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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard and, to a lesser extent, Mass Effect 5 might be front and centre in everyone's minds right now, but Anthem's lead producer would "love" to return to the studio's failed live service game.

In hindsight, Anthem's doomed release should have been obvious to everyone involved. Some BioWare fans were already trepidatious about the storied RPG studio pivoting into live service, co-op focused, looter shooter territory with a game that had way more in common with Destiny than Mass Effect. Reports of a troubled development raised more eyebrows. And then, of course, the game itself launched with long load times, technical troubles, and divisive combat involving you and other exosuited Iron Man-y friends saving a lush alien planet.

Whatever crowd the game attracted on release day didn't last too long, prompting the studio to go back to the drawing board with a massive update, re-release thingy tentatively called Anthem Next, which publisher EA eventually shot down so BioWare could make safer hits with sequels to Dragon Age and Mass Effect.

So, yes. Anthem is in the rear view mirror for the studio that's continuing to work on the same two series it created two console generations ago. But that doesn't mean Anthem's been completely forgotten, either.

Ben Irving, who worked as the co-op shooter's lead producer and has since left to join Tomb Raider stewards Crystal Dynamics, recently tweeted that he'd "love to reboot Anthem one day" in response to an online fan who was still blasting alien mechs in the game. "It's amazing how many people are still so enthusiastic about Anthem so many years later," he later said. "Anthem still has all the potential in the world..."

Forget Dragon Age and Mass Effect 5 for a minute, this Anthem dev would "love" another shot at BioWare's doomed co-op game

The live service flop still has fans out there

www.gamesradar.com

 

[kikkis]

I don't disagree in terms of anthem concept but if they didn't get it right the first time, why would they get it right the second time around?

 

[lughnasadh123]

I imagine that sentiment is pretty common for Devs who still believe in the concept even if the project just didn't reach the level they hoped for.

 

[hemo memo]

"enduring love"

 

[TheMan]

I would love it too although I don’t see it happening. In fact they were working on a revamp a la ff14 but it got cancelled. Best for another studio entirely to take the concepts and do something else with them. Maybe an Exosquad reboot?

 

[Punished Miku]

The potential was huge. It should have been Destiny before that was a thing, but with a much better story, much better traversal, flight and level design. This was their 1st new IP since Mass Effect.

 

[VolticArchangel]

"It's amazing how many people are still so enthusiastic about Anthem so many years later,"

 

[Schmendrick]

The armor suits felt amazing...everything else however....
Also "enduring love"? what?

 

[GymWolf]

The concept was neat but the execution was kinda terrible.

It was fun with friends like 99,99% of games you play with friends

 

[winjer]

Enduring love? Where?

 

[DonF]

The news to me is that you can still play the game?? I assumed that being a live service game, it had been shut down. I remember playing the beta and had a blast but the technical stuff like huge loading times really hurt the game.

 

[Punished Miku]

The news to me is that you can still play the game?? I assumed that being a live service game, it had been shut down. I remember playing the beta and had a blast but the technical stuff like huge loading times really hurt the game.

They're still selling it. It's on sale for $3 digitally pretty frequently.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

The news to me is that you can still play the game?? I assumed that being a live service game, it had been shut down. I remember playing the beta and had a blast but the technical stuff like huge loading times really hurt the game.

Played a few short Anthem sessions a few months back and the servers were still up. Hoping they'll patch in an offline mode once they inevitably take the servers down.

 

[Gonzito]

The gameplay was amazing, I really liked it. But the game was a disjointed mess with no direction or logic whatsoever

 

[Interfectum]

 

[Fbh]

The concept was cool so I'm wouldn't necessarily mind. A game that can deliver on the promise of that original reveal trailer would be cool.

Though at this point I think they'd be better off doing something similar with a different name than trying to bring back Anthem

 

[Topher]

Thought they tried a reboot and it got canned.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

Weren’t they planning to reboot this as Anthem 2.0 or whatever? Then they canceled it after some high level people quit the project IIRC.

The concept was neat but the execution was kinda terrible.

It was fun with friends like 99,99% of games you play with friends

It should’ve been awesome. BioWare’s Destiny-like game with robot suits and Iron Man style flying. Made by BioWare’s “A Team” (remember the excuse for ME: Andromeda sucking was that the A Team were all busy working on Anthem)

What a disappointment. Didn’t even make it halfway through the 10 hour trial that came with Origin.

 

[Exede]

The gameplay of Anthem was fucking great! the problem of this game was, that they had absolutly no idea what to do with the awesome gamplay. The Endgame was horrible! But tbh, i would really like when they would give the game a 2nd chance!

 

[Roxkis_ii]

Concept and gameplay had lots of potential.
If done right, it could have been Destiny competitor. Even now I would be interested in a similar game.

 

[Wildebeest]

The concept for Anthem was "it's like an Iron Man movie or something" and the gameplay was "looter shooter without any interesting guns or upgrades to unlock". Why reboot it? Time to move on and think bigger.

