ANYWAY I always forget how good the environmental storytelling and just general world building in Anthem is/was. (WARNING: long)
The most prominent examples come from the Scars (for those who haven’t/won’t play, the best way I can think of to describe them is haunted armor but replace the ghost with a swarm of insects, then give it a gun), who incorporate Javelin parts into things like banners and totems and their armor! WHICH IS COOL AND ESTABLISHES THEM AS A THREAT!!!
I was actually able to get this screenshot of one of the basic Scar mooks (these ones in particular sometimes bug out and just kinda stand there when they die, but at least you can tell because their eyes glow when they’re alive). It’s the image on the left; the one on the right is an image I pulled from the wiki of the Ironclad armor for the Colossus Javelin. Something I realized last night (that unfortunately you can’t really see in the image I took) is that the torso/faceplate of that armor is a part of the backpack that the Scar is wearing! This isn’t the only Javelin part the scars use - with the Colossus in particular, the model for Enforcers is heavily based on it, and Luminaries use the actual hidden helmet for their exposable weak point - but there’s another thing I really want to talk about.
Javelins (I should have defined what this is before, but they’re the exosuits that you and others use) are a unique design in that they’re all basically on stilts:
Is this practical? Probably not realistically, and it doesn’t help that said stilts are digitigrade, which are apparently even harder to walk in than regular stilts, as well as more difficult to construct.
It also leads to weird things like the image on the left when you’re standing on uneven ground; I added red lines to try and show how weirdly the leg is bent (almost kneeling? but on top of another leg?) and the image on the right for comparison.
So why are they built like this? The most obvious reason is that the original Javelin (the Javelin of Dawn) was designed like this, and we can reasonably assume that everyone just kinda stuck with it. As for why said Javelin was designed this way, it was probably so the pilot, General Tarsis, would literally be taller; after all, she and the Legion of Dawn were fighting the Urgoth, who - if I’m remembering correctly, because I can’t find the image of this one mural or art I’m looking for - are portrayed as being at least twice as tall as humans, maybe closer to 3 times as tall.
This extra height is noticeable in game, but you do have to think about it a bit, which I actually kinda like. For example, there are certain areas where you can stand in “shallow” water. I say shallow, but it’s at least 2 feet deep (still shallow, but not like, only-up-to-your-ankle shallow), which submerges most of the stilt portion of your Javelin’s legs.
There are also some structures, mainly tents/yurts that you can find just kinda out there. At first you might assume that people would have to crawl to actually get in there, because your Javelin is noticeably taller than the awning above the door. Then you remember the stilts, and realize that it’s a normal sized door, you’re just really tall. (I imagine this is how tall people feel irl.)
The height thing is also misleading, due to how big some of the enemies are. For example: the Skorpions are big insects that - go figure - look like scorpions, except about the size of a large dog. Except, they aren’t; you would assume so, but if you factor in the stilts, then you realize that they’re probably around the size of like, a cow. Or a horse. Or something. My point is, they’re fuckin huge, BUT YOU MIGHT NOT THINK THEY ARE BECAUSE THE STILTS MAKE YOU TALLER THAN THEM.
THE LITTLE ALIEN RABBIT THINGS. IF YOU FACTOR IN THE STILTS THEY ARE ABOUT CHEST-HEIGHT WHILE STANDING UP. (upon thinking about it more, I realize that I might be wrong about that. Point still stands tho, they’re fuckin big)
