Anthem Receives New Info on Cataclysms, Open World, Strongholds, and Much More

Anthem’s release is almost here, less than two weeks away (less than a week for those who have Origin Access Premier subscriptions), and as such, in an extensive Q&A on Twitter, BioWare’s Mark Darrah (executive producer), Ben Irving (producer), and Chad Robertson (head of live services) recently gave out a plethora of new info on the upcoming co-op shared world shooter. There’s a lot to dig into here, but most of the highlights have been compiled by users on Reddit– some of the biggest details can be found below, though.

Plenty of information was give out on Anthem’s endgame content. The developers stated that there will be no traditional ending with rolling credits in the game, and that it will instead have a continuous story. By way of endgame content, players can expect to see raids – or raid-like content at any rate – after launch, as the developers have stated earlier as well. Details were also given out on Cataclysms, which seem like world events that will be time-limited- according to BioWare, these will entail “aspirational, meaningful, and challenging” content that will yield the best rewards in the game. 

Details were also given out on Strongholds- these, it seems, have been developed purely as group activities, and Anthem will not give players the option to tackle them solo. That said, you can do the story missions in the game solo, of course. Though every story mission in Anthem will have a matchmaking option, this won’t be required, and if you want, you can opt out of it. Beyond that, some new information was also given out on freeplay, which is what Anthem is calling its open world gameplay. Freeplay squads will be capped at four players at most for now, and the developers aren’t looking to increase that number to the 16 players that the game’s Launch Bay will hold. Additionally, there won’t be an option to have private sessions in freeplay either- that said, the developers did say they’ll be adding more open world content to the game after launch.

Some other significant details were also revealed by the devs- there is no photo mode in the game at launch, but they’re aware that it’s being requested by a large number of people. I assume that means they’ll be adding it to the game at some point, eventually. Load times in the game’s final release will also be shorter as compared to the ones in the recent demo. BioWare are also constantly working on adjusting the economy and how it is balances being able to earn cosmetics yourself against having to spend money on it. 

You can get the full details on the Q&A sessions on Reddit through the link above. Anthem launches on February 22 for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC, with Origin Access Premier members on PC getting it a week earlier. Check out the game’s launch trailer through here.