The Gameplay Is Kind Of Decent

In Anthem, players are Freelancers – who are pilots of Javelin suits – which are these incredible technical wonders that you use to explore the world and engage in combat with. There are 4 Javelins at launch, the Ranger, Storm, Colossus and Interceptor and each has their strengths, weaknesses, unique weapons and gear and they are all viable for solo or group play. After the tutorial you start by unlocking your first javelin of choice, and as you level up your pilot you’ll get to unlock all of them eventually on your way to the level cap of 30. These suits are the main attraction of the game, and it’s easy to see a ton of work went into ensuring they each individually feel good and unique for players. While taking part in missions, strongholds or free play world exploration, you’re javelins are key to master, and movement involves flying which is awesome, and it has a heat meter so be sure to keep your eyes on that as you’ll occasionally need to land or pass through a water fall to cool off to stay airborne longer. Javelins can also hover and the Storm is able to maintain this the longest as part of its mechanics that amplifies its shield for damage mitigation, so minor management needed here as it’s a master of elemental AOE damage, but it can’t have all the fun all the time. And that’s just one example of Javelin diversity. The colossus is the heaviest and slowest, but can pull out a shield to soak more damage than the rest. The interceptor is the speediest and most agile, suited to close quarters combat, while the ranger is excellent for an all rounded player, able to be offensive or defensive in a jack of all trades role, with single target DPS in mind. But I’m getting ahead of myself here – we’ll talk about combat shortly, so to wrap up the movement part of the gameplay, I’ll say Anthem nailed that department, because it feels fluid and fun once you get the hang of it, and you just want to keep on doing it, whatever the game mode, as long as there’s movement and combat. Underwater can be a challenge but give it a few tries and it will be alright.

So let’s talk about combat and how that works here. To start with, the basics are straightforward. Your javelins have shields and a health bar under, so watch out for your shield depleting as that will expose your soft underbelly – but you can dodge to avoid attacks and kite a little for shield regeneration. If you or one of your squad mates die, you can revive them by hitting F up close, unless it’s in a no-revive zone most missions will have one. Killing enemies also drops health restore pickups, alongside ammo pickups so lookout for those. For combat abilities, you can equip your javelin’s loadout in the Forge –with two weapons ranging from snipers, to assault rifles, LMGs, shotguns, pistols and marksmen rifles, each plays different obviously  so play what’s fun for you. Javelin’s also has three abilities or gear as it’s called here, and you can equip different choices of gear depending on your javelins – in some cases, you can pick from fire or ice skills for your Storm, while Rangers can pick grenades and missiles – there’ some good variety to build  your javelins with and they’re super fun to use in combat so I recommend experimenting with all the skills to know what’s good and what feels right for you. Rounding that up are Javelin Components and inscriptions that offers passive boosts that are your quintessential RPG stats – you’ll have armor increase, damage increase, or specific javelin upgrades for their individual skills which by the way, has some bugs that may not trigger for high level folks. And finally, you can also equip one-time consumables that can increase much of what we’ve talked about in the Components section for one expedition on the launch panel.

During combat itself, Anthem has a key mechanic that it does a shitty job of explaining to new players, and that is the Primers and Detonators system, which I’ll be calling primes and DETS for short. Some Javelin abilities are called primers, and they’ll put status effects on enemies which primes them up for a combo. Primers have this icon next to primer abilities.  Detonators is the fun bit, and DETS are all about exploiting enemies that have already been primed to execute a combo, which results in massive DPS. DETS have this X icon next to DETS abilities.  For example, I’ll throw an Frost Grenade on enemy to either put a frost effect and freeze it in place, and then I’ll use either of my DET abilities which are the rocket launcher, or melee attack, to blow it up for the combo. So why is this important, and should I even care. The answer is yes – executing combos isn’t only satisfying, it also gives you more XP through feats, and on harder difficulties, a well-organized group of players calling out Primes and DETS on targets can make easy work of even the toughest challenges, and that’s why Javelin synergies via combos are both important, and a lot of fun to experiment with.

To wrap up combat, all Javelins have a resource bar that builds up its ultimate ability, and oooh boy you definitely want to use those as all of them are epic goodness that can turn a fight around in the most stylish way possible.  Overall, gameplay and combat, have been the best parts of Anthem for me so far, and it’s hard to get sick of it after all the hours I’ve put into it so far and if I do, I’ll just swap to my next Javelin and have fun with that. The problem is, getting to the fun parts is a challenge as there’s so much downtime in Anthem, between loading screens and back and forth-ing to Fort Tarsis before you get to play your Javs again.

