Though BioWare’s ‘demo’ for Anthem didn’t go as smoothly as they had hoped, many still enjoyed feeling like Iron Man and taking to the skies with their latest IP. With a few more demos on the way before the game’s official February release, the studio is addressing one major request from fans: Increasing that movement speed in Fort Tarsis!
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Fort Tarsis is a vital part of Anthem. It’s the hub where everything happens! Social interactions with NPCs, upgrading one’s gear at The Forge, getting new missions — it’s important. During the VIP demo earlier this month, players loved getting to see some of the characters we will meet when the full game launches, but were hoping for a little more speed when it comes to moving around. During the demo, it was almost a crawl bu thankfully, that was just for the demo’s sake.
“We want it to feel like walking”, Anthem producer Mark Darrah told GamesRadar. “If you look at most video games, you’re sprinting everywhere and we gave you a jet pack machine for when you’re out in the world, and we really want it to feel like you’re just a person walking around and now you are that person in Iron Man armour.”
It makes sense, given how a popular reaction to Anthem is feeling like a super hero. The almost crawl-like speed did bring a more human — a more vulnerable — aspect to the game. Still, a sprinting feature would be nice, even if it’s in short bursts like with Mass Effect.
As for our thoughts on the new IP when we got a chance to sit down and play with the devs themselves earlier this month, Anthem really seemed to honor its promise of feeling something entirely new but still with BioWare fans in mind. At first, my impression was “Wow, this doesn’t feel like a BioWare game at all” but as time went on, I realised that wasn’t quite true. It both felt similar to a BioWare game in terms of interaction, but mechanically felt very new. As a HARDCORE BioWare franchise fan, that wasn’t a bad thing. It’s new, but it works.
Anthem releases on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on February 22nd. To play early, you can check out our previous coverage here to find out how and how to invite your friends.
You can geek out with — or just contact — the author of this story over on Twitter @DirtyEffinHippy.
