Anthem fans are beginning to unify in their opinion of the game, and it's not looking pretty — a recent post on the game's subreddit has declared the game dead, and garnered over 8000 upvotes from its users. Anthem's updates have been an issue since the game launched, but a recent statement from EA and BioWare recently left fans feeling particularly pessimistic about the game's future after it was referred to as an "early access release," a term that had never been applied to the title prior to the acknowledgment its progress had been slower than expected.
The disappointment surrounding Anthem stems from far more than just an exploitative label, however. Early during the game's multi-faceted launch, Anthem was plagued by connection issues, imbalanced loot drops, and a weird coding issue that was causing PlayStation 4s to shut down while trying to run the game. While many of those initial problems have been fixed, Anthem's loot has remained a contentious issue for the game's community, especially after several updates somehow made Anthem's loot problems worse than they had been previously. Anthem players have seen their patience tested constantly over its first few months, and they may have finally reached a breaking point.
In a post on Anthem's subreddit, a user named Trask10100 launched into a lengthy rant about the game's current viability, suggesting that everyone consider the fact they should probably "just end this now." The post might seem melodramatic at first glance, but there's a lot of meat to the argument being presented, especially given the facts being offered about Anthem's Twitch viewership, which apparently has seen the title become less popular than Spongebob Battle for Bikini Bottom. Here's a sample of the post, with a full version of it available to read on the next page of this article:
"Give up, please. The game is dead. It's not worth waiting for anymore. I mean, what are we honestly waiting for anyway? The next Realm Reborn? The next No Man's Sky? You're just hurting yourself now. It may happen, but it'll take a good year for it to happen at this rate. Please, just do yourself a favor and remove yourself from the negative stuff. Leave Anthem behind and let it be it's[sic] bad self all by it's[sic] lonesome. It'll make you feel better and hey, maybe someday down the line it'll be worth returning to without costing you a thing."
The post references the fact that Anthem hasn't really received a positive update since its release, with each one bringing its own set of problems that overshadow whatever was initially fixed. On top of that, a major point of contention for many has been BioWare's inability to fix loot despite having two months now to get it right. Other points, like the community being burnt out and naturally being inclined to lean toward negativity at this point, are all valid as well, making the post a nice summary of everything that's gone wrong with Anthem since its release.
Of course, these are just the opinions of fans — not everyone believes Anthem is dead, and BioWare certainly seems committed to keeping the game alive, both in the short- and long-term. The problem is that BioWare has been making the same promises for over two months, and nothing has come from them. Perhaps, like Trask10100 says, it's better to just leave the game for now and hope that, further down the line, it is revitalized and worth returning to. For now, Anthem's problems aren't going away, and the community is quickly giving up on EA and BioWare's flawed but ambitious project.
Source: Trask10100
Trask10100's full statement follows:
"I mean, can we just end this now? I think we're all done suffering for this game.
The endless bad news, the relentless hitting of the head against the grindstone, the ridiculous level of delays and refusal to fix core problems, I mean, it's over, right? It's done, it's reached the end of the line. It's the end.
If we had a poll to see how many consider this game dead and gone, I bet you it would be somewhere in the 90+ percentile of people agreeing. And it wouldn't even be that hard. Why is this game dead? I mean, look at the evidence.
-Twitch viewership is down to 197 views in the last 7 days.
-More people watched Spongebob Battle for Bikini Bottom in the last 7 days than Anthem.
-The core problem, loot, has not been addressed in a MONTH. A month, guys. 30 days. Why not? Who the heck knows.
-The last big communication from the community manager was 'I'll want to tell you something good and I want to talk about loot, but I can't, so I won't, so wait until I have something to say about anything else significant.' No, we're done waiting. Honest to god, we have been patient considering everything. Yeah, it's been rough in terms of toxicity and negativity. But can you blame us?
-The[sic] was so broken at launch is[sic] practically broke consoles. The level of incompetence to ship a game that badly put together is nearly unrecoverable.
