For anyone who played a lot, is there an open-ish world ala Destiny where you can run around a zone doing stuff or is everything run off the mission launcher?
Very similar to Destiny. You're in hubs, safe places where you talk to people, lore, quests, the usual. Then there is a mission selection where you can pick your active missions on the map, or select different areas where you spawn in free mode. Free exploration can't be done set as "private", and you can encounter people to do events exactly like in Destiny or run around looking for smaller encounters and crafting materials\loot in hidden chests.
Hard to judge the free exploration though, since it looks large, but you're limited in the demo with invisible borders that have a very short timer. 4 seconds after you fly past it, it teleports you back back into an area you're allowed to be in. Rarely have time to turn around. So they really don't want you to explore past their set demo.
Unlike Destiny though, the map has lots of actual zones with loading screens. In Destiny 1, on the moon where you can enter that temple like thing and go far far down, but that is seamless in Destiny. In Anthem you'd actually zone into that area. Most "dungeons" are like that from what I gather. I have found dungeons and such that were filled with mobs and chests with loot while in freemode though nearly impossible to solo without better gear.
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My verdict after around 2 hours on the PC, mostly with a controller since it is far superior at the moment.
It's OKish. Will definitely pick it up and coop the main story and non raid content with a friend like we did with Destiny 1-2 and Division. Other than the novelty of flying around in a mec suit though, it didn't really feel like anything special. Most likely a game that will fade from most peoples radar quite fast.
If you like the coop group play and mission type things of Destiny\Division, you'll probably get some fun out of this.
EDIT: Should note thought that I am highly sceptical of the different tiers of difficulty. They seem to be taking the Division approach where they make enemies bullet sponges. From the text they just increase enemy damage, health and loot drop chance. Highest tier is 3100% health increase.
Kind of wish more games would go the route of more enemy skills and more enemies rather than just X amount more bullets required until you get Y more damage on your gun that lowers the X. Guess those difficulties are where it becomes a necessity to use the right setup for combos and timed group play.