Redwood City, US, June 11 — In preparation to the E3, several major publishers are now releasing information on their upcoming gaming titles. Video game publisher Electronic Arts (EA) and developer BioWare are releasing new IP “Anthem” now on Frostbite engine. Anthem is marketed as “shared-world action-RPG.”
What does that mean? IP?
It’s the acronym for intellectual property. In this context, this means that BioWare has been working on an entirely new game setting and not the next part of an established video game franchise. Yet, I keep thinking, “I’ve seen this before.”
What’s Anthem about?
Not much is known yet, and EA was so far not available to respond to questions around this upcoming title. Based on the released trailer and gameplay demo video, we can at least say that Anthem feels like something between Division, Destiny, Evolution, Titanfall, and perhaps it even has some flavors from Mass Effect: Andromeda and No Man’s Sky.
In the gameplay demo we can see a player joining up with other gamers for a coop mission. The character climbs into a battlesuit and jetpacks through a jungle map just like Iron Man would. The character not only flies through and above the detailed vegetation but also submerges into a lake and dives through without much hassle.
In the playthrough we can watch character classes that appear to be rangers, soldiers, psykers, and tanks. So far, nothing that we did not yet already see in similar games of the past. Knowing EA and BioWare, this is only the first glimpse into the World of Anthem and not an advertisement for a finished game.
Did BioWare learn from past mistakes?
Recent works from BioWare received partially negative feedback around character animation. Players complained about poorly done facial expressions and body movements that feel out of place. If we now watch the gameplay teaser, we can see realistic animations and facial expressions. Did BioWare fire their whole animation team altogether and get a new one or how did this happen? We hope that they just learned from the past projects and took all that feedback only to create a much better game.
Open questions
There are a lot of promises already based on the marketing and the released videos. Will they be able to deliver all that? So far there are still some questions unanswered.
How deep does the character creation go?- Are we really seeing a truly open-world map here?
- What is the extent of the “world-altering” events?
- Is the gameplay video pre-rendered?
- Are we seeing scripted animations or dynamic content?
- How many classes will there be?
- Will the graphics stay like this or be downgraded?
- When will the Anthem be released?
We are looking forward to hearing more about Anthem and hope it will be released soon.
Leadership insight
“Our developers at BioWare have been creating something special,” said Patrick Soderlund, Executive Vice President of EA Worldwide Studios. “We’re pushing Frostbite to new heights, developing a game, unlike anything EA has ever made before. We’re telling a new story, creating a social, co-operative experience, and putting it in a contiguous open world that is dynamic and will be ever-changing for years to come.”
YouTube: Anthem Official Gameplay Reveal
Photo credit: EA Games / BioWare
Source: Jino Talens, Brad Hilderbrand (EA press release) / Patricia Hernandez (Kotaku)
Editorial notice: We reached out to EA to gather additional information around this, but they had not responded to us in time before this article got published. The quote was provided as part of a public press release.
