6 Ways Anthem Isn’t Like Destiny
Combat
Ever since BioWare announced Anthem, the internet was overflowing with takes comparing it to Destiny. Such comparisons aren’t necessarily incorrect, but they improperly convey what makes a particular game noteworthy. While there are certainly things that they have in common, it is far from Destiny’s brother from another digital mother, and here are a few examples why.
Destiny and Anthem play to their respective studios’ strengths. Destiny was clearly made by a company that defined modern first-person shooters, while Anthem takes a page from Mass Effect: Andromeda’s fast-paced third-person psychokinetic shootouts that emphasize ability synergy.
Destiny’s combat is similar to Halo’s, complete with regenerating shields. However, Destiny also includes rechargeable energy barriers and healing fields, grenades that might as well be magic, and the occasional super ability that completely wrecks house.
Since the cooldowns for all these abilities are fairly long, most of Destiny’s combat focuses on passive abilities and swapping between three weapons to maximize damage, especially when elemental shields and weaknesses are involved.
Anthem, in contrast, concentrates less on gunplay and more on active abilities with short cooldowns.
While players can carry two guns in Anthem, they can deck out their characters with a variety of abilities that vary from class to class, including homing missiles, flamethrowers, acid grenades, and actual magic spells that can synergize to form devastating, explosive combos.
Moreover, Anthem includes actual, honest-to-god crafting. The closest Destiny gets to crafting is the Lost Prophecy Verses quests from Destiny 2, whereas Anthem lets players collect crafting materials and smash them together into new weapons and abilities.
Yes, players can craft abilities in Anthem, but that comes with a trade-off: abilities are looted or crafted, not unlocked. If players don’t, for example, find or craft the Storm’s summon fire elemental ability, they will never get to use it.
On the Destiny side of things, the Warlock can call down lightning or throw sticky grenades made of solar energy at any time, cooldowns notwithstanding, so long as the respective abilities are unlocked.
Destiny’s combat may play out like a solid FPS game, but Anthem adds a new dimension to combat thanks to the power of flight.
The game’s Javelins, which act as Anthem’s classes, can fly and hover to weave around incoming projectiles, as well as close the gap (or widen it) between players and enemies.
Moreover, the Storm Javelin is built around this mechanic since its shields receive a sizable boost while hovering. It’s the small things that count.
