BioWare has added four new Mass Effect-themed skins to Anthem, bringing an interesting crossover to the shooter. Each of these is built around the N7 vocational code used in the Mass Effect universe. This is the same designation Spectre forces and other extremely skilled special forces. The N7 armor sets offer four unique color schemes, each with their own theme attached. These new skins are priced at 61,000 coins using in-game currency, or players are able to shell out about £8.00 or $10.00 in real money to grab them.
The Storm class gets a cerulean colour theme to look like an Asari, even featuring a crest on the helmet that evokes the alien race. Rangers also get their own theme, looking a lot like the Turian Garrus, the iconic bro that’s been a core component of the party within the franchise. Interceptors get a skin styled after the light and agile Quarians, specifically the party companion Tali. Then there’s the big boy Colossus which has a very Krogan look
It’s a bit of a weird crossover to be sure. Why is that you might ask? For a variety of reasons is the answer. The most obvious part of this is that Anthem, despite selling very well for its launch month, didn’t fair well in terms of expectations. The loot shooter was riddled with bugs and other issues on launch, and very little has been introduced to the game in order to offer something new for long-term players to do. The team’s lead producer for the project has seemingly left BioWare altogether, and not much new content has been introduced beyond the Cataclysm event which ended in September.
Mass Effect isn’t in as much trouble as Anthem, although the extremely rocky launch, which was born of a myriad of different development oversights and issues, for the latest title Mass Effect Andromeda didn’t help. The game was notoriously broken, which led to one of the buggiest and most hilariously meme-worthy launches of a video game in recent memory. The story itself didn’t inspire much confidence in long-term faithfuls either, barely getting a mention in a lot of coverage. Although that might be a good thing compared to the firestorm that kicked off over the infamous Mass Effect 3 choice endings which actually offered very little in terms of choice. Since then, the franchise has been on “hiatus” with no new games planned.
Seeing these two beleaguered franchises shamble back into the forefront is a bit weird, but with November 7th being N7 day I guess it all makes sense