5 Problems With Anthem BioWare Needs to Fix ASAP
The Shooting
With Anthem’s release date of Feb. 22 fast approaching, the general populace has had a chance to play BioWare’s first foray into the MMO-shooter space during first the game’s rocky VIP weekend, and the recent public beta.
BioWare should be applauded for the risks it is taking and the things it gets right. The flight and general feel of piloting a Javelin is fantastic and nails the feeling of flight in a way that hasn’t really been done in a game like this before.
However, if BioWare wants to be a part of this space and carve out a piece of the player base with Anthem, then they have a lot of work to do, and quite frankly, a rough road ahead of them.
First things first: the shooting and general feel of gunplay are simply not up to par with other games of this genre. Guns feel floaty and underpowered, and shots lack the feeling of impact and feedback when fired when compared to the games Anthem will be competing with, like Destiny or The Division.
For a game where you spend most of your time shooting things, this is a pretty big problem and needs to be addressed immediately.
BioWare’s previous experience with the Mass Effect series should have given the team some understanding of this, but Anthem’s most basic gameplay action feels like a step back from Andromeda, a game that was not exactly praised for its gunplay.
When the biggest competitor you have is Bungie and the Destiny series, and players who will be drawing direct comparisons between the two, then you have a real problem.
In Destiny, each gun feels unique and impactful to use. In Anthem, firing a light machine gun and an SMG feels virtually the same, with the only real difference being the fire rate.
Shooting is such a fundamental part of this game and unfortunately not something that can be fixed overnight. Anthem will surely launch with gunplay in its current state –nobody is expecting them to fix it so quickly– so it will be interesting to see how players of games such as Destiny respond.
