ANTHEM

I guess the side of the BioWare developer in the martial civic war. In their new title, they bring us the best Ironman game so far. Although this is actually not a Ironman game, at least not a license page. Otherwise, it's Anthem that you get into the skin of the pilot of a special robotic suit that gives you the opportunity to fly and is armed with an arsenal bigger than some other countries have. You simply jump to it and set yourself up for an adventure that can change the face of the world by Anthem, where human settlements are fighting a centuries-old concealed threat that they thought would never come back.

And while I was going through this article in the story of the story that's waiting for you in the game today, I'll start another day. Since Anthem is actually a sum of stories - in the game and around them. I do not care about the controversy surrounding the game, which is something other than the previous titles from BioWare (so it's not really a single-player RPG). I am talking mainly about the story of a VIP demo that we could try out a few days ago, and it was a prelude to the public demo that will invite everyone to this world who is interested in this world.

You probably read about many of these things, and if you played the demo, you probably experienced them. It does not make sense to walk around the hot slurry - the story around this demo is a terrible experience, especially on the first day, and it is not related to the qualities of the game that seem so good for the time being. But there were problems getting into the game at first. BioWare has worked and fixed it for some time. However, there were problems with "infinite" frozen loads when attempting to enter the mission. It was possible to bypass this only by disabling and re-launching the demo. And they did not tolerate the fugitives (and nothing emerging) enemies. These are also the three most serious demo problems that dragged him regardless of the platform. And they have been able to frustrate the experience of the game as such.

I understand, this is an older build, probably even before the Christmas holidays, and never played the game so many players on so many different systems so the bugs were waiting. But when you get through it and get into the world by Anthem, it finally gets interesting. Even though BioWare was concerned about not betting much of the game before it was released. You get somewhere in the middle, you do not know anything from the story. The Fort Tarsis NPCs already know your Freelancer, addressing him on the streets, but you can not interact with them too much, as most interactions are locked in the demo.

However, the storyline characters are available, and you just dream of those few story-based missions waiting for you in the game. But you do not know who it is. Not what he wants from you. You know only so much that you have to find one artifact, and then there are a couple of follow-up problems that come out of it. Before you know anything more about the story, the demo ends. This is an interesting way of presenting, but it is important that BioWare is focused on demonstrating the world, the action and the cooperation, not the story itself.

We have to make it through official information that says there are many different factions in the world, not only between the impregnable fortresses of Fort Tarsis but also outside them, where the world is full of various traps and there is a struggle for power not just local fauna, but also by these other factions. There are several, but the biggest problem is the Dominion, whose new commander has a vision in which he uses the power hidden in the world by the Anthem to conquer all the people, what must be avoided. At your side there will be other Freelancers, Fort Tarsis elite protectors, but also NPC characters with whom you are gradually building relationships (the demo offered a hint of conversations with the options of choice) even though this time without romance.

Your most powerful weapon is, however, already mentioned suits, which are in the game called Javelin. They will be divided into four classes in the final game, but the demo in this regard has not been a lot of options and as we jumped into a storyline, we found ourselves in the already created Javeline. He was obviously balanced to offer a little bit of every jar, that is, a golden middle way when he is moving, but also with a decent endurance and combat ability. We will see how the game eventually differentiates between the other classes and the gradual improvement through a spoiler, which does not show us the demo as much as we want.

In addition to the base class, you can also customize your Javelin armament and gear. So choose your weapons in a few slots so you can be prepared for situations where a sniper can fit (for example, if you do not want to go against the powerful Titan on a fairy tale). You will modify the grenades, abilities, but also usable items that you can gradually produce as well as some other things (such as materials). Well, of course, it does not have the chance to make your Javelin visually, to make it unique in the online world. In terms of equipment, you find it in 6 levels of rarity, from normal to unique pieces, so in the style of classic RPG, the more rare you have in your equipment, the more potential it is. You edit your Javelin in Forge before you go on a mission.

