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Anthem Demo Impressions Thread

Really liked that they opened up all four javelins.

Can't play much right now, but I'll definitely spend a bit of time with Storm and Interceptor next weekend.
 
Just completed a world event in free play and got tons of loot.

Loving colossus

After playing each one and gearing up a little on each I gotta rank em

Storm - Great
Colossus - Great
Interceptor - very Good
Ranger - okay
 

MastAndo

Member
Considering I'm not typically a fan of 3rd person shooters, I'm finding the gunplay to be pretty enjoyable. It feels tight and responsive, overall. A game like Destiny kept me coming back since the actual act of shooting things is so satisfying...this isn't quite that, but it works well, for what it is. I also like that the cooldowns on secondary stuff and specials is short, so it's basically non-stop fireworks. All in all, it controls well, whether it be in the air or on the ground. The Javelin customization options are pretty fantastic as well.

That said, I have similar complaints to what others have complained about - slow loading, and on Xbox 1 X, I'm completely underwhelmed by the graphics and framerate. Fort Tarsis in particular looks nice, but it chugs in spots, and it doesn't help that you're moving at a snail's pace (I know that'll be changed in the final release though). I'm just not finding much of it to be aesthetically pleasing whether it's the environments or animations, partially because the experience is marred by a sub-par framerate.

I've also run into loading screen freezes more times than I care to count, and most of the time, I just give up playing at that point. This even happened on a private session, so I don't know what sort of matchmaking glitch could cause this. I also don't care for the whole load into Fort Tarsis, get into Javelin, load mission, back to Fort Tarsis dynamic, though I believe I've read that's not quite how the final game will behave. I also much prefer games like this where loot is immediately usable, and not redeemed at the end of missions, as I wish I had more options to swap things in the fly - yes, I hate to say it, but ala Destiny.

I think the game has potential, but I was really hoping to be blown away by it - but, I'm just not. It certainly has potential, and I'm looking forward to impressions and reviews of the final game to see if some of these issues have been cleared up and what differs from the demo. As it stands, I'll likely pass on this one, but I'm not ready to dismiss it entirely.
 
I’m starting to get more and more distracted by the number of explosionss/effects on screen at once in a 4 Man firefight.

Maybe needs to be scaled back a tad
 
Collossus is piss funny when you get flamethrower, lightning coil and a couple of colossus armor mods to boost your health/armour. You melt hordes.
Just bring up your shield and run through minefields and turrets like it's nothing also.

Every other dude gets one shotted by the spider boss but big boi can face tank multiple hits from it (reviving team mates).

The first helmet looks like ED209 as well, just paint your armour grey.
 
Collossus is piss funny when you get flamethrower, lightning coil and a couple of colossus armor mods to boost your health/armour. You melt hordes.
Just bring up your shield and run through minefields and turrets like it's nothing also.

Every other dude gets one shotted by the spider boss but big boi can face tank multiple hits from it (reviving team mates).

The first helmet looks like ED209 as well, just paint your armour grey.

giphy.gif
 

Sygma

Member
Alright, did put a bit of time in



Can give some impressions :


In terms of pure gameplay, we back on some old school ps 2 shit. Everything is animation locked and it genuinely feels terrible.

Even after 10 hours + on the interceptor, the hit detection is so wonky on some skills that it feels like it gets completely fucked if you trigger melee skills in the middle of some ruberbanding. Same about the animation of an enemy losing shield (just straight up dropping on the ground), if you do that with melee and keep hitting, the body just moves behind you without any explanation while you're in the middle of an attack string, and honestly doing 180° at all times just to keep going is straight up annoying. Only possibility is to body block

Every single attack is animation locked and in a game like that, you kinda want the flexibility of say Warframe up in there, overall its outdated. In my playtime I couldn't help but keep thinking about Recore and Crackdown for some reason

Every single javelin is kinda unremarkable, and the most boring to play by miles is the Storm. its just a hovering turret with close to zero subtlety / dynamic systems which is the worse thing you can give to a caster imho. Charged up fireballs are the only thing slightly funny, outside of that its just auto pilot turret gameplay

