Anthem was the highlight (really the only highlight) of EA’s E3 show, but it does seem to be in the category of “it plays better than it looks,” according to those with hands-on time with it. It was also a bit odd to see almost no glimpses of the much-hyped story, and also no loot in what is supposed to be a loot-shooter, at least to some extent.
It’s that loot I want to talk about today, as I see that as one potential area where Anthem can gain ground on its competition, namely Destiny 2 and The Division 2.
I recently polled my Twitter followers (mostly Destiny fans) about whether or not Anthem not having PvP is a good or bad thing. By a more than a two to one margin, they said it was a positive. Why? Simply put, if Anthem does not have PvP, and because it does not have to balance around that with “shared loot” across all its modes, that allows it to unlock the potential for some truly awesome gear for PvE players.
I have watched both Destiny and The Division struggle with this issue for years at this point. Destiny has gone one direction, which has Bungie neutering gear in order for it not to break PvP. Sometimes we see this with actions like the removal of LMGs which were too dominating in PvP. Sometimes it’s something more general like the fact that 98% of the armor in the game is now cosmetic, because giving it truly meaningful perks would be too hard to balance. The Division is sort of the other direction, where it eventually had no problem with super crazy PvE builds, and yet that didn’t make for a terribly enjoyable PvP experience.
While Destiny and The Division are often compared to their predecessors, Diablo and Borderlands, Anthem is the first game that really seems like it’s following in those games’ footsteps with its lack of PvP. Diablo had insane armor and weapon sets that allowed players to dramatically change how their characters played. Borderlands had cool guns sure, but its highlight was its wacky skill trees which were great for PvE, but clearly would have been disastrous had PvP ever been attempted with them.
This is where Anthem can shine right from the start. Destiny and The Division took years to finally start figuring out that players wanted to be able to do really crazy PvE builds, but they’re still not even all the way there. If Anthem can come out of the gate with a robust loot system that leads into must-have endgame builds that radically change gameplay, it will be at a huge advantage. Story is well and good and while I hope Anthem has a good one, that’s not the kind of thing that’s going to keep players coming back. Loot is.
This is where I hope Anthem shines. Right now I’m looking for a reason for Anthem to pull me away from these other games, and I don’t know that I’ve found that yet, based on what I’ve seen. Yes, I will play Anthem for sure, but in this genre you sort of have to pick the game you’re going to stick with over the long term. For me that was Destiny, until it got really slow, and then I switched to The Division which was getting better, faster. These days, I’m back on Destiny 2, which continues to improve with recent updates. But I need Anthem to arrive on the scene and try to tear me away from both of these series in the long term, which is a tall order. If it can create the best and most fun gear grind that ends up with some truly awesome sets and weapons, that’s going to be a good start, and combined with a stellar story, well, this could very well become my loot shooter of choice after all.
Anthem is in a unique position here. It’s free from PvP so it’s able to go wild with gear. It’s arrived earlier than rivals like Borderlands 3 and a potential Diablo 4. It can capitalize on this moment if it wants to. I hope it does, but we’ll have to see.
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