BioWare discusses Anthem loot overhaul

Many months ago, rumors were floating around that BioWare was planning a massive overhaul of Anthem. The game’s launch didn’t go smoothly because of the convoluted and incomplete story and performance issues. Since then, the team has fixed the technical issues, but the overall problems with gameplay remain.

Today, Christian Dailey, the Studio Director for BioWare Austin, discussed the Anthem revival and how the team wants to change loot. You can read the entire statement on the BioWare Blog.

Loot

A good player experience depends on the loot system being extensible and robust, and a lot can go wrong. A lot did go wrong. We fell short here and we realized that building something new from the ground up was going to be required – starting with taking a long look and understanding the best in class of the many great games that inspire us… Increase the frequency of Loot Drops. Loot is viable more often… You can pursue specific loot without relying on randomness alone… Reveal and equip loot right away.

Power Level

Your power cap can be easily increased, and the loot system scales accordingly. Advanced telemetry data allows us to identify trends and make meaningful balance changes.

Gunplay

Gunplay is overall more responsive with enemies reacting to hits near-instantly with improved client-side prediction, we are looking into the role of melee items and builds, and of course, being able to spend skill points to unlock new types of equipment and synergies.

It’s unclear what the timeline for the Anthem overhaul is, but it may be towards the end of 2020 or beyond. What do you want to see from the game’s overhaul? Let us know.