In the most recent video, Darrah adds another critical factor: insufficient dedicated processing meant players couldn’t view detailed loot information or inspect loadouts while active in the field. BioWare realized too late that this would be a major problem, saying that “a lot of bridges were burned on assumptions that proved to be false.”
Darrah explains: “By September, October of 2018 — just months before Anthem’s launch — we all had a sense that the game was coming in hot. During that period, leadership overseeing BioWare adjusted Anthem’s target.”
“We hadn’t set a Metacritic target originally, but it became explicit that the goal was a score in the 70s. Historically, BioWare games aimed for scores in the 90s.”
He also cautioned that aiming for the 90s can be “really troublesome” and “really hard to achieve,” because in some cases “it’s beyond your control.”
“If I make a great game and receive three reviews — two 95s and one 75 — that single 75 is enough to pull me out of the 90s,” Darrah says. “There’s very little margin up there. Unless you collect a lot of perfect scores, keeping a rating above 90 is extremely difficult.”
Six years later, Anthem holds a 59 Metascore, reflecting widespread frustration over performance problems, a thin endgame, and the eventual decision to end development and shut the game down — as much as it reflects critiques of the game’s underlying design.
A BioWare veteran called Anthem’s flying “its best feature” while also saying it was “its worst feature” because it destabilized other systems. He suggested Monster Hunter as a strong example of how to introduce bold, unusual mechanics without breaking core gameplay.
Source: gamesradar.com
