Currently, very few games are missed as much as Anthem, the failed action role-playing game from BioWare. What does the game have that so many fans can’t let go of?
These are the facts about the life and death of Anthem:
- Anthem was released in February 2019 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. It was an unusual MMO: players donned an Iron-Man-like suit, could fly, shoot, and fight.
- The game fell short of EA’s expectations: the content lasted only about 30 hours, EA later said, after which players would become dissatisfied. They considered the issues so severe that they could not continue developing the game as planned and announced a major reboot for the game in February 2020, an Anthem 2.0.
- A year later, in February 2021, it was said: EA was stopping the development of Anthem. The reboot was canceled. BioWare was to focus on Mass Effect and Dragon Age.
“I love Anthem so much”
What’s so special? More than 3 years after the end of Anthem, people simply can’t stop thinking about and missing the game.
The reddit for Anthem is still active, and players keep posting clips from Anthem that showcase what makes the game so special:
- The gameplay loop of flying and landing, shooting and fighting feels fantastic
- The power fantasy of fighting in a heavy suit with an arsenal of weapons gives players a great feeling.
- Graphically, the game still looks great 5 years after its release, and it sounds great too.
One reason why people love Anthem so much is certainly the flying. In MMORPGs like WoW, you can really feel how much people enjoy being able to fly in the open world of an MMO. The moment you unlock flying is a milestone many aspire to, as it opens up the world and gives players so much more control.
In Anthem, flying was particularly cool because you didn’t need a flying mount for it; your character could simply fly, allowing players to feel even freer.
Love mingles with pain, sadness, and disappointment in Anthem
This is what players say: There are two emotions:
- On one hand, simply the love for Anthem
- On the other hand, the bitter disappointment over BioWare
People write comments like:
- “I will never forget what they took from me”
- “It has been so long, and I am still really sad when I think about how much potential was wasted and what could have been”
- “If it had had more than 6 hours of repeatable gameplay, it would have been my favorite game of all time”
This is what it’s all about: As an MMO player, one can only hope that someone picks up the successful core concept of Anthem again and creates a decent game from the brilliant gameplay loop with better MMO mechanics.
Anthem significantly contributed to triggering a crisis in live-service games and wasted a lot of trust in the concept of live-service games that are constantly being improved and expanded. But Anthem is also a big opportunity to get it right: Destiny, Division and Anthem were once the future of gaming: What happened?
