The yr was 2015 and I used to be sitting on an uncomfortable futon in my front room at 3 am once I noticed an commercial for a free weekend of Future. With my curiosity piqued, I made a Titan, wakened within the Cosmodrome, and adopted Dinkle-bot to the Final Metropolis. I unknowingly had discovered my favourite sport and would spend almost a decade taking part in it mistaken.

The Cosmodrome

By the point I bought into Future, each The Darkish Beneath and Home of Wolves expansions had been launched, and Bungie was prepping for the discharge of The Taken King. It was the prime time for somebody to be launched, gorge themselves on the story, after which seamlessly dive into one of many best expansions within the franchise.

That is the place I bought the notion that Future was a story-driven sport with an extremely robust core gameplay loop. Every thing I did was guided by the narrative, from escaping the Fallen within the Cosmodrome to stealing Eris Morn’s ship and infiltrating Oryx’s Dreadnaught.

Positive, there have been Strikes, however these had been story snippets for me. Since weapons had been leveled as much as unlock extra perks from columns, there wasn’t a lot, if any, of a loot chase in my thoughts. It wasn’t even till the Rise of Iron enlargement that I even bought into raiding.

This development continued with the discharge of Future 2 in 2017 up till the discharge of The Witch Queen in 2022. It doesn’t matter what you considered their high quality, Bungie repeatedly launched expansions and Seasons. Nonetheless, after two years of the drip-fed seasonal mannequin, I used to be changing into starved.

Neomuna

The Seasons main as much as Lightfall had been turbulent as I started recognizing that actions and their mechanics had been basically being reused. With the story being decreased to meager weekly updates, I used to be solely logging in at reset to expertise a 30-minute or much less story beat.

Regardless of this, Bungie had the hype machine working at full steam, and I used to be optimistic. The Witch Queen was an incredible enlargement, and I used to be totally anticipating Bungie to ship with Lightfall. In spite of everything, the studio was certainly skimping with seasonal content material in favor of extra assets for the enlargement.

This wasn’t the case. I wasn’t sort in my very own evaluation of Lightfall and my total curiosity sharply declined. Because the Seasons got here and went, my play time got here to a standstill because it felt like Bungie was simply phoning it in at this level. Moreover, rumors had begun swirling that the developer had been poaching the Future 2 workers for Marathon.

Then got here the October 2023 layoffs. With out warning, Bungie laid off roughly 8% of its workers. Whereas that’s the worst a part of that story, extra data surfaced suggesting these aforementioned rumors had been correct. Bungie management was bleeding Future 2 dry and doing the naked minimal to maintain it producing income so that cash could possibly be redirected to the event of Marathon. All of my worst fears had been confirmed true.

It was a betrayal on each degree, and whereas I had suspicions that Bungie was dishonest on me as a participant, it damage all of the extra to get that affirmation. I had my doubts earlier than, however now I used to be assured that my beloved decade-long saga was going to crash and burn.

The Tower

Exterior of labor obligations, I used to be executed with Future 2. I had no religion the story could be dropped at any significant conclusion. It was miserable and this continued for months till I hit a breaking level. Remembering the times once I would come residence exhausted from work and discovering solace in exploring Mars and Venus, I put aside my emotions relating to Bungie management and booted up Future 2.

I like having a guidelines of issues to do in a sport. Finishing a Triumph releases the nice chemical substances in my mind, and chasing one thing like a Title is a straightforward recipe for that tasty dopamine. So, that’s what I did. I began with the latest Season and started knocking out the Triumphs for the Titles.

This led me down a rabbit gap of content material whose floor I had barely scratched. I started being attentive to rolls with the hopes of both bolstering a loadout or discovering one thing to construct a brand new one round. I used to be now toying with Exotics that had by no means left my Vault prior. Previous content material turned contemporary as I used to be tackling it not solely with new loadouts, however completely different builds on lessons I hadn’t touched in ages.

An entire new aspect of Future 2 opened up as I used to be not shying away from higher-difficulty content material. As a substitute, I used to be utilizing it as a proving floor for my builds and refining them. This led to me connecting with completely different elements of the group and changing into extra lively total. By not letting the story lead me, I noticed the broader enchantment of a strong gameplay loop filled with choices.

On the time of this writing, all the things is wanting vivid for the way forward for Future 2. Into the Gentle goes robust and what’s been proven of The Last Form seems to be promising. Positive, that is all the results of Bungie breaking the “in case of emergency” glass, however I’ll take it. I’ve zero religion that the story will probably be dropped at something resembling a satisfying conclusion, however I’m not going to let that detract from issues like an Onslaught Rat King run.