Anthem (Bioware game)

[Brill]

Originally Posted by Gungnir

That said Anthem has potential, but its poorly executed right now. It doesn't have a sticky factor like Destiny/D2, Fortnite, Apex, etc. Its also really slow at getting out more content given the limited content it released with, and the content it does have is kind of repetitive. As a positive theres absolutely no reason to use micro transactions, not that theres much to spend actual cash on.

This is what we're going to keep getting until people stop buying unfinished games.

[Gungnir]

Originally Posted by Brill

This is what we're going to keep getting until people stop buying unfinished games.

Define complete, because I never said it was incomplete, I said poorly executed with a low stickiness, that doesn't imply incomplete. Big bugs that should be caught by internal, Alpha, Beta, and Certification don't necessarily mean incomplete either, this isn't the first game to have bugs, and won't be the last, there are myriad games that have had some pretty huge revisions that were considered complete at the time of their release, can we say Skyrim on the PS3?

Its easy when you have a single player only game, is there a complete storyline, that you can play to conclusion? The issue is when you have a game that is partially or entirely multiplayer. Take WoW was that released as a complete title? Clearly not, given it's history and it was released 15 years ago. So we've been buying incomplete games for at least that long, same applies to most major titles in the multiplayer arena, from the recent past GTA Online, Overwatch, Destiny, Destiny 2, Fortnite, Rainbow 6 Siege, The Division, For Honor, RDR Online, etc. etc. etc. However consider the following, suppose Blizzard waited until the game was complete to release it, that would mean the release date would have been 2018, and millions of WoW players may not even have experienced it ever.

The issue that makes multiplayer difficult if not impossible to release as "complete" is that you don't know how your gamers will react to the service, you have 1M+ monkeys running around bashing rocks you didn't really think they were going to bash. So you have to respond to how they're interacting, this immediately makes some people consider the game as incomplete, but is that fair? Without that the developer seems distant, remote and unresponsive, with it people presume the game is incomplete. I think the issue is that the term complete is poorly used to apply the same standard to an online game to a single player only game, that puts the developer in a lose lose, they're remote and unresponsive, or incomplete (because if they have to maintain their service it can't have been complete, right?).

So in Anthem, is the single player complete? Sure by definition, there is a complete storyline that you can play to conclusion, admittedly short, and repetitive, but it is complete. My issues are with the endgame multiplayer, there's little additional content right now, yes they may have released more in the V1 package, and they should be releasing more by now, which may address some of my complaints. This isn't uncommon either, Destiny had this issue, Destiny 2 had this issue (and has just released additional content for Season 6), Rainbow 6 had this issue, The Division was a basket case at this time in it's dev cycle, as was For Honor, and it took how long for RDR to even provide a completely tangential online component (like GTAV)? So right now the question is is Anthem worth it? Not right now, but that doesn't mean it will never be, and if that costs someone thinking it's an incomplete release, I'll take that over having to wait 15 years for a complete game (see WoW).