It was a nice little break, the first few weeks of January, but the gaming industry’s last remaining quiet season is quickly coming to an end. On Friday not only do we get a chance to play the remastered Resident Evil 2, we’re also getting our first chance to sink our claws into Anthem, EA and Bioware’s ambitious new sci-fi loot shooter. We’ve seen a fair amount of this game in several years of livestreams and E3 appearances, but there’s no replacement for actually playing the thing. The Anthem demo will be coming to us in two waves: there’s a round of VIP access for pre-order customers on Friday January 25, followed by an open demo for everyone else the following week.
The game client is currently available to download on PS4, Xbox One and PC. You’ll need 44 GB on PC and about 26 GB on console. The client is available for anyone to download now, but only those with access to the first week will be able to play on Friday.
If you did a digital pre-order on your preferred platform you should have no trouble accessing the demo for the VIP period. If you bought it from a retail outlet you’ll likely need a code, either on your receipt or sent in a separate email. You can then redeem the code with your EA account in order to get access to the demo.
Note that Bioware is positioning this squarely as a demo and avoiding the “beta” language that most larger publishers tend to rely on. This is partially just messaging, but it also means that we’re getting a slightly more curated experience than just the first few missions. Bioware is offering a mid-game mission with tweaked balance and economy designed to give a slightly more rounded notion of what the game will be like rather than just throwing you into some tutorials.
We’ll see how things go. As Destiny 2 becomes less friendly to all but the most hardcore players I’m intrigued by the idea of a more relaxed, Diablo-style loot shooter that lets me blast some alien creatures with overpowered abilities as I mindlessly bathe in color-coded drops. We’ll get our first real look on Friday, so stay tuned.
