There is often a lot of overlap between games within the same genre, sometimes leading to new titles being described as “clones” of one game or another. However, in the case of a game like People Can Fly’s upcoming Outriders, this could be one of those rare occasions where the “clone” outpaces its predecessors, which could mean trouble for the Anthem overhaul.
The Looter Shooter market is jam packed full of games trying to replicate the success of Destiny or the Borderlands series that came before, with Outriders just being the most recent example of the competition moving in on the genre. On the other hand is BioWare’s Anthem, a title that launched disastrously, hampered by bugs, massive loading screens, and a lack of endgame content that now requires an overhaul to make good on its promises.
It wouldn’t be unprecedented for a game like Anthem to revive itself with an overhaul, although it is difficult to say how much good faith BioWare still has to spare from its audience. Considering the initial launch of the developer’s last two titles, even a complete rework of the game might not be enough to bring players back. This is especially true if Outriders is able to sweep the market from under BioWare, effectively driving the final nail into Anthem before the game even has a chance to show off its improvements.
There are a number of ways the both the gameplay and lore of Outriders and Anthem compare, fitting both games not only into the same Looter Shooter genre, but also the same Sci-Fi Dystopian Space Epic niche as well. A lot of this is surface level from a lore standpoint, and even Mass Effect: Andromeda seems to have a lot of crossover in story, even with what was supposed to be a new IP from the same developer. Of course, it’s likely where the two contrast that will ensure which of the two titles winds up taking off once the finished versions of both games are released.
In the case of the gameplay loop, Outriders‘ endgame content may already be taking the lead in concept alone, thanks in part to turning away from microtransactions and the live service model. Additionally, giving the endgame a new storyline that doesn’t recycle content from the base campaign is both an expensive and time consuming choice for People Can Fly, but likely the right decision for the longevity of the title. Contrasting this, Anthem‘s endgame content and repetitive missions is one of the major complaints that BioWare has to address during the overhaul, as it was why the game seemed to hemorrhage players so quickly.
The combat could be the most important aspect of Outriders that could put it ahead of Anthem, specifically because of how close the gameplay of both titles really is. From what early Outriders gameplay previews show the gameplay of Anthem is surprisingly similar to Mass Effect, thanks to both the third person point of view and flashy abilities. These games aren’t alone in the Cover Shooter sub-genre of gameplay, with People Can Fly’s previous work on the Gears of War series lending to this same style of gameplay.
Looking at what Outriders is preparing to bring to the genre, and what Anthem failed to initially bring, the idea of both seems to be to take the original Mass Effect team dynamic into multiplayer. The difference with these new titles, being that instead of taking Mass Effect 3‘s multiplayer mode that seemed disconnected from the main game, the entire experience is being made multiplayer. While Anthem attempted to recreate this dynamic with the Javelins, Outriders and its Warframe-like classes seem to be digging even deeper into the Mass Effect inspiration.
It can’t be understated how these games have gotten to this point where they seem to be competing for similar release windows, even though Anthem released in 2019. This new overhaul is being treated as a new release because of the horrendous state that the game originally launched in, with a lackluster story and shallow end-game that couldn’t make up for the bugs and other issues. As the story goes, Anthem was a game plagued by rushed deadlines, mismanagement with trying to release Mass Effect: Andromeda around the same time, and BioWare loosing and shifting developers.
All of these aspects created a perfect storm that was in no way helped by the strange way that Anthem launched across different platforms and for Origins members. Even after a number of delays, which Outriders has also received, BioWare still wasn’t able to bring the game together in quite the way that fans were hoping for from a game that promised to make an MMO Mass Effect. So, while the overhaul might make Anthem a great game eventually, that initial launch is still going to be a serious setback that BioWare has to overcome, which might be enough to put Outriders over the top.
This attempt to come out on top of the Looter Shooter genre is in no way new, and Outriders will be competing with Borderlands 3, Destiny, and Warframe, as well as Anthem. On top of what is already out, titles like Starfield are also expected to have huge releases as well, even if Bethesda’s new IP doesn’t expect to be a multiplayer title like the others. So, there is much more to the equation of which of these games will eventually be able to capture the attention of the most players in 2021 and hold onto them for as long as possible.
At this point, the prospects of the Anthem overhaul look good, and there is still a fanbase excited to see the game come out of its dormant state and have a pseudo re-release that lives up to its earlier hype. However, even if BioWare is able to completely remake the game from the ground up to completely deliver on its promises, this may still be too little, too late. By all accounts, Anthem is going to struggle to compete with Outriders over the fans that can only really fuel one of these games to the level it needs to be considered a success.
Outriders is set to release on February 2nd, 2021, for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
![\"IT電腦補習](\"http://itteacheritfreelance.hk/test/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/logo2-2.png\"){kind=logo}
www.itsec.hk
www.itsec.vip
www.itseceu.uk
Leave a Reply