The Story

Is Anthem’s story any good? Players take on the role as a rookie freelancer at the beginning of the game, who joins the mother all of missions to shut down the heart of rage, which is a cataclysm that emerged out of the wreckage of Freehold, a former kingdom that was ravaged by the Dominion faction, who were after a shaper relic that could manipulate the Anthem of Creation, which is a life source for creation in this world. Lost yet? Don’t worry, I’ll explain more in the world building section. Long story short, shit hits the fan and you barely make it out, and your story starts in Fort Tarsis, in Bastion, one of the last enclaves for humanity. It’s been two years since the event, and freelancers, your faction of militaristic heroes are no longer respected or trusted due to your group’s failures, and the main narrative in Anthem is how you the player, builds up the freelancer faction again, alongside main characters and side characters in-game, via series of main story missions and contracts. Of course, there must be conflict, so the dominion are back again and are seeking a way to return to the heart of rage to harness the power there for whatever reason, so you work towards heading back there yourself, and this time for redemption. That’s the jist of the story.

Now for highlights in the main narrative, I thought the writing was decent in the beginning, and kudos to BioWare for getting the character animations, voice acting and dialogue right. I really liked the dialogue and speech patterns for your interactions with a lot of these characters, as they feel like real world interactions that one would have in such situations, and it doesn’t insult your intelligence. I found that refreshing.

In typical BioWare fashion, you have plenty of unique characters, with a stand out being that of your Cypher, Owen, who gave me flashbacks of a mixture of Alistair, Anders and Sera from the Dragon Age franchise, and he’s story arc and development was probably my favorite part of the main story, which results in a cliff hanger for future updates. As for the main plot’s ending, that’s probably the worst part – because it ended with a whimper rather than a bang, and I know they’re setting up future DLC but that’s no excuse – It again, really reminded me of Dragon Age Inquisition, and that vanilla game ending with Corypheus, and Solas goes missing until two DLCs later, so it’s BioWare being BioWare, and I don’t know if that’s a good a thing, but there are some solid moments in Anthem for sure. As for story length, it took me roughly 15-20 hours tops to complete the game playing casually, and yes that includes spending a few hours in free play mode for the tomb challenge, which is a mandatory road block that needs you to do a bunch of tasks like complete world events and collect chests in free play before you can progress to the next part of the story. I’ve seen a lot of backlash for this and I understand it, I myself would feel the same had I not already gotten most of it done by simply eagerly jumping into free play extensively to explore everything as I would usually do for my reviews. I guess it’s a good thing that main story missions are not gated behind level locks, because that would come off as way worse I think, so yeah pick your poison. In summary, short story, decent build up, weak ending, good execution via characters, visuals and dialogue, and it all points to future content, which is the trend these days, at least we’re getting for free.

Looks and Optimization

Anthem is a gorgeous game, let’s be clear about that. The design and aesthetic of the world’s environments, maps, javelins and yes even the character models and soundtracks are all plus points. Parts of this game is a visually immersive experience that transports you into this world BioWare’s created, but parts of it just come crashing down hard as its early access optimization just isn’t good enough which often leads to frustration after some time. Where the game shines in this department is hands down, the Javelin customization options and rightly so because Javelins are the main attraction of Anthem, and that equates to the fun parts of the game, which are the gameplay and combat.

So what can heighten that experience? It’s being able to customize the look and feel of your Javelin suits thoroughly, and I love the amount of colors, textures and fabrics, materials and other good stuff that’s available for you to play with. One could spend a lot of time creating the perfect look in-game. Having said that, other aspects of Javelin customization is woefully bland, like in the weapons department. All weapon categories look bland, indifferent and uninspiring, even when you unlock the epic, masterwork and legendary version, as they’re still the same skins for the most part, just with shinier colors and better stats, which doesn’t really feel all that rewarding.

This can be improved with custom skins from the store that can be bought with coins in the future perhaps, but right out of the gates the best weapons should look and feel way better than default lowbie ones considering the time you put in to get them, and this stage, it just doesn’t look or feel great. Other areas that could use severe improvements is definitely the UI as menus are still a pain to navigate, and hiding key information behind several menus makes it a pain to bring up every now and then, and some notifications in-game actually pop up and block the flight heat meter which can get annoying.

