Anthem: 9 Things It Must Learn From Mass Effect Andromeda
1. A Driven Quest Structure With Specific Rewards
Just looking at how Anthem is set up, it feels like Bioware are taking a few pages from the Monster Hunter franchise. Capcom's stellar RPG also features teams of hunters posse'ing up to fell increasingly large beasts before trading in the spoils back home, though a key component is just how much your character advances over time.
Mostly through aesthetics, Monster Hunter's ethos tends to be "The bigger the creature, the cooler the weapon or armour you can make from its carcass". That means swords crafted from a monsters' jawbones, shoulder pads from scales, helmets from skulls etc. If Anthem's focus is going to be on repeatedly hammering quests and raids, Destiny-style, the rewards need to be immediately satisfying, tangible and noticeable.
In Andromeda you could spend hours mopping up side quests, pleasing NPCs with lost items or doing story missions and you'd be no better off. Maybe you'd craft some fancier armour or a more powerful gun if you had the resources, but the game had a really crippling problem with motive and reward - a devastating, debilitating mix.
Put simply, you had little motive to go do anything, though if you did, the spoils were nothing more than XP and - if you were lucky - enough currency to buy some weapon parts.
Woohoo.
Depending on how drop-in/drop-out 'arcadey' Bioware are designing Anthem (and something tells me it's going to be a mix of Destiny, Horizon Zero Dawn and Monster Hunter), we need a host of carrots on sticks to chase, alongside some genuinely incredibly rewards.
--
What do you need to see in Anthem to get on board? Let us know in the comments!