We’ve got the Anthem Release Date – 22nd February 2019! Here are a few other important things you need to know about the game before you decide to pre-order it or not!
With the upcoming E3 and EA Play I think it’s a good time to begin my coverage of Bioware’s latest game – Anthem. This article combines everything that is known about the title so far in one place. As more news and updates become available, you will find them in the newly created ANTHEM NEWS category here on VULKK.com
INTRODUCTION
Developed by Bioware and published by Electronic Arts (EA), Anthem is an upcoming online multiplayer third person action game with RPG elements. It’s a brand new universe, created from Bioware from scratch. Anthem will be available for all major platforms – PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One. The game was originally planned to release in 2018, but unexpected delays forced the developers to set a new launch date – 22nd February 2019. It’s also available for pre-order now. The game’s Demo is coming on 1st of February 2019.
The game was revealed to be in development way back in 2014 by Bioware Edmonton (the original Bioware studio) during E3 with gameplay demo coming on the next day during Microsoft’s press conference. In 2017 the game was officially announced with a short trailer and a 7 minutes long gameplay video demo.
Much like all other recent games from under EA’s hood in the past few years, Anthem will also be powered by the famous Frostbite game engine. This is usually good news, because if you have at least a half-decent PC, you know games built on this engine will play decently. However, last year’s Mass Effect: Andromeda was somewhat an exclusion from the rule thanks to poor optimization for the PC port.
Bioware teased how the game would begin on their twitter account. It all starts with the “initiation process” where you, the freelancer, step into the “special world” and prepare to face the tasks:
The initiation begins with the hero traversing the threshold to the unknown or “special world”, where they face tasks or trials, either alone or with the assistance of helpers.
GAMEPLAY
The gameplay combines third-person shooter and action role-playing elements into one game – all set in this continuous open world that you can share with up to three players. You will operate as a Freelancer using special innovative exosuits called Javelins. You will be able to be modify them in-depth, thus allowing for class diversification and different roles in each team of players.
The official description for the new world is that it will be a “shared world”. This means that the online multiplayer elements will be more like a side activity and optional with the main storyline being all solo. The general manager Casey Hudson, who started the project in 2012, then left in 2014 and returned to Bioware last year, shared the following in a blog post:
When I returned to BioWare last summer, Mass Effect: Andromeda had just been released and there was a significant movement among players asking for a story DLC that would answer questions surrounding the fate of the quarians. As you know, we were not able to deliver story DLC for Andromeda—this was as frustrating for us as it was for players, and it was something we knew we had to solve in future games.
That experience ultimately became a defining moment in refocusing BioWare’s mission. We need to delight players with new experiences and innovation, but we must stay focused on the importance of the world, character, and storytelling elements that players expect from our games. And our games must be designed to continue delivering new stories and experiences, in an ongoing relationship with players in the worlds we’re evolving together.
It’s in that spirit that we are working through production on Anthem – a game designed to create a whole new world of story and character that you can experience with friends in an ongoing series of adventures. It will be unlike anything you’ve played, but if we do it right, it will feel very distinctly BioWare.
There are four Javelin classes in Anthem – Ranger, Colossus, Storm and Interceptor. Each Javelin exosuit will be equipped with different and unique weapon slots and abilities. The customizations will come from the gear pieces and upgrades you loot and craft. The gameplay demo from 2017 also showed one of the global events that will be able to alter the world in various ways – Shaper Storms.
Many claim that Anthem will be a Destiny clone. I personally am not able to confirm or deny such possibility as I’ve never played the Destiny games. The gameplay demo gave me an impression that it might be quite similar to Mass Effect: Andromeda, though. The gameplay feels and looks familiar. The gearing elements in Andromeda, I think, were well implemented and the crafting system was not too bad. The materials gathering was tedious and boring, but the initial crafting process was interesting and complex enough for an action game.
MICROTRANSACTIONS
Star Wars: Battlefront 2 shocked the entire world with its ridiculous implementation of loot boxes and Anthem developers are learning from this giant mistake that ruined what could have otherwise been the best Battlefront game so far.
EA already announced that they are not giving up on the microtransactions (MTX) implementations in their games and Anthem is likely to feature them as well. It is rumored that one of the leading reasons for the game’s delayed release date is the fact that it was so stuffed with MTX in a similar style like Battlefront 2, that after the disaster from last November, EA decided to rework Anthem’s progression system and exclude the MTX from it to a point where the public will tolerate them (cosmetics, skins, fashion outfits etc).
The whole MTX controversy that EA caused with Battlefront 2, was a leading example for all future games. The community clearly showed what can be tolerated and what shouldn’t. The upcoming Battlefield V is said to not feature loot boxes and premium pass at all. The delay in Anthem’s release without any official reason being offered points to a high possibility that the MTX used to be implemented deep into the gearing and progression system of the game, which needed to change if the title wants to have a chance for success.
EXPECTATIONS
It’s highly unlikely that EA will allow another delay past March 2019 as this is when the fiscal year comes to an end. The developers will have to plan ahead for a beta release, EA Access launch and (hopefully, D’OH!) an ongoing regular updates to the game after it goes live.
Many have already proclaimed this to be Bioware’s last chance before EA closes them down too. EA has the habit of consuming good studios and later disbanding or mixing them within other studios under their hood. Fresh example was Visceral, who were working on a Single Player Role Playing Star Wars Game. The Publisher was not happy with the direction this game was taking and the absence of the possibility to turn it into a service after release.
With Anthem and Bioware the case may not be exactly the same, because we know the studio is also working on the next Dragon Age 4 game already. However, when we factor in the disaster that Mass Effect: Andromeda was last year (not such a bad game, but was released in a horrible state and unfinished), this levels the field and brings a dangerous giant dark cloud above the developers’ heads.
It is clear that for the development of Anthem a lot of resources have been pulled out of other games. Star Wars: The Old Republic and Star Wars: Battlefront 2 are just two of the games that seem to be suffering from lack of support and funding to be a proper services.
It’s happened before, you know – Bioware pulling resources out of other games in favor of their next title. This was the case for both Andromeda and Dragon Age: Inquisiton. The biggest difference here is that Anthem is the first brand new title that isn’t a part of an already established and popular series of games.
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