Schizophrenic’s Guide: The Failure of Anthem

I, Dalton Lewis, love Bioware. Bioware makes video games, the best video games. Their games play out like twelve-hour cinematic movies in which you control the main character. They have great gameplay, unforgettable characters, and surprises that are inevitable and interesting. They made Dragon Age and Mass Effect, and much of my life has been spent playing those games, over and over, for years and years. I play those games instead of new games most of the time. New games just don’t do it for me.

Bioware just released Anthem, and it is a catastrophe. It is an utter disaster. There are fewer than one thousand people watching the game on twitch at any given time, and that means that the game is no longer played by very many people. Fans played previous Bioware games for ten or fifteen years. This game lasted a month, and no one plays it anymore. That means that it is a flop. When I try to find people to play the levels along with me the game doesn’t have teammates for me. It’s a loot shooter — a game in which you fly around with three teammates gathering loot and shooting enemies. The initial few hours in the game seem good. Then you realize that there are too many bugs, not enough story, and bland level design. I hate that.

The story is good but not great. The characters are good but not Bioware good. They are interesting and intelligent people, but the relationships are not earned. There aren’t many choices for dialogue that develop your character. Your character is fairly static and has few impactful decisions. That’s a long ways away from the best Bioware games, in which the character makes important decisions that shape the story of the game.

I don’t know why certain games capture my attention and make me play them for years and years. I know that I am getting older and set in my ways. I often enjoy games from ten to fifteen years ago more than the current triple-A games that are released. I like an old Devil May Cry but don’t plan to buy the new one. I used to like Fallout but never really played Fallout 4 or Fallout 76. I just don’t care about most of the new games. They don’t move me like my favorite games of the past. Skyrim means something to me; the new role-playing games don’t make me feel anything. They aren’t as good as games used to be.

Anthem is a game in which you play as a pilot of a javelin, which is a mech or robotic suit of armor which flies around and shoots enemies. These enemies appear out of nowhere and swarm you over and over, attacking without thought. They try to kill you over and over, and you kill them over and over. That’s most of the game. There are a few people you can talk to, but they aren’t necessary to the completion of the game. I understand that I miss some of the dialogue, but it just doesn’t seem necessary to talk to these characters in the hub of Fort Tarsis. I just don’t care about them the way I care about Bioware characters from games of old.

I still play Starcraft 2 but won’t watch Fortnite or Overwatch or any of the other esports. I don’t care about the new esports that don’t seem to reward strategy. They don’t move me. I just can’t understand why Anthem can’t find an audience. I don’t understand why Bioware can have failed with another big game. Their previous game, Mass Effect: Andromeda, was also a colossal failure. I played some of it and thought that it was okay, but not great. I didn’t finish it. I haven’t finished all of the games that I liked or wanted to give a chance to, but I have played certain games over and over and over. I hate the way I can’t try new things. I just feel like I am getting old. That’s all.

Thanks, and take care, friends.