Before he played it, James said he'd eat a shoe if Anthem doesn't have any floating rocks in it. He won't have to boil leather. Rocks float somewhere in Anthem, just like they do in so many other science-fiction games. Look at how many times rocks that float are mentioned (opens in new tab) at the very beginning of Mass Effect: Andromeda.
This got us on the topic of sci-fi game clichés, and we started listing them out. We ran with it and ended up with a list of 50 (plus a few more because we just couldn't stop). I'm not saying sci-fi games can't use any of these things—I am not the mayor of sci-fi—but I'm never going to see them and not think, 'Ah yes, a science-fiction game thing.'
- Floating rocks
- Floating gas bag creatures
- Floating enemies that are called 'wraiths'
- Invisible enemies that might also be called 'wraiths'
- Enemies called 'acolytes' because they're in a cult, I guess
- Big enemies called 'brutes'
- Little spider-like enemies that can leap at you
- The spider-like enemies are probably called 'crawlers' and at some point someone shouts 'crawlers!'
- Dogs with spiky manes
- Glowing alien mushrooms
- Trees that aren't the color of normal trees, but are instead purple
- Sometimes they're red, though
- One very hot planet and one very cold planet
- Pools of turquoise acid
- Chromatic aberration
- A cheeky robot assistant
- A cheeky robot assistant that learns to feel love
- Space elves
- Drugs are called Stims
- Stim injections are pneumatic because needles are icky and not futuristic
- Money is credits
- Neighborhoods are sectors
- British accents
- Alcohol, but green
- No one ever drinks beer or wine, only the hard green stuff
- Hexagons
- Military spaceships are white, making them very easy to see in space
- Extremely shiny floors
- 80s and 90s hairstyles
- Ancient alien ruins
- You're the only one who can activate the ancient alien ruins
- Oh no, the ancient alien defense system has been activated in the ancient alien ruins and we're caught completely off guard
- Art Deco
- Helmets with glowing eyes
- The guy who doesn't wear a shirt is the engineer
- He might wear an American football-style chest pad though
- Someone plays the guitar (probably the engineer)
- All beds look extremely uncomfortable because no one just has a regular mattress
- Doors with hinges have been outlawed
- Enemy spaceship pilots can just broadcast right into your cockpit to insult you, you don't even have to accept the call
- Space pirates with far more confidence that you're an easy catch than their ability warrants
- Expensive, complex energy weapons that aren't much more effective than regular guns
- Corporations rule everything as if that's not already how it works
- Giant energy weapons that look like blooming flowers
- The zero-G section is really fun but you only get to do it a few times
- 80s and 90s alt rock songs (opens in new tab)
- Helmets are shockingly easy to crack
- Science so advanced it's indistinguishable from magic, except also some people have real magic
- Someone is psychic for some reason
- Someone wears a tattered cloak over their advanced battle armor
- Everything has a unique energy signature that you're constantly 'picking up'
- All walls are paneled, providing easy access to the wiring and piping behind them, which is actually a pretty good idea, because I often wish I could easily access my house's wiring but I can't without putting a hole in the drywall. It's gotta be cost-prohibitive if we're being realistic, right? I assume so, because I don't know why you wouldn't do panels if not. To be honest, I don't know much about house construction. I'm just saying that panels would be convenient.
