Fort Tarsis, a place where mercenaries and freelancers gather, is a small town guarded by well-trained Sentinels and humongous walls from any threats outside lurking in the lush and dangerous jungles. As we eagerly get into BioWare’s Anthem VIP Demo, severe server problems plagued the first 3-4 hours.
People were getting server max capacity errors, unable to connect to Anthem’s live service data, and the numerous loop of its Terms and Agreements prompt. It was a nightmare for those who wanted to get into their Javelins to fight the terrors waiting outside Fort Tarsis. Nevertheless, it wouldn’t be EA if this was a smooth sailing beta experience.
Aside from the nitty gritty terror of its initial problems of the VIP Demo, we managed to get past the challenging obstacles of its server issues as we struck at the enemies at a safer distance; it was only me and the other Javelin Ranger. As we waited for our backups to arrive, we were then again attacked by Anthem’s troubles; this time both me and my trusted partner were stuck at the endless loading screen void. We remedied the problem by jumping out and back inside the world of Anthem from the main PS4 home-screen, by then we were lucky.
By the time our backups arrived, we were surprised that they too were Javelin Rangers variants – but in a black and white color palette, (too shiny in my opinion as if they just came out of the production facility) while me and my partner were covered with battle scars in a shade of golden yellow and dark grey all around our Javelin armors.
As we greeted each other with a pre-made emote readily available in our Javelins by pressing the down directional button, the squad was ready to take on our first-ever expedition in a much rather challenging difficulty level. It felt like our lives were at stake as we flew from the platform and directly dived into enemy territory.
Defensive turrets were firing at us like as if it sees the four of us a major threat – well, we were legendary freelancers in Javelin suits that struck from the sky with deadly heat-seeking missiles – and enemy troops began to take formation at odd places but there were too many for the four of us to handle. Ranger 2, a.k.a Alphatr1x, had to deploy a shield dome for us to avoid taking damage, Ranger 3, callsign Jeteranx, went down and I had to quickly repair his suit, and Ranger 4, named ChristMikyle, used his ultimate weapon that devastated an entire enemy platoon. Luckily, with our courage and nerves of steel to drop in like mindless freelancers without proper training, we survived the battle and recovered an artifact that eventually cloned our client. This Manifold recovered was menacing than it looks, this is probably why we faced against three super-powered individuals with almost the same skill set.
Immediately after our expedition, we were given the chance to choose another Javelin armor – the Colossus, Storm, and Interceptor. Since our newest squad members didn’t manage to gain enough experience during our journey, I looked at our squad and said: “I think we need an armor that’s almost impenetrable.” All of them agreed that we should have a Javelin strong enough to hold off enemy fire, I took the daring challenge to pilot a new Javelin — I decided to unlock the Colossus. It was a powerful, big, damage dealer, and pretty bad-ass Javelin but the drawback was its movement. The Colossus is horribly slow when it runs, but it’s not something that would change my mind about it. Then Alphatr1x chose to unlock the Storm, an elemental Javelin that uses blast attacks to enemies and even wipes out an entire group with its Elemental Storm – for a charming girl, she was undoubtedly deadly.
We then went ahead and take on further expeditions following the aftermath of the Manifold but this was apparently the last of our adventure, the Stronghold mission in the Tyrant Mines. The Colossus and Storm Javelin variants have proven their effectiveness in battles. As we head on against the Scar, my squad was immediately overwhelmed. Brutes, Elites, and Gatekeepers teleported into the zone when we almost had all Echoes delivered. Fellow Rangers went down, they needed help; and with the mighty Colossus in my grasp and also Alphatr1x’s Storm support capabilities, we saved both of the Rangers. We then headed to the Tyrant Mines, to search for the tunnels, fight against hordes of bugs, then faced against one of the largest enemies in the world of Anthem. With the Rangers’ support abilities like the shield and another field buff that would increase 20% of our attacks, we were romping on our enemies and finally defeated the Swarm Tyrant. It was a great day for our squad, we faced obscure monsters, gigantic machines, and spiders, we were kicking butts! But our adventure eventually ended…
After that epic battle against the giant Skorpion in the Tyrant Mine, the four of us had to go our separate ways; work in different universes like hunting for Nergigantes Monster Hunter: World, destroy enemy drones in Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, doing tons of quests to defeat the Red Legion in Destiny 2, and Spartan Kick all non-playable characters without remorse in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey. The memories we had as a squad for the entire duration of the VIP Demo, and the unforgettable server terrors, were truly relentless and adorable. It makes me want to take one last expedition with them – just one more time.
I kept staring at the sky, wondering and waiting for that time that the four of us to be reunited, to take on the legendary expeditions that are rumored to be impossible, and be the best squad there is in Fort Tarsis. I calmly sit in my Javelin, waiting… and waiting for February 22.
