Could there be hope on the horizon for Anthem? Sentiments leaked from the studio appear to believe so, as reports have emerged from Kotaku that plans are being drawn up for a complete overhaul of everything that Anthem got wrong. (So they're remaking the game then?) Despite all the doom and gloom surrounding the Bioware studios of late, with key members of staff jumping as if from a sinking ship and preliminary reports detailing a live-service future, Bioware don't quite seem ready to give up on their failures and seem determined to ensure they don't keep one of gaming's biggest duds on their back catalogue. No official announcement has been made to that affect, but given what we have heard about Anthem so far, this seems to be a sensible move.
Folk have been somewhat optimistic when hearing of this news, whilst pondering if this could be a turning of fortunes for the game and studio. One comment I've seen a lot of, is variations of "Well, at least they'll have time to make the game good." Gracious but misinformed, which is part of the reason why I am dubious that a game like Anthem can be saved by a studio who have no idea what to do with it. And so, for my own sanity as much as for yours, I want to quickly skim over the history of Anthem behind the scenes to figure out if there is hope for this 'franchise' yet.
Firstly, lets not make any mistake here; 'Anthem' was not a rushed game. At least not in the traditional sense. Just because EA's ugly mug is slapped on the box doesn't mean those producers ran Bioware ragged with whips to get this game out, at least not initially. You see, Anthem was in pre-production for a while, a long while. Before 'Mass Effect: Andromeda' released (4 years too early, if you ask me.) there were already whispers about this project that the team had labelled, rather pretentiously, the 'Bob Dylan' of games. (Whatever the heck that means.) This 'Project Dylan' would take several forms throughout the years, with it's standout incarnation being of a game wherein the key gameplay loop is the exploration of various alien hostile environments. (Which, paired with a traditional RPG Bioware flair, actually sounds pretty interesting.)
That idea would never be fleshed out into a commercial product, however, as attentions and interest would be shifted elsewhere constantly. By the time the team came back to Project Dylan in a full capacity, they realized they had nothing concrete to build upon. Around about this time the head of EA wanted an update on what is was that he was paying the Bioware team to make, and they had to scrounge about to put together concept demo on the 'idea of the week' at the time. The Demo didn't exactly go down with a bang but Andrew Wilson did comment on how he liked the flying gameplay so the team, naturally, decided to pivot all their efforts to nailing this one aspect. That year at E3, the rest of the gaming world got to take a look at a rough theatrical pretend demo that was designed to disguise the serious identity crisis that this project was having behind the scenes.
At this point, the project was so haphazard and poorly communicated that many Bioware employees had only learnt what kind of game they were making the moment they saw that E3 reel. (I hope they got to see it first during rehearsals, at least.) Instead of being this bold, genre defying game that would be the 'Bob Dylan' of it's peers; (That's still a dumb comparison) Anthem had shaped up to be another looter-shooter that piggybacked off the engine built for 'Mass Effect Andromeda'. (Albeit with considerable reworking implemented towards the facial renders.) This may have been conceptually disappointing, but at least the team had an idea of where they were going and even familiar games from which to reference. Back when they were making a 'revoultionary game' with no idea what that would be and no visionary director to guide their way, things were pretty scary and confusing for the team, but now they had an end goal. There was just one problem, the team had messed about with EA's time for several years now and the head offices were demanding results post haste. What followed was a mad dash to the finish line as Bioware desperately attempted to put together an endlessly monetisable live-service within the space of 1 year.
The consequence of that rush was apparent from the moment anyone booted up the game on day one. Honestly it's difficult to concisely quote all the problems that this game had but I'll do my best to recall a few off the top of my head. Firstly, the story was pathetically vague to such a degree that it made Destiny look good. The story underwent so many cuts that the main narrative was nigh-on incomprehensible at times and the core idea that Anthem hooked in prospective players with (the titular Anthem of creation) will likely gone down in storytelling history as one of the most underused plot devices of all time. The looter-shooter aspects were sorely lacking, with less guns than your average modern Battlefield game, and a serious problem with 'dead' stat rolls similar to the situation which sunk Diablo 3's credibility years previously. Quests weren't fun, enemies were lame, levels and locales were recycled and the game was prone to so many bugs and crashes that some blame the software for bricking their consoles. (I think that may have been debunked, but I'm not sure.)
The situation was only exacerbated by the way that Bioware went quiet as the main team, Bioware Edmonton, handed things over to their B-team, Bioware Austin, and went into hiding as the community started to burn. Reducing the workforce is expected for a live service but it usually happens after the game is finished so that the remnants can work on maintenance and additions, this was literally an example of jumping from a sinking ship. Predictably, Bioware fell behind severely on their promised road-map and dumped their only promising sounding content, The Cataclysm, late and bereft of any creativity and content. Needless to say, the community felt betrayed and ripped off and everyone held their breath waiting for EA to proclaim this game as dead as Google Stadia will be in a couple of weeks.
We're still waiting on that prognosis, but if recent rumors are to be believed then the doctors already know the case and are in the midst of planning some foul necromantic ritual to cover for their mistake. (I'm not sure if that's admirable or cowardly.) As the news goes, some people are saying that this 'overhaul' is so substantial that some people are referring to it as 'Anthem 2.0' or 'Anthem Next'. (Which, word to the wise, are terrible and derivative names. You should leave that to the marketing team, it's literally what they're paid for.) However, at the same time we are hearing talk that the heads are unsure whether this will be a single update, a collection of updates, or a whole new game altogether. And that is a bad miscommunication to kick off with considering that this mess of a game was born from teams who had no idea what they were making for so long.
If there is one silver lining to all this news, however, it would have to be the fact that Edmonton and Austin are apparently working together to get this update off the ground. Originally the teams had gone their separate ways whilst Edmonton tried desperately to cobble together the remains of their recently cancelled: 'Project Joplin' into Dragon Age 4 (That's right, that little E3 teaser was another empty bluff. Bioware never learn their lesson, do they?) But it seems that 'Anthem' has been designated as such a sore point within the gaming community that the entire team have redirected efforts to work towards fixing it. For the sake of their collective reputation if nothing else. Of course, this conflicts with the announcement that Bioware are also working on their next Mass Effect game, but seeing as how that announcement was made on N7 day; (and how full of crap Bioware have been in their public statements recently) I'm assuming that the 'work' that's gone towards this new Mass Effect probably consists of a single piece of concept art and sticking a '2' to the end of the word 'Andromeda'.
All of this sounds promising to read about, but we have yet to see if there is enough of a core team left at Bioware to put together a great game, even with the full team working at their best. When Final Fantasy XIV was undergoing significant hardships, it took a great amount or risk from the team to fix things and turn them to working order. They had to take the entire game off line and relaunch it after a huge amount of maintenance and reworking to get it functional again. That is the sort of dedication that 'Anthem' needs, and even then there is no guarantee that people will come back. Diablo 3 had significant issues at it's launch that the team had to sink effort into fixing but the reputational damage was already done for them. Diablo is still looked upon as the poorest modern example of it's own genre, just as 'Anthem' is considered the worst AAA looter shooter. (with good reason.) Now that the team is essentially starting from scratch with a proven leader at the helm, Casey Hudson, I'd understand the glimmer of hope that is settling into the community today, however I then remember the number of talented individuals who are no longer with Bioware and I can't help but sigh. That company is so unrecognizable that they didn't even get the contract to work on 'Baldur's Gate 3'. (That ended up going to Larian.) Time may prove me wrong, and I sort of hope it does, but I won't hold my breath for no one.
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