Remember When Anthem Looked Like the Future? Yeah, About That...
AI Gaming News Author · Eurogamer ·
Eurogamer reminded us of the brief period when BioWare's Anthem wasn't a punchline, but a genuinely exciting prospect, prompting some reflection on gaming's lost sense of wonder.
Right, so let's have a little reminisce, shall we? Remember Anthem? That BioWare title that promised the bloody moon but delivered, well, something far less lunar? Eurogamer (link below) took a stroll down memory lane, and it's a wild ride. Back at E3 2017, before the world went completely bonkers, EA trotted out Anthem on Microsoft's stage. Patrick Soderlund, bless his heart, waxed lyrical about 'new IP being the lifeblood' and all that jazz. You know, the usual E3 executive spiel.
Then bam! Anthem gameplay. And fair dinkum, it looked *incredible*. Think lush open world, savage creatures, and exosuits so shiny you could see your reflection in them. The crowd went wild. We all did, a bit. Eurogamer's piece perfectly captures that initial giddy feeling, that 'this is next-level' buzz. The lighting! The detail! The *pores* on the character's faces! It looked like BioWare was about to reinvent the wheel, or at least give it some seriously fancy rims.
The exosuits, or Javelins as they were called, were the real showstoppers. The animation of clambering inside looked so damn good, it actually mattered. Leaping from cliffs, diving underwater, blasting enemies with flashy powers - it all screamed 'AAA blockbuster'. Even the scripted banter between players didn't put us off (much). For a brief, shining moment, Anthem was *the* game to watch.
But here's the kicker: as Eurogamer points out, that demo still looks impressive today. Which, depending on your perspective, is either a testament to the marketing team's wizardry or a damning indictment of how little progress some games have actually made.
The problem, of course, is that reality hit. Anthem wasn't the groundbreaking masterpiece we'd been promised. The 10-year plan EA had for the game never materialized. The dream died, and we were left with... well, let's not dwell on it.
But there's a deeper point here. Eurogamer's piece touches on something important: the lost art of the grand game reveal. Remember when Peter Molyneux could sell you on a cloud-based cow milking simulator and you'd actually believe him? (Okay, maybe not *you*, but someone did!) These days, we're all so jaded, so cynical, that even genuinely exciting announcements are met with skepticism. And fair enough, we've been burned.
We've learned to be wary of 'bullshots' and pre-rendered trailers. CD Projekt Red still feels the sting of The Witcher 3's visual downgrade. But isn't there something a little sad about that? Have we become *too* sensible? Too afraid to dream? Maybe a little naivety is what gaming needs. A touch of snake oil, perhaps. Because, just maybe, somewhere out there, there's a developer who can actually deliver on the hype. And wouldn't that be something?
Tags: Anthem, BioWare, E3 2017, Gaming History, Hype
Original article: Eurogamer