Anthem VIP Demo Build PS4 Thoughts: "Estimated 2775 bug fixes between Demo Build and the Day 1 patch."

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Patch Version:  Demo Build

It’s been stated that the Anthem demo build is based on a slice of the game at a particular point in December of 2018.   Given the usual wind down to Christmas that many gaming studios go through, if I had to make an educated assumption, the demo build would have been finalised at the end of the second week of that month, the third at the latest.

Now, based on my own past experience in the industry, a team of around 100-150 development staff can fix between 50-100 bugs a day on average when bug fixing fully kicks in, this, of course, being flexible depending on the severity of those issues, because not all of those bug fixes will be of the highest priority.

If we assume that Anthem will come with a day 1 patch, because what triple AAA game doesn’t nowadays, and assuming they need to have that day 1 patch with Microsoft and Sony for the cutoff so it passes submission and is ready for release, we can roughly calculate that there will be around 56 days between the finalisation of the demo build in December and the day 1 patch version that gamers will experience on the 22nd February.

However, unless they are working weekends, and if we exclude public holidays, this drops the number to 37 working days.   If we multiply this estimation by the medium of the total amount of bug fixes a team of 100-150 can fix in an eight hour day (50 to 100), this gives us:  37 days x 75 bugs fixed, equalling 2775.

Bear in mind that this doesn't factor in the inevitable fix fails among that number, but two thousands odd bug fixes between any two builds is a hell of a lot by any estimation.  You can roughly guess that around 1000 of them will be high priority, 600 or so would be the big ticket issues, and everything else would be around the medium to minor side of the fence, if, that is, they are not already marking all the minor issues as KS already (known shippable) and closing them at great frustration to their Q.A. team.

It should be noted that if the team working on Anthem is larger than this, (which it probably is to be fair) and if they are working more than eight hours a day, the total bug fixes they can fix should be a lot higher than 2775, unless they are having trouble with stability and therefore are limiting the amount of bug fixes they allow through.

Assuming they aren’t doing this though, then the demo build is promising, because having spent around fifteen hours with it, probably five of those hours experiencing the perpetual loading problem and having to reboot aside; it’s fair to say that Anthem should be a good experience and all those fixes will ensure a smooth, stable and quality release.

Don’t get me wrong, the content in the demo build isn’t perfect, but it isn't terrible either, and once I had finally loaded into a game, it was quite a stable and solid experience that was enjoyable once I learned the ins and outs and unlocked my second Javelin.  

I even persevered and was one of the lucky ones who didn't encounter the locked at level 11 and unable unlock another Javelin problem, as I levelled my pilot to 15 and got my colossus' gear to 134.

But I did encounter other noticeable bugs and a lot of niggling quality of life issues in the demo for sure, bugs and issues that I would hope they would have addressed by the release + day 1 patch.

For instance, swimming is not the best of experiences, especially in the demo’s stronghold mission.   Either the underwater path in the first water segment lacked adequate sign posting through underwater illumination, or the Javelin’s torch is too damn weak!  I also didn’t like the lack of an oxygen gauge.  These two issues made traversing under water in this part of the stronghold more of a dreaded chore than something to look forward too.

The perpetual loading problems of course were the biggest barrier that hindered my enjoyment and many others I’m sure, and the rubber banding in freeplay was frustrating.

However, aside from this, nothing really jumped out at me as: 'do not buy this product on release broken', which was reassuring and from what I saw definitely proved it has the potential to be a great and rewarding co-operative experience if they can polish the edges and make it shine.

One aspect I was dubious about in Anthem that playing the demo alleviated was the loot system.  I thought, not allowing me to see what I had looted when I looted it would be annoying, but not being able to check my loot mid game kept the pace going and wasn’t therefore a distraction.  There also didn’t seem to be a limit to my ingame backpack size where loot is stored, and exiting or finishing the mission and seeing everything I had looted in one menu was pretty good and unique and something to look forward too.

However, I didn't like that I didn't get confirmation on kills in regards to XP earned.  It's always satisfying to see how much I have earned from any one kill or encounter, and the lack of this leads me to believe that certain kills in certain circumstance doesn't generate XP.  You can check though, to a point, by bringing up the tracked menu interface and looking at your XP to next level bar.  The faded red bit in the bar I suspect is the XP you have earned thus far in your session, and when you end said session or complete the mission you are on and load out, it will go up by this amount.  

This means though that there is no in game levelling.  Every level up will occur in the end of session report menu.  Interesting way to go in this day and age.  Reminds me of my good old days with Final Fantasy 7.

Speaking of the end of play report, I liked it (bugs aside: such as everyone receiving the same amount of XP regardless).

The medal system for achieving certain requirements in game was also a nice touch.  Though I did notice the lack of an alike menu at the end of the stronghold mission, which, once it ended, loaded you straight out to the end of play report.  I raise this because I remember reading something about a match report, like damage done, deaths, revives etc…etc… that would come up after a dungeon (*sorry, stronghold).  Either this is missing from the demo build, or this won’t be something in the game come release that some gamers might have been expecting.

Another aspect I liked was the fact that you loot abilities rather than unlocking them.  This was really cool.  It allowed me to experiment and change up my loadouts for different encounters after acquiring them even though I hadn’t levelled keeping it fresh in between levels.  Match this with the ability to save loadouts for your Javelins too, it’s a nice touch that I can see playing a big part in the final product.

Whilst we are on the subject of abilities, being a traditional skill-tree type of person, having had some time with Anthem, seeing how they have incorporated the progression system to the pilot and certain unlock points on your suits to your level was a clever move.  I look forward to being able to switch between Javelins when the need requires it once I’ve unlocked them all in the release.

In regards to the crafting system, it was simple to understand and operated on blueprints, which, unless I’m mistaken, unlocked when you looted a particular ability for the first time, allowing you to craft another at your pilot level to a rarity of your choice if you had the corresponding ingredients. This means that players will be better equipped to manage and maximise their gear level as they play, even if they don’t loot something they particular are after.  Meaning they can just craft it till they do or loot something better.

Gunplay felt solid overall, but after levelling up and gaining different abilities, it quickly became apparent that it’s your Javelin’s abilities that soon becomes your primary source of doing damage, your guns actually being your backup for when the suits abilities are on cooldown.  (Auto Cannons and Sniper Rifles aside) This, of course, is reliant on the offensive abilities you choose to go with, but in any case it was interesting and very different.  I liked it.

Regarding freeplay, once the rubbing banding issue was fixed, it truly did feel free when you take into account you can fly in any given direction, albeit within the bounds of the demo areas of course, and trying to go beyond these boundaries soon loaded you back into the playable space for you to continue.

Even so, if you compare Anthem’s freeplay mode in the demo to say Destiny 2’s, the playable space felt huge and less restrictive, and when the other areas do come online in the release version it should win hands down in that regard and probably be comparable in size to say Monster Hunter World let’s say.

As to content within that freeplay world itself, well, the world events triggered fairly regularly and were diverse.  I encountered five different ones in a single hour, and I know there are at least three others I didn't see because I’ve seen videos of them.

Being able to set the session’s difficulty before going in also allowed me to scale my own experience based on the challenge I wanted. It was very reminiscent of my time with Diablo 3, albeit not to the same degree given that game’s depth of difficulty choices in comparison to Anthems.  Still, seeing a slimmed down version in Anthem was well received.

I actually took my difficulty down to the easiest setting for a couple of stronghold runs to gear up, then moved to normal, and in both cases it was still a challenge.  In regards to this aspect they have hit the mark perfectly in my opinion, which is interesting considering the tweet by Mark Darrah stating the balance in the demo is "super different".  However, he may not have been talking about the difficulty, and instead might have been talking about the game’s economy.

However, regardless, if you set the difficulty beyond what you perhaps should, encounters will truly punish you and bosses will be impossible bullet sponges for you to take down, which is not fun for anyone.  So think wisely before you decide.  I’d rather do something more manageable with ‘randoms’ than struggle and fail, and save the more challenging difficulties for when I have friends online who I know won’t quit when the going gets tough.

In regards to the environments, they were gorgeous and flying through it was smooth on the PS4 with only the occasional hiccup, and with a little exploration in freeplay even managed to find a few chests in hidden locations, and battled by way through a few in-game, what I’m going to call mini dungeon encounters that played a little like lost sectors for those familiar with the Destiny 2 term, and for those who aren’t, lost sectors are areas with larger than normal enemies and a mini boss to kill, with guaranteed loot.

There was the odd discover-able codex item and ingredients to farm in the world, but as to whether there is more to the freeplay environments on release, we will have to find out.

In regards to the story missions that were available in the demo, they were interesting, and the content satisfyingly long and included cutscenes, but I didn’t like the restricted to walking speed issue when returning to the fort and traversing it.  I kept trying to double press my R3 button to quicken my movement.  Alas, you can only walk it seems.

One interesting and disappointing aspect to the story though, was once you completed a critical mission (the demo having three parts to playthrough) you could not replay the experience after completing it.  I would have liked to have upped the difficulty after completing it and tested my metal, but you cannot, once completed they vanish from the map.  As to if this will be a feature in the release build, I do not know.

Initial Score after 15 hrs of Demo play
Final score will be posted when I've reviewed the full game

My biggest question though still remains unanswered, and that is how the end game will fair.  We still haven’t heard much in this regard and it remains my biggest concern with Anthem by far.  The last Bioware game I played that promised so much was Star Wars the Old Republic, and though that was the best levelling and story experience I had ever encountered at the time, better than World of Warcraft in the early days of that title, the end game in the Old Republic was extremely lacking and what was there very broken, and because of it the player base spiralled and it hurt the game immensely.

If Anthem is to succeed, then I truly hope that Bioware has learnt their lessons in this area.  End game is immensely important, and it would be a shame for it to suffer the same fate as SWTOR.

With the next hurdle being the open demo, it will be very interesting to see how that holds up.  If that falters too, (server and loading wise) it doesn’t bode well for the stability of the actual release, regardless of how good the levelling, story and end game content is, but at least this will be question we will learn the answer to relatively soon.

-- A full and follow up review will be published after the game's release. --

The full review on the released game is now live

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