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Fist of all I'm gonna start saying that I've been a huge fan of Bioware since the first Mass Effect and enjoyed all of their games since, even Mass Effect Andromeda... Even Anthem.
I was probably more hyped for the game that many of you. Not because I'm such a big fan (I'm too old to marry any company). It was because I was diagnosed with cancer after a surgery in 2017... Which lead to another surgery that left me a nice 24 cm. scar in my neck... And then 2 months of neural pain 24/7... And then treatment and a year waiting for a miracle. Fortunatly, I live in Spain. And here healthcare is free, so even an unemployed guy like me gets his treatment.
It was a week after the second surgery when I started playing games again. I always loved video games, but never like those days. Playing games was time I wasn't thinking about the pain or telling myself "you're not going to die". And you may laught at it, but one of my concerns was not make it in time to play Anthem.
And then I recieved the great news! The cancer was gone just a couple of months before the game release. So I convinced three friends to join the game and play the entire thing with a full squad... And here is where the story begins.
Two of my friends left the game the first week. They never really played much and never enjoyed the game after paying for it. They were complaining about stuttering. Same thing happened with my third friend, who manage to complete the game but left it because the last couple of days after a patch she was complaining about the same stuttering problem.
So I started playing alone until 1.1.0 or maybe 1.1.1., when I decided to leave the game. Guessed why? Yup. Stuttering again. But this time I tried to find the problem and it didn't took me long until I found out that CPU usage was the problem. I was literally playing with 100% CPU and after 90% you know what happens? Yes. Stuttering. Massive stuttering with 100%. And then I checked Reddit and Answers HQ about it. To my surprise there was a huge amount of topics about CPU usage and lag. And I'm saying lag because most of the people can't tell the difference between Stutter and lag. So I'm guessing many of these players have the CPU problem without knowing. Four different players from four different parts of Spain leaving the game for the same reason... Nice.
After the Cataclysm patch I still have the CPU usage problem. There are a lot of workarounds out there but most of them are just about optimizing your PC. I've been playing on PC for 22 years now so I already know most of the workarounds and the ones I don't know didn't work, mainly because this is not really my problem. It's Bioware's.
And then there is the loot thing...
This is a topic that bothers me a lot, because most of the community complains that the loot is simply not enough. But this is the thing. Regular players are not professional game designers so what they do is complaing about what they see. It's not like they're dumb. They KNOW there's a problem there. So let's say it in a very simplified way;
"I want the yellow items. I can't see them on the ground. I want more yellow items"
So as a game designer you don't just take it literally and increase the drops. What you need to do is identify the real problem. So the translation to what the player is trying to say is something like:
"I don't feel satisfied with the game rewards"
So. Will you fix the reward system by just tweaking the loot.... NO.
If you don't understand what I mean i'll tell you in numbers.
First of all when you get a legendary you must consider that there are a lot of different items you can get. So basically you have a RNG system that tells you that you have 1 odd between 50 (Just an aproximation, the number is a bit higher) to get the item you want. But here is what many people ignore: This game is hightly dependant on passive stats.
Each legendary item has 4 inscription slots. There are 58 inscriptions in the game but you can't get all of them in each slot so let's be nice to Bioware and say each slot can get like.. 25 different inscriptions. That means you have now 1 odd between 25 multiplied by 4. And the story doesn't really end here. Because the % of each inscription is also RNG. And here is where you can really get lost in numbers trying to figure out how much chances you got to get the item you really want with perfect stats. What I'm trying to say is that you have more chances to get rich at the casino playing black jack than getting what you want in Anthem. So you get a lot of yellow items, but NOT the yellow items you really need.
And this is not the only problem. As you all now you get repeated items CONSTANTLY. If it happens from time to time. It's chance. If if happens way too often. That means that Bioware is literally programming the game like that. I played tons of games with RNG loot and none of them is even close to the ammount of repeated items you get in Anthem.
But wait. Because I still have to mention that many inscriptions are 100% useless for the items you get. Yes, even after the inscription patch, you still get useless inscriptions in your equipment. Not to mention that there are many unnecesary inscriptions for the game and too many types of inscriptions doing the same thing... Like damage inscriptions, creating cumulative damage stats, and breaking the game (Seen that players who post videos with more than a million damage hits and such? Yup. That's why).
So I hope you can now understand that Bioware has created a RNG loot, with more RNG inside it and also MORE RNG inside it again. With broken and unnecesary incriptions.
RNG is a problem itself because it means that a minority of players will get something cool while the rest will eat sh*t trying.
Now let me tell you about my cataclysm experience.
I've played about 30 Cataclysm runs this week in GM2. About each 10 runs I manage to get one legendary item. I've also opened like 50 season chests. And get 2 legendary items (Yes. I'm dead serious). One of the legendary items was a repeated melee weapon for my colossus.
Instead of adding a new endgame progression system and a solution for inscriptions. Bioware decided to add more RNG to the game.
At this point it must look like I'm a RNG hater so let me clarify something. I've played tons of games with insane grind. Some of them even require an entire year working on a single character and even in these games at least you knew what you were aiming for. There was an objective to choose, but at least you knew what you were doing and why. Here in Anthem there's no such a thing because no matter what you play and where you play. All is RNG. Bioware has remove every single chance for you to CHOOSE.
I know it's harsh to say it like this, but it totally looks like Bioware is deliberately keeping the RNG situation so most of players never get what they want and spend all their time trying to get something. Just thing about it. It's been 5 entire months since game release and what they did about what players complained the most is ... A simple loot adjustment... Wow.
There are tons of games out there with solutions about the loot, even the direct competitors (The Division and Destiny) did exactly the same as Bioware and solved it changing the reward mechanics. Tons of players here in Reddit and Answers HQ proposed solutions... Bioware ignored all of them.
So it's sad for me to say that after five months waiting for just a couple of changes that has been there since day one. Bioware did nothing about it and it doesn't even look that they care. So I finally decided to leave the game. Because between the CPU usage and the insane RNG the only thing I get is frustration and lately ...Anger.
And if by any chance Bioware bothers reading this. Let me tell you that the blind trust I had on you is gone. Now I've changed it for three simple rules:
1st. If the game reward system is RNG based. I won't buy your game.
2nd. If the game story is about defeating another meaningless megalomaniac who wants to rule/destroy everything by using an old artifact/technology created by a lost civilization ( See: DAI, MEA, Anthem). I won't buy your game.
3rd. If the game is not properly tested before game release. I won't buy your game.
.... And I wish you the best of luck with Anthem. It still is a good game.
Cheers.
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