BioWare's Anthem is one of the most notorious gaming failures in recent memory. Launching in February 2019, Anthem was set to be EA's Destiny, adopting a live-service approach that would flesh out the game's unique mercenary-focused universe over the course of several years. However, Anthem was dead on arrival, with a severe lack of content on release and a story that was very sub-par considering the developer behind it. But Anthem wasn't all bad, and it seems as though Capcom's upcoming exosuit game, Exoprimal, has borrowed a few core ideas.
Set to release at some point in 2023, Exoprimal sees a group of mercenaries band together to try and take down a rogue AI that keeps opening up rifts in the sky that rain down hordes of dinosaurs. It's a wild premise, but an undeniably cool one, putting players in the mechanical boots of these mercenaries and their array of different exosuits. While the premise is completely different from Anthem's more grounded narrative, the two share some similarities when it comes to their exosuit classes, with Anthem's Interceptor Javelin being easily comparable to Exoprimal's Zephyr suit.
How Exoprimal's Zephyr Suit and Anthem's Interceptor Compare
Out of Anthem's four playable Javelins, the Interceptor may have been one of the most fun to use. The Interceptor suit is ideal for those who love to get dangerously close to their enemies, land some devastating hits, and zip back to safety all within just a matter of seconds. While the Interceptor can use ranged weapons, it's designed primarily for melee combat, with two wrist-mounted blades being used to land a one-two punch on enemies at close range. These blades do even more damage in the air, though it can be difficult for enemies to be juggled into the sky to begin with.
The Interceptor Javelin has two unique Ultimate abilities. The first of these is called the "Bolt Lance," which when charged fires a wave of blue energy around the Interceptor, binding any enemies in its radius. The other ability, named "Assassin's Blades," is even more powerful. When this ability is activated, the Interceptor spawns a dark shadow to appear on each enemy that it successfully strikes with its blades. This shadow continuously damages the foe while the Ultimate is active, and each consecutive strike on the affected target delivers significantly more damage. During this period, the Interceptor is also invulnerable.
The rest of the Interceptor's abilities all revolve around speed and maneuverability. In flight, the Interceptor can perform a barrel roll to avoid oncoming fire and missiles. While on the ground, the Interceptor can make use of a triple dash and a triple jump, being much more agile than its other Javelin counterparts. However, unlike other Javelins, the Interceptor can only target one enemy at a time and has much lower shields, which encourages players to be careful and purposeful with their attacks.
Exoprimal's Zephyr suit clearly takes a lot of inspiration from Anthem's Interceptor Javelin. While the Zephyr suit's abilities haven't been officially confirmed yet, the brief glimpses of it in Exoprimal's gameplay trailers suggest that it shares some similar DNA with the Interceptor, relying on speed and agility as opposed to brute force. The Zephyr suit's primary weapon is a set of dual blades, seemingly imbued with some kind of electric power. These blades can be used to deal critical damage up close, and can even launch enemies into the air, leaving them vulnerable to combo attacks. After attacking a foe, the Zephyr suit can dash away back to safety.
Exoprimal releases in 2023 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
