ANTHEM's load screens shouldn't be allowed. It's as simple as that. You get to a point where it starts to feel like you're spending more time look at load screens than you are actually playing the game, and it's beyond frustrating.
I've had ANTHEM on PS4 for a couple of days, and it's been a bit of a middling experience so far. After a solid opening hour or so, the game's tedious structure has revealed itself piece by piece, and it kind of feels like I'm just going through the motions right now. Talk to guy, get mission, go on mission, repeat. Let's just say I'm glad that I've been playing it with friends.
When you're in the thick of a firefight it's a decent game -- there's definitely fun to be had in blasting baddies. But the load screens are like a fun vacuum. They consistently suck away any momentum that ANTHEM has built, be it with a cutscene or an especially hectic quest. They're often lengthy, particularly when you're loading up the open world, and they're incredibly boring to look at.
But the real kicker is that they're so frequent. They're embedded within the core gameplay loop of ANTHEM, and because of this, playing the game honestly starts to feel like a chore.
Here's a breakdown of ANTHEM's gameplay flow as of right now:
(Times where you aren't actually playing the game are bolded)
- Launch ANTHEM, game connects to servers
- Long loading screen
- Spawn in Fort Tarsis
- Talk to NPCs/shop
- Go to The Forge to prepare for mission
- Shorter loading screen
- Equip Javelin/weapons/abilities, quit The Forge
- Shorter loading screen
- Go to launch pad
- Pick mission
- Wait as you matchmake/wait for friends to join
- Long loading screen
- Spawn in mission
- Play through mission
- Potential in-mission loading screen if you have to go inside a cave/different location
- Finish mission
- Long loading screen
- Mission results screen
- Confirm loot
- Choose next destination
- Long loading screen
- Repeat from Fort Tarsis/The Forge
What isn't detailed in that breakdown is that some missions are pretty short. I actually encountered an early mission that took all of five minutes to complete, meaning that the combined length of the load screens, the mission results screen, and the time it took to equip things in The Forge was greater than the time I spent playing through the mission itself. It's just unacceptable.
With this constant, boring waiting in between actual gameplay, it feels like ANTHEM is wasting your time. Even though freeplay -- in which you explore the open world at your leisure -- is rather dull, its lack of loading screens makes it a go-to option when you just want to play the bloody game.
I think the most disappointing thing about ANTHEM, based on what I've played so far, is that there's a good game buried in here somewhere. There are little sparks of something genuinely entertaining peppered through the experience, but getting to them is a real test of patience and willpower -- the kind of test where you can't help but think that you'd be better off just playing something else.
Are ANTHEM's load screens proving a pain in the arse for you as well? Let us know if you're enjoying the game in the comments section below.
Comments (42)
My thoughts exactly! It's such a shame as they have a good game here let down by systems that I cannot believe they have implemented. Who honestly sat there in the development meeting and signed this off?
How a thing like this passed by their QA and testing teams is beyond me. Or they knew and thought people will deal with it. Its just a bad game design.
We knew this was going to have issues going in to it, but this is unfortunate to hear. Have you tried playing solo? I'm not sure if that would do anything though, since it is completely online.
If this is the Bob Dylan of video games, it is defo from his mid 80’s ‘Knocked Out Loaded’ era.
Bit of Dylan trivia for you all.
just wait til you hit the 4 tombs quest if you haven't already, total game killer. plus the characters and dialogue are just abysmal.. to reconcile it with the team that made mass effect 2 is hard to believe.
I'm going to wait a few months before i pick up Anthem let the bugs and hopefully the load times get fixed.
I agree they are very excessive, really hope they fix it as its my biggest issue with the game thus far.
@ShogunRok You never died. It's a good wait.
The load screens are incredibly bad.
Furthermore, every aspect of the UI is clunky and slow!... You get a delay going through menus and it makes the game really frustrating to get through. The majority of my time with it is just loads, going through menus, and watching cutscenes. It's pretty bad.
"They're embedded within the core gameplay loop of ANTHEM"
Which, unfortunately also means it's baked into the engine most likely as well, and while load times can be "improved" they'll never be able to get rid of them completely.
Remember when GTA San Andreas came out 15 years ago and it only had one loading screen when booting up the game
Killzone shadow fall which was one the PS4 first games had it loading screens hidden behind cut scenes.
@ILoveVideoGames this is EA after all so they probably didn't care and just pushed it out
I haven't played this to any large degree so can't comment on it but recently criticized for long load times was Metro Exodus and while I don't appreciate long times, I certainly don't mind them and even find them useful. Get some food, a drink, tend to the kids, fold laundry, tidy up.... you name it. I appreciate the little breaks. Now, games that can't be paused? That's something to complain about.
Pillars loading screens stopped me playing that in the end. A minute or more to load each floor of a house. Urgh. Divinity let’s you instantly warp across the map with only a little texture pop in. Go figure.
That was a pretty big issue for me when I discovered it in the beta.
