The Answermaster is back, and he brought a friend. Anthem™ Executive Producer Mark Darrah just finished a tour at PAX West 2018, answering almost all of your Anthem questions live and on Twitter. Joining him on Twitter was Anthem Lead Producer Mike Gamble, crafter of stories and Comic Sans advocate. They've arrived right on the heels of Anthem Game Director Jon Warner, who had his own riveting AMAAAA (AJAAAA?) at Gamescom 2018.
Together, they executed the ultimate AMAAAA - Ask Mark (or Mike!) Almost Anything About Anthem – a project Mark started so he could keep in constant contact with BioWare™ players. “It's really important for me to have as open a dialog with the community [as possible],” says Mark, whether that means answering fans' most burning questions or warning players about even the cutest Anthem creatures. Also, he knows an opportunity when he sees one: “AMAAAA is an acronym I couldn’t pass up.”
Today we’ve gathered up all the best PAX West AMAAAA Q’s and A’s here for your perusal, with explanations for extra flavor.
Ask Mark Almost Anything About Anthem
“Demo date is Feb. 1, 2018.”
And you won’t want to miss it.
“You can roam around Fort Tarsis. You get missions, visit vendors, talk to people. You can also just walk around and explore.”
Fort Tarsis is where you go between missions to rest up and restock, but that’s not all there is to do. Your personal roleplaying story takes place here – explore, talk to people, and see what you can learn.
“There are up to 4 people per server. In Freeplay, you are not tightly grouped so you can come across any of the other 3.”
Whether you’re playing with a pre-made group of friends or using the matchmaking system to team up with fellow Freelancers, the four of you will get an instance all to yourselves. Even if you're on your own when you first set off, you're bound to run into another Freelancer eventually.
“The personalization (the visuals) and customizations (the stats) are mostly independent. Personalization are everything from paints up through different armor pieces. Customization covers a very wide gambit.”
Each javelin is unique thanks to all the ways you can customize your look and loadout. Aesthetics also aren’t tied to stats, so don’t worry – you only have to wear hot pink and polka dots if you want to (and if they have that).
“BioWare games have tried to include interesting characters that you have interactions with and growing relationships. This is true in Anthem as well. In Our World My Story you experience a personal story driven through character interactions in Ft. Tarsis.”
Multiplayer adventures and single-player stories don’t always get along, but the heart of Anthem is in making them knit together. The vast shared world outside Fort Tarsis and a powerful personal story inside combine, through an idea called Our World, My Story.
“[Some of your enemies have javelins.] They are some of the toughest non boss creatures to fight.”
Yikes. We can’t go into exactly what these creatures are yet, but with javelins of their own, they aren’t going to make any fight easy for you.
“[There are no caps on how many pieces of master class gear you can use.] You can equip as many as you have open slots for.”
If you can fill every slot in your javelin with master class gear, then equip away!
“The Storm taps into the Anthem of Creation more directly than the other Javelins.”
The Storm is a mysterious javelin (and will stay that way for the time being), but Mark offered this taste of the exosuit’s backstory. Hooray for more questions!
Ask Mike Almost Anything About Anthem
“You will be able to access your strider, Tarsis will be the focus...for launch.”
Not many settlements can survive Anthem’s harsh environment. But if that ellipse is anything to go by, there may be more down the road.
“Loot is individual”
There will be no battling over loot in this game! The fruits of your labor are distributed individually to each player, so you’ll never miss out because one of your teammates is greedy.
“We wanted to create a game which was optimized for PVE, and create weaponry which is fantastic and didnt have to be balanced for competitive play.”
It might be cool to see what two javelins could do against each other, but Anthem will be PvE only at launch, so you’ll have to use your imagination.
“Nope, no AI teammates out in the world for launch.”
It’s dangerous to go alone in Anthem – seriously, you might get eaten by a grabbit out there. You won't have any AI teammates to rely on at launch, but we'll keep the idea in mind.
“There's one [recurring enemy] in particular. His name starts w/ Monito”
Everyone be on the look out for this guy.
“I'll tell you one thing [about the Storm javelin]. He/She is awesome. Okay two things. You can hover forever.”
Forever? That is pretty awesome.
“Yup. you can focus on buffs/debuff gear pieces [to play support]”
If you’re up for being the team healer as you venture into the fearsome wilderness, you can build the perfect loadout through javelin customizations. Be the team hero!
“EA Access Premiere for PC will get you in a week before [launch].”
If you can’t wait until launch day to dive into the world of Anthem, there’s several ways to play early. You can get the full game a week before launch day when you join Origin Access Premier for PC, or try it for 10 hours (starting the same day) with Origin Access for PC or EA Access for Xbox One**. And of course, there's the demo that Mark mentioned.
“In Tarsis, you arent in your Javelin. Outside the walls, we need to make sure you have it on, so you don't die a terrible frost-wolf related death.”
Please keep your arms and legs inside the javelin at all times while out in the world of Anthem - it's for your own safety.
Once the AMAAAA wound down, we had our own question for M & M: we've learned a lot from them through the AMAAAAs, but what have they learned from the community in the process?
According to Mark, it's “How to answer the same question over and over.”
You heard it here first. Mostly.
Pre-order now and get the Founder’s in-game banner.*
Keep your eyes open for more as we’re ramping up to Anthem’s release. Make sure to not miss any of it by signing up for the Anthem newsletter for all the latest Anthem news, updates, behind-the-scenes content, offers, and more (including other EA news, products, events, and promotions) by email.
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Anthem launches February 22, 2019 for Xbox One, PlayStation® 4, and PC. Early Access begins on February 15 for Origin Access and EA Access members.
*CONDITIONS AND RESTRICTIONS APPLY. SEE https://www.ea.com/games/anthem/pre-order-disclaimer FOR DETAILS. DEMO DETAILS AVAILABLE AT https://www.ea.com/games/anthem/news/announce-date-of-pre-launch-demo. PERSISTENT INTERNET CONNECTION REQUIRED TO PLAY.
**CONDITIONS, LIMITATIONS AND EXCLUSIONS APPLY. SEE ea.com/ea-access/terms AND origin.com/store/origin-access/terms FOR DETAILS.