The massive overhaul coming to Anthem looks like it could be promising, with everything new BioWare is looking to bring to the way players interact with the world and collect loot. However, now that the game is preparing to hit its second anniversary, continuing work on Anthem could be splitting BioWare’s focus, and the developer might want to move on.
This isn’t to say that the entire Anthem IP and all of the work that BioWare clearly had to pour into bringing the game to the state that it’s currently in has to go to waste. Instead, the developer should move towards developing either a sequel or a Destiny: The Taken King style of expansion in order to get players invested in the game again with new content and address some of the deeper critiques.
An important thing to remember around the lukewarm reception of Anthem that continued to get colder and colder as the game went on without updates is that it wasn’t entirely about the game’s mechanics. In fact, the basic combat of the game still has a dedicated fanbase that continues to rally for the upcoming overhaul to deliver on BioWare’s earlier promises with some fairly competent gunplay in otherwise poorly designed levels. To that degree, there’s only so much that a mechanical overhaul can do to improve the experience of the game without also addressing some of the more lingering issues present in the story and level design.
Of course, going in and tweaking things like enemy AI, Javelin flight time, and the overall balance that can make weapons feel like they’re actually doing the significant enough damage for the power fantasy. Then there’s the issue of Anthem‘s loot systems, and the reward given to players for jumping into the game in the first place, which may be the most important change that the Overhaul needs to make. However, fixing these systems isn’t going to be enough to bring players back, and without an already dedicated player base, it’s going to be hard to pull in new players.
This is where the root of the problem might lie for BioWare’s efforts in this upcoming overhaul, where not enough new content is being added to give players more to explore. While there are rumors of Anthem 2.0 introducing new enemies, the story content seems to be roughly the same, with few additions to show for all of the work that has gone into revamping the game. The result could be that the lackluster level design might be even more striking as the mechanics are built up around the simple puzzles and arenas filled with waist-high cover.
Expanding into a new storyline could be the best way to take a new look at these level designs and enhance what is already present with more complex areas that demand different strategies from players. The design of the world is already artful, filled with beautiful locations on an alien world that borders on being familiar enough to look livable, but foreign enough to be visually appealing and new. It’s how players interact with this world that really needs to be changed, from both level design, to how Anthem‘s Javelins function within those levels needing to be addressed.
To say that asking for more Javelin variety in Anthem is an easy thing to ask of BioWare would be incredibly short sighted, as anyone who has seen the meta of titles like Warframe shift over the years. A complete revamp of the core classes of the game would be a massive undertaking, even without looking at everything the developer is already attempting to work on. However, there is an opportunity that another looter-shooter developer previously took to address the shortcomings of certain classes and weapons by moving the game forward with a sequel.
Bungie’s Destiny 2 took full advantage of the fact that it was a sequel, and not just an expansion on the base game, in order to completely rework how some of the more exploitable or boring subclasses like Sunsinger and Defender. Thanks to the game being a sequel, Bungie was able to change these subclasses and design a new world around these changes, something that BioWare might want to take note of. This kind of radical change might be what BioWare needs to best redesign Anthem‘s Javelins in a way that makes them balance into a new game more fluidly.
Of course, the mechanics and the Javelins are only part of the problem that BioWare is currently addressing when it comes to the Anthem overhaul and drawing in new and returning players. As mentioned before, there isn’t enough new content coming with this future update, and it might take a whole new storyline to get more players onboard after the initial release. Seeing that the original story ended on a cliffhanger, hoping to expand on the game with sequels and expansions, there is likely already a plan for how to move the narrative forward.
As far as whether or not this is a big ask that fans would be making of BioWare, the company’s history with complex narratives like Dragon Age: Inquisition speaks for itself. This is a developer that made a name for itself on the back of strong stories with compelling characters that made players care about what happened to them in the end. In fact, BioWare has been too good at this in the past, causing players to critique Mass Effect 3 for not bringing together enough of the storylines that they had attached themselves to.
So, seeing that an overhaul really isn’t enough to make sure that Anthem stays relevant in 2021, it might be time for BioWare to take what they’re currently working on and putting it towards either a substantial expansion or a sequel. In no way should the series be shelved for the time being, but a radical, new direction could be what the game needs in order to survive. As mentioned before, there is still a fanbase that is incredibly hopeful that the coming update will revitalize the community, but just tweaking a few mechanics might not be enough.
Players are going to need new substance, and a whole new storyline to incentivize them to jump back into Anthem after all this time. It’s possible that a new expansion could address some of the issues that a mechanical overhaul can’t achieve. However, BioWare might try reworking development into a new foundation than attempting to build on the unsolid ground that Anthem is currently standing on.
Anthem is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
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