Anthem: Context Matters
Just under three years ago Anthem, a new IP from renowned developer BioWare, launched into the increasingly popular Games As A Service space. When initially conceived it was no doubt meant to be EA’s counter to Activision’s success with Destiny. It was supposed to be a heavy hitter, utilizing BioWare’s talent for storytelling to directly address the largest criticism leveled against Destiny. It did not go as well as anyone hoped.
Jason Schreier did an excellent investigative piece that delved into the issues behind Anthem’s troubled development. The short version is that poor planning and management lead to struggles that everyone kept hoping would resolve themselves, but didn’t – the “BioWare magic” didn’t show up to save the day at the end of production, and the end result was a game that in many ways just couldn’t live up to the hype, potential, and vision that was sold to the public. The game failed to capture much interest after release, and the audience quickly moved on to other things.
My own experience with the game wasn’t anything dramatic. I was sold on the idea early on and, being a BioWare fan, I picked it up at launch, hoping that Mass Effect Andromeda had been a blip on an otherwise solid record. I didn’t have any serious technical issues that I can recall. Once in, I just didn’t find that it captured my imagination for more than a few hours. The two best parts of the game, as far as I was concerned, were flight and the soundtrack. The problem was, flight was limited in the game to relatively short bursts and I could (and did, and still do) listen to the soundtrack without actually playing the game at all. There wasn’t really anything in the game to keep me in the game. I didn’t play it for more than those first few hours.
When I set myself the challenge of completing as many games in my library in 2022 as I could, I knew Anthem was going to be on the list. I had hoped previously that the Anthem Next revitalization of the game would manifest at some point and I’d come back to Anthem and discover a fantastic game, one that followed a similar path of redemption to No Man’s Sky or Rainbow Six Siege. I’m getting ready to start it all over again, now, knowing that they canceled that project, and fearing that it’s not going to even live up to my hazy-but-generally-not-terrible first impressions of the game.
Part of the problem is that the most recent big game I came back to is God of War 2018. That one had near-universal acclaim when I set it aside, and though I came back to it much later than intended, the game lived up to the hype years later. I’m still thinking about it, and I haven’t touched it in at least two weeks. Another part of the problem – for Anthem, at least – is that Destiny has matured pretty significantly between the time Anthem was supposed to eat Destiny’s lunch and today. Bungie has gotten far better at storytelling, and the next major expansion, The Witch Queen, is set to release in just over a week. So Anthem is going to be sandwiched between what are and what should be really fantastic games, and it hasn’t done hardly anything to improve upon the initial experience. Could it have stood on its own without that kind of environment to compete in? Possibly. Can it now? Who knows.
So why now? First, futuristic exo-suits exploring a distant world are kind of the opposite end of the spectrum from mythic gods warring with mythic giants in a fantasy realm. Second, it’s been nearly three years since Anthem released, and nearly a year since EA canceled the project to turn Anthem into the next redeemed video game story. I figure they won’t keep the servers online forever, and they seem to like doing things in February…. But most of all, I guess I’m hoping to find something in the game to hold on to, something to remember after the servers have shut down, something more than “it was supposed to be really good, and was only meh”. I love the soundtrack, and if that’s all that I ever get out of the game, I suppose I can accept that. A good redemption story is always better though, and so perhaps I’m looking for a little bit of that in my own way. I know EA isn’t going to revive the game, isn’t going to save it from the dustbin of history. But if I can think back on it fondly for some reason beyond just the music – which I will continue to listen to forever – then that will be something.
I know the context in which I’m playing the game – the state of the industry and of other games vying for my time and attention – isn’t ideal. I know it matters, and it’s going to influence how I receive the game overall. I guess I’m hoping that while context matters, perhaps intentionally trying to find some redeeming quality in the game can be enough to turn a so-so experience into something more.