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Former BioWare developer Ian Saterdalen reflects on Anthem’s poor reception : “We knew it wasn't ready, as this game was literally created in 15 month

GHG

Gold Member
"Anthem 2 would have been great"

soprano-get-the-fuck-outta-here.gif
 

Drizzlehell

Banned
That Jason Schreier editorial on Anthem was one of the most scathing pieces of game journalism in history. "We knew it wasn't ready" doesn't even begin to describe how much of a shit show the development of that game was.

Part of me wishes that Bioware will pull themselves together and make a comeback with Dragon Age 4 and eventually the new Mass Effect game, but between this and Andromeda, you simply can't trust them to make a good game to save their lives anymore. They revealed a new Mass Effect teaser like 3 years ago and not a peep about it since, plus Casey Hudson left the company (again) soon after that announcement? Yeah, that's really reassuring, lol.
 
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ahtlas7

Member
Anthem, so horribly bad I got it free with my graphics card and I was still disappointed. Inconceivable it was actually put on store shelves.
 

Arsic

Member
I had fun with what was there for a few hours . I always wanted it to succeed because the blueprint was a good one. Given a real full development cycle I think it would’ve been a banger.
 

Waaghals

Member
I liked what little I played of Anthem, so I agree that there was a good game hiding in there somewhere.
I had a very powerful pc for the time, so I did not have to worry too much about performance issues.
 
I always fucking cringe when I read shit like this. ‘We knew the game weren’t ready, but released it anyway’. No, stop releasing shite and make your games worth the money we pay for them.
 

gothmog

Gold Member
Anthem showed the downfall of Bioware.
It's worse than that. Anthem was the downfall of modern gaming in that it showed you could shove a completely unfinished game out the door and people would buy it.

It was sickening to see not only it sell but watch people argue that people were just being salty when the beta came out broken.
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
It's worse than that. Anthem was the downfall of modern gaming in that it showed you could shove a completely unfinished game out the door and people would buy it.

It was sickening to see not only it sell but watch people argue that people were just being salty when the beta came out broken.
Did it sell? I don’t remember it being particularly successful. It had a 10 hour trial for EA Play members, pretty sure hardly anybody bought it after that. They had a plan to completely overhaul and reboot it but that got canceled.
 

gothmog

Gold Member
Did it sell? I don’t remember it being particularly successful. It had a 10 hour trial for EA Play members, pretty sure hardly anybody bought it after that. They had a plan to completely overhaul and reboot it but that got canceled.
It was the second highest launch numbers for a BioWare game so far. Word of mouth slammed the door shut. I know a bunch of guys that bought the legion of dawn edition and refused to return it because they were confident it would be fixed.
 
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Pelao

Member
BioWare in general has made more bad games than good ones in the last 20 years since the release of KOTOR. Something not uncommon with publishers, but not so much with a development studio that for some reason some still hold in high regard.
 

Wildebeest

Member
I stopped replaying Mass Effect 2 because every time I do, my opinion on the game keeps going down.
Especially right after I replay the original game. The contrast between the two is massive.
I've not completed it once, Mass Effect 3 not even tried it. My opinion of Bioware dropped with every new game they released since Baldur's Gate 2.
 

winjer

Gold Member
ME3 already was showing the cracks in Bioware, but it was Anthem really showed the studio was a dying corpse.
 

Smoke6

Member
Anthem literally had the bones to be something great. I hope someone will make a spiritual successor to it. The flying was cool for what it was.
Man would have been a badass armor wars game for marvel and Ironman! The game was like it was designed for thst universe
 

Ozriel

M$FT
Wasn’t really created in 15 months, though. We have Schreier’s deep dive story. The had enough time, just couldn’t make up their minds about the direction to go and kept adding and removing features.
 
I loved the flying but the game was somehow like 100 steps back from the average loot game despite having so many other games to copy from.

It's not like they tried to do something new and it just didn't work but rather the core of the game just didn't really exist.
 
I'm sorry but posting the lowest reviewed score game that you worked on on social media is fucking cringe. "Let's show the whole world how talentless I am."

I mean it must be nice to get paid for years worth of work but only actually work 15 months. This industry is completely fucked, good talent leaves and is replaced by people who don't have half their talent and work ethic.
 

StereoVsn

Member
Dragon Age 2, ME3 (to be fair with all DLCs and mods I am alright with it), ME:Andromeda, Anthem, mediocre Dragone Age Inquisition...

Bioware haven't really had an outstanding game since Dragon Age Origins and Mass Effect 2, and even with latter, to me personally it was downgrade vs ME1 as far as RPG mechanics and exploration went (but that's subjective).

I wouldn't trust any game coming out from Bioware until proper reviews, videos and user impressions. They lost what made them great.
 

Fbh

Member
"The sequel would have been great...until we wasted literal years of development again and then had to rush out a half assed sequel in 12 months"


I always fucking cringe when I read shit like this. ‘We knew the game weren’t ready, but released it anyway’. No, stop releasing shite and make your games worth the money we pay for them.

 

Madflavor

Member
brian0057 brian0057 ain't wrong with what he said about Mass Effect 2. It's absolutely a great game, but in the same way Resident Evil 4 was a great game, it also paved the way for Bioware/Capcom going down the wrong path, specifically with Bioware with the way RPG Elements were gutted. Mass Effect went from a hard sci-fi story more in the vein of Star Trek, to more heavy action Marvelesque territory. When you play ME1 and ME3 side by side, the tone is completely different. Furthermore because Mass Effect 2 put the Reaper plot in the background, they never were able to properly establish a method to fight back the Reapers, thus writing themselves into a corner and having to pull a Deus Ex Machina out of their ass in Mass Effect 3.

I love Mass Effect 2, but it laid the foundation for a lot that went wrong with the series afterward.
 
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iorek21

Member
Dragon Age 2, ME3 (to be fair with all DLCs and mods I am alright with it), ME:Andromeda, Anthem, mediocre Dragone Age Inquisition...

Bioware haven't really had an outstanding game since Dragon Age Origins and Mass Effect 2, and even with latter, to me personally it was downgrade vs ME1 as far as RPG mechanics and exploration went (but that's subjective).

I wouldn't trust any game coming out from Bioware until proper reviews, videos and user impressions. They lost what made them great.

I wouldn’t even trust reviews at this point since Inquisition is regarded as one of their best games critically.

Bioware has been pretty shitty after Dragon Age Awakening back in 2010. That was 13 years ago.

In 13 years we’ve had the downfall of DICE, Rocksteady getting shit for Arkham Knight and Suicide Squad, CPPR getting shit from CP2077, Bethesda being criticized for FO4 and 76 etc. etc.

But somehow Bioware still has shills everwhere.
 
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