[ad_1]
Anthem launched almost exactly two years ago and the launch was hard. Many fans who saw the potential of the original version were waiting for BioWare’s “Anthem Next” update to turn the besieged game around and turn it around (like Final Fantasy XIV or No Man’s Sky). Unfortunately, this transformation will not happen. Today, BioWare announced that the Anthem update has been canceled and new game development has ceased.
“In the spirit of transparency and closure, we wanted to share that we made the difficult decision to stop our new development work on Anthem (aka Anthem NEXT). However, we will continue to operate the Anthem live service as it exists today, ”it reads. the announcement by executive producer Christian Dailey.
In short, this means that all the improvements and changes made by the team Talk about within two years since the launch of the game will never be implemented. No Javelins changes, no skill tree revisions, and no artifact system. While players can continue to access Anthem in its current form (for now), that form will remain full of unrealized potential.
While BioWare and publisher EA haven’t provided detailed reasons for the decision, it’s not hard to see that investing in Anthem at this point would be a risky proposition. Even though the team has some wonderful ideas, are they good enough to reverse perception after so long? In addition, the extraordinary development conditions over the past 12 months also played a role. “2020 has been a year like no other however and while we continue to make progress against all of our gaming projects at BioWare, working from home during the pandemic has had an impact on our productivity and not all that we anticipated as that studio before COVID-19 can be accomplished without placing undue stress on our teams, ”says Dailey.
Although Anthem was BioWare’s foray into the online action / RPG space (apparently as a rival to living games like Destiny 2), it hit obstacles almost immediately. Repetitive structure, unimaginative missions, and uneven single-player story integration got in the way of fun for many players – and that’s before they hit the sparse endgame experience. While updates were released in the months following launch to address some of the major issues, it was clear that a more serious overhaul would be needed if Anthem were to be bought out. This was the goal of Anthem Next, now canceled.
As tempting as it may be to remember Anthem as a total failure, don’t forget that he also had successes. As a basic concept, flying around the world in a robotic suit and shooting a bunch of sci-fi weapons works really well and stands out as a huge achievement. Game InformantAndrew Reiner summed it up well in his review: “The Javelins are Anthem’s greatest triumph, making almost every little action feel like controlling a superhero capable of unleashing hell. Javelins offer their users temporary flight with jet fuel and a wonderfully deep arsenal of offensive and defensive tools to play with. As the game progresses, this well of toys grows deeply and in exciting ways. “
If you want to get a taste of the optimism surrounding Anthem ahead of launch, you can read the full cover story I wrote after visiting BioWare and playing an early version of the game in 2018.
As for the future of BioWare, Dailey mentions that other high-profile projects from the studio remain on track. “Game development is difficult,” he says. “Decisions like these are not easy. Going forward, we need to focus our efforts as a studio and strengthen the upcoming Dragon Age and Mass Effect titles while continuing to provide quality updates for Star Wars: The Old Republic. “
While this is a sad end to the Anthem saga, it’s good to know that we still have more BioWare projects to look forward to – including Legendary Mass Effect Edition, which is on the cover of Game Informantcurrent problem.
What do you think of the current state of Anthem? Were you waiting for the update before launching? Are you a current player who didn’t want this to change? Share your opinion in the comments below.
[ad_2]
