Bioware's Anthem

Saturday will be the heavens opening and the angel choir singing.

Info dump in this thread: www.reddit.com/r/AnthemTheGame/comments/8ppdqp/megathread_anthem_at_ea_play_information_and/

Why don't you quote?

I dunno, I just didn't quote.

Watched the reveal trailer, I'm digging it. Gonna watch the gameplay now

Ok watched the ign gameplay and that is exactly what I wanted. If the final product is like that I'll get it for sure.

So it’s confirmed that there’s no romance in Anthem, but I suspect most of us already were bracing for that. And they confirmed single player. But does anyone know if there are companions? Or are the ‘friends’ just NPCs that you visit in the main hubs?

Yeah, no AI companions. They're really emphasizing the co-op angle. 

From the game informer article..

"Technically speaking, you can play through Anthem’s story missions solo – but you probably shouldn’t. “For the critical path … if you do want to play by yourself, you can,” Gamble says. “We’re not limiting that artificially. But the game itself is built for you and a bunch of friends – because your friends are your companions in this case. That’s the whole point.”

Even though you meet a variety of NPCs in Fort Tarsis and have a crew aboard your strider, your actual party is composed of other human players. That’s unusual for a BioWare game, but it is also the main way Anthem opens a new, unscripted vein of storytelling for the studio. You won’t be comparing notes with your friends about how you handled different quests in the shared world, because your friends will be on those quests with you. Instead of a hearing compliments that A.I. characters are programmed to say, you will get genuine reactions. All of your greatest victories – and most humiliating defeats – are shared with other players by your side."

"One reason people like single-player games is the lack of external obligation. You alone control how, when, and for how long you play. Cooperative experiences add new layers of coordination to deal with, from scheduling to matchmaking to social interaction. These certainly aren’t difficult barriers (especially for people who enjoy multiplayer), but they can be a hassle for those who just want to enjoy a virtual world.

“We’ve played a lot of different multiplayer games, and sometimes it can be a little bit awkward,” Warner says. “You have a slot open, somebody jumps in, and you’re like, ‘Ooh, I didn’t really want to play with you. But you’re my friend, so I’ll play with you for a little while, and then I’ll make an excuse, and then I’ll log out and log back in with my status set to offline.’ There’s always a little bit of social friction involved in multiplayer matchmaking, at least in my experience.”

The team wants every aspect of Anthem’s co-op to be as seamless as possible, and the game has several features built to alleviate common multiplayer hassles. If you’re in Fort Tarsis and want to team up for a mission, you just open your map. That shows you the world and the available activities, along with who is currently undertaking them (weighted toward people on your friends list). If there’s an open slot, you just jump right into action.

“Our map system is kind of a LFG [looking for group] lobby and the world map from an RPG blended together,” Darrah says. “You see these opportunities on the map, blended in with your own experience. That is very much what we’re trying for – something that is a little bit less rigid and gamey and more fluid.”

Alternately, you can start your own mission, and that will show up on their maps as an available activity to join. You can also invite people specifically, or rely on the in-game notification system to alert your friends that you’ve started a task. You can tweak the settings to dictate whether your game is public or private – and if it’s public, you can rest assured that plenty of missions are clear and intuitive enough that you can complete them without voice chat.

Because Anthem has a shared world and private hub, the structure of the game naturally splits groups apart. “I jump in and I’m able to do a mission with somebody, and that’s an experience that lasts maybe 20 minutes,” Warner says. “And then the system breaks us apart; I don’t have to say ‘I don’t want to play with you anymore.’ It just does. It breaks us apart and we each go back to our own Fort Tarsis.” Of course, if you and your friends just want to stick together and play for hours on end, you can do that without constantly disbanding and reforming the group."

Well that’s a bummer. I don’t need romance. There are plenty of games that I love without that mechanic. And I don’t mind a multi-player game as long as there’s the option for single player. I’ve sunk hundreds of hours into SWTOR. But having only the option to solo OR do multiplayer because of a lack of companions? No thanks.

This will be the first Bioware game since the Sonic RPG that I won’t buy. Unless I hear rave reviews from you guys, I’m peacing out on this one and voting with my wallet. I’m OVER this narrative from the industry that single player offline RPGs are dead.