Combat system as a whole is your typical "mmo" gameplay with stacked debuffs, stacked group buffs, and cross skills. I haven't played ME 3 multiplayer which apparently anthem is taking the base from, that said cross skills were a thing in Guild wars 2 and while I appreciate the whole combo system, unlike guild wars 2 it actually lacks depth, as in there are no different effects at all outside damage based shit when you get combos going, which is slightly disappointing

I know about the interceptor getting auras when hes detonating stuff but that still isn't enough imho. Gunplay was alright, movement in the game is honestly its biggest strength. Everything else is already played and done better elsewhere. Oh yeah and being completely invincible while using the ult is complete bullshit too
 
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TitusTroy

Member
I don't understand the inventory/salvage...you get a ton of loot after every mission along with all the other stuff you get while exploring...so you're supposed to salvage all weapons you do not plan on using?...does every single item you collect in the world take up an inventory slot?...is there an easier way to manage things?...the inventory interface sucks
 
I don't understand the inventory/salvage...you get a ton of loot after every mission along with all the other stuff you get while exploring...so you're supposed to salvage all weapons you do not plan on using?...does every single item you collect in the world take up an inventory slot?...is there an easier way to manage things?...the inventory interface sucks

Yeah I kind of agree.

A number of UI elements seem needlessly “weighty.”
 

Sygma

Member
I don't understand the inventory/salvage...you get a ton of loot after every mission along with all the other stuff you get while exploring...so you're supposed to salvage all weapons you do not plan on using?...does every single item you collect in the world take up an inventory slot?...is there an easier way to manage things?...the inventory interface sucks

its exactly like in diablo, except that you can only see what you get at the end of a mission / in the fort
 

Xiaoki

Member
In terms of pure gameplay, we back on some old school ps 2 shit. Everything is animation locked and it genuinely feels terrible.
You keep saying "animation locked" but you dont know what it means.

Animation locked would mean that you cant do anything, even move, while the animation is playing. You can move and shoot or use abilities.

Also, you can animation cancel pretty much anything using Evade.

Curious to hear thoughts from y’all

I love Storm but Interceptor is fun man. You can do some serious single target damage
Spent all my time on Interceptor and have done research about some end game stuff.

Assault System abilities are kinda limited. Long cooldowns and limited usefulness for pretty much every ability here. Acid Grenade probably being the most useful. Cluster Mine seems like it would be useful but the mines have such a small hit box that most go unused.

The most useful abilities are grouped together in Strike System. Low cooldowns and high damage. Didnt find much use for Detonating Strike but really liked the "heel kick of doom" Tempest Strike.

It can suck that your best abilities are melee based in a game that is very friendly to melee a lot of the time but when do you get in you can destroy stuff very fast.



Heres a good video from someone thats part of the EA Partners. He's played the full game for over 60 hours and here is a few of his thoughts on the Javelins.
 

Solarstrike

Gold Member
Should have named the game AVATAR. :goog_unsure: Reminds me of that with a bit of jet pack from Mass Effect: Andromeda. Good fun, it will sell a ton.
 

Dthomp

Member
I’m starting to get more and more distracted by the number of explosionss/effects on screen at once in a 4 Man firefight.

Maybe needs to be scaled back a tad

Hoping they scale back some too, but that was something Destiny 2 added that still plagues me (insane amounts of particle effects). Shit can be very distracting when you’re trying to aim precision weapons and plan skills
 

TitusTroy

Member
Hoping they scale back some too, but that was something Destiny 2 added that still plagues me (insane amounts of particle effects). Shit can be very distracting when you’re trying to aim precision weapons and plan skills

I'm usually hovering above ground as Storm so the effects don't bother me...actually I'm the one probably causing them with my Fire, Ice, Lightning abilities...and Storm's Ultimate creates a light show of epic proportions when she detonantes that giant fire/ice/lightning nuke explosion...I can understand how it could be distracting if you're on the ground
 
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CLBridges

Member
Haven't played the demo (or any game the past several months), but the reviews seem pretty mixed. I've watched some vids and streams and feel the final product will be good. Looks like Storm is gonna be the most popular jav initially, but who knows what the end game will bring for different javelins builds and diversity.
 

FeldMonster

Member
Agree with a lot of your points, so I'll just touch the ones I don't.



Granted, the demo did not explain this at all, but do you understand the priming and detonating aspect?

Makes a big difference. If solo, you have to prime and detonate yourself. There are some YT videos about this.



