At E3, developer Bioware was able to show off a demo of its upcoming title Anthem to select attendees. Now, the developer has released approximately 20 minutes worth of gameplay footage from the demo to give everyone else a taste of the action. The new video offers a more detailed look at Anthem‘s combat and and 4-player raids. Bioware’s lead producer, Ben Irving, narrates the gameplay and takes viewers through a mission called “Scars & Villainy”.
Scars & Villainy kicks off in the players’ forward operating base, and follows them as they investigate and face off against the Scars—an opposing faction in the game. The players are members of the Freelancers, and they’re looking into news that the Scars have gotten their hands on some acid-based weapon.
In the demo, we also see the player characters run afoul of a powerful enemy and hastily retreat through a water tunnel, suggesting there are multiple ways to handle situations and utilize the game’s environment. “What that means is every time you go out and explore the world, you’ll have a totally different experience that yields different rewards,” Irving added. In terms of combat, emphasis was placed on using combos when fighting (triggering two abilities at the same time for greater levels of damage). A fight at the end of the video will give viewers an idea of what those combos will be like in-game.
Multiplayer missions like this can be played between characters of any level, and the 4-player mode presents both greater challenge and rewards for players. The one thing we haven’t seen quite yet is how this multiplayer style and the game’s solo-player content will work together. According to Bioware, players looking for a more single player experience will have the choice to lean more into that side of the game than the multiplayer.
Anthem is set to launch on February 22, 2019 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.