Friends, loved ones, and readers who came for the food, we are gathered today to mourn the death of Anthem, an ambitious open-world game from the minds at BioWare. It released to much fanfare. BioWare had high hopes for it, as did publisher Electronic Arts. The fact that we’re all here a day after EA pulled the plug on the game’s servers should indicate that it did not reach its potential.

Sitting here in front of my keyboard, almost seven years after the game released, I can’t help but feel sad for what Anthem could have been. But also, “joy” certainly isn’t the right word. I almost feel a sense of relief, because above all else, Anthem will go down as a cautionary tale.

Anthem should have been a layup. Up to four friends coming together in customizable mech suits to save a vast world from a mysterious darkness? BioWare’s game had a lot of promise. I vividly remember the hands-on preview I wrote a month before its official release. Head of Video Greg Burke and I were teaming up against powerful enemies and taking part in massive world events. It was a small slice, but what a slice it was.

Then, I got the final version.

Before long, I was in the middle of a generic sci-fi story with brutally dull characters. The dialogue was as wretched as it was long-winded. Choices were so inconsequential that the whole exercise felt like a parody of BioWare’s past work. The plot points were painfully predictable. There was a big betrayal at the end and, by the time it happened, I couldn’t bring myself to care.

Part of that is because the gameplay loop that showed so much potential fell flat with repetitive missions, useless loot, and progression that was often tied to world events. That last part sounds good in theory, but a dwindling player count quickly made this one of the game’s most aggravating features.

All of this is before getting into the game’s godawful performance. If you like loading screens, have I got the game for you! Anthem’s loading screens had a hair trigger. Take a few steps away from the designated path and the game will move you back to the start of the mission, but only after a 30-to-60 second loading sequence. Imagine this happening every other minute. Imagine seeing a loading screen while talking to a character in the hub world! Is that supposed to happen? It shouldn’t, but that was the nature of the always-online beast.

Indeed, EA saw fit to make Anthem an always-online game, so a laggy connection would often leave players staring at a loading screen for minutes at a time.

Playing through Anthem remains one of the worst review experiences I’ve ever had at Shacknews. Worse than Foamstars! Worse than Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League! Worse than Kinect Star Wars. Okay, maybe not as bad as Kinect Star Wars. (Is that what my review style looked like in 2012? Oof!)

There are many things about Anthem that I had successfully memory-holed, like looking into a Men in Black neuralyzer. Then I started seeing the BlueSky posts from frequent Shacknews contributor Lexi Luddy, as they started their Anthem journey. The memories came flooding back in, like some nightmare version of the Assassin’s Creed Animus.

I remember what a horrible time I had with this game. What made it so much worse is that it was BioWare. Sure, a lot of what Anthem became could be attributed to publisher edicts and interference, but a lot of this was on BioWare. Anthem should have been better than it was, partly because of that BioWare pedigree.

I didn’t even touch on the ending, which was designed to feed live service aspirations that never came. However, that last part does give me a slight sense of appreciation, because Anthem was the tipping point for me, where I aimed to no longer be hoodwinked by half-finished games that were built for Year 2, 3, or 8. If you’re releasing a $60 game, the story should at least have some semblance of finality.

Still, for all of the antipathy I had (and, evidently, still have) for it, it’s a tragedy to see Anthem officially go dark. The mission of video game preservation means all games should be preserved. That includes dreck like Anthem.

Even if it isn’t necessarily fun to play for most people, there are lessons to learn from its creation. There are teachable moments and memorable tales found in each line of code. There’s something for the next generation to learn, so that maybe someday they can make a better version of a game like Anthem.
https://www.shacknews.com/article/147388/anthem-did-it-deserve-better-no-probably-not