As long as you're fighting, the trash mobs are dropping ammo. Didn't experience this problem.

Even with Urxis, there were scars constantly popping in a nearby area.



We got matchmade with one guy who was running everywhere. I thought he was trolling us. :messenger_winking_tongue:

I have no clue what you are talking about regarding priming and detonating. I had a gun and two damage abilites, that was it. As you said, and I mentioned previously, the game does a horrible job explaining the basically anything.

The only thing that dropped ammo for me was the Urxis, and because they were ridiculous bullet sponges, I could not kill them faster than I would run out of ammo.

I am still pretty angry about this demo. And now I went to give it another try because someone else explained not only that I can fly, but how to do so. And the demo already ended? The weekend is not even over yet. Screw BioWare. I thought that this would be my first BioWare game, but forget it, they don't seem to want me to enjoy playing.
 

Strazyplus

Member
TL;DR - It was a bad experience
Why? TL;DR very long loading screens / 95% infinite bug, No introduction to the world or explanation of anything I encounter (examples: Who are the badbois, why am I after relics, who made the relics, is this fantasy magic? why did i interact with that massive orb with moving creepy oil over it?), Did not get to try out the other Javelins. Story on show was a Side quest and weak story & puzzle mechanics, Non open-world; Underground and above ground separated by loading screens, and more, lot more.

Origins of the world we are in does not seem quite have a good foundation, things happen to seem for gameplay reasons than a story reason nor does it attempt to explain the weird magic.
 
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Haven't played the demo (or any game the past several months), but the reviews seem pretty mixed. I've watched some vids and streams and feel the final product will be good. Looks like Storm is gonna be the most popular jav initially, but who knows what the end game will bring for different javelins builds and diversity.

Yeah, storm and Colossus for sure.

Interceptor is pretty useful though, great single target DPS and has a nice debuff to apply on bosses
 

Neolombax

Member
I'm reading the impressions here, and the core gameplay seems like an upgraded version of Mass Effect Andromeda? There was a huge emphasis on priming and detonating enemies with combos to deal serious damage, and that seems to be the case here. Weapons seem to be something you would use between ability cooldowns.

Will have to wait until the open beta to try this on my PS4. It seems that performance is quite bad on the base PS4, which is really disappointing.
 
I'm reading the impressions here, and the core gameplay seems like an upgraded version of Mass Effect Andromeda? There was a huge emphasis on priming and detonating enemies with combos to deal serious damage, and that seems to be the case here. Weapons seem to be something you would use between ability cooldowns.

Will have to wait until the open beta to try this on my PS4. It seems that performance is quite bad on the base PS4, which is really disappointing.

I barely played ME:A but what you wrote sounds similar to the Anthem I’ve played. I never heard the terms “priming” and “detonating” before this demo. We just talking about triggering X status on enemy then hitting enemy with X damage type for bonus damage, right?
 

Neolombax

Member
I barely played ME:A but what you wrote sounds similar to the Anthem I’ve played. I never heard the terms “priming” and “detonating” before this demo. We just talking about triggering X status on enemy then hitting enemy with X damage type for bonus damage, right?

Yes. From the videos I've seen, one example is to freeze an enemy and combo it with an explosion type attack. That should trigger a special effect animation with some bonus damage. Which makes me think that the guns in Anthem are just mainly to get extra buffs and maybe perks for Javelin abilities.
 

DryvBy

Member
I've seen all across the web people defending this game. When a game is good, it speaks volumes from players. When it's bad, you have defenses for it. This game sounds like a boring disaster that people are trying hard to like rather than naturally come to that arrangement.

I suspect from reading impressions that this demo has put it on sale within the first few weeks like some other recent games (Fallout 76). And if it's not fixed when the non-VIP players get on, this will be in a bargain bin shortly after. And I don't suspect servers to stay up for long after. I'm getting a LawBreaker vibe from this game big time.
 

Nydus

Member
I've seen all across the web people defending this game. When a game is good, it speaks volumes from players. When it's bad, you have defenses for it. This game sounds like a boring disaster that people are trying hard to like rather than naturally come to that arrangement.

I suspect from reading impressions that this demo has put it on sale within the first few weeks like some other recent games (Fallout 76). And if it's not fixed when the non-VIP players get on, this will be in a bargain bin shortly after. And I don't suspect servers to stay up for long after. I'm getting a LawBreaker vibe from this game big time.

