Everything We Know About BioWare’s Anthem

Everything We Know About BioWare’s Anthem

To close out EA’s E3-adjacent EA Play news conference, BioWare walked the audience through a lengthy deep dive into Anthem, its Destiny-esque multiplayer shooter.

To begin, BioWare’s Casey Hudson, Mark Darrah, and Cathleen Rootsaert explained that the goal with Anthem is to avoid “diluting” the story by keeping it separate from action-heavy combat. You’ll go on missions that take place in a shared world where, for example, everybody experiences nighttime simultaneously, but then you’ll return to your base, which is a wholly single-player experience. There, you’ll talk to characters and do more traditionally BioWare-y things.

“This is where your story really lives and breathes,” said Darrah.

You will, however, be able to play the whole game solo if you want. BioWare wants multiplayer to be a “choice” that players make of their own accord.

Your goal will be to push back against the evil Dominion, who are trying to use a powerful force called the Anthem Of Creation as a weapon. If all those impenetrable proper nouns don’t get Destiny fans salivating, nothing will.

The presentation then shifted over to a gameplay demo in which four players, each flying around in specialised super suits, fought Dominion creatures in order to secure a relic of the Anthem Of Creation. Basically, it was like the Avengers if everybody was Iron Man. The ranger suit, for example, carried a general purpose jack-of-all trades arsenal, while the storm suit could blow shit up real good.

“You’re not your suit,” said Darrah, explaining that you can switch depending on your mood or the specific needs of particular missions.

The mission proceeded through phases, first with a high-flying outdoor fight over the relic, and then with a segment that took place in a cave and ended with a weird, gigantic Metroid-arse looking monster.

Just in case it wasn’t already clear that EA is no longer worshipping at the golden altar of ill-advised loot box monetisation, BioWare added that Anthem won’t have any. There will, however, be ongoing releases of new content.

Anthem will be out on PC, PS4, and Xbox One on February 22. Subscribers to EA’s new PC subscription service, Origin Access Premier, will be able to play Anthem from February 15.


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