BioWare has been doing its bit to market Anthem as a shared world shooter full of lore and interesting places to visit. The entire map is open from the start, and players at lower levels can join their friends and take advantage of scaling, contributing to the fight without weighing everyone else down. However, many want to know about the solo experience in Anthem.
In a mid-Summer update blog post, BioWare general manager Casey Hudson sought to clarify the developer’s approach with the story-telling once more. Hudson sought to answer how player agency could be a thing when you’re experiencing a living adventure with friends.
“In my opinion, our solution to this design challenge is one of the most innovative things about Anthem,” he explained. “We talked briefly at EA PLAY about how the solution is called ‘Our World, My Story.’ In the dynamic open world, everything is experienced in real-time by all Anthem players – day/night, weather, and world-scale events that shape the ongoing narrative of the setting.
“This is ‘our world,’ which we share as a player community. Then when you return to Fort Tarsis, that’s actually a single-player experience, and it’s where you spend time developing relationships, making choices, and seeing consequences. That’s the ‘my story’ part.”
It doesn’t sound all that different from Guild Wars 2, where various events and world bosses would cycle through the zones. The player’s story, however, was unique, and could be progressed without worrying too much about the living world aspect.
Regardless, BioWare knows there will be more questions. That’s why it will talk about “our world, my story” at a PAX West panel. The Seattle expo takes place from August 31st to September 3rd, and fans can look forward to hearing answers for “other big questions you’ve had about Anthem.”
Anthem is releasing on February 22nd 2019 for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.
