Anthem is BioWare's biggest failure in its 29 year history. The third-person shooter marked the studio’s first and final expensive and misguided step into the games-as-a-service space, and was met with skepticism before launch, before becoming a notorious flop upon release. In the five years since, the iconic RPG developer hasn't released a new game.
However, it has indicated its intention to avoid doing anything like Anthem ever again. In a recent interview with Edge Magazine, Bioware's John Epler said that the game's failure encouraged the studio to recommit to what it did best: single-player RPGs like the Mass Effect series and the upcoming Dragon Age: The Veilguard, for which he is creative director. I understand and support the pivot. But it's a shame that Anthem has become so radioactive, because it was and still is the best-feeling game BioWare ever made.
Underneath It All, Anthem Was A Good Action Game
The looter-shooter was everything it was criticized for being. Extremely repetitive. An ill-advised attempt by a renowned single-player focused studio to make big money in the live-service space. An oil-and-water mixture of BioWare's focus on narrative with cooperative gameplay, which kept in-game characters jabbering in your ear when you wanted to hear your real-world friends. And, maybe worst of all, little supported after launch, leaving the fans who bought in on day one high and dry.
All of that was bad. But the baseline combat mechanics were good… it was just that the gameplay was repetitive. The guns felt good… it was just that, to make the live-service loop work, they had to be used on bullet sponge enemies. The mechanical Javelin suits controlled well, and it was an extremely good Iron Man simulator… that had you flying around the same locations over and over again. BioWare will probably never touch Anthem again — the brand is just too toxic, and the studio is playing it safe by returning to its familiar franchises. But, an Anthem single-player game could be great.
Anthem Would Work Well Without The Live-Service Trappings
So many of the decisions that made Anthem compromised were the result of BioWare attempting to fit the square peg of a kickass combat system into the round hole of the live-service model. It feels great to fly around its gorgeous jungle locales, zipping through canyons, and buzzing along the surface of the water. But, it sucks to do that in the same small, open-world map over and over again in pursuit of quests and loot and characters that simply aren’t very interesting.
A single-player game (or even a live-service game with discrete levels like The Division 2) would allow that movement to be used in unique, creative ways. You could have a narrow level that emphasized speed, a wide open level that focused on exploration, or a really shallow level that restricted the amount you could fly. As it is, it's all in one big map which prevents any gameplay idea from being explored to the fullest. You go back to the same locations over and over again, and the thrill of flight dulls.
The bullet sponge enemies cause a similar problem. Instead of having to think critically, use the space to gain advantage, or swap out weapons to take out specific opponents, you spend most of your time hovering around, shooting enemies for a really long time, as your trigger finger gets achier and achier. A single-player Anthem, that wasn't designed to be replayed endlessly, could have designed specific encounters for specific enemies. There could have been levels built entirely around taking on enemies in hand-to-hand combat, others that required you to skillfully use the sniper rifle while in-flight.
Underneath everything that sucked about Anthem, there was an excellent core that needed a better shell, and I hope BioWare finds a way to return to those mechanics somehow, somewhere. Like a skilled human pilot stuck in a rusted Javelin, Anthem just didn't get to show what made it special.
