The Anthem demo has returned, now without the requirement to pre-order or have a code, as it’s now open to everyone. Hopefully it arrives with less bugs than we saw last weekend, as that was…rough, but underneath all that is a game that I feel most people will like.
Despite all the problems, I got to spend a decent amount of time with the VIP Anthem demo last week, and I had a few requests for an article like this, so here we are. I’m only doing five since this is a demo and I’ll do a longer one once Anthem is actually out, but for now, here’s how to get the most out of this demo.
Here are five things I wish I knew when I started the Anthem demo:
1. A Few Ways To Fly Longer
One of the more debatable aspects of Anthem’s traversal system is its decision to tie flying to a rapidly-filling overheat meter. Especially with low level gear, it’s easy to find yourself dropping out of the sky often as a result.
There are three main ways for all four classes to reduce overheating, and therefore, fly for longer.
- Going under waterfalls will instantly cool you and result in “free” non-overheated flying for a little while after that
- Skimming the ground where there’s water will drastically reduce overheat accumulation, though not eliminate it entirely
- Diving down from a high point to a low point will reduce your overheat bar, so you sort of want to fly in a wave shape rather than straight forward
You will also start to unlock components that can reduce your overheat, but the ones dropping now aren’t going to do a whole lot, and those slots are better off taken up by more useful stuff. But the above three things should help.
2. Storm And Colossus Need Dramatic Playstyle Adjustments
My two favorite classes are Storm in Colossus in Anthem, but when you first start using them, you might hate them because you can’t play them like you do the starter Ranger class. The difference?
Storm - It doesn’t just have the ability to hover indefinitely, you need to be hovering at almost all times because Storm gets a huge damage reduction when hovering and if you’re on the ground, you’re going to be toast. Because of its hover time, you can easily go an entire encounter only touching the ground for like 2% of the time. Also Storm’s air dash is probably the best dodge in the game. Use it both to avoid attacks but also to get up on enemies
Colossus - Does not even have a shield in the traditional sense, but your style of gameplay here is to roam around wrecking stuff with a huge health and armor pool, collecting as much dropped health as possible to replenish yourself. You will rarely be in the air. There was something weird about Colossus in the first demo where until you got your first armor/health component he was way too squishy, as that piece adds an absolutely absurd amount of tankiness in what might actually be a bug. Just know that if you’re getting wrecked with Colossus, you really need that kind of component to make him work. Once he does? You’ll know it.
Interceptor - I don’t have a ton of Interceptor advice yet, but he relies a lot on melee attacks and you can chain dodges by holding down the button and moving the stick, you don’t have to keep mashing the button.
3. You Might As Well Buy Every Cosmetic You See
BioWare has been up front about the economy being different in the game than in the final product. As a result, every cosmetic costs 25 coins, you start with 500, and you’ll probably get a bit more when playing.
So, there’s really no reason not to buy every cosmetic you see in the store because I think you have enough currency to afford all of them no problem. You have to tab over on the different cosmetic pages to find the ones for purchase. There are full alternative armor sets for each of the four classes (the look of armor does not change stats, that’s what components are for), you can buy alternate materials for your armor in the coloring section, and you can buy additional vinyls to put on your armor. Go nuts. None of this is saved and you might as well play around while all of this is free and easy to get before things get all EA-ed up at release.
4. Don’t Miss A Surprising Amount of Conversations In Tarsis
There isn’t a ton of story built into this demo, but I was surprised to see that you could talk to a whole lot of people all over Tarsis for quite a while as an introduction to how dialogue and storytelling is going to work in Anthem.
There are icons on the map that show you who is primed for a lengthy conversation, but you can also talk to people that don’t have a icon sometimes. And you can talk to people multiple times after you finish missions as they will have new things to say, a bit like Mass Effect, albeit with a different presentation.
For the most part, the mo-cap and voicework here is on point, and if you’ve farmed all you can, roam around Tarsis for a while and see what you can learn.
5. There’s More to Free Play Than Meets The Eye
Free Play can be kind of a weird mode at first as it can feel a bit empty, but the more I played it, the more I discovered there is to do:
- You will get pings for some world event missions that usually have you defending friendlies against waves of something, rewarding a chest at the end
- Sometimes you’ll get pings that turn into little mini missions, like going into a cave system to defeat a boss for loot
- Sometimes there are “unofficial” missions that aren’t highlighted, but say you kill a group of Scar, more waves might start to spawn until a boss shows up who can drop loot, even if you never are given fixed objectives
- More than once I encountered just a wild Scar tank by itself which you could fight and it spawned waves of enemies, rewarding rare loot when it was killed. Again, no objectives here.
And that was just in a couple hours. You can also farm crafting materials and yes, crafting does exist in the demo, but you have to complete challenges and find gear to unlock rare blueprints. But once you do, you can craft some of the best available weapons of the demo at max power, so don’t miss that.
Bonus: There Appears to Be…Something Happening Sunday Night
This didn’t happen with the original VIP demo, but BioWare is teasing that there might be some new content that wasn’t in the first demo later in the day on Sunday before it ends. Could be world events, could be another mission, could be endgame stuff. We’ll probably get more details soon, but you may want to stick around for that instead of watching the Patriots win the Super Bowl for the 284th time.
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