I don't think that it will be bad as lawbreakers (can anything be so bad?). You're right, the game (or the demo at least) has massive flaws and the outlook isn't very rosy. But the thing it has going for it: its fun. It's flawed, but fun. Not fun enough to buy a 200€ collector's edition or to tell all your friends to buy it but imo fun enough for a video game to just enjoy what's there and not to worry too much about it.

Destiny 1 and especially destiny 2 healed me hardcore from having too high expectations :p
 
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Nydus

Member
Just completed a world event in free play and got tons of loot.

Loving colossus

After playing each one and gearing up a little on each I gotta rank em

Storm - Great
Colossus - Great
Interceptor - very Good
Ranger - okay


My favourite by far is the ranger. I tried the Colossus but it just doesn't click with me. The Playstyle is too clunky. I can't say much of Inter and storm, time was just too short but first impression was they are not my type. I had immense fun with the ranger. His movements and abilities are spot on for my taste :)
 
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Lanrutcon

Member
So guys, is this going to sell enough to save Bioware from the chopping block? I'm not seeing the feedback I'd expect of a blockbuster hit.
 

bati

Member
So guys, is this going to sell enough to save Bioware from the chopping block? I'm not seeing the feedback I'd expect of a blockbuster hit.

Hopefully not. The amateur hour game design on display in Dragon Age inquisition, Andromeda and now Anthem firmly put them on the C tier list of competent developers. Except this time they didn't even get to leverage their supposed strengths, character writing and storytelling. Which, let's face it, has been mostly cringeworthy throughout their history, with a few notable exceptions (BG2, Kotor, ME1 and 2). The sooner EA dismantles them the better.
 

Arun1910

Member
Really enjoyed the Demo:

Pros:
- Nice Gunplay / Flying mechanics
- Differences in play styles between Javelins is really distinctive.
- Seemingly a lot of different abilities to use.
- Love the verticality and scale, it's pretty impressive
- Graphics are really nice on PC, and seems well optimized? I am running a 1070ti/16GB RAM/i7700 and I was on a mix of Ultra/High settings reaching 80fps.
- Lots of GOOD loot, I was getting my level or higher most of the time
- The Raid/Fort type mission was cool. It was just long enough to not feel like a normal mission and gave a lot of loot which was nice.

Cons:
- The fact an infinite call loop to the servers which resulted in a self DDoS was overlooked makes me cautious as to what else was.
- Enemies dissappearing. This is a BIG ISSUE.
- Lack of ambient music really makes the world quiet at times, especially during gunfights, it kills the vibe for me.
- The AI can be really stupid (I can sort of live with it, as it is obvious that there are many fodder NPCs to make fights seem bigger, and fights can still be challenging.)
- Menu's have way too many layers to navigate through, and on PC we should be able to move throw menus with AWSD or arrow keys.
- Why are we forced to WALK around our home base, it's pretty large, and being forced to walk is horrible. Let use Jog at least.
- As far as I could tell, there was no in game text chat for PC? There's a section in the demo where you have to get the right combo of images to release the manifest, I had one guy running around trying random stuff, it was pretty infuriating not being able to chat to him direct.
- Underwater flying on PC is god awful.

Luckily this game is on Origin Access. I don't mind paying £15 for a month to try this game, but I definitely won't be buying it outright. The demo was fun, and for a loot shooter I was surprised at the quality and quantity you get, but the cons for me in my list hold me back.
 
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In the forge, you can see that some abilities are marked as a primer icon (circle w/ a dot) (ice/fire/poison/lightning/?) and others detonators/triggers (star icon?).

Stuff that's primed is pretty obvious since it'll be frozen, on fire, putrid, arcing and so on.

When you trigger a primed enemy you get bonus damage plus a combo effect, which is dictated by the javelin that finishes the combo.

Not all abilities are a primer/detonator. It seems like you want to have at least one of each. Certainly for solo so you can self-detonate. Group loadouts I guess can be more sophisticated.

Arekkz has a video about this, which is really where I got most of my info going into the demo:

 

VertigoOA

Banned
Is the demo over? I have the night free to finally try it. It would be nice.

Last Word back in destiny tomorrow and who knows what else. That’s the strength of destiny ... gunplay.

