future 2 has all the time confronted fluctuations in opinion from its most ardent followers. Now, lower than seven months after the discharge of the critically acclaimed and fashionable DLC, The Ultimate Form, we face critical participant depend considerations, overwhelming content material decline, and neighborhood morale is at an all-time low. I am falling into it.
I do know what you are considering. Did not you say Future 2 is not the issue, Future 2 gamers are the issue? Nicely, you are not mistaken, however I do not remorse the factors I made in that article. As of July 2023, once I wrote this text, the story of Gentle and Darkness is hurtling in the direction of an thrilling conclusion, and Bungie has created a brand new FPS sport that I do not know what to do with. We have been growing thrilling content material. The argument for that monetization system was justified, but it surely wasn’t about forcing gamers to take part.
2023 was a tough 12 months, however with the discharge of The Ultimate Form in June 2024, the narrative gave the impression to be altering. In consequence, the variety of gamers shortly recovered to over 300,000. However since then, there was a pointy and painful decline, hitting a peak of 34,000 concurrent customers in December 2024. Discussions in regards to the sport’s future are fairly pessimistic on-line, but it surely’s nonetheless arduous to pinpoint why curiosity is at an all-time low. Or how Bungie can regain its previous glory. One of many issues we regularly hear is that Future 2 wants extra “significant” content material, however what does that seem like?
For me, the quantity of recent content material shouldn’t be a problem. Since introducing seasonal reworks and episodes, Bungie has added new 3-player actions, timed actions, a rework of Battlegrounds, two new unique missions, dungeons, distinctive story missions, and extra to flesh out the story. Added many dialogues and cutscenes. We additionally introduced again the Jail of the Elders from the unique Future, which many have needed for a very long time.
As somebody who overtly and unabashedly admits that Future 2 is my favourite sport of all time, I believe The Ultimate Form felt like an excessive amount of of a definitive ending on reflection. . I do not know what is going on on within the new story. For the primary time in years, I felt uninterested within the story and turned away from it. I’ve adopted the tales of Crimson Warfare, The Witness, and The Guardian’s harmful adventures, however once I defeated the good evil, it felt like the final word fruits of all my efforts.
I did not have the respiration house to gather my ideas or really feel itchy to start out a brand new chapter. In a 12 months suffering from devastating layoffs and challenges to participant opinion, taking a break after The Ultimate Form might have been the most effective factor Bungie may have accomplished for the sequence. Will the studio be financially steady? In all probability not, however with the infinite quantity of recent content material in Future 2, there isn’t any time to overlook it. We’re straight again for higher loot, however now with a narrative we’re not as invested in.
For me, it requires a serious do-over and reset. Try subclass reworks, armor, unique weapon reworks, and loot tables for every exercise within the sport. It is not sufficient to present a gun a pleasant new pores and skin, give it a distinct identify, and declare it a brand new weapon. The reward should justify the trouble.
Whereas the sport’s PvP mode has seen continued tuning and tweaking, together with much-needed new maps, endgame PvP has been largely ignored. Gambit as a mode is simply… there. As gamers, we’re anticipated to deal with this as one of many three primary ritual actions, but when Bungie would not care about it, why ought to we? Or?
One of many highlights of the previous 12 months was Pantheon, a boss rush mode that challenges fireteams to tackle a number of raid bosses for uncommon loot and achievements. Sadly, this mode now not exists, because it was only a short-term mode to fill the time till The Ultimate Form’s launch. I actually hope it comes again to life.
That is going to be a really unpopular opinion, however I additionally need the ability grind to return again. I used to be much more motivated to log into Future 2 once I discovered that I wanted to hunt out the most effective rewards to stage up my gear and enhance my mild stage earlier than tackling endgame content material. If I am not sturdy sufficient on the primary day of a brand new raid, my fireteam will proceed with out me. As somebody with extreme, unmedicated ADHD, such a time strain is the one means I can keep glued to my keyboard, headset on, and looking for the objects I want. No extra energy stage grinds, so you’ll be able to log in anytime and be as sturdy as nearly anybody else – boring.
Do you suppose Bungie ought to take Future 2 offline, go into quiet growth mode, and finally launch Future 3? No. In any case, the studio is tough at work on Codename Frontiers and its two expansions. Frontiers is scheduled to be launched in mid-2025 and is a collective identify for Apollo and Behemoth. Frontiers guarantees new tales, areas, missions, weapons, gear, raids, and dungeons. Every enlargement’s episodic supply brings new and returning actions, gear, mods, challenges, modifiers, occasions, and a recent meta.
However what’s most attention-grabbing to me is that Apollo follows a narrative throughout “dozens of threads” that may be explored in a non-linear means. In concept, this implies you’ll be able to select your personal journey at your personal tempo, however in apply I am unsure that is sufficient to win over disinterested former Future gamers on the lookout for a motive to return.
In brief, I do not suppose there’s a simple method to resolve the declining participant depend and get folks enthusiastic about Future once more. I can solely communicate for myself. What I do know is that the ending of “The Ultimate Form” was the most effective time I’ve had in Future 2 in years. It is a near-perfect mix of 12 participant actions, the joy of lastly going through house gaming’s deadliest foes, and the adrenaline of a storyline. If Bungie can get me excited once more, I am completely satisfied.
