Anthem, BioWare’s upcoming third-person, multiplayer shooter, has shown off even more footage as the game’s February 2019 release date creeps ever closer.
In a new narrated live gameplay video, lead producer Ben Irving explains the title’s gameplay and world, including ways of traversal, combat and exploration.
The 20 minute demo — originally shown at E3 as hands-on experience — features a team of four “freelancers,” the game’s playable characters, as they head out on a dangerous mission on the planet of Anthem, a threatening world full of monstrous creatures and the aggressive Scars, the game’s primary antagonist group.
Related Stories
Scars are “relentless invaders who claim the power of the Shaper technology,” Irving explains. They are in constant conflict with freelancers.
As the team of three players traverses the world, piloting separate “Javelins,” large robotic suits of armor with different classes such as Juggernaut and Storm, they are joined by a fourth member, who is much lower-leveled than the main team. Not to worry, however, Irving explains, as missions can be joined while in-progress, and friends of any level can play together.
The group ventures farther into the world, where they submerge underwater and discover an entrance to the Scar stronghold. Strongholds are “four player modes the give greater rewards by providing greater challenges,” Irving explains. Said challenges include encampments of Scars and lots of bullet-flying action.
Irving promises that every new adventure will present a “totally different experience that yields different rewards.”
?As night falls on the world, different nocturnal creatures emerge, offering unique nocturnal challenges, but the team has bigger fish to fry on their current mission.
The first major challenge the team faces is a large group of enemies that include snipers, turrets and elite troops, requiring the different Javelin types to spread out and work together to take them down.
Eventually, the team ventures deep underground to find an aggressive arachnid-like boss creature, the Swarm Tyrant. The fight itself is long and action-packed, showing off “ultimate abilities” from the Javelins that cause massive damage to enemies.
Anthem will be released Feb. 22, 2019.
