Future 2 Lightfall promised to be the groundbreaking penultimate storyline in a story developed over practically a decade. However the situation is typically recreation builders make guarantees they’ll’t preserve. 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 major step backwards from the advanced, interwoven threads that after led a whole neighborhood to grieve for the dying 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 mockingly vibrant within the FPS recreation, whereas what may have actually satiated gamers is a clearer grasp of the stakes surrounding the Traveler, the Veil, and the way forward for humanity.
Word that this assessment is comparatively early within the gameplay expertise, reflecting a number of hours of marketing campaign content material. There’s lots to discover in Future 2 Lightfall, and we’re nonetheless working our means by means of it. Nonetheless, with a number of hours of the Legendary marketing campaign accomplished, suffice it to say it’s notably underwhelming.
Perhaps it’s intentional {that a} DLC dubbed Lightfall may depart gamers in the dead of night. However, in what needs to be a few of the recreation’s most pivotal moments, we’re as an alternative left scratching our heads about what’s happening.
It’s potential Bungie has a much 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 up to now, the fight narrative presently appears like it could 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 conceal a few of the recreation’s greatest content material behind an exercise not less than half the playerbase is unlikely ever to see? The marketing campaign is the promoting level for a cause: it ought to make gamers of all backgrounds and talent units really feel invested.
The marketing campaign feels manageable on Legendary issue — besides when it isn’t. After crusing by means of 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 needed to amp up the issue with Lightfall, however that immediately begs the query, who is that this recreation for? At its core, it’s a free recreation supported by microtransactions and DLC content material and designed to attraction to as broad of an viewers as potential. But when the Legendary marketing campaign rewards exotics that individuals 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 issue. Gamers can solely receive the catalysts by finishing it on Legendary issue, which has an influence cap meaning less-skilled Guardians can’t merely grind for pinnacles to make it manageable for them. Maybe the thought is to drive individuals to ask buddies and play as fireteams. And that may 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 desire the solo expertise, and never all of them are die-hard gamers. Shouldn’t or not it’s potential 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 essentially the most?
Finally, that is merely a query of steadiness as the conventional marketing campaign issue felt simpler than most low-level, pre-Lightfall Vanguard strikes. Perhaps as an alternative of specializing in an pointless rating system, the sport may as an alternative supply higher signifiers as to issues equivalent to general injury enhance when combining sure mods and Fragments. Or, it may 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 need to go outdoors of a recreation to learn to play it. However Bungie appears hell-bent on including layer upon layer of complexity when it may 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 traditional episode of The Simpsons, through 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 solid of characters who play nothing greater than a cameo function in a recreation dedicated to counting on new characters as lazy plot units.
Maybe a part of the problem 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 house recreation’s last chapter. However Bungie ought to know one factor: if it needs 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 means with a novel subclass that introduces a wholly 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 may 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 equivalent to 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 look like an interesting technique to acknowledge teammates however are little greater than ineffective in observe. Maybe the very best one I bought was after I loaded into an exercise close to its finish and, after having accomplished completely nothing earlier than the mission ended, my teammates jokingly deemed me enjoyable to play with.
And, with regards to unique weapons, Lightfall doesn’t disappoint. The Strand-based Future 2 Closing Warning unique sidearm and the Void-based Deterministic Chaos unique machine gun are each improbable 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 at all times absolute B.S. designed to drive 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 assessment as we undergo the favored multiplayer recreation and discover every part Lightfall affords. Till then, try our Future 2 season 20 overview and Future 2 Lightfall exotics record to see what’s new.