-There is no endgame. There is one thing that you do once you beat the story, and that's run Tyrant Mine on GM1 over and over and over and over until you get a chance at better MW or 1 Legendary. And once you get full loot, then...nothing. There's nothing extra to do.
-The battleplan for Anthem has been delayed, which is code for we're throwing it out the window to put together a new plan because we can't do the old one. Which means some of the things they promised to do won't happen. Place your bets on which ones.
-The game was a lie from the start, as we all know. Trailers, production plans, all of it was a lie. It just came together at the last minute because they had no other choice. It worked with DAI, it did not work here.
-They hoped 'Bioware Magic' would save the game. It did not. And now WE'RE paying for it.
-There is not nearly enough armor to make a unique experience and look for each player. Not even close.
-There is a chance that even with highest difficulty and hardest stronghold you can still get just embers and purples for your reward. How does that even happen? How do you let that happen?
-Still having servers crashes[sic] months out from launch. How is that happening?
-Still having bugs and bad hit boxes and god knows what else months out from launch.
-Some of the head developers have headed over to Dragon Age 4, so there's even less resources and management from before. You've told us it's no big deal, but it is significant and you can't pretend otherwise. We're not stupid.
-The game wasn't that exciting in general to begin. Good combat, good looks, okay story, okay missions, highly repetitive, highly redundant, boring hub space, no consequences or individual narrative. Everyone got the same experience barring all the problems one might encounter.
-People are getting banned on this subreddit for light offenses. It's not really the game's fault, but it proves how frustrated this community is getting. We're done with all BS right now.
-Nearly every single post in the subreddit feed is negative. Go on, take a look for yourself. It's almost completely bad from top to bottom after scrolling for an hour. It's THAT bad. The community negativity is deep and it is real. Acknowledge that.
-The community is fried. We have no patience left, no hope remaining, no aspirations to look forward to, no ambition, nothing but negative news, and just keep getting hit again and again over the head with the state your game is STILL in.
-You never addressed the other biggest issues your game is guilty of. False advertising to a serious degree, unholy crunch and burden on your development team, the insane state the game was shipped in, the lack of customization options, the blandness of your weapons and armor, and oh yeah, did we mention loot? For the love all that is holy, please talk about loot. Talk about it. Just...do it. And we don't want another 'Hey we'll talk about it when we're ready' thing, alright? WE'RE READY AND WE'VE BEEN READY FOR MONTHS. YOU NEED TO TALK ABOUT IT. NOW. RIGHT NOW. YOU HAVE HAD YOUR CHANCE TO WAIT. IT'S OVER. JUST BLOODY DO IT.
-And finally, Anthem has not received one bit of positive news in the last 2 months. And I've been keeping track. Elysian Chest? Underwhelming disaster. Loot? Yeah right. The Kotaku article? Devastating. Development leads leaving? Heartbreaking. Being told to please wait while we're stewing in our frustration? Unbelievable. Sunken stronghold? Lukewarm nothing.
This has been a rant and I'll admit I have a lot of frustration to get off my chest. If this gets banned or whatever, I honestly wouldn't be surprised. Just another long line of disappointments in relation to this game. I just want people to be honest and just do what needs to happen.
Give up, please. The game is dead. It's not worth waiting for anymore. I mean, what are we honestly waiting for anyway? The next Realm Reborn? The next No Man's Sky? You're just hurting yourself now. It may happen, but it'll take a good year for it happen at this rate. Please, just do yourself a favor and remove yourself from the negative stuff. Leave Anthem behind and let it be it's[sic] bad self all by it's[sic] lonesome. It'll make you feel better and hey, maybe someday down the line it'll be worth returning to without costing you a thing.
Just please, accept it for now. The game is dead. We have to admit that. Otherwise.....well, we're just rewarding BioWare with more patience and understanding when they deserve none of it right now."