Exclusive: Ananta Developers have long-term post-launch Vision
Ananta has plenty of familiar sequences and there's a lot more to expect post-launch, with a long-term development vision.
Of all the titles launching in the next year, few have raised as many eyebrows as Ananta, an extremely diverse title offering a world of freedom, while also having some familiarities with other titles players have enjoyed en masse.
Coming from NetEase, the studio behind the extremely successful Marvel Rivals, Ananta is an open-world RPG with vast freedom to explore, providing plenty for players to sink their teeth into, and the trailers have already cast a wide net of what to expect.
Ananta is far from a one-and-done project, however, as while it doesn’t have as many obvious opportunities for live-action content, especially when compared to the likes of Rivals, it’s still at the forefront of development.
“Live ops will be long-term for our players. When we launch, players will have two cities to explore, and long-term, we will add new storylines, characters, and the multiplayer mode,” Rain, Ananta’s international marketing lead, told me at Gamescom.
The addition of new characters is perhaps the most intriguing prospect, given the main story of the game centers around specific protagonists, and there are already “at least 10” in the game for January’s launch.
In a hands-on at Gamescom, I got to experience playing as one of the main protagonists, who, as the trailers have shown, has the very Spider-Man-like ability to web swing, and the familiar feeling goes deeper than that.
During a combat sequence, it truly felt like a carbon copy of combat from the likes of Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2, but when asked if the title served as an inspiration, Rain insisted it came from the developers’ own visions.
“Our developers have their own understanding and imagination of the open-world, they have incorporated that into development,” he said.
Rain also made it clear that, while it may be the most eye-catching form of transportation, web-swinging is far from the only traversal mechanic, and that having a variety of options was important for exploring the layers of the cities.
“For traversal, we have different modes including web swinging, wing suits, flying cars. We provide vertical layers of the city, so that’s why we like to provide different traversal for players to explore the city,” he explained.
It was difficult to come away from Gamescom with a true understanding of the title, as my experience was limited to cutscenes, a combat sequence, a stealth sequence, and exploration, but there’s certainly enough here to pique my interest.
