Today I bring you some completely unsubstantiated speculation. There has been zero discussion on this from any of the devs, or in any of the interviews that I have seen. Yet, surely there will be some surprises that BioWare has been keeping close to their chest?
I think the answer is a resounding yes.
This is a thought that occurred to me last weekend during the VIP Demo, but sort of solidified over the week and into the Open Demo.
And that is that Anthem will include a system by which you can send NPCs on various on their own to do things. Perhaps to recover you some coin. Crafting materials. Reputation. XP. Could be any number of things.
What on earth makes you think this might be a thing?
It first occurred to me while talking to this guy:
He mentions managing the books for the barracks, he talks about other Freelancers that he does missions with and as part of the story available in the demo even asks your advice on which of two contracts to pursue.
Further — this wouldn’t be without precedent for BioWare. Dragon Age: Inquisition let you send your advisors out on various tasks. Star Wars: The Old Republic had quite a significant system setup around it. Mass Effect: Andromeda from which we can see many influences in Anthem had such a system too.
I expect that the story critical path will take us from run down freelancer of ill-repute to a Commander of Freelancers, doing good about Bastion.
I stress again, this is pure speculation. I could be completely wrong, and the conversation with Lucky Jak is nothing more than flavour.
Still…
What do you think? Any other wild speculations you have for what BioWare might be holding reserve in the tank as a surprise?