BioWare had not had a good time when it comes to their latest AAA release, Anthem. The cooperative online shooter was met with a rush of hype after its announcement, mostly due to the misplaced marketing surrounding it. This marketing went so far as to brand Anthem the “Bob Dylan of video games,” claiming it would revolutionize the industry. Here we are more than a year after the floppy launch for Anthem, and the game is a ghost town. And now, there’s somehow still rumors floating around of an impending Anthem 2.0.
The myriad problems that the game encountered are way too numerous to list here. But for the sake of completeness, a quick rundown would be thousands of bugs, a complete lack of engaging content, and very confusing core design. The game suffered from a seeming lack of direction, and that left it hurting from the outset. Some players loved it, but a lot more seemed to hate it. Even attempts to fix the game were met with harsh criticisms as patches meant to fix the game ended up being hated by players for introducing new problems.
In a new blog post, BioWare has announced that they are working to change that. in the teased plan dubbed “Anthem 2.0″ which will put the game in the state it should have been at launch. According to Casey Hudson, the lead on the project, “Over the coming month, we will be focusing on a longer-term redesign of the experience, specifically working to reinvent the core gameplay loop with clear goals, motivating challenges and progression with meaningful rewards.”
The details are still pretty slim, but the plan does admit that “there’s still more fundamental work to be done” for Anthem 2.0 to live up to the potential of the game’s initial marketing. It has also been revealed that the changes would be pretty massive, and are “more substantial reinvention than an update or expansion.”
No real details then, other than it’s going to be big. I seem to remember that same tone being taken with the game before it’s disastrous launch. Hudson is still seemingly pretty optimistic, and given that I and many others thought this game was dead, this is still surprising to hear. Let’s just hope that Anthem 2.0 manages to be better and more substantial than the nothing-burger that was Cataclysm.
Closing, Hudson says that they messed up, admitting that, “Creating new worlds is central to our studio mission, but it’s not easy. Sometimes we get it right, sometimes we miss. What keeps us going is the support from players like you. Your feedback gives us guidance on how we can improve, and your passion inspires us with the courage to create.”
