Perhaps BioWare wants to use Anthem to create new things in its gaming style. But novelty is not seen. Only BioWare has crushed what has built its brand.
Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age, Baldur’s Gate, or Mass Effect. Indeed readers will have a lot of beautiful memories with these names. These can be considered the games that have built BioWare’s brand, causing most game players to be fascinated by how BioWare develops role-playing games.
The company tends to build genuinely memorable characters, putting them in the leading player’s group to become the agent that promotes the entire game circuit. The decisions that BioWare makes for players to choose are often based on ethical and social factors. It is ingeniously integrated through each scene.
Hey BioWare, why doesn’t Anthem learn anything from its predecessors? With the examples of direct rivals such as Warframe, The Division, Destiny, BioWare should have avoided Anthem’s fundamental mistakes.
However, with Anthem’s latest game, it seems that BioWare has lost all that is considered the most elite. I like most about BioWare – a great story and character series – completely gone from Anthem.
What did BioWare do well?
In BioWare products, fans can easily recognize that they are entering a strange yet enchanting world. The highlight lies in being around gamers with many exciting characters and companions. Some may be considered moral principles. Others are somewhat romantic and uplifting. Some people have helped me shape the right decisions in the game. Besides, the game also has people who take advantage of the main character’s help for personal gain.
It can be said that BioWare has built a diverse world. The primary and secondary characters all leave a strong impression with their individuality and life story.
I can list some of the following characters. The first is Mordin Solus in Mass Effect 2. He is originally a scientist with breakneck talk speed. However, through the game’s evolution, the player can see that Mordin always struggles with emotions guilt in the past. And the detail I find most memorable is probably whenever Mordin sings.
Or like Cassandra Pentaghast from Dragon Age Inquisition. Her personality is so strict that it is annoying to others. She is always loyal to her goals and career ideals. But if hard to learn, players will know Cassandra also has a mild weakness in the soul.
Of course, it is indispensable to lead Shepard in the Mass Effect trio, a compassionate soldier. Or like Hawke in Dragon Age 2, always joking around allowed, making people around angry.
The cast of characters that BioWare built helps players to be able to shape their names, forcing gamers to face and deal with problems with people around them. BioWare filled the world they created with such a deep character system. They make anyone who steps into their game learn to control, not rushing to trust anyone, causing players to pay attention to every line their characters talk to the opponent.
In other words, the world of BioWare gives gamers a very realistic feeling. That’s what fans always remember about BioWare’s products.
Instead, which direction did Anthem go?
Anthem has removed the idea of NPC characters and is instead associated with other players. Each task gamer can connect up to three friends or strangers to complete. However, I couldn’t connect with my teammates, and almost certainly, they didn’t need me to achieve the mission.
Its previous games often mentioned the beautiful aspects of the surrounding characters. Besides the main quests, players will have to complete additional side quests to make the most of BioWare’s character system. But Anthem has wholly removed that.
Also, although Anthem also has supporting characters, they never follow the main character to the battlefield. These characters also do not contribute to helping players explore the world of Anthem.
If you refer to the Wiki, you will probably be even more disappointed. The conversations that the NPC in Anthem told the main character are … entirely pointless. Anthem makes me feel completely lost in this world. It feels like I can only hear the names but can’t understand and mingle or have any voices in that world.
Besides, in Anthem, action scenes and storytelling scenes do not support each other, but they are quite discrete. Perhaps BioWare wants to test new game making elements but based on what it has ever done. As a result, Anthem became a mess of plot and character lines, which had become the trademark of BioWare.
Conclusion
BioWare this time has failed. This is something no one can deny. Anthem may have some advantages, such as the Javelin designed to be a bit of Marvel’s Iron Man character. The combat is well built. However, it could not save a game with an empty storyline, making the player feel entirely out of character.
The strong point of BioWare is to build the story and characters, but they manually discard it to make an online game with other players. Multiplayer mode will not capture all gamers’ emotions, sometimes other players want to team for fun, but there is no connection and cooperation between players.
Not to mention the errors that make the console of gamers fall into the state of “garlic” and a series of other big and small mistakes. All have made BioWare, as well as EA, fall into a difficult situation to save.
Hopefully, this will be a lesson for BioWare so that they can continue to develop their strengths in future games.
