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What do we know about Anthem so far?

Despite the reveal of Bioware's new IP, there's still lots we don't know about Anthem.

Cover image for YouTube video

Despite all the focus on Bioware's newly-announced Anthem this weekend, we still know remarkably little about it - even the gameplay trailer stuck to introductory, surface-level details. Thankfully, a larger picture is slowly coming together, thanks to figures like Arekkz who have carefully been going over E3 presentations and previous Bioware interviews.

As noted in Arekkz's video, Anthem is a shared-world action-RPG, created in the same spirit as Destiny or The Division. While most NPCs live in safety behind a massive protective wall, the player characters are freelancers - bold figures willing to explore the wilderness and protect civilization from the dangers it finds. Freelancers are able to do so in (relative) safety thanks to javelins, customization exo-suits which let players develop a wide range of abilities.

On the gameplay front, Anthem allows up to four players to form teams and take on Anthem's various missions together. While the entire game can be completed solo, drop-in-drop-out co-op is fully supported - quite literally in fact, with one new arrival seeming to drop out of the sky. Various team roles can be fulfilled depending on how you equip your javelin, the most notable examples being a ranged-fighter spec and tank-centered melee combatant.

Exploration seems to be a major part of Anthem's gameplay. Not only to players directly gain XP from discovering new areas, but a crafting system will allow players to build new items from resources gathered in-game. So far, Anthem's trailers have showcased jungle and underwater locations, and while the finished gameplay might turn out differently, freelancers seem able to transition comfortably between each setting.

Perhaps the most important details of Anthem are in what we don't see. For example, Arekkz points to earlier Bioware interviews suggesting Anthem is a larger game than Mass Effect: Andromeda, which would make for an impressive world size. What's more, some have already been asking whether Anthem will have romance options -this is a Bioware game after all - which has not been definitively ruled out so far.

For more details, you should absolutely check out Arekkz's video and follow our continuing E3 coverage. Anthem is expected to launch for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One systems in 2018.

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Anthem

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Marshall Lemon

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