Wanting to compare the two on that level is unfair. Destiny 2 is legitimately one of the best FPS ever and for me personally it is overall the very best, especially in its current form.

Anthem does not have pvp. What does that tell you? That the gunplay and mechanics are not in a place where they are strong enough to be exploited by players in such a way competitively... for now. That and there’s clear advantages to first person vs third when it comes to shooters and anyone who disagrees is a fraud.

I never stopped loving halo when mass effect came out. So I’m finding the comparisons a bit whatever.

Pvp is indeed a big part of player retention and I’d love to see it when it’s ready. If the end game content is only what is rumored this game may burn out as quick as monster hunter... I doubt that tho. I’m exoecting a big launch success
 
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Loved the demo. Can already tell it will be written better than Destiny, and has a much more sci-fi type setting imho. When it all comes together, it was great fun.
 
I'm surprised to see so much negativity to be honest. I really enjoyed the demo and i wasn't hyped at all before.
It looks really good on ultra settings. The gameplay is solid. Loved the ability to fly. It adds a verticality that is missing in most games.

I don't think this is THE destiny killer. And i don't expect it to be. I'm not looking for a second job. But what i've seen seems to be good enough to keep me busy for a while.
 

Hendrick's

If only my penis was as big as my GamerScore!
Should have named the game AVATAR. :goog_unsure: Reminds me of that with a bit of jet pack from Mass Effect: Andromeda. Good fun, it will sell a ton.
I went back and played some Andromeda just to compare, and yeah, they are pretty much the same game.
 
I loved it. Granted I didn't like Destiny at all (only played it early and it didn't do anything for me) and I totally get that people who have sunk a lot of time into it might not be interested in this.

They need to get the bugs fixed and cut down on loading screens but I had a ton of fun. Didn't even realize that anybody could get in until yesterday so I downloaded it and only played a few hours but I'm hooked. Best was playing with my two sons last night. Have only really played with the Ranger & Colussus (tried the Interceptor right at the end) but they'll probably be my go to's. This is probably a day one purchase for me now.
 

TitusTroy

Member
Luckily this game is on Origin Access. I don't mind paying £15 for a month to try this game, but I definitely won't be buying it outright. The demo was fun, and for a loot shooter I was surprised at the quality and quantity you get, but the cons for me in my list hold me back.

how exactly does Origin Access work?...you pay $5 a month for the Basic version (or $15 a month for the Premier version) and get to play the full game without having to purchase the game itself?...so if the game costs $60 you can instead pay $15 a month and cancel anytime?
 
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Here are my 1440p/4K videos at max settings, one from each class:









Also posted a 4K screenshot gallery on my website: http://www.pcmrace.com/2019/01/26/n...o-vip-de-anthem-en-4k-con-detalles-al-maximo/


Vids look great!

how exactly does Origin Access work?...you pay $15 a month for the Premier version and get to play the full game without having to purchase the game itself?...so if the game costs $60 you can instead pay $15 a month and cancel anytime?

Yes but once you cancel you lose access to the games
 
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TitusTroy

Member
Yes but once you cancel you lose access to the games

still sounds like a decent deal for the games you are on the fence about...paying $5 a month and getting the full game means you can play all you want and save $55 if you decide to cancel that same month...for a $60 game at $5 a month means you can play for 1 year before your investment catches up to the full $60 price
 
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Here are my 1440p/4K videos at max settings, one from each class:









Also posted a 4K screenshot gallery on my website: http://www.pcmrace.com/2019/01/26/n...o-vip-de-anthem-en-4k-con-detalles-al-maximo/


Vids look great!
still sounds like a decent deal for the games you are on the fence about...paying $5 a month and getting the full game means you can play all you want and save $55 if you decide to cancel that same month...for a $60 game at $5 a month means you can play for 1 year before your investment catches up to the full $60 price

Oh yeah, don’t get me wrong.

I’ve had Origin premier since it started. It’s paid for itself already many times over
 

TitusTroy

Member
Oh yeah, don’t get me wrong.

I’ve had Origin premier since it started. It’s paid for itself already many times over

why did you pay for Premiere instead of Basic?...Basic sounds like a steal at $5 a month...Premiere at $15 a month while still good doesn't sound as amazing...the only difference seems to be that you get the 1 week early access to the full game
 
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