Anthem’s World and Lore Has Potential

It’s always an exciting time when BioWare announces a new IP, because that means there’s a new world and lore and stories to immerse ourselves in, so does Anthem deliver? For the most part, yes. The backstory is one of mystery, and it’s contemporary fantasy, with human factions in the world, futuristic technology blending in with mythology and elemental stuff,  mixed in with creatures like the Scar and others and they are interesting enough for me to want to find out more, and Anthem lets you do so through its collectibles and cortex system, that lets you pour into history, events, people of interest, and that’s satisfying for me, being probably in the minority of players that likes to hunt lore. It may not have the scope and depth we’ve come to expect in comparison to say, the world of Thedas and its rich history and races, but let’s not forget this game is a week old and is laying the foundation for more lore and stories to be told, and with the characters I’ve seen so far I’m OK with that. If you’ve played through the story missions or interacted with the NPCs in Fort Tarsis, there’s so much going on in far off places, with name drops like Antium, Heliost and Stralheim, which could be maps, or future HUBs and regions that we could visit in the future, paving the way for new biomes, or different javelins, vanity and even factions to encounter. That’s a tease for the future for sure.

Elsewhere, the NPC interactions in this game are pretty cool too, as you’ll get a chance to decide certain outcomes or influence someone’s life, and that could reflect in your surroundings in Fort Tarsis. Encouraging a merchant to start a business venture for example, sees more market place activity in the enclave, giving it life, and watching the Fort change over time is a nice touch, loading screens be damned. In other areas, Merchant vendors don’t just stand there and sell stuff, they talk to you, share their stories, and each time you come back, their stories grows, just as yours does. It’s an interesting take on a living narrative world, that I praise, but also criticize because there’s just not enough of it, or enough choices and consequences that actually matters in the long run, which I expect of a BioWare game, shooter or not.

Tame Cash Store

Players earn Coin in-game mostly from completing Challenges – and Coin serves as the game’s in-game currency that can be spent to purchase crafting materials AND, cash store vanity items which is a big deal, because it’s a way to get the flashy stuff without spending any money. Should you run out of challenges and have no way to earn coin, fret not, as those daily, weekly and monthly trials also rewards you with coin, and then there’s the alliance system too. Your alliance consists of players on your Origin Friends list, and anyone you’ve played with recently.

Every week, the XP they earn by playing anthem can generate coin for you, which is a pretty interesting way to generate in-game income. As your alliance plays during the week, the XP they’ve earned counts towards your alliance tier, and at the end of the week you receive your payout. Only your top 5 contributors count towards your tier, and friends get bonuses for their contributions, extra even, if you play missions with them. The premium currency is called Shards and these can only be purchased for real money, and you’ll use it to unlock those vanity items like javelin customization pieces, animations or decals if you don’t want to use your coins. Now the store itself is pretty barren and new items are added every week, so not much to say here – there’s not Lootboxes which is great for EA’s standards, but one will no doubt question the existence of microtransactions in a 60$ game, I certainly do. While letting players buy vanity with in-game coin certainly reduces concern, it’s still a valid point of contention.

The post Is Anthem 2019’s Biggest Flop? Here’s 5 Reasons No appeared first on Mmos World.

The Loot

Getting the obvious out of the way first, The Division 2 knows what keeps players around, and that’s loot and itemization to complement the gameplay. The Division 2 makes good use of a huge array of gear, weapons and skill components that all ties into a natural progression. You feel more powerful and effective when your out about exploring, doing missions, PvP-ing the Dark Zones or just grinding to level 30. The satisfaction factor is always a constant too, not just because of how Massive has handled loot drops and progression, but the individual aspects of crafting, customization and cosmetics. Anthem can definitely take a page or two out of The Division 2 here.

Social Play

One of my gripes with Anthem was how anti-social the game is, and how it doesn’t have the tools to faciliate group play better. Sure, one might argue that Anthem is mostly catered to single player RPG fans – but that’s not the point. Most group Missions tell you that Anthem is best enjoyed in public groups. Unfortunately, the mission tethering and loading times make it a poor experience overall. The Division 2 has pretty much nailed this aspect, with a fantastic Clan system, good VoIP offering and more. Joining your friends or others in Washington D.C. is incredibly seamless, which heightens the fun factor significantly.

