Anthem has shown off four different kinds of Javelin robo-suits that players will be able to fly around and shoot freaky monsters in, and game director Jon Warner finally shared some new details about them. Warner appeared as a guest on GR+'s own Gamescom After Dark show and host Zoe Delahunty-Light had him give an elevator pitch for each type of suit.
First, a quick primer in terms: Javelins are those mechanical exosuits that players wear when they're exploring and fighting in Anthem, which can be upgraded with new equipment, paint jobs and the like. Freelancers are the player characters themselves, who can level up and accrue their own upgrades that persist from suit to suit. Now let's talk about those four Javelin types, including some hard details about what the Interceptor actually does (besides go fast).
The Colossus is a ranged powerhouse and defensive bastion
"The Colossus is great," Warner said. "You can outfit it to play a tanky role. Instead of a dodge, the Colossus brings up a heavy shield, which we'll see later on, that can absorb a lot of damage. But you don't have to just be a bullet sponge for your team if you're playing the Colossus. This Colossus has a legendary mortar equipped, so he's got a lot of long-distance attacks on this, he's got a railgun on his right arm. So there's a lot of options for how you play any specific chassis. And it really is up to how you like to play, and what your playstyle is."
The Storm is a combo elementalist (and Warner's favorite)
"The trick with the Storm is, the elemental attacks are great. They apply status effects which set up great combos for the rest of your team. You don't have a lot of armor though, it's a really slim suit. So you're quite vulnerable. When you're up in the air, you get a damage mitigating shield. When you're down on the ground, no shield. So it becomes tricky, it's a neat skill balance and a lot of fun to play. It's my favorite Javelin."
The Ranger is an adaptable jack-of-all-trades
"The everyman's Javelin, that's a good way of putting it. When you're going into something new and you don't know what you're getting yourself into, you might want to be equipping your ranger. Because it has a nice balance, it's got some agility, it's got some good firepower, it's got an interesting melee strike. It's a good all-rounder."
The Interceptor is a speedy, crowd-control gadgeteer
"I can tell you a little about that, that might even be a first. We're gonna talk about the Interceptor at great length later on. But in general the Interceptor is really about agility and interesting gadgets, and having an Interceptor in your crew really gives you a lot of relief as far as mob control goes, and can provide a lot of interesting balance to the squad."
Don't worry, you won't have to wait much longer to learn more. Warner confirmed that the Anthem team will be "showing some new stuff next week at PAX" and continue to roll more details out into the fall. Then it's just a quick jetpack boost to the release date of February 22, 2019.
Check out our Gamescom After Dark schedule to see what else we have cooking.
