Anthem, the upcoming co-op multiplayer shooter from BioWare, features squad play with up to four players. According to BioWare itself, Anthem co-op will be the best way to play the game, and playing solo won’t be as rewarding.
Anthem producer Thomas Singleton said the game will be best played cooperatively, in a recent interview with the Official PlayStation Magazine (via Wccftech).
“This is launching a new IP for EA, for BioWare, and we’re super proud of it,” he said. “We’re excited because we’re bringing connectivity and co-op environmental gameplay to the game along with great storytelling and that’s rarely done. We’re pushing team dynamics, that’s where the game really begins to sell. Where the product shines is playing as that squad, you’re working together as a unit to go and conquer various missions. If you want to play the experience solo that’s your option, it probably won’t be as rewarding, you won’t have that team dynamic. The game will scale based on whether you’re by yourself or playing with three other people.”
Anthem co-op is the main focus for BioWare, especially as the studio is building different character classes that are supposed to work together. Players control Javelins, powerful exo-suits, while out in the game world. The Ranger, Colossus, Storm, and Interceptor Javelin classes will be available when the game launches, and each fill an RPG archetype. Ranger is an all-around class, Colossus a defensive warrior, Storm is an elemental master, and Interceptor is similar to a quick-moving rogue. Together the four classes offer a variety of play styles befitting a game focused on cooperative play.
Singleton also addressed comparisons to similar games, like Destiny 2, and offered reasons why their game is different.
“The team has definitely looked out into the market and seen what’s done well and what hasn’t done well, right, and that’s why we’re doing some of the things in this product that Destiny and some others haven’t,” he said. “We are trying to go into the story further, we are trying to bring in the level of customization from a Javelin perspective, and making it a meaningful difference for players.”
We’ll see how it all shakes out when Anthem releases on February 22, 2019.
