We’re in the midst of week 2 of Future 2’s new “episode” format, heading towards week 3. And to this point, I’ve seen…virtually nothing that differentiates it from the seasonal mannequin. There was an additional cutscene in the beginning, however that will have been extra Closing Form-related, however elsewhere? Every part appears equivalent.
Effectively, really, trying forward it looks as if it’s primarily doubling down on seasonal timegating. Some followers hoped this may do the alternative, shedding the week-to-week nature of missions and the story in favor of three “Acts” you possibly can play at your leisure. That’s not the way it works. It’s the identical weekly cadence as earlier than, as in you do 4-5 steps within the seasonal story to inch it ahead, then wait.
And now there are new technique of timegating, different than simply storytelling. Now we have:
- Extra weapons being added to present episode swimming pools that won’t unlock till future acts.
- A timegated battle move with rewards that can not be earned till different Acts start.
- The above consists of issues just like the Crimson Dying catalyst being timegated for a future battle move stage that can not be earned for weeks.
- New artifact perks unlocked which is able to go above and past present ones however once more, it’s one thing you must anticipate relatively than the artifact being extra enjoyable up entrance.
I get it, it’s a tremendous line between maintaining gamers engaged and never letting them be over-frustrated by a ready-set-wait story or locked gadgets. And even outdoors of the timegating, I simply suppose gamers had been hoping for extra of a shakeup to seasons than what simply seems to be a…longer seasons. Identical format, similar HELM house base, similar all of it.
We may all be confirmed flawed right here and the idea might evolve each over the course of this present Echoes episode, but additionally sooner or later. Particularly, we now have to recollect Echoes is one thing developed absolutely alongside The Closing Form had been 95% of assets had been going, so it stands to purpose the second two episodes could also be bigger and extra considerably completely different. They sound that means, at the least, plus I feel I’ll be extra engaged with a non-Vex-based story, given what I’m seeing from this to this point.
Prefer it’s…tremendous, I’