Warframe released some great footage of their open world demo, which is a 4 player co-op instanced open world (with a central city hub that holds 50) with one zone that is 3km x 3km in size.
Like Anthem, the update focuses on small squads going on missions and quests in an open with random encounters and giant boss fights thrown into the mix. Looks great, and Destiny 2, Anthem and now Warframe will be competing hotly for the instanced 4-player co-op, hub and instance, open world shooter.
If Firefall were still around, I'm sure they would be in direct competition too.
Em-8ER will not be joining that fray. The genre of 4 player co-op and questing is going to be well served by the above titles. Em-8ER stands apart. By focusing on large scale shooter battles with hundreds of players fighting at a time in MEKs and vehicles, against a shape-shifting invader armed with giant Kaiju, Em-8ER is much more like PvE Planetside 2 or a massively multiplayer and persistent version of Battlefield 1.
Players will open their planetary map and find battles waging across entire zones, and be able to jump in and fight in a battle at any time. Players in MEKs will be going up against shape-shifting beasts that shred steel and bone. THUMPRs will be going up against Kaiju in hand to hand battles to the death. Bases will be built by Shifters and Humans alike, granting more vehicles, weapons and strategic advantages to use during the war. The same bases will be attacked by forces with giant Kaiju that rip apart structures bit by bit. Everywhere will be the chaos of open war, played out across huge zones.
No other game offers that experience to date. A part of Firefall did once, during the beta, but they quickly shifted away from Chosen invasions to focus on multiple MMO tropes like daily, questing and raids. But if you remember Firefall when the servers rebooted, and war raged across ALL of New Eden to push back the Chosen, that's the feeling Em-8ER will capture and hone and refine.
The goal since I helped make WoW was to do a massive planetary wargame, and Em-8ER is intended to deliver that goal.
For reference, here is the gorgeous trailer from Warframe that does 4 player, open-world co-op:
Here is Battlefield 1's gameplay trailer, which still does not convey what a PvE, persistent war would be like vs giant Kaiju, but is closer than the Warframe trailer to the experience that Em-8ER will be offering.
And, while older, here is a Planetside 2 cinematic trailer that more closely resembles the FEELING of what Em-8ER is targeting:
