[Update: We already know that Anthem is going to be making an appearance at EA Play this year and now it's being teased by the official Anthem Twitter and Facebook pages. Things have been pretty quiet since the game was delayed but now the Facebook page has changed its cover photo, while the Twitter page has posted a mysterious tweet that's embedded below. We don't know what exactly this tweet means but it's certainly not long until we find out.]
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E3 is always full of surprises, and one announcement we weren't expecting at E3 2017 was a whole new game from BioWare, called Anthem.
From the short trailer shown at EA Play keynote we got a tiny glimpse of the game world wall that's the only thing that separates the civilized world from a dangerous and savage animals. Exosuits also seem to play a big part in surviving in the wilderness, and a player might jump into them as part of the game.
But while EA gave us our first taste of the game and what we might find in its Pandora-esque world, Microsoft gave us our first true look at its keynote presentation.
BioWare describes Anthem as "a new game from EA's BioWare studio, explore a landscape of primeval beauty, confront the dangers you find, and grow in power with every step".
It's the first game BioWare has unveiled since its polarizing Mass Effect Andromeda, and it looks to build on BioWare's legacy of great Sci-Fi games.
Cut to the chase
- What is it? BioWare's newest IP
- When can I play it? March 2019
- What can I play it on? To be announced
Release date
When it was first announced at E3 2017, Anthem was slated for a Fall 2018 release. However, in January 2018 a report emerged from Kotaku that the game will be delayed until early 2019.
Kotaku's report is based on the word of three sources closes to the project, one of whom said that the 2018 release date was "never realistic." There is, the report says, now a feeling in BioWare that the future of the company is tied to Anthem and its success.
It's for this reason that work on the studio's other titles, Star Wars: The Old Republic and the next Dragon Age, is now reportedly being done by much smaller teams.
There is, according to the report, no exact date decided for 2019 and "Anthem’s developers must also plan for a beta release, an EA Access launch, and an ongoing schedule of patches and updates."
It's unlikely, however, the EA will allow development to delay the game any later than March 2019, as that's when the company's fiscal year ends.
EA later confirmed that the game would in fact be launching in early 2019, and during a May 2019 financial call with analysts confirmed a release window of March 2019 for Anthem.
News and rumors
March 2019 release window confirmed
In a recent financial call (via Eurogamer), EA has confirmed a release window of March 2019 for Anthem. This would put Anthem in the slot EA traditionally held for BioWare's Mass Effect series. Though EA is trying to be conservative in its expectations for Anthem, stating during the call that it's a new IP and coming at the end of a financial year, it will no doubt be hoping for more success than Mass Effect Andromeda had.
The development team is hard at work for the E3 demo
It's not long at all until Anthem's first gameplay demo launches during EA Play in June 2018 and the development team has said it's hard at work on polishing the demo. Commenting on a post on Reddit, the game's creative director Brenon Holmes said that “Everyone is currently working pretty hard! We’re doing a lot of iterating and polish on the content that will be the focus for EA Play / E3.”
It'll have a big focus on story
Anthem's developer BioWare has promised a big story for Anthem after Mass Effect Andromeda fell short of fan expectations. Writing in a blog post, the studio's general manager Casey Hudson emphasised the importance of world, character and storytelling and promised that they would be a part of 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." Hudson goes on to say that though it will be unlike "anything you've ever played", if it's done as planned it will still feel "very distinctly BioWare."
Hudson said that he plans to continue using the blog to update fans on the development process of the game.
It'll be at EA Play in June 2018
EA has promised that Anthem will feature at EA Play in June 2018, with a playable demo at the event.
EA meets its Destiny in Anthem
The premise we know so far is that humanity is holed up in a bastion, cut off from the outside world. Venturing out, it appears, requires a suit of armor that will help fend off the wilds of the Pandora-esque planet.
EA is describing it as "a shared-world action RPG where Freelancers challenge the wilds past the wall, exploring a vast world filled with savage beasts and ruthless marauders, but also teeming with amazing technology and forgotten treasures". If this sounds like Destiny, you're not crazy.
"Players will be able to join with their friends to unravel the world's mysteries and defeat the forces plotting to conquer humanity."
Okay, this is Destiny.
"Throughout their journeys, players can outfit their Freelancers with powerful Javelin exosuits, each of which are equipped with unique weapons and abilities. Freelancers can customize their Javelin with gear they earn and craft throughout the adventure, and leave a lasting mark on the world".
Admittedly, the word Freelancers make the game sound a bit more like a Borderlands game than Destiny, but considering that your class is determined by which Javelin you have on, we're still seeing Destiny written all over it.
When Anthem was first announced, taking on Destiny 2 seemed like a tall order, but now that Destiny 2 appears to be having some growing pains, Anthem may be able to seize on a dissatisfied playerbase.
Life after Andromeda
Anthem will be BioWare's first title after the somewhat polarizing Mass Effect: Andromeda.
Anthem will, apparently, be a science fantasy game more in the vein of Star Wars and offerings from the Marvel universe, rather than hard core science fiction title like Mass Effect BioWare Edmonton general manager Aaryn Flynn has revealed.
In a recent interview with CBC Flynn said that like these franchises Anthem will be a game in which "you see a lot of amazing things happening but we don't worry too much about why they are happening or how they are happening; the science of it.“
BioWare has dipped its toes into the science fantasy genre before with titles such as the RPG Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and the online multiplayer game Star Wars: The Old Republic. Anthem will, apparently, be much more along these lines and "much more about just having fun in a game world that is really lush and exotic and really sucks you in." Unlike Mass Effect, which Flynn says was a "more a real hard core science fiction IP."
Taking this into account, alongside the game's more online multiplayer leanings, and it seems like BioWare is certainly attempting to step into a space currently dominated by games such as Destiny. It'll be exciting to see what else a developer with so accomplished a background in lore-heavy single player storytelling can bring to this genre.
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