Development is ongoing for BioWare's Anthem "2.0" experience, a reworking of Anthem's core systems in response to frustrations and heavy criticism after the game' launch. BioWare has largely remained quiet about its ongoing efforts for Anthem Next, likely to avoid invoking further controversy. But as time's gone on and Anthem's become less of a topic of conversation, BioWare has restarted communications. Today, BioWare dropped a lengthy blog post detailing changes to Anthem's loot.
"Satisfying Loot Experience" is how BioWare describes it's new loot philosophy, stating that, "a good player experience depends on the loot system being extensible and robust." That thought is followed up by acknowledging that "a lot did go wrong" in Anthem. That's why BioWare decided to rebuild Anthem's loot system from the ground up. That process started by analyzing other games that did loot well and forming goals based on that research.
Six different goals are listed and explained in BioWare's Anthem reinvented loot breakdown. They start with big ideas and then get more granular. The big ideas are: Respect Your Time, Embrace Choice, Create a Rewarding Loot Experience, Keep it Accessible and Immediate, Reliability of Equipment and Rewards, and Scale for the Future. These are all concepts game players can agree on. It's how they're implemented where a game either delivers or fails.
Here's how each of those ideas is actually going to be implemented in Anthem. Respect Your Time means loot will drop more frequently, and when it does it's more often viable. Embrace Choice means giving players ways to pursue loot outside of sheer randomization through systems like Quests, Boss Drops, or equipment modification. These two points specifically focus on loot and looting having inherent value regardless of the loot itself.
The next points focus on players' emotional response to looting through visual queues and an informed experience. Create a Rewarding Loot Experience means making loot a celebrated and exciting experience when it drops, making it noticeable when it pops up or by making rare enemies that drop loot stand out. Keep it Accessible and Immediate means revealing loot details immediately, so that it can then be equipped. It also means giving players stat sheets so that they can make informed decisions.
The final two points are tied more into power and progression. Reliability of Equipment and Rewards has to do with Anthem's inscription "budget." BioWare is getting rid of useless loot missing must-have inscriptions. It's also going to make Exceptional items about finding the bonuses players want, rather than maxing values on top of finding correct bonuses. Lastly, Scale for the Future is just that. Anthem needs to be able to add new power levels to the game and loot needs to scale efficiently through those changes.
Anthem players will very likely recognize that many of these points specifically address frustrations with Anthem's previous looting system. They'll also recognize that BioWare's said many of these things before. Implementation is very different than acknowledgment. Still, it's an important step in correcting these issues.
BioWare does go on to describe some other changes it's working on. Specifically, it says that gunplay is "overall more response" due to "improved client-side prediction." BioWare also shared a sheet of concept art showing unique weapons for Freelancers, Dominion, Scar, and Urgoth. From there, BioWare says to look forward to future blogs detailing more changes. Nothing was shared regarding the Anthem "2.0" relaunch or when any changes might be made.
Anthem is currently available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.