Buttery Smooth Launch

It’s hard not to expect a bad launch for most AAA games today. Anthem did okay, and The Division 2 did pretty great. No weird bugs, no server capacity issues, and non of that loot ruining issues that Anthem seems to struggle overcoming. For the most part, The Division 2’s launch has been incident free, except for this recurring bug where player skills won’t stay in place for longer than a few seconds before going back on cool down. Performance issues are also at a bare minimum, and yes you can play this without needing an SSD. Trust me.

The End Game

Arguably the most important aspect for most loot shooter players is the end-game. Anthem’s ended up being repetitive and boring due to the severe lack of things to do, with the same three or four randomized Bounties, Tasks and Stronholds. The Division 2 is where it’s at – hitting level 30 is only the beginning. You then start this post level cap story progression that takes your from World Tier 1 -4, all the while increasing your gear score, getting rid of these Black Tusk invader strongholds, and preparing for the future. It’s organic, and the free play map is a big plus too, because it offers so much more spontaneous content than Anthem’s open world ever could.

Where Does Anthem Have The Edge?

While Anthem has taken a beating here, it still does a few things well. It’s main narrative and story, comprising of voiced cinematic cut-scenes or dialogues, are better produced. It’s more immersive since your character speaks and all. Plus, you feel more involved. The Division 2’s story isn’t bad in comparison, and it’s enjoyable too since it’s a loose narrative that grows as you progress in the world. The other area Anthem excels at is probably the gameplay which is different to The Division’s cover-to-cover shooter approach. Anthem plays much like a traditional RPG with shooter elements, and the flying is killer. So in that regard, Anthem does what it does well.

The post Why The Division 2 Is Better Than Anthem appeared first on Mmos World.

The Loot

Getting the obvious out of the way first, The Division 2 knows what keeps players around, and that’s loot and itemization to complement the gameplay. The Division 2 makes good use of a huge array of gear, weapons and skill components that all ties into a natural progression. You feel more powerful and effective when your out about exploring, doing missions, PvP-ing the Dark Zones or just grinding to level 30. The satisfaction factor is always a constant too, not just because of how Massive has handled loot drops and progression, but the individual aspects of crafting, customization and cosmetics. Anthem can definitely take a page or two out of The Division 2 here.

Social Play

One of my gripes with Anthem was how anti-social the game is, and how it doesn’t have the tools to faciliate group play better. Sure, one might argue that Anthem is mostly catered to single player RPG fans – but that’s not the point. Most group Missions tell you that Anthem is best enjoyed in public groups. Unfortunately, the mission tethering and loading times make it a poor experience overall. The Division 2 has pretty much nailed this aspect, with a fantastic Clan system, good VoIP offering and more. Joining your friends or others in Washington D.C. is incredibly seamless, which heightens the fun factor significantly.

Buttery Smooth Launch

It’s hard not to expect a bad launch for most AAA games today. Anthem did okay, and The Division 2 did pretty great. No weird bugs, no server capacity issues, and non of that loot ruining issues that Anthem seems to struggle overcoming. For the most part, The Division 2’s launch has been incident free, except for this recurring bug where player skills won’t stay in place for longer than a few seconds before going back on cool down. Performance issues are also at a bare minimum, and yes you can play this without needing an SSD. Trust me.

The End Game

Arguably the most important aspect for most loot shooter players is the end-game. Anthem’s ended up being repetitive and boring due to the severe lack of things to do, with the same three or four randomized Bounties, Tasks and Stronholds. The Division 2 is where it’s at – hitting level 30 is only the beginning. You then start this post level cap story progression that takes your from World Tier 1 -4, all the while increasing your gear score, getting rid of these Black Tusk invader strongholds, and preparing for the future. It’s organic, and the free play map is a big plus too, because it offers so much more spontaneous content than Anthem’s open world ever could.

Where Does Anthem Have The Edge?

While Anthem has taken a beating here, it still does a few things well. It’s main narrative and story, comprising of voiced cinematic cut-scenes or dialogues, are better produced. It’s more immersive since your character speaks and all. Plus, you feel more involved. The Division 2’s story isn’t bad in comparison, and it’s enjoyable too since it’s a loose narrative that grows as you progress in the world. The other area Anthem excels at is probably the gameplay which is different to The Division’s cover-to-cover shooter approach. Anthem plays much like a traditional RPG with shooter elements, and the flying is killer. So in that regard, Anthem does what it does well.

The post Top 5 Things The Division 2 Does Better Than Anthem appeared first on Mmos World.

