Anthem: A Show of BioWare’s Growth Since Andromeda
Written by Jonathan Lee, February 3, 2019, 5:00PM. Tweet to: @Writerscube
Even Veterans Have Growing Pains
BioWare has been around for many years as a game developer, and they have without question produced a long list of high-quality RPGs full of story, memorable characters, and a lot of devoted fans. I’m talking about games like from the days of Baldur’s Gate long ago! They know what they’re doing when it comes to RPGs.
But that doesn’t mean they’ve stopped growing. No matter how old of a company you are, you are still bound to have a stumble here and there. You pick yourself back up, dust off your shoulders, and keep going. And while their current publisher, Electronic Arts, is in the middle of a prolonged, slow-motion stumble of their own, Bioware has since been trying to steady itself since the calamity of Mass Effect: Andromeda.
The Andromeda Stumble
I had said in the past that I enjoyed Andromeda, despite what issues it may have had. And I even gave praise to how Bioware made efforts to fix almost everything. Unfortunately, not everything did get fixed; there’s only so much you can do before the team responsible (BioWare Montreal) was shuttered up and merged.
This left a large dent in public confidence in BioWare, and no matter how positively I looked at Andromeda (I still play it to this day even), it didn’t change the way it affected the fans and the developer.
But that’s just it. It’s a stumble. BioWare has since been very hard at work, focusing on Anthem, to make sure they don’t repeat recent history.
Anthem Demo Experience and Anticipation of the Final Build
That is not to say things have been buttery smooth. Anthem’s VIP Demo and Open Demo have been plagued by issues, though it has a lot to do with that the demo is using an early build of the game and is not a portion of the final build.
Between the VIP Demo and the Open Demo, BioWare’s Chad Robertson, Head of Live Service, had said:
“We’ve also been preparing for many weeks for our full launch. That version of the game already has a long list of things that are already fixed that won’t make the public demo weekend.”
Amongst the list of improvements that they had been making to the final build, there were fixes to weapon infusions, a new Social Hub akin to that of Destiny’s Tower, and literally “a few thousand more (literally)…”
BioWare has been incredibly fast to respond to community complaints regarding the demos, and they’ve been working hard to make sure the Final Build impresses more than the demos have. All in all, despite the bugs, the VIP Demo and the Open Demo have been fun to play and having the chance to explore a Javelin or two (or four, if you played the VIP weekend) has shown off BioWare’s impressive ability to make each Javelin a truly unique experience. The story missions and the single Stronghold that we got to try were also pretty entertaining. The full game is supposed to have at least three Strongholds for a start, but who knows what BioWare will add in post-game content.
Final Thoughts
While the demo sessions have been a rocky experience, it’s important to know that we all have been playing outdated builds and haven’t gotten to experience a reflection of the real, final product. With that in mind, the bugs didn’t, well, bug me as bad. Maybe it’s because of their longstanding tradition for good storytelling, but I’m feeling good about Anthem. Story-wise, it’s a brand-new world with new faces and foes. There’s promise of free DLC and extended content, so that’s always a plus. And, c’mon, who doesn’t want to fly like Iron Man while blasting baddies?
