E3 2018: Discover the World of Anthem on Xbox One

This post has been republished via RSS; it originally appeared at: Xbox Wire.

From the studio that created Mass Effect and Dragon Age comes a new world full of mystery and danger: Anthem. It’s been a year since Anthem was unveiled at the Xbox E3 Briefing in 2017, and now it’s back with a better look at the intriguing gameplay.

The setup is straightforward: you and up to three friends are Freelancers, adventurers who don powered suits of armor called Javelins to take on tough missions in a brutal wilderness. There are four models of Javelin: the versatile Ranger, the tanky Colossus, the agile Interceptor, and the mystical Storm. While each play differently, they all dish out plenty of firepower. Players will be able to collect multiple suits and swap them out for different missions.

Each Javelin is also highly customizable, with gear and weapons, along with changes to the look of the Javelins themselves. All the gear and weapons will be unlocked through progression (so no pay-to-win) and the only microtransaction content will be cosmetic items (with no loot boxes).

While the game is meant to be played with a team to back you up, you can play through the story on your own. The dev team has stressed that grouping up will be as seamless and fun as possible, with an eye on making a team player out of even the most devoted lone wolf.

The world itself will be shared across the entire Anthem community, whether it’s night or day, stormy or clear, every player in Anthem experiences it at the same time. The world will be changing as well, with the promise of new stories and missions being added after release along with the possibility of some world-shaking events. All of this is made possible because every game is hosted on dedicated servers.

Anthem launches February 22, 2019, with EA Access members jumping in a week early on February 15. You can pre-order Anthem on Xbox One now for VIP access to pre-launch playable demos.