Use Primers And Detonators For Combos

One of the game’s core mechanics for combat involves attack synergies in the form of primers and detonators. Primers are abilities that applies a debuff or condition on enemies like Freeze or Burning. Detonators on the other hand exploits affected enemies with conditions to deal Combos for extra damage and more XP for through the Combo feat. This is both important and useful to know to get multi kills. What players can do is to play Javelins that are able to freeze or burn enemies in a large AoE situation, before going in melee range for multi-kill. This is best done on the Storm and Colossus. Who can both apply AoE primers and then detonate them effectively. For a tip, hit up Free Play in Easy difficulty and do multiple World Events to achieve this easily.

Turn Game Mode Difficulty Down

The obvious way to achieve this feat for multi kills is to turn the difficulty down. You will lose the chance for better loot, but ultimately you’ll be able to easily achieve multi kills in your game modes. For best results, Contracts and Free Play mode are the best ways to find large clusters of enemies. In Contracts, often time enemy reinforcements arrive mid-way through objectives, so simply head over to the location and begin freezing/burning them up before taking them out with your detonator skills, preferably grenade launchers and other AoE abilities. I cannot stress this enough, running an effective primer/detonator gear with AoE is a must.

Always Use Your Ultimate Ability When It’s Available

Another handy thing to imprint in your head is to use your Javelin’s Ultimate ability every time it’s up. When playing Anthem, its common to find players just holding on to it, saving it for whatever reasons. This is pointless because of how fast they recharge in most situations if you’re in combat. The trick to multi kills with Ultimates is to time it right. All Javelins from the Ranger, Storm, Colossus and even the Interceptor’s Ultmiates all can do great AoE damage that should outright kill mobs when used. If you’re worried about other players in the group taking your kills, the best way to achieve multi kills with Ultimates will be then to run Missions or Contracts solo, or go off and find your own World Events along in Free Play.

Ultimately, it comes down to practice and timing and you should be racking up multi kills in no time on Anthem.

The post Anthem: A Guide To Getting Multi Kills In Anthem appeared first on Mmos World.

Loading Screen Interactions

You’re probably sick of hearing about Anthem’s loading screens, but it has to be said.  They are still terrible even after Anthem’s Day 1 patch that supposedly reduced loading screen times. These are still a major issue for players looking to jump in and out of expeditions and being put into multiple loading screens is just a buzzkill. One way BioWare could improve this is to have its loading screens become more interactive, like being able to read Cortex entries on them the way you could in Dragon Age: Inquisition. It’s not a direct solution to solving loading times, but it at least gives players something to do rather than staring at that damn loading progress.

Player Communications

Anthem’s lack of an in-game text chat is actually hindering the game from random public players. While it is an MMO of some sort, VOIP is hardly used by anyone who plays casually unless you’re in an organized group or playing with friends. This makes communicating objectives in Strongholds or focus firing targets in harder difficulties a massive challenge. Anthem could really find more ways to improve this with either a marking target system or even a ping system like that in Apex Legends. In other areas, players sometimes may encounter unsavory players in random group play during Stronghold missions that are just AFK. The game needs some sort of a ‘vote to kick’ system that will help eliminate trolls and griefers.

UI Menus and Functionality

The menus and UI are sleek but incredibly clunky, with information being hidden behind several clicks before you get to what you want. Additionally, key areas like your inventory in the Forge could most definitely use a sort function to organize your weapons, gear and components by type, score and rarity. Filtering would do wonders for those of us that pack rats and hoarders, to make it easier to see what we have in bulk. During gameplay, being able to open the map and leave custom markers either solo or while in groups also goes a long way to making the game more player friendly.

Weapon Skins

For a loot shooter the game is obviously all about loot drops. Anthem has weapons of multiple rarities with Masterwork and Legendary being the best you can find and craft. Unfortunately, the weapon designs for these supposedly best items in game are just re-skins of their lowbie default counterparts. That hardly feels rewarding, as you’re looking at essentially the same designs albeit with shinier colors, some vinyl and decals, and a fancy name. Like Papa Pump. More range is needed to give these elder-game loot some real sense of accomplishment and wonder.

