After much deliberation, here are ten essential changes we’d like to see make their way to Anthem in the future including the ability to place waypoints on the map and changes to the faction rewards.

As BioWare steadily gets Anthem into a fully playable state for those that have been plagued by bugs, we’ve been steadily at work trying to give some valuable feedback and guides for the Anthem community pushed out the door. While Dustin is hard at work on our upcoming Colossus Guide, there are a few features we took note of in our recent endeavors throughout Bastion that the game could benefit from moving forward.

These include systems such as waypoints in free roam missions, interceptor lock-on options for their melee attacks, and even trackers for loyalty missions, or on-screen indicators for daily challenges. So let’s take a look at what we hope to see in Anthem‘s future.

A Waypoint System

One of the hardest parts about Freeplay isn’t that it isn’t fun to do, but it’s nearly impossible to indicate to your team or yourself where you want to go due to the lack of this system. This system would better allow veterans and newcomers alike to mark where they want to go or where they’ve been in case they die and have to use the respawn system.

Waypoints would allow for better communication, ease of exploration, and a focused point of interest for those looking to navigate their way to a specified location on the map. Want to make your way to a specific location for a possible chance to pick up an item you may have missed or a tomb you want to track on your screen? That would be fully possible with this system in place.

A melee lock-on system for Interceptor’s

One of the hardest things in Anthem is playing the agile and rogue-like Interceptor itself. Their primary focus isn’t just how they play as a rogue-like Javelin; it’s also the fact this fast, agile, and light-armored suit depends on its ability to chain melee attacks together for a combo chain or lethal melee attack chain.

The only problem with this system? The Interceptor is vulnerable to missing the target they are targeting if it dodges, gets knocked back, or jumps away. While this, realistically, is the reason behind it, it also means that the player can easily lose track of the target they are after and be left vulnerable while trying to figure out where it went. Something that could be prevented by a lock-on system (which could be toggled on and off in the Gameplay or Controller settings) when a melee attack is initiated by an Interceptor.

On-screen indicators for experience, faction loyalty points, or even challenges tracked

When you play games like Anthem, Destiny, World of Warcraft, or even Final Fantasy XIV; there’s a ton of interface options available to you from the very start. You’ll notice in those games you can track your faction reputation, your experience earned while out and about, and you’ll even notice you can track your challenges, achievements, and daily goals as you progress through your missions, strongholds, or even Freeplay missions.

Unfortunately, this feature isn’t available at this time and it does result in having to open, closing your menus in order to double check your progress. This includes your daily goals, your Challenge of Valor, and even your monthly or weekly challenges. At the moment, the only way to track them is by going into the Cortex itself and doing so.

Showing how much you earn or how many objectives you complete would be beneficial to the player. Want to know what your dialogue choices gave you loyalty wise? An indicator of +50 (numbers for example) or +100 would be beneficial, giving you an idea of how your choice impacted the NPC you are interacting with.

Fast Travel in Freeplay

As you already know, the world in freeplay is absolutely massive. Not just massive, it’s a beautiful painting on the surface that hides labyrinths and mazes just below the surface. While there are Shaper Relics that help you go from Point A to Point B, they are few and far between, requiring you to keep note of where they are.

With a fast travel system, this would be circumvented, allowing players to navigate to points of interest on the map. These points would allow you to travel from zone to zone with minimal travel times and minimal load times in the world around you. Simply put, it would be able to work much the same as ones in Destiny 2 or even Final Fantasy XIV.

Due to the emphasis of Striders in the world of Anthem, it would make complete logical sense to use them as a form of transportation for a fast-traveling Lancer.

A dialogue history as apart of the Cortex

If you’ve ever played any JRPG, you may be familiar with the ability to go back and check out the choices you made earlier in the game, including your conversations you had and the choices you’ve made. For reference, Persona 5 is one of those such games that offers those who play the title that opportunity.

This optional item would give players a chance to know what was said or even revisit cutscenes that they might have accidentally skipped, but without forcing them to restart the game in order to see what they have missed.

Better onscreen indicators for Fort Tarsus NPCs

One of the largest problems you’ll find in Anthem – in my opinion – is finding NPCs and being able to tell whether or not they actually have a conversation piece for you to partake in. Because of this, it makes it hard to dictate whether or not your journeying around Fort Tarsis is a mindless endeavor or if it’ll actually have a rewarding experience during your time there before and after missions.

Yes, there have been updates to this system, but it would be nice to see on screen indicators, much like what Diablo III or Borderlands has. Just something to indicate whether or not there is an interaction available with a specified NPC. With this kind of marking on screen, no matter how close you are, will help players find a way to the NPC that wants to interact with them or has an interactive option available.

World Event Indicators on the minimap and in the overworld map

One of the largest problems with one of the core pieces of the game is World Event discovery. While there is some form of this available for the players to use, Anthem doesn’t do it well enough. While NPCs such as Faye will announce when a world event is starting, there’s no form of where a World Event will take place or how long until it happens or it expires.

This would give Lancers a chance to get there, to get into position and ready up for the fight ahead. Due to World Event’s being a big part of the Challenge of Tarsis, it’d be nice to give end-game players some sort of heads up so that they are aware of what’s going on rather than flying all over the map looking for a world event to launch.

Conclusion

While our review for Anthem does appraise the games overall functionality and playability, it doesn’t mean there aren’t a few Quality-of-Life features Anthem couldn’t use. Because of that, we’ve decided to make that list and hope that they can help push Anthem forward in the future.

In the meantime, you can check out our review for Anthem, where we scored it at an 8.5 out of 10, stating that “Anthem, problems aside, is a solid game, it’s beautiful, it’s organic and it’s one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had with an open world title since Assassin’s Creed Odyssey as of recent and stays true to the values and traditions BioWare has been known for since their establishment.”

Check out more of our guides for Anthem today:

• Anthem: Things you need to know before starting Anthem
• Anthem: Understanding Combos, Primers, and their Detonators
• Anthem: How to become an elemental fury with the Storm Javelin
• Review: Anthem – An amazingly beautiful, and fun adventure

Anthem is now available for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

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About the writer:

Elona is an avid Overwatch player with over 400+ combined hours on Mercy, Symmetra, and Zenyatta. When she isn’t throwing down on Overwatch and facepalming at her team’s play-by-play decisions, she’s wandering around all of Tamriel saving the world from what evils lurk just beyond the shadows.