In Launch, Launch Bay community space has not been available, where gamers can meet, interact, use the heap of emoticons, and so on, which you will also know from other similar online games. So it was mainly about Tarsis and mission selection, and after several stories we also had some Freeplay options (when you choose the world with other players only, you are looking for tasks, challenges and random events for you collecting expi and loot) and did not miss Stronghold, which is a sign for dungeons / raids in Anthem, and so it is more of an end-game content that is created to spoil and confiscate even more experienced players.

The Strongholds' difficulty is so high and there is practically a need for cooperation, ideally equal to the four (and in full play with the different Javelin classes), as the enemy is a lot and you are gradually becoming more and more powerful. Strongholds are longer. Even in giant missions, you can enjoy yourself for longer if you are flying over the map, enjoying the world and discovering things. Even the Stronghold itself should take tens of minutes for more straightforward gaming, it will offer its own story and occasionally booty that you do not find elsewhere.

From the rows above, you have certainly understood that Anthem is an online action game in the open world designed to co-operate four mission players. While in Tarsis the player is alone, he is already in the mission with others. This may cause you to worry about going to the game if you are a loner. I did not have anyone with friends who would have the demo, but the game offers matchmaking practically everything, so you always find someone in the team so that you do not run around this wild and dangerous world yourself. BioWare has thus become one of the teams that believe that they will be good to each other, will work together and will not be annoying to others. We were doing it.

But now, finally, the main things - the gameplay and the world. You probably understand that BioWare has diverged from the RPG genre more to sci-fi action. Completely not RPG elements have failed, but imagine it as Mass Effect with a better action component where you edit, upgrade, and manufacture your equipment. The action is fun, fast, but still tactical. There are plenty of simple enemies you can handle the left rear, but you must prepare for the stronger team, use your skills appropriately and, if necessary, revive the comrades.

So you have a pair of guns, grenades, a close attack and some other abilities, including an ending, whose cooldown is quite long, but on the other hand you can do quite a lot of damage to the more powerful enemies. Thinking about the defensive, for example, to use a shield to protect yourself and your teammates. Action from air here has a special place because it is not only effective but also effective. A lot of enemies are more difficult to navigate through the air, you have a higher level above them, and you have such a fairly easy way to escape to the shadows, in order to regroup the shields or to seek a drop in the neighborhood. All of this is really explosive, with blockbuster production values.

The world is definitely very interesting, it is horizontally and vertically. Surrounded by a varied architecture, long forgotten buildings, caves, but also wildlife. But his real size is hard to judge from demos. So far, however, he is really impressed by the way Ironman moves. It is similar to Spider-Man, the past year, who, with his smooth and intuitive movement around the city, worked so well that you were easily experienced in the character of the hero. Even here, flying around the world is a great experience for yourself and you are quickly acquainted with it, so you will only have fun passing through the "needle eye" and the like. Already, from the moments when you fly alongside hundreds of meters of waterfall, the crashing of which you can feel in bones, thanks to a great sound design, there are hairs all over the body.

Audiovisual is the top of Anthem. The first look at Fort Tarsis on Ultra settings is breathtaking, and the first trip to the outside world will give you a sledgehammer but forgetting to get it back. The world comes alive before you, and it also helps with the perfect sound, greatly done even in the spatial version, when it all moves directly to your home. Music is just such a cherry on the cake. On the other hand, the demo left a few moments of bitter offense, especially in the area of ​​controversial optimization. The game runs smoothly and beautiful, but suddenly, the top of the picture will be fading if the game hangs. Similar demo bugs have been accompanied and hope that similar inconveniences will not get full version.

And those mistakes are not the only ones. There is a lot we would not like to see in the full version of Anthem. And, in particular, the various technical inconveniences that accompanied the demo. Moreover, even if it has been shown to us enough, a number of questioners are still hanging over the game. Folklore is built very well, but we did not find anything at all from the story itself. There were also some minor indications of the system of progress that should move us in the full version. This is also the case with some other aspects. Conversely, the audiovisual is fascinating, and the authors have fun with the world itself and flying in it. For the time being, BioWare is only going to step into the uninterrupted online open-world stock. But they started off well.