Anthem: 4 Reasons To Be Excited (And 3 To Be Worried)
A brave new world... or Bioware's swan song?
Anthem is BioWare's first brand new IP since 2009. Considering the last two were the smash hits Dragon Age and Mass Effect, excitement should be sky high. Even before these two behemoths of modern gaming, BioWare held the reins on the brilliant Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic.
However, anticipation for Anthem has barely risen above lukewarm. Release is not until February 2019, so there's certainly time for things to hot up, but BioWare will be hoping that happens sooner rather than later.
And there are definite reasons to be excited, too. Every new IP offers a clean slate and chance to bring something new to the table.
While BioWare's last release (Mass Effect Andromeda) stumbled on release and kept on tripping until it fell flat on its poorly-rendered face, the studio is still a force to be reckoned with. The team responsible for Andromeda were the not the team who had worked on the brilliant original trilogy; in fact, many of them have been hard at work on Anthem since Shepard's saga came to a close.
Still, there's no smoke without fire, but there are a few reasons to be wary of BioWare's new release too.
7. The Javelin Suits
The Javelin suit your Freelancer flies around in has played a huge part in the gameplay footage we’ve seen so far. While the futuristic setting was always going to draw comparisons to one of BioWare’s other juggernauts, Mass Effect, these suits are one of the key differences that have been highlighted.
Back when Titanfall launched in 2014, the claim was that the Titan mechs would revolutionise first person shooters. However, with an almost total lack of story in the first game, the potential was squandered. Titanfall 2 had one of the best campaign in years with a much broader range of Titans, but a monstrously poor release date saw it overlooked. EA are keen not to repeat that error this time around.
The suits, which players will be able to customise in a multitude of ways, are essentially Iron Man armour. Gameplay sees you soaring through the skies to complete missions. The huge success of the PS4 exclusive Spider-Man has set talk in motion of a Marvel Gaming Universe, as well as reminding everyone of Square Enix’s long awaited Avengers title.
Players looking to get their Tony Stark fix might find Anthem to be a viable stop gap.