 

[Wooxsvan]

i mean you have to use this gif here? everyone on the first page of this thread should just include it by default

 

[EN250]

This is like when Disney crap out some SW trash show that dies within a week, it gets cancelled and time later some douche talks about the fans of said trash and how the company wants to continue it for the dozen or so fans

 

[AJUMP23]

The game has a legacy, it isn't love. It was merely the first nail in the bioware coffin.

 

[Revolutionary]

I legitimately forgot this game existed until a few days ago when I was wondering how Dragon Age took so much time to develop after ME Andromeda. Oh right, they made a whole other game that bombed

 

[Games of Today]

The campaign wasn't terrible until about 4 hours in when they start making you fight enemies that are geared more towards 4 player co-op. So if you don't have a team they are extremely spongey.

They also needed a bigger map. Plus the game needed a lot more polish haha. The massive waterfall right next to the home base literally had no audio attached to it haha.

 

[PurePlatinum]

this was one of the first games revealed that made me realize I was becoming older and more cynical. That E3 2017 "Demo" was so obviously fake. The artificial gamer chatter dialogue makes me laugh in retrospect

"Oh, Jerra's Wrath!"

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

i only played a few hours of my free trial but I thought it was lame how the only white dude in your crew was this soy loser who “stays in his lane” and lacks the ability to pilot one of those robots. I found out that he later betrays your team, then begs for forgiveness.

Guess it was a sign of things to come.

 

[ClosBSAS]

Bioware trinity is da origins, mass effect 2 and anthem. Anthem is incredible

 

[Rambone]

Officer Doofy, can you tell us how many fan's this game has?

 

[Fabieter]

It had potential, just drop the gaas and make it an rpg. But if dragon age fails than it will be their last game rho.

 

[rodrigolfp]

They should re release it F2P. Gameplay was good.

 

[Puscifer]

I don't disagree in terms of anthem concept but if they didn't get it right the first time, why would they get it right the second time around?

Because EA ran the pitch trailer at E3 before they even had a vertical slice of gameplay to show off. Anthem has its followers that's for sure

 

[HogIsland]

After the initial flop, they should've made a regular non-service campaign with 2-4 player coop. More like a Borderlands or Ghost Recon.

 

[Fyrium]

Anthem still one of biggest personal disappointments. Loved the gameplay, the loop could have been expanded, and the story was meh. Probably could have used an additional year or two to cook. I had gone in hoping for a Destiny alternative, didn't get it.

 

[bbeach123]

Second to elite dangerous , this one had one of the best scifi game sound effect .

 

[wipeout364]

The story in anthem was terrible coupled with cringe characters. This is why I have no hope for Veilguard. Story, characters and world building is important in the RPG space. It’s hard to believe this was the same studio that brought us Mass effect 1 and 2.

So no Anthem does not need to be brought back.

 

[Kings Field]

I enjoyed the flying around and combat but otherwise it was a mess.

 

[Warnen]

I loved the flying around felt so great. Now just need to add compelling gameplay.

 

[Saber]

Concept is nothing witouth good execution and intention.

Anthem was made out of purelly bad intentions.

 

[Perrott]

I don't disagree in terms of anthem concept but if they didn't get it right the first time, why would they get it right the second time around?

Because it took BioWare five years of pre-production out of the seven years that Project Dylan (Anthem) was in development for them to land on a definitive concept for the game, meaning that the final product was built in just a little bit under two years.

Now imagine what could be of the Anthem concept if they were to now enjoy of a proper five to six years development cycle, building towards a set creative vision for the game from day one.

 

[Moriarty1889]

I actually quite liked Anthem. Beautiful graphics and the mech suits were cool. Would love to see it comeback in a better way with more support. Lots of potential there.

 

[Umbral]

The mech designs were pretty cool but it being a looter-shooter killed any chance I was going to buy it. I remember its codename being Dylan, as in they wanted to make the Bob Dylan of games.

 

[Tarnpanzer]

Flying was fun, but thats about it.

Also this is one of these games that plays alot better with 60fps than 30fps.

 

[kiphalfton]

Still a better love story than Twilight.

 

[SonGoku]

Good on this former dev for following his dreams by transitioning to comedy work, it cant be easy to let go of years of education and hard work to follow your dream to be a comedian, how scary it must be redo your life from the beginning

 

[Trogdor1123]

Anthem looked like it was going to blow the world away and I honestly think if it had another 12-18 months it would have. The world was super interesting but there were just so many issues

 

[struggler_guts]

Im actually pretty mad I listened to the hate and didn't try it at launch, I loved how it felt flying around especially as the speedy one

 

[Wildebeest]

Because it took BioWare five years of pre-production out of the seven years that Project Dylan (Anthem) was in development for them to land on a definitive concept for the game, meaning that the final product was built in just a little bit under two years.

Now imagine what could be of the Anthem concept if they were to now enjoy of a proper five to six years development cycle, building towards a set creative vision for the game from day one.

Amazing how if a game is set in "space" people just get more excited if you promise to take 20 years to release something that is just mid.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

I liked Anthem. It was fun. The story sucked, so a reboot fixing some stuff could be really good. I doubt it'll be good because of the writers at Bioware now, though.