Anthem's Second Life: A Single-Player Vision

The story of Anthem is one of the most prominent cautionary tales in modern gaming. Released in 2019 by BioWare, the ambitious loot-shooter promised a world of flying exosuits and ever-evolving adventures but failed to meet commercial and critical expectations. The game was officially sunset in 2021, leaving behind a legacy of what could have been.

Now, years after its servers went dark, a key figure from its development team has revisited the project. Mark Darrah, the former executive producer of the Anthem project at BioWare, has released an extensive video analysis. This postmortem doesn't just dissect the game's failures; it presents a detailed and intriguing thought experiment.

In his analysis, Darrah outlines a clear and feasible path for how Anthem could have been reborn. He argues that the game's core DNA was surprisingly well-suited for a completely different genre: the single-player, story-driven RPG. This vision offers a fascinating glimpse into a parallel universe where the game's powerful flight mechanics and world-building were repurposed for a solo journey.

According to Mark Darrah, the transition from a live-service multiplayer game to a focused single-player title would have required significant, but not impossible, changes. The foundation of the game, particularly its core combat and flight systems, was already exceptionally strong. These elements could have served as the pillars for a traditional BioWare RPG, similar in structure to Mass Effect or Dragon Age.

The proposed transformation would have involved a fundamental shift in mission design and progression. Instead of repetitive public events and loot grinding, the game would have focused on a structured narrative with a definitive beginning, middle, and end. The world of Bastion would have been repopulated with deeper lore, meaningful side quests, and character-driven interactions, moving away from the 'game as a service' model.

Darrah's vision includes a reimagined progression system that rewards story completion and exploration over endless repetition. Key changes would likely involve:

• A finite, hand-crafted narrative campaign
• Companion characters with dedicated story arcs
• Meaningful player choices with narrative consequences
• Progression tied to story milestones, not gear score

The technical hurdles, while substantial, were not insurmountable. The core server infrastructure for a persistent world could have been repurposed for a more contained, curated experience. The primary challenge would have been a complete creative pivot, abandoning the live-service roadmap in favor of a more traditional, but potentially more resonant, gaming experience.

This postmortem serves as more than just a technical breakdown; it's a compelling 'what if' for one of gaming's most disappointing releases. The analysis highlights the tragedy of a project with a brilliant core concept being forced into a genre that may not have been its best fit. The game's powerful fantasy of soaring through the clouds in a Javelin exosuit was a standout feature, and Darrah's vision suggests this fantasy could have been fully realized in a solo context.

The core of the game, the flying and the shooting, was really, really good. That part of the fantasy was delivered on. The question was always what you do with that fantasy.

The video provides a rare, insider's perspective on the difficult decisions that shape game development. It illustrates how a project's foundational strengths can sometimes be overshadowed by its overarching business model. For Anthem, the mandate to compete in the lucrative 'games as a service' market may have ultimately diluted the very elements that made it unique.

This retrospective offers valuable lessons for both developers and players about creative direction and market expectations. It suggests that sometimes, the most successful path isn't to follow industry trends, but to lean into a project's intrinsic strengths, even if that means choosing a less conventional genre.

Mark Darrah's detailed analysis has reignited conversations around Anthem and its place in gaming history. For a community that invested time and hope into the game, this vision of a single-player alternative provides a sense of closure and renewed appreciation for its core design. It validates the feeling many had that the game's world and mechanics were worth saving, even if the original execution fell short.

The conversation sparked by this postmortem extends beyond a single game. It touches on broader industry trends, including the risks of pivoting established studios toward live-service models and the enduring appeal of well-crafted single-player adventures. The BioWare of today is now focused on its legacy franchises, but the lessons from Anthem continue to inform the development of future titles.

Ultimately, while Anthem will never receive this single-player transformation, its story serves as a powerful case study. The game's journey from a highly anticipated blockbuster to a discontinued service, followed by this insightful postmortem, ensures its legacy is not just one of failure, but also of fascinating, unrealized potential.

The central revelation from this analysis is that Anthem's core gameplay loop was fundamentally sound and could have thrived in a different genre. The combination of fluid flight and satisfying combat created a powerful fantasy that was not fully leveraged by the live-service structure it was built around.

Furthermore, this deep dive underscores the critical importance of aligning a game's design with its core fantasy. Mark Darrah's assessment suggests that a more focused, narrative-driven approach would have better served the game's strengths, potentially leading to a more memorable and critically successful product.

Finally, the postmortem stands as a valuable document for understanding the complexities of modern game development. It illustrates how external pressures and market trends can influence creative decisions, sometimes at the expense of a project's most promising elements. The story of Anthem remains a poignant lesson in the industry.