Future 2 Lightfall promised to be the groundbreaking penultimate storyline in a story developed over practically a decade. However the concern is typically sport builders make guarantees they’ll’t hold. Not each enlargement and marketing campaign storyline can change the sport like Forsaken or introduce us to driving narrative twists like these in The Witch Queen. Nevertheless, Lightfall appears like a big step backwards from the complicated, interwoven threads that after led a complete group to grieve for the loss of life of Cayde-6 or, much more just lately, shed a tear at Rasputin’s sacrifice.
Maybe there’s some confusion among the many builders as to what Future 2 means to gamers in comparison with what it means to these in cost. The event workforce sought to ship a futuristic neon metropolis and a Darkness subclass that’s paradoxically vibrant within the FPS sport, whereas what might have actually satiated gamers is a clearer grasp of the stakes surrounding the Traveler, the Veil, and the way forward for humanity.
Observe that this evaluate is comparatively early within the gameplay expertise, reflecting a number of hours of marketing campaign content material. There’s quite a bit to discover in Future 2 Lightfall, and we’re nonetheless working our approach by it. Nonetheless, with a number of hours of the Legendary marketing campaign accomplished, suffice it to say it’s notably underwhelming.
Possibly it’s intentional {that a} DLC dubbed Lightfall might depart gamers at midnight. However, in what ought to be among the sport’s most pivotal moments, we’re as a substitute left scratching our heads about what’s occurring.
It’s doable Bungie has an even bigger plan in thoughts and can unravel the Veil’s significance over the following few seasons. However with Lightfall providing a lot promise in what ought to ostensibly be the largest showdown thus far, the fight narrative presently appears like it might be resulting in the worst model of “it was a dream all alongside.”
After all, maybe the forthcoming Future 2 Lightfall raid, named Root of Nightmares, will reply some questions for us. However why disguise among the sport’s greatest content material behind an exercise at the least half the playerbase is unlikely ever to see? The marketing campaign is the promoting level for a motive: it ought to make gamers of all backgrounds and ability units really feel invested.
The marketing campaign feels manageable on Legendary problem — besides when it isn’t. After crusing by the primary two missions within the Future 2 Lightfall mission record, Downfall felt like a chore. Even my strongest builds couldn’t face up to the sector that appears to be missing cowl, and even with a Future 2 Downfall mission information, it nonetheless felt tedious.
Bungie actually wished to amp up the problem with Lightfall, however that instantly begs the query, who is that this sport for? At its core, it’s a free sport supported by microtransactions and DLC content material and designed to attraction to as broad of an viewers as doable. But when the Legendary marketing campaign rewards exotics that individuals of all ability units have paid to have the ability to entry, then doesn’t it really feel like a slight to less-skilled gamers? Or, for instance, the recently-released Future 2 Vexcalibur unique glaive is hidden behind a mission that even seasoned gamers discover troublesome on its regular problem. Gamers can solely acquire the catalysts by finishing it on Legendary problem, which has an influence cap which means less-skilled Guardians can’t merely grind for pinnacles to make it manageable for them. Maybe the concept is to power folks to ask associates and play as fireteams. And that may be okay, if the sport’s promised Trying For Group options have been launched with Lightfall. However there are literally thousands of Future 2 gamers who merely desire the solo expertise, and never all of them are die-hard gamers. Shouldn’t it’s doable for them to acquire catalysts with out placing themselves by torture? And additional, isn’t there an argument that weaker gamers are those who want these catalysts probably the most?
Finally, that is merely a query of stability as the traditional marketing campaign problem felt simpler than most low-level, pre-Lightfall Vanguard strikes. Possibly as a substitute of specializing in an pointless rating system, the sport might as a substitute supply higher signifiers as to issues resembling general harm improve when combining sure mods and Fragments. Or, it might discover another indicator to let gamers know why they’re getting one-shot by Tormenters or why weapons gamers have relied on for years appear instantly nerfed out of existence. After all, it’s all the time been my perspective {that a} participant shouldn’t must go exterior of a sport to discover ways to play it. However Bungie appears hell-bent on including layer upon layer of complexity when it might behove the builders to easily tackle the fundamentals.
It’s simple to see why Lightfall has gamers divided. Take Nimbus, for instance. The sport attracts on the stakes of the Darkness versus the Gentle to convey us to the Metropolis of Neomuna, the place we meet a friendly-but-goofy ally paying homage to a personality in a basic episode of The Simpsons, during which the favored Itchy and Scratchy TV present introduces a canine named Poochie to bolster rankings. Whereas Nimbus provides a playful voice to the sport, they really feel doomed to affix the forged of characters who play nothing greater than a cameo function in a sport dedicated to counting on new characters as lazy plot gadgets.
Maybe a part of the difficulty with that is within the expectations. The advertising and marketing supplies surrounding Lightfall constructed it as much as inform the story that will lead us to the area sport’s closing chapter. However Bungie ought to know one factor: if it desires to maintain its gamers joyful, it ought to by no means make a promise it might probably’t hold.
There are some highlights. The Future 2 Strand subclass is enjoyable to make use of. For what Bungie could also be missing in storytelling, it seems to have balanced in its personal approach with a novel subclass that introduces a completely new playstyle into the sport.
There are numerous new exotics, quests, missions, and a forthcoming all-new raid. There are weekly story missions and actions, and, whereas PvP might nonetheless use new maps and Gambit stays totally untouched, Future 2 Iron Banner guarantees to return 3 times a season. All of that is to counsel that, for not precisely nailing the storyline content material, the workforce remains to be giving gamers a ton of content material for the sport’s price ticket, although even that seems to be inflating in each iteration.
Additional, the sport’s quality-of-life enhancements are useful. Options resembling Loadouts are extraordinarily helpful, and whereas I don’t discover Guardian Ranks notably fascinating, the UI that helps them and makes it simple to finish Guardian Ranks-related challenges is clear and seamless. Commendations appear to be an interesting approach to acknowledge teammates however are little greater than ineffective in follow. Maybe one of the best one I bought was once I loaded into an exercise close to its finish and, after having executed completely nothing earlier than the mission ended, my teammates jokingly deemed me enjoyable to play with.
And, relating to unique weapons, Lightfall doesn’t disappoint. The Strand-based Future 2 Last Warning unique sidearm and the Void-based Deterministic Chaos unique machine gun are each unbelievable weapons which are enjoyable to make use of. Whereas the questline to earn the Future 2 Winterbite unique glaive has some time-gating by way of when you possibly can full a selected exercise, which is all the time absolute B.S. designed to power gamers to log in on totally different days to finish aims that shouldn’t be tied to day by day resets, it nonetheless feels definitely worth the chase.
We’ll proceed to replace this evaluate as we undergo the favored multiplayer sport and discover all the things Lightfall presents. Till then, take a look at our Future 2 season 20 overview and Future 2 Lightfall exotics record to see what’s new.
