Players have been complaining a lot about things in Anthem, with the myriad bugs in the game, it’s easy to see why, but one complaint seems to stand out, and it concerns loot.
One of the big problems with the system concerns balance, and it reveals a troubling future for Anthem. There are either bugs or oversights in the loot drops. Right now, items can drop with 0% boosts to stats, or with inscriptions that don’t make any sense for the item, meaning they are effectively useless.
Things like an physical damage weapon boosting a damage element like lightning, which doesn’t synergize at all. These are reportedly very common, and getting one means wasted time for players. There are other issues with the endgame too, like players AFKing inside a mission, and without any means to kick them, players are left stuck with dead weight.
Concerning grinding, there’s still the problem of balance. If players spend hours grinding out Masterwork items, but those items consistently fall below other abilities in the power curve, especially at higher difficulties, the incentive to actually get Masterwork drops goes down significantly for a lot of players. Loot grinds like Anthem, Warframe and Path of Exile maintain their playerbase with this grind. Chasing more powerful items, or those items that look better than your current gear, is part of the draw. Without that, what’s in Anthem to actually keep players coming back. And when considered with the litany of other issues, it could be years before this game is in a good place. Seriously, it feels like this game was rushed out the door a year too early, and oversight either didn’t notice many of the balance issues, performance bugs and missing quality-of-life features that need addressing, or there just simply wasn’t time before launch. Warframe and the Destiny franchise had many of these same issues, and they had to take the time to fix them.
Bioware are making some headway, as plans are being implemented to work on loot. In terms of Loot Tables, common (white) and uncommon (green) gear will be removed from the Level 30 loot pool. This means those slots in drops are now open for better loot. Masterwork Ember costs are also being reworked to reduce the need for grinding. And the Inscriptions are getting some form of sanity checks to make it more likely that rolled Inscriptions match the theme of the gear they’re on.
However, as many players have pointed out, the overall game still has a long way to go.
Question is, can Bioware commit to making the changes that Anthem needs? What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
Anthem is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Source: Ben Irving – Reddit
