Anarchy Reigns was announced on 27 January 2011 by Sega and Platinum Games. The game was originally delayed to July 2012 and was then pushed back to 2013.
It is a third-person multiplayer brawler developed by Platinum and the publisher, Sega, was quite delighted to get them to make the game. Platinum has also collaborated with them before on Bayonetta and Vanqish so it was familiar territory for them.
The game was originally scheduled to be released in Autumn 2011 for the PS3 and Xbox 360. It came out in Japan on July 5, 2012 and a western release was planned too. Later this year they confirmed that the game would be releasing on January 8 in Europe and January 11 in the Europe.
It is being produced by Atsushi Inaba and directed by Masaki Yamanaka. There’s no Wii U version of the game planned yet. The game will be released on the PS3 and Xbox 360.
The game is created by the same people who worked on critically acclaimed games like Vanquish and Bayonetta, and considering it was released in Japan first and was met with some poor marketing, it didn’t do all that well commercially.
It uses an in-house engine and runs at 30 fps, which is a bit surprising, but considering it’s a brawler, the frame rate isn’t that detrimental considering it runs really smooth.
According to Atsushi Inaba, in an interview with GamingBolt, he said that “there are plenty of online games out there, but there is nothing like Anarchy Reigns, bringing together large numbers of players into melee combat. It is an incredibly difficult challenge, both from the game design and technology standpoints; however, developing a new online gaming genre is something we really wanted to do, especially with the glut of shooters you see in the online space.”
The design philosophy was simple because it was mostly a multiplayer melee game, and the mode is created to further flesh out the world in which the game takes place.
“The main focus of our game is multiplayer melee battles online. We’ve created a various of online modes, and the volume of content, as well as its variety, should satisfy everyone,” he said.
“Our single player mode exists to further flesh out the world in which Anarchy Reignstakes place, and it will also help you become familiar with the game itself. We aren’t going to say it has the same amount of focus as our expansive multiplayer elements, but it is something that we feel gamers will enjoy.”
He further explained that it isn’t a fighter as it is an online multiplayer brawler, and gave this analogy: “It isn’t a fighter as it is an online multiplayer brawler. If you think about a real life fight, the moves and possibilities of a huge brawl versus a one-on-one fight are completely different. We think that there are new kinds of fun to be had in that difference; we can keep what makes fighting games appealing and fun while bringing new experiences that simply aren’t available in modern fighting games.” [reference]
We don’t have much information about the netcode but the Japanese import version ran pretty well. The campaign is supposed to be 10 hours long according to the developers.
Anarchy reigns is mostly a multiplayer brawler, so there’s no plot here, however, the unique mix of characters can prove to be a bit interesting. The game pits players against each other in team co-op or last man standing battles.
Set in the post-apocalyptic future, this is an over-the-top close combat fighting game, set in a massively open and fantastical world. Pick from an imaginative mix of human and cyborg characters and set out on a multiplayer challenge where anarchy reigns.
There are some returning characters confirmed in the game from Madworld, which was a Wii project by Platinum Games.
Since it’s a brawler the game has a lot of mulitplayer modes from Battle Royale, Death Match, Survival Mode and a lot more. The modes are created to cater to different tastes and there are plenty of characters to choose from.
There are eight characters in total and most of them have their own unique style, weapon and signature kill move. Each character brings a unique style, weapon, signature kill move and feel to the campaign mode.
A.T.E. (Action Trigger Events) system triggers real-time events such as The Black Hole, a plane crash, blitz bombing etc to provide a constantly changing gameplay environment. No two matches will ever be the same. [reference]
Here are the list of tracks courtesy of Sega.
1. “Ruthless”
2. “Over In A Flash”
3. “My Pride”
4. “Sound The Alarm”
5. “Mortified”
6. “Laughin At U”
7. “Soon Enough”
8. “I Know U Want Me”
9. “My Town, My City”
10. “Gotta Get The Cash”
11. “Kill Em All”
12. “MDK’s”
13. “They Came From Underground”
14. “Play My Ass Off”
15. “Venom”
16. “Unlimited Resources”
17. “Jaw”
18. “Play For Keeps”
19. “We Play”
20. “The Hand Of Science”
21. “Here We Go”
22. “Demise”
23. “Days of Old”
24. “It’s All About Me”
25. “Fast Lane”
26. “Testin’ Me”
27. “Rock On”
28. “We All Soldiers”
29. “Lights Out”
30. “Merciless”
31. “Find You”
32. “This Is Madness”
33. “Jazz House”
34. “When Mind”
According to E-Xpress, games distributor in India, has announced that the Limited Edition of Sega’s Platinum developed game, Anarchy Reigns will be launching in India soon. [reference]
The Limited Edition releases on 11th January next year (or a few weeks from now, depending on how you want to look at it) for the PS3 and the Xbox 360. It will be available for a fairly decent and reasonable price of Rs. 1499.
The Limited Edition will include the following:
Bayonetta: Platinum Games’ iconic gun-wielding witch as an extra playable character
New Game Modes:
Players will also receive two new multiplayer modes: Mad Survival mode and Dogfight. Mad Survival has a team of 3 players fighting against waves of enemies – except unlike other games, the enemies are the other playable characters. [reference]
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