Anthem: Bioware Takes On Destiny

Bioware is famous for making high-quality RPG. This company gave us Baldur’s Gate, Dragon Age and Mass Effect. Their new effort in this genre, which is closer to a co-op action, but we still have faith in the company’s vision.

Before the E3 madness started, some of us might have had their doubts. Can they do it? Will it work? Now it seems like all of our fears were unnecessary. The first gameplay trailer looks absolutely GORGEOUS. In fact, it looks so damn good, that it feels almost not real. Maybe there was a bit of CGI involved here. I really hope, Bioware didn’t do enchanted videos, like Ubisoft did. But you have to remember, that Horizon: Zero Dawn also looks kind of unbelievable, and it, well, proved to be even better than the trailers.

Anthem is not an RPG. It’s an open-world sci-fi game, extremely similar to Bungie’s Destiny and Titanfall. You take the role of a Freelancer. This is group of special explorers, who leave the city and explore the world outside, shoot monsters, gather loot and do all kinds of other stuff. The Freelancers are equipped with an exosuit. There are different classes of fighters. Some are more agile, others have a devastating mortar on their shoulder.

The whole experience seems pretty much clear. You do the grinding, fight bosses, take part in raids and get experience. Nothing revolutionary, but looks very interesting. Where the game really shines is the visuals.

For Anthem Bioware is using DICE’s Frostbite engine. This technology was originally developed for first person games. And it worked flawlessly with Battlefield 1 and Star Wars Battlefront. But can it handle huge open environments? Judging by the trailer, it finally can.

In the trailer, the character jumps from the tower and flies across a huge world for almost a minute. The landscape is lush and detailed. You’ve got some fantastic ancient ruins, spaceships, underwater environments and other fun stuff. Since this is mostly and action game, it’s got some terrific VFX as well. There are some kick-ass explosions, fantastic shooting and other cool stuff. It does seem like DICE gave Bioware some tips on how to make shit blow up nicely in Anthem.

The main city also looks very cool. The art team was definitely taking some inspiration from the iconic Star Wars scenes. It’s got monsters, huge walking robots (beautifully designed), cool eastern vibes and so on. It does feel like a pretty interesting place to spend time in.

Anthem will be released somewhere in the fall of 2018. It’s a long way to go, but we’re happy to know that the game will be available on consoles and PC.