Bungie’s newest Future 2 showcase was a giant blowout for its upcoming growth, The Ultimate Form. Although the studio’s been comparatively mum on the growth, which is able to shut out the ten-year story the studio’s been telling because the 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 most recent subclass, which it’s calling Prismatic. As an alternative of specializing in one ingredient like earlier Gentle and Darkish subclasses have, Prismatic is finest considered Future 2’s reply to multiclassing. Gamers will now be capable of use elements of each archetypes of subclasses concurrently and it appears fucking bonkers, dude. That is the sort of factor that gamers have dreamt of, however couldn’t presumably be carried out as a result of it will throw the whole lot of the sport into chaos (or so some thought). Nicely, Bungie goes ahead with it anyway, and it appears dynamic and chaotic as all hell.
In anecdotes supplied by Bungie workers in the course of 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 may shoot to detonate to scrub up. One other mixture consisted of unleashing Strand hatchlings, which perform like a pet that pursues enemies, whereas concurrently throwing out a Stasis turret to successfully turn out to be a crowd management machine.
When utilizing the Prismatic subclass, gamers will see two gauges above their weapons and skills that signify 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 kind that mixes two completely different subclasses, like a Stasis/Void hybrid grenade for Warlock or a Strand/Arc grenade for Titans.
Utilizing transcendence may even restore gamers’ grenade and melee talents, that are usually 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 prime 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 will have 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 Ultimate Form may 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 contains perks for unique gear that was beforehand class-specific, that means that Titans will be capable of steal talents that have been beforehand unique to Warlocks and vice-versa. The unique perks on the category merchandise can be randomized, however Bungie is hoping that the power to mix them with stolen perks will incentivize gamers to pursue unique perks in addition to gear with a view to make game-breaking mixtures of talents. One developer said, “We wish it to really feel just a little damaged.”
A horrifying new enemy
In final yr’s middling Lightfall growth, Bungie launched a nightmarish enemy kind known as Tormentors that functioned as mini-bosses all through the marketing campaign, and it’s constructing off of this concept by including an entire enemy faction impressed by them and the Witness, the large dangerous on the heart of Future 2. This new enemy faction is named the Dread and they’re abominations. I can’t wait to struggle them. Amongst their ranks are a winged “gunbat” known as the Grim, which may suppress participant talents with a screech, and acrobatic “melee bruisers” known as Husks. Killing Husks “the improper manner” will trigger one thing the group is looking a Geist to come out of them and pursue gamers.
Two different enemy sorts, known as Attendants and Weavers, will be capable of use Stasis and Strand talents on the participant, respectively. The Weaver particularly will be capable of pull gamers from throughout the world, which is considered one of many firsts among the many new enemy faction. It’s been some time since Future 2 acquired a wholly new enemy kind, so it’s actually thrilling to see Bungie go all out on a faction that isn’t some sort of reskin of an current one.
All in all, a lot of what Bungie confirmed off at this time is the sort of batshit stuff I’ve needed from the sport for a very long time. Additionally it is the sort of content material you may actually solely make once you’re nearing the end line and need to throw the whole lot you may on the wall. Future 2 typically seems like a fantastic fantasy weighed down by the realities of getting to be a sport which must be balanced with a view to be enjoyable for everybody. The entire chaos on show at this time flies within the face of that want for stability, but it surely additionally appears prefer it’s going to make for an exhilarating closing chapter earlier than Future 2 strikes into one other part of its life. Paired with the discharge of Into the Gentle at this time, Future 2 is eventually doing the factor it ought to’ve achieved a very long time in the past: punching the goddamn throttle and refusing to look again.
