watamaniuk for Anthem. For those who don't know Drew Karpyshan was the lead writer for 'Mass Effect,' 'Mass Effect 2,' the overall creator of the ME universe AND was the lead writer for 'knights of the old republic' and 'the old republic'. Jay Watamaniuk as far as I can tell, was only ever lead writer for project firewalker in ME 2, other than that he was a junior writer. Why would you get one of the best sci-fi writers of the 21st century to be a secondary writer to the guy who wrote the worst DLC for game the first guy wrote, a game that is almost universally benchmarked as the greatest RPG of the previous console generation. I genuinely think that Casey Hudson has some sort of problem with Karpyshyn he scrapped Karpyshyn's ending for the Mass Effect trilogy which is why we ended up with that bullshit starchild telling us about synthetics versus organics.

"Anthem's loading screens really make the player feel like Sonic '06. 3 out of 4." -IGN Spain.

What marked the official death of Bioware was the departure of industry visionaries, the Bioware Doctors.

It seems like Bioware went from making games that looked a little goofy, but had wonderful depth... to making games that are pretty to look at, but very shallow.

I like how you say it's shit, but then follow up with why it's shit. Good review!

When you first came out with this review you were criticized by the die hards and just-wait-and-sees so hard, but it such a well put together review. I admit I didn't watch it until now because I didn't want it to ruin the experience of playing the campaign (also spoilers) and there were so many negative Anthem reviews that I was avoiding because I didn't see it yet. Then I read the Kotaku article. But before that the game froze my PC. And even Bioware's little tips didn't unfreeze it. And I went back once after I unfroze it but the maps were so buggy I left again. So it's June and the game is still in the same mess. The Road Map has been deleted. The most promising content reveal has been underwhelming. There's not going to be any major changes in the next few months. I doubt we'll see any real change in December. So, I guess you were right.

Moral of the story, DON'T SELL your company to EA.

I'am getting Anthem ads when watching this review xD

Brilliant review. Unsurpassed intelligence, organization, and integrity on display for a video game review. Most professional news organizations do not show this level of commitment and effort with their work. Thank you sir !