Bungie’s newest Future 2 showcase was a giant blowout for its upcoming enlargement, The Closing Form. Although the studio’s been comparatively mum on the enlargement, which can shut out the ten-year story the studio’s been telling for the reason that first Future launched in September of 2014, it lastly revealed a few of its hand, together with a brand new subclass, enemy faction, and an thrilling new class merchandise that threatens to uncork the potential of buildcrafting in Future 2.
Breaking the sport
First up, Bungie led the showcase with the introduction of the latest subclass, which it’s calling Prismatic. As an alternative of specializing in one component like earlier Gentle and Darkish subclasses have, Prismatic is greatest regarded as Future 2’s reply to multiclassing. Gamers will now be capable to use elements of each archetypes of subclasses concurrently and it seems to be fucking bonkers, dude. That is the form of factor that gamers have dreamt of, however couldn’t probably be carried out as a result of it could throw the whole lot of the sport into chaos (or so some thought). Nicely, Bungie goes ahead with it anyway, and it seems to be dynamic and chaotic as all hell.
In anecdotes supplied by Bungie employees throughout the showcase, the builds sound completely busted. One member of the group talked about slowing down enemies with a Stasis grenade, throwing a shuriken into the group to skinny out their numbers, after which throwing one other Photo voltaic grenade that you would be able to shoot to detonate to scrub up. One other mixture consisted of unleashing Strand hatchlings, which operate like a pet that pursues enemies, whereas concurrently throwing out a Stasis turret to successfully grow to be a crowd management machine.
When utilizing the Prismatic subclass, gamers will see two gauges above their weapons and skills that symbolize each the Gentle and Darkish. As you deal injury with Gentle or Darkish talents, the gauges will fill, permitting gamers to enter “transcendence” when each are maxed out. Transcendence successfully works like a second tremendous potential that buffs the participant. Whereas transcendent, every class will acquire a brand new grenade sort that mixes two completely different subclasses, like a Stasis/Void hybrid grenade for Warlock or a Strand/Arc grenade for Titans.
Utilizing transcendence can even restore gamers’ grenade and melee talents, that are sometimes on cooldown, that means that gamers can successfully chain the utilization of each right into a transcendence after which deploy them once more to do huge injury. Talking of, transcendence additionally grants injury bonuses that stack on high of ones that gamers may get from different class talents or current weapon perks.
The builders described Prismatic as an “superior subclass the place you’ve extra construct crafting choices, extra potential mixtures, extra fragments than you usually get, extra fragment slots to socket than you’d usually get,” and it reveals.
The Closing Form can even introduce a brand new unique class merchandise that steals the perks from different unique gear and combines them into one super-powerful merchandise. This consists of perks for unique gear that was beforehand class-specific, that means that Titans will be capable to steal talents that had been beforehand unique to Warlocks and vice-versa. The unique perks on the category merchandise will likely be randomized, however Bungie is hoping that the flexibility to mix them with stolen perks will incentivize gamers to pursue unique perks in addition to gear with the intention to make game-breaking mixtures of talents. One developer acknowledged, “We wish it to really feel a bit of damaged.”
A horrifying new enemy
In final yr’s middling Lightfall enlargement, Bungie launched a nightmarish enemy sort referred to as Tormentors that functioned as mini-bosses all through the marketing campaign, and it’s constructing off of this concept by including a complete enemy faction impressed by them and the Witness, the large unhealthy on the heart of Future 2. This new enemy faction is known as the Dread and they’re abominations. I can’t wait to struggle them. Amongst their ranks are a winged “gunbat” referred to as the Grim, which may suppress participant talents with a screech, and acrobatic “melee bruisers” referred to as Husks. Killing Husks “the incorrect method” will trigger one thing the group is asking a Geist to come out of them and pursue gamers.
Two different enemy sorts, referred to as Attendants and Weavers, will be capable to use Stasis and Strand talents on the participant, respectively. The Weaver specifically will be capable to pull gamers from throughout the sector, which is certainly one of many firsts among the many new enemy faction. It’s been some time since Future 2 acquired a completely new enemy sort, so it’s actually thrilling to see Bungie go all out on a faction that isn’t some form of reskin of an current one.
All in all, a lot of what Bungie confirmed off right this moment is the form of batshit stuff I’ve needed from the sport for a very long time. It is usually the form of content material you’ll be able to actually solely make once you’re nearing the end line and wish to throw the whole lot you’ll be able to on the wall. Future 2 typically looks like a terrific fantasy weighed down by the realities of getting to be a recreation which must be balanced with the intention to be enjoyable for everybody. The entire chaos on show right this moment flies within the face of that want for stability, however it additionally seems to be prefer it’s going to make for an exhilarating closing chapter earlier than Future 2 strikes into one other section of its life. Paired with the discharge of Into the Gentle right this moment, Future 2 is eventually doing the factor it ought to’ve completed a very long time in the past: punching the goddamn throttle and refusing to look again.