Content

And finally, the content diversity once you beat the game needs to be priority one now for BioWare’s Anthem. Currently, players can tackle the three Strongholds, repeatable Contracts, re-do main missions using Quick Play, or explore the world in Free Play where world events are. What defines end-game here is running all of these in the hardest difficulties – Grandmaster 1-3 – so it’s basically recycled content. Anthem’s plans are to release more content and story in a series of Acts, which are future updates that will change the world. While it remains to be seen just how much these add to the game, it must find a way to reduce recycling content or players will get burned out quick.

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A teaser of Blomkamp’s Conviction is now live, with the full short going live February 14 on the Oats Studios YouTube channel. In the short, people will see the player city of Fort Tarsis in the game come to life, and the freelancers that live within it. These freelancers who use Javelin exosuits, have been re-created by Neill’s team to show them in live action as they fight off the main villain and head of the evil Dominion faction, the Monitor.

“I was really blown away by this incredible world BioWare created the very first time I saw Anthem,” said Neill Blomkamp. “Conviction sets the stage with a narrative that touches on Anthem’s beautiful and immersive world, which is ripe for exploration by these powerful Javelins. A world where danger is lurking on every ledge and in each valley.”

In Anthem, players can play with up to three friends to explore and battle in a dangerous, mysterious world with great characters and a unique BioWare story. As freelancers, players don Javelin exosuits, making them powerful heroes with strong weapons and incredible special abilities to help them survive in an ever-changing, unfinished world. Players will be able to customize and personalize their Javelins with unique paint jobs and gear so they’ll have the right tools to confront almost any situation, and look good doing it. As players work together to find vast ruins, defeat deadly enemies and claim otherworldly artifacts, they’ll be unlocking their own individual story fighting against The Dominion, a ferocious militaristic society.

Players can unleash their power in Anthem worldwide on February 22 for Origin for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Origin Access Premier members can be the first to play the full game with unlimited access on PC starting February 15, and EA Access and Origin Access Basic members can enjoy up to 10 hours of play time as part of the Play First Trial.*

Fans who wish to learn more about Anthem can visit the official website, as well as get the latest news and updates on Twitter and Facebook.

The post Hollywood Director Neill Blomkamp Has Made An Anthem Live Action Short Film appeared first on Mmos World.

1. Please try to avoid spoiling the story for anyone. If you care about story, be careful watching streams.

This one’s pretty straightforward. We know Bioware is all about story, and from the demo we do snippets of it, detailing the world and premise alongside characters we meet. Plenty of players don’t want to ruin the fun by learning plot points early, so this is a fair tip. If you follow game sites or YouTube let’s play channels, it’s best to avoid them for a full week until the game is released for everyone on February 22nd.

2. In between missions, talk to the people in Tarsis. They have stories to tell, and I’m proud of the awesome characters the team have written. Many of them hilarious AF and offer great insight into the world.

Fort Tarsis is the main hub of the game and it’s where players will hang out in-between missions. You can find vendors, your forge and other amenities here, but NPCs too. Some were intractable during the demo and were good fun. This hint that some convo’s are hilarious is rather interesting, so we can’t wait to see what this is all about too.

3. We give you a bunch of coin in the beginning. I recommend playing a few hours to see what Javelin and look you want. The customization system is DEEP. In other words, don’t blow it all in 5 minutes

Coins are Anthem’s in-game currency that you can earn more of from completing challenges. BioWare seems to be confirming that you’ll get a few when you start, so hold onto them. Most of the vanity items in the store are Javelin customization, and since there’s four Javelins, saving up for the one you want to spend on seems wise. Storm, anyone?

4. Use the alliance system. It’s awesome. You’ll get good coin from it.

The Alliance system is one part of the demo that wasn’t showed off at all. However, we did see experienced earned for it at the end of every mission or stronghold completed. Does it work like a reputation system in most online games? Probably yes, and since now we know we can earn Coin from it, all the better.

5. If you like a challenge – play on hard. The loot is better, and the missions are beefier. Just don’t be surprised if you get your butt handed to you until you’re good

This one’s a no brainer. The harder the difficulty, the better the loot. During the demo we played all difficulties and have to say, Hard Mode is brutal, especially if players are still learning the ins and outs of their Javelin suits. It also requires a semi-decent composition of Javelins, and not just four Storms.

6. Start out by being aware of the daily and weekly challenges. They’re awesome valuable.

Another one of the features locked in the demo. The full release should detail just how many challenges there are and what exactly will be valuable. However, it is here that we worry the game becomes too repetitive if they are limited in diversity.

