Anthem is not off to a great start, but BioWare hopes to encourage players to stick around by rolling out the first 90-day road map for the futuristic shared-world shooter.
The next 90 days until May make up Anthem‘s first “Act” named Echoes of Reality, which is the end-game content for players who have already finished the campaign missions. BioWare said that there will be recurring updates, including quality of life fixes and improvements; weekly Alliance Coin rewards; daily, weekly, and monthly challenges; and new cosmetics through Prospero Store refreshes.
February will see the addition of three new Freeplay events, with four more to be introduced in March alongside Legendary missions, new cosmetics, and new item rewards. Anthem accelerates in April, with the arrival of guilds, a Mastery system for character progression, and a new Stronghold named The Sunken, in addition to seven new Freeplay events and more Legendary missions.
May will then bring something called the Cataclysm to Anthem, which entails a new Freeplay event, new missions, and new items. Nothing else was revealed about the event, though BioWare will likely talk more about it as the weeks progress.
A significant percentage of the items in the 90-day road map are marked “Cortex Locked,” which basically means that they are hidden to prevent spoilers on the game’s lore. There are also placeholders for the unnamed Act 2 and Act 3.
The pair of demo weekends before its launch raised concerns for the hyped-up game, and while the world and story that BioWare created has lived up to expectations, our Anthem review points out glaring issues such as plot points being separated by hours of grinding.
In a blog post, BioWare’s Head of Live Service Chad Robertson acknowledged that there are many points of improvement for Anthem.
“Coming off our Early Access period, we understand that we have lots of work ahead of us to continue to improve the game,” Robertson wrote. “Anthem‘s launch represents a commitment we’re making to you: we’re just getting started.”
The 90-day road map for Echoes of Reality shows BioWare’s commitment to making further improvements to Anthem. The question now is whether players will stay as Freelancers, or if they will jump ship before seeing what the first Act has in store.
