Taking Fight

We sit down with Bioware'sJon Warner to dive into anthem. The studious attempt to tell a different type of story.

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“For me, Anthem really represents that next evolutionary step.” So says BioWare game director Jon Warner as we sit down after an exhilarating hands-on session. As far as the Canadian studio is concerned, this is how it steps forward into its future, but Anthem could well be more than that. The way in which it is merging narrative design and online mechanics could in fact light the path for the next evolution of multiplayer gaming. We’ve been enthused by Anthem from the moment it was revealed at E3 2017, but our extended hands-on experience with the game has made us confident that while it might be compared to the likes of Destiny or The Division, Anthem is entirely its own animal.

Evolution can be messy, however. Progress, advancement and innovation are the lifeblood of the videogame industry, but there will always be missteps and BioWare has made its share over the years. Whatever the failures, the false starts and the pitfalls, however, evolution is essential to growth for a studio like this.

What stands out above all else is that this is BioWare’s vision and every facet of its experience is being brought to bear, not so that it can keep making the games of the past, but so that it can lead the charge into a new future. Anthem is different from what has come before, but it carries with it the core values of BioWare.

“I think that if you look at all of our games, starting with Baldur’s Gate, and then looking forward, you’ll see that there is an evolution of our storytelling technique going on,” Warner tells us, a sentiment that has been at the heart of what BioWare has been trying to define here over Anthem’s five years of development. Through titles like Mass Effect and