7. Reinforce folks and use quickplay. A friend in need is a friend indeed.

This sounds like a plea to get players to play together. Majority would prefer to play solo often, but Anthem’s ease of joining others in-game should make playing together a fun and seamless process. Strongholds for one, definitely cannot be solo-ed and is hella fun in groups.

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“It’s time for the fans to get their hands on Anthem and experience it for themselves,” said Mike Gamble, Lead Producer for Anthem. “We truly hope they enjoy this taste of flying and fighting in this brand-new world our team has been crafting for many years.”

The game features BioWare’s epic story-telling in a whole new world and setting, where players known as Freelancers, explore and fend off new threats in their Javellins – mech suits of immense power, each having strengths and uniqueness to offer players diverse ways to play. The open world setting has in-game events that can be done solo or in groups.

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Best Triple A MMORPG 2019

Elder Scrolls Online (PC/PS4/XB)

The Elder Scrolls Online is having a fantastic year. Zenimax Online Studios have been keeping its 10 million players and counting happy this year. The game released a full Chapter (expansion) in Summerset in 2018, in addition to numerous DLC updates like Dragon Bones and Murkmire. Not only are they content rich – but also tweaks and adds plenty of quality of life improvements. For example, players are given log-in rewards, which let them earn DLC like Murkmire for free. Additionally, players on the ESO Plus subscription got more value for their money, as the monthly Crowns stipend increased and members are given additional perks like free items and exclusive discounts. Moreover, much more polish and other feature arrived this year too like the ability to finally make cosmetic outfit and save them in slots. PvP Battlegrounds became free for all, Morrowind got bundled into the base game purchase and much more. It’s hard to argue that ESO is at the moment, on top of their game.

Elder Scrolls Online have led the way this year when it comes to releasing good content on top of great features for its players. Based on this, 2019 look set to be another great year for ESO if they can keep up the pace of putting out good content on time.

Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood (PC/PS4)

Another MMORPG that can boast 10 million registered players in 2018 is Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIV. The Stormblood expansion released in 2017 is still going strong content-wise. This year, players have seen an incredibly cool crossover with Monster Hunter: World, in addition to the slew of updates that progresses the main story chain further. The game also received numerous group content updates which is crucial for an MMORPG to survive.

Final Fantasy XIV definitely saved the best for last. It was announced only two weeks ago that the game’s third expansion, Shadowbringers, will arrive in summer 2019. The expansion gives players the opportunity to crossover from Warriors of Light to Warriors of Darkness, and brings more jobs and classes to the game. The cool thing about FFXIV is that with every new job, players don’t need to roll alts as one character may pick up several jobs. The Blue Mage is the latest coming to the game. While FFXIV suffers from content drought and DDOS attacks from time to time, it’s still a fantastic MMORPG and 2019 will be a big year for the game.

World of Warcraft (PC)

The world of Azeroth got bigger in 2018 as the war returned between the Alliance and the Horde. 2018 started with the winding down of 2016’s Legion expansion, as players said goodbye to their Artifact Weapons. Everything went pear-shaped however, when Sylvannas attacks Darnassus due to the emergence of Azerite, the world’s essence that’s come to the surface thanks to that huge sword sticking out of the world’s surface.

That led to the Battle for Azeroth expansion in August, which brought new maps and zones to quest in, including new dungeons and raids. Overall, BFA has been a great addition to the WoW universe, but not without it’s fair share of issues. The Azerite system that replaced Artifact Weapons are far from perfect, but tweaks and improvements are coming and that will be the case leading into 2019. The expansion also apparently saw the most amount of WoW subscription numbers dropping, but people love the drama of a game losing players, so pay no attention to it if you’re looking for a solid all rounded MMORPG to play in 2019. With fixes, tweaks, the continuation of the Horde vs Alliance story and more raids coming in 2019, the Battle for Azeroth expansion can only get better in time.

Guild Wars 2 (PC)

Rounding up the big AAA MMORPG titles to play in 2019 is ArenaNet’s Guild Wars 2. It was a genre-changer when released in 2012, and six years later the game is still going strong on the heels of its 2017 Path of Fire expansion. Guild Wars 2 has become more accessible since making the base game free to play, and many gameplay systems have improved the game like Mounts. In 2018 the game saw numerous quality of life updates like changes to make underwater combat better, and making runes and sigil salvageable to save inventory space. For PvP players, Guild Wars 2 has added 2v2 arenas and and World vs World should get its major update in 2019 that removes the need for servers that limits playing with friends and guilds.

