After playing a couple other of the current and upcoming GaaS games this weekend, it's really hammered home to me how much I enjoy Anthem, buggy unfinished mess that it is. Can't beat that flying around as a steel-clad beast. Destiny 2 is a great fps with awesome gunplay but Black Armory was really lacklustre and i'm just kind of bored of it (no knock on D2 in general, i've put a lot of hours into it and i'd recommend it to anyone). And Division 2 is... ok? It seems like a good game but there's something totally uninspired about it. I feel like i'm playing a cover based shooter from 10 years ago with a fallen America conspiracy laden story line like so many things that came out in the aftermath of 9/11. Which is a shame, because from all accounts it looks like it'll be a much more polished experience than Anthem, but it just doesn't grab me. Go in cover, shoot dumb enemies, rinse repeat. I mean, Anthem AI is moronic but at least I can do aerial flybys unloading a chain gun before dropping a freeze effect and then slamming down for an aoe combo explosion that nukes 10 guys at once like some sort of armoured god.
Honestly after playing both I don't even get the "Anthem has dumber AI" comparisons that people keep making in favour of Division 2. They're just such completely different beasts in terms of what they're going for. Division is smaller, semi-realistic and tactical cover based engagements against <10 enemies, while Anthem is super mobile flying exosuit murder machine simulator with horde mode moron enemies and mass carnage all over the shop.
If EA don't kill it, there's going to be something really special in a year, whereas I can't see Division being more than what it is: a competent cover based shooter like so many others.*
*Obviously this is totally subjective, and is based off the Anthem play experience of someone who has generally had decent performance and what sounds like a lot less fewer game ending bugs than some people.
