Despite being one of the biggest releases of the year, and the launch date being less than a month away, BioWare have played things pretty close to their chest when it comes to Anthem. Outside of a few developer live streams and trailers we haven’t seen all that much in terms of actual gameplay so far, however with the VIP Beta getting underway now, everyone can jump in and get a taste of what’s to come.
Before we got hands on with Anthem there were of course a few things we knew would be true. Fights are great fun, with the shooting feeling very satisfying; the world is visually stunning with some truly impressive vistas, and there are more Javelin customisation options than you could ever reasonably need. However, as we spent more time with Anthem we started to learn a few things that surprised us a little. So to help you out when you do decide to jump into the world of Anthem, here are six things we learned from our hands-on with the game.
1. Don’t go it alone
Anthem is of course a game designed to be played with others, ideally in a squad of four people, but as you would expect, the option to play alone is there if you choose. However, when we tried this out things didn’t go so well. Despite going into a mission that was something we easily blasted through in a squad of four, we struggled to get past the first major fight on our own. Swarmed by enemies we spent more time running away from danger than pumping in damage and when we ran out of ammo we had to rely on our abilities to win the fight. It took us four tries to beat the first major fight of the mission, then when we saw another swarm of enemies coming our way, we decided we had to get some backup in order to get past this mission. So you’re going to need some friends, or at least some other cooperative players found through matchmaking to survive the toughest skirmishes in Anthem.
2. Your Javelin can fulfil multiple roles
While it might seem like a good idea to split your squad across the four Javelin types when going out into the world, we found that it wasn’t really necessary. Sure it might help a little, and having four of the same type of Javelin might not be the best idea in the world, but providing you equip your suit with different abilities you can easily get by with only two or three Javelin types. Despite each Javelin having a main style of play – the Colossus is a tank and the Interceptor is built for speed, for example – each can fulfil a lot of different roles depending on your ability choices. You can go from a crowd controlling monster that takes out multiple foes to a high damage single target shooter or even more of a support player helping out your team just by switching you abilities. So make sure to coordinate and go in with a specific role in mind.
3. Juggling larger enemies will save lives
There were a few times when we were faced with an enemy that looked almost un-killable, and would have surely destroyed us in seconds if we were alone. But one of the key skills we learnt when playing Anthem was that you have to juggle the aggro of these larger enemies between your squad. Most of these enemies do have CC attacks that will require all of you to dodge them, but most of the time the larger enemies will focus on one player, leaving the other three free to do as much damage as possible. Now, a strong Colossus can probably tank these for a while, but even they will need a break, so you'll need to try and bait the enemy into attacking you at times to give your fellow players a break to heal up.
4. Waterfalls are the key to moving around the map quickly
There’s no denying that flying around the world of Anthem is incredibly fun. Once you get a grasp of the controls it becomes easy to glide through the tightest gaps and reach locations that would be almost inaccessible on foot. However, your Javelin is prone to overheating when you fly for any extended period of time, and if it does you’ll come crashing back down to earth and have to wait for it to cool down before you can hit the skies again. Initially this was incredibly frustrating, but there are ways to avoid it. The simplest is that diving straight down and then flying back up will cool down the suit a little, but with some areas requiring a vertical climb to reach it isn’t always possible to do this.
Waterfalls are strategically placed throughout the world and you can fly through them to cool down your suit, letting you keep flying for a while longer. If you spot a river or large pool of water you can also dive down into that to achieve the same effect. Always look out of water to reset your suit’s overheating status, and once you get the hang of this you can almost fly from one end of the map to the other without hitting the ground once.
5. You need to keep track of your ammo count
With two weapons at all times and a fair few abilities to boot, ammo might not sound like a big deal, especially when enemies will often drop ammo packs upon death. But with Anthem’s movement abilities that will often see you darting around the sky in a fight and not necessarily running over packs on the ground it can be very easy to run out of ammo. This means it’s vitally important you keep an eye on your ammo count, as if you run out and the ground is swarming with enemies you’re either going to have to make a risky dive into the pack to retrieve some ammo from the ground, or rely on your team-mates or other abilities to clear them out. A solid rule is to alway try and pick up any ammo packs you see lying around, as having no bullets often makes you pretty ineffective in fights.
6. Ultimate abilities charge faster than you may expect
If you come from the world of MOBAs, or hero shooters, then you may have been conditioned to keep hold of your ultimate ability until a truly game-turning moment. But in Anthem we found we had to unlearn that thought process and be a little more liberal with our ult usage. Yes they are all devastating attacks that do a lot of damage, but at the same time it doesn’t take much to refill the ultimate charge bar, and you can expect to have one up and running within minutes of using the last one. Holding onto your ult for a larger enemy mostly seems a little pointless, as you can have another ult ready to go pretty quickly. Use that ultimate whenever you can, and watch as multiple foes fall to the ground.