Additionally on the content front, 2018 saw a steady release of new maps and story content for the game’s Living World Season 4 that continues the Path of Fire storyline. 2019 will definitely build on this, and we’re expecting a big announcement later in 2019 regarding a new expansion or something else.

Best Upcoming MMORPG 2019

Anthem (PC/PS4/XB)

Of all the MMO titles currently in early access, only EA’s Anthem has a set release date, and the game arrives for all platforms in February 2019. In Anthem, up to four players explore and battle in a dangerous, mysterious place populated by great characters and a unique BioWare story. Players will also create stories of their own while they play, so no two journeys are the same. Javelin exosuits make their pilots powerful heroes in the world, with awesome weapons and incredible special abilities that allow for combat and exploration in a hostile environment. Players will be able to customize and personalize their suits with unique paint jobs and gear so they’ll have the right tools to confront almost any situation, and look good doing it.

So far, the multiplayer aspect excites more than going solo as we’re all about online play. The game should give similar online titles with RPG elements like Destiny 2, Planetside 2, Defiance and more a run for its money. The downside? It’s EA, and their reputation has worsened in 2018.

Ashes of Creation (PC)

Ashes of Creation is still the biggest hyped MMORPG yet to be released today. It garnered famed through its widely shared Kickstarter campaign that raised over $3million overnight, promising to make MMORPGs great again with complex systems, group play, player driven towns, economies and communities. Solo play will still be viable for those that prefer it, but the devs believe that MMOs are best when players come together. One of the first things we learn is that the base group size in Ashes is eight. It’s a steady increase from other games, where four to six is usually the norm. 8-man groups allows the content to amplify party roles and take advantage of all class archetypes. Speaking of roles, Ashes of Creation will emphasize importance on the holy trinity. That is of course, the Tank, DPS and Healer. However, Support roles are as equally important via the secondary class system to make customizing player characters a key feature.

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5. Anthem

EA and Bioware’s Anthem finally showed off more of it’s gameplay, and we now know it’s multiplayer focused. Releasing February 22nd 2019, Anthem is a modern day FPS shooter with RPG story telling akin to the Mass Effect series. The difference is the multiplayer aspect that works well with up to three other friends for the game’s main campaign mode. Players can choose different classes known as Freelancers who wear Javeling exo-suits with unique powers. Exploring foreign planets look and feel good, and it’s not just the flying and swimming we’re referring to. Combat is another plus point and it performs better than similar titles like The Division.

4. Battlefield V

Historical accuracies aside, this one feels like the biggest Battlefield game yet. In V, we’re heading back to World War II and get to see it from a different light. Done are the days of overusing Normandy over and over again in games. Available October 19th this year, there are several multiplayer modes returning. We have Conquest, Domination and Team Death match. Best yet, Operations mode from Battlefield 1 is also returning, where big matches are played over four in-game days. These battles cover other areas in WWII, such as Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands. Besides that, expect to see an in-depth story campaign mode, changes to classes, balance and more.

3. Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 couldn’t be as different from The Witcher games. Studio CD Projekt Red’s next game shows us an exciting future in the world of Cyberpunk – a cynical future where capitalism and technology has changed the world for the worst. Players play in the shoes of protagonist V, who must traverse this huge open world with no loading times. Primarily an FPS game, it is definitely a departure from The Witcher, but it remains true to its RPG storytelling roots. The game has level up progression, skill-checks and definitely loot such as getting high-tech weapons and more.

2. Forza Horizon 4

For racing enthusiasts, look no further than Forza Horizon 4 from E3 this year. It’s big, gorgeous and offers a lot more than its predecessor. This open world racer is packed with exploration and racing, and the best part is you can switch seamlessly between single player and multiplayer, joining your buddies whenever they’re online for a quick race around the UK country side. Another fun mechanic is the dynamic season system, where summer, winter, spring and fall all take place in game periodically, drastically changing the landscape.

1. Fallout 76

But as far as the stand out game, we have to pick Bethesda’s Fallout 76. The game will be a prequel to all the other titles in the series, and it begins in West Virginia. The exciting thing about Fallout 76 is the multiplayer – for the first time ever, play with your buddies. You get to hunt new local folklore monsters, and of course build your bases and decorate it to your heart’s content. You still can enjoy the game solo, but online multiplayer will bring fresh PvP aspects to the Fallout franchise that could be awesome.

What were your best games of #E3 2018?

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