For a PS4 game, it’s pathetic.
Load screen + Anthem = Load'em
Games that have long, frequent load times drive me nuts when you play the game for a longer period of time. It starts adding up real quick.
The latest patch totally broke the game for me... Every time I click on the game it crashes my PS4 Pro. I don't mean the game crashes I mean my PS4 turns off! Three times in a row I'm afraid to even try it again. Every other game I try works fine.
Are you playing ps4 pro or regular ps4 just wondering
Bit of a shame but D2 also suffers from long loading times and I wouldnt be at all shocked if Division 2 also suffered the same.
I think its a open world shooter issue really.
I'm so glad I avoided this game. I was tempted, but I'm glad I went with my gut.
@leucocyte I just don't know why EA refuse to finally remaster the original Mass Effect trilogy for modern consoles. It's easy money at this point.
@RedMageLanakyn i thought the same.
As much as i’d like to jump in eventually, the code is written.
As shorter as the loading times may become, they’ll remain the same in numbers and frequency. And i highly doubt they can become so short to be a non issue either.
@Rudy_Manchego Here's hoping that, after a couple of patches and meaningful gameplay additions, it will become something like Dylan's Time Out of Mind.
Wasn't there supposed to be a day one patch that reduced the loading times?
I guess the QA team probably all had high end PCs with very fast SSD installed, didn't really bother optimizing for normal hard drives.
@CylonValis That will be a lot of work!
@Bliquid I wonder how bad the loading times actually are on console compared to PC. When I played the demo on PC with an SSD, they weren't too terrible, and a few friends said after the day one (8?) patch, they've gotten better, but are still very annoying.
What boggled my mind more than anything during my play time was the inability to swap out weapons or skills during a mission or freeplay. That seems like such a misstep, compared to Destiny or Division, allowing swaps in all but the hardest activities.
Maybe it'll bomb hard enough to get the FF14 treatment and they'll just start over. Anthem remix
Playing on PC I feel my loading times are just a few seconds, I barely see them. So I of course don’t know how bad it is on consoles.
There has been a lot of criticism about them and I hope they manage to make the loading screens at least more Destiny-like down the line, being more interactive. Also having the ability to at least open the inventory or cortex.
@Flurpsel Same goes for horizon zero dawn only if you gast travel it loads.
SIMPLE FIX: Keep weights nearby and workout while it loads. Sure, that’s not at all the best way to work out, but let’s face it...I bet you don’t have time to work out otherwise! Pushups and sit-ups work great too.
My one major complaint during the beta/demo was the load screens/times. They were long and frequent.
The loading screens are shocking but it had far bigger and numerous issues. The missions are uninspiring and it has the single worst mission I've ever seen in a game, making you grind pointless tasks such as 50 melee kills or open chests. This is to open tombs which don't actually open its just another loading screen to enter a tiny room with literally nothing in it but a text box, oh and there's 4 of these to open. The endgame is 3 strongholds recycled from the main game including the last boss and the crafting is just broken with materials far too expensive for high end stuff, I've seen people online having played for 80 hours not having enough currency to craft one of these weapons. This currency is given out far too slowly (we can all guess why) and even in game rewards are laughably bad such as killing 50 titans giving only 2000 coins, bare in mind it's 5000 coins for one master craft ember and you'll need 25 of them for the top end weapons. Oh there is on huge task at the end to do 100 events, 25 strongholds, 25 quick plays and 25 contracts, this gives you just 10 embers and not even enough coins to buy 1 more.
The overall design of this game is laughably bad and frankly embarrassing
Weren’t loading times an issue with Metro Exodus too? I think we may be getting to the stage where it feels like the ps4 isn’t quite up to the job of running the latest games.
@ShogunRok OK everybody, which game had worse loading screens, Anthem or Sonic 06
Give me dragon age 😢
@Splat - that's happening to a friend of mine, the PS4 shuts down completely, and he has to unplug before it will reboot, and go through the rebuilding database each time. he's going to trade it in and get more than he paid for it (the game that is).
there is one mission where it ends:
load screen
cutscene
load screen
cutscene
load screen
results screen
load screen
cutscene
load screen
@Rudy_Manchego Push Square needs a new scoring system like this. Just award every game a Dylan album!
Bloodborne? - Blood on the Tracks
Detroit? - Modern Times
Horizon? - New Morning
Last of Us on PS4 - World Gone Wrong (2011 Remaster)
Fallout 76 - The Christmas Album (unessecary spin off, really)
@Kidfried Good choices - I would volunteer Days Gone - John Wesley Harding, and God of war has to be Blonde on Blonde. Read Dead is clearly Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.
The load times are ridiculous, and it does break up the momentum of the game. The facial animations are incredible as is the acting, But, I do not want to see a cut scene in the middle of my gameplay, keep that stuff for when you are in the cities.
This is why I stopped pre-ordering games. At least I didn't get rinsed this time, but I feel for those who did: I know what a pain it is!
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