Future 2 Lightfall promised to be the groundbreaking penultimate storyline in a story developed over practically a decade. However the challenge is usually sport builders make guarantees they will’t preserve. Not each growth 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 seems like a major 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 not too long ago, 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 crew sought to ship a futuristic neon metropolis and a Darkness subclass that’s paradoxically vibrant within the FPS sport, whereas what might have really satiated gamers is a clearer grasp of the stakes surrounding the Traveler, the Veil, and the way forward for humanity.
Be aware that this evaluation 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 method by means of 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 go away gamers at midnight. However, in what must be a few of the sport’s most pivotal moments, we’re as an alternative left scratching our heads about what’s happening.
It’s doable Bungie has a much bigger plan in thoughts and can unravel the Veil’s significance over the subsequent few seasons. However with Lightfall providing a lot promise in what ought to ostensibly be the largest showdown thus far, the fight narrative presently seems 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 cover a few of the sport’s finest content material behind an exercise no less than half the playerbase is unlikely ever to see? The marketing campaign is the promoting level for a purpose: it ought to make gamers of all backgrounds and talent units really feel invested.
The marketing campaign feels manageable on Legendary problem — besides when it isn’t. After crusing by means of the primary two missions within the Future 2 Lightfall mission listing, Downfall felt like a chore. Even my strongest builds couldn’t face up to the world that appears to be missing cowl, and even with a Future 2 Downfall mission information, it nonetheless felt tedious.
Bungie actually needed to amp up the problem with Lightfall, however that immediately 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 folks of all talent 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 get hold of 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 thought is to pressure individuals to ask buddies and play as fireteams. And that could be okay, if the sport’s promised Trying For Group options had been launched with Lightfall. However there are literally thousands of Future 2 gamers who merely choose the solo expertise, and never all of them are die-hard gamers. Shouldn’t or not it’s doable for them to acquire catalysts with out placing themselves by means of 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 steadiness as the traditional marketing campaign problem felt simpler than most low-level, pre-Lightfall Vanguard strikes. Possibly as an alternative of specializing in an pointless rating system, the sport might as an alternative supply higher signifiers as to issues comparable to general injury enhance 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 immediately nerfed out of existence. After all, it’s at all times been my perspective {that a} participant shouldn’t should go outdoors 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 deal with 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 carry us to the Metropolis of Neomuna, the place we meet a friendly-but-goofy ally harking back to a personality in a traditional episode of The Simpsons, wherein the favored Itchy and Scratchy TV present introduces a canine named Poochie to bolster scores. Whereas Nimbus provides a playful voice to the sport, they really feel doomed to hitch the forged of characters who play nothing greater than a cameo position in a sport dedicated to counting on new characters as lazy plot units.
Maybe a part of the difficulty with that is within the expectations. The advertising supplies surrounding Lightfall constructed it as much as inform the story that may lead us to the house sport’s ultimate 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’t preserve.
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 method with a singular 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 fully untouched, Future 2 Iron Banner guarantees to return thrice a season. All of that is to counsel that, for not precisely nailing the storyline content material, the crew continues 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 comparable to Loadouts are extraordinarily helpful, and whereas I don’t discover Guardian Ranks notably attention-grabbing, 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 solution to acknowledge teammates however are little greater than ineffective in follow. Maybe the very best one I bought was after I loaded into an exercise close to its finish and, after having completed 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 Ultimate Warning unique sidearm and the Void-based Deterministic Chaos unique machine gun are each incredible 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’ll be able to full a selected exercise, which is at all times absolute B.S. designed to pressure gamers to log in on totally different days to finish aims that shouldn’t be tied to day by day resets, it nonetheless feels well worth the chase.
We’ll proceed to replace this evaluation as we undergo the favored multiplayer sport and discover every thing Lightfall presents. Till then, take a look at our Future 2 season 20 overview and Future 2 Lightfall exotics listing to see what’s new.
