Anthem, EA and Bioware’s latest game, is due out next year. It looks very much like a multiplayer game in the style of Activision’s Destiny or Ubisoft’s The Division. However there will be single-player elements, and according to Bioware the Anthem single-player story will be a big influence on the studio’s future titles, including Dragon Age 4 and Mass Effect 5.
Speaking at PAX West, and picked up by VG247, Anthem‘s lead producer Michael Gamble talked about the storytelling techniques the team are using, including what he calls “reactive” storytelling. This is particularly evidence in the game’s Fort Tarsis area, which will be the primary single-player hub in Anthem. Gamble said he will it will be more reactive and that Dragon Age will see that kind of reactivity too.
“We’ve pushed Tarsis further than we’ve ever pushed any of our hubs before,” Gamble said. “It’s a reactive space, a space that feels more living, more alive.”
This also applies to Anthem‘s live service elements, which allows Bioware to update the game constantly rather than add to the story with individual expansions, as they have done previously. They’ve announced that all Anthem single-player story DLC will be free, and the way they deliver that story DLC will almost certainly carry over to Dragon Age 4 and Mass Effect 5, whenever they happen.
“For Anthem, where we’d all like to see us head, is the ability to tell new great stories throughout the years, throughout the months after launch,” he said.
He describes adding new stories to agents, or whole new characters, whenever the team want to. He then added that he hopes “that future games, whether it’s Dragon Age or the other one that starts with ‘Mass,’ continue to utilize this kind of storytelling.”
While Dragon Age 4 is definitely being worked on Bioware is still figuring it out, and Mass Effect 5 is almost certainly even further away after the disaster that was Mass Effect: Andromeda. Anthem at least has a release date of February 22, 2019, so we’ll be able to find out how Bioware’s future will be shaped on that day.
