While Anthem is primarily a shared online open-world shooter, the decisions you make in the game’s single-player only hub will have both minor and major effects in your own story experience.
Most shared-world games have a linear story, complete with a social hub where players can brag about their stylish gear and socialize with friends or random online players. This isn’t the case with the main hub in Anthem called Fort Tarsis, which is a pure single-player area where each player will craft their unique experiences.
Speaking to GameInformer, BioWare general manager Casey Hudson said players will have complete ownership on what happens in Fort Tarsis, from how you interact with its citizens to deciding how the story unfolds. “You’re out there doing stuff, and some of the things you choose to do will impact your story, but your story is really a single-player story, and you decide what happens next,” said Hudson. “If you go and get something in the world as part of a mission and bring it back, you decide which character you’re going to give it to. Which relationships you’re going to foster. You have your own progress through the story.”
Essentially, what happens in Fort Tarsis will be unique to your story experience. Leaving the confines of Fort Tarsis means entering the game’s shared open-world. Serving players with a choice-based story in a shared-world is one of the challenges BioWare faced, and this is why BioWare decided to make Fort Tarsis a single-player only affair. “So we can’t have a mission where I blow up a fortress out there in the world, because the fortress out there in the world exists for all of us,” said game director Jon Warner. “But when you have a personal story space, I can actually have consequences to the choices I make.”
Anthem releases on Feb. 22, 2019 on PS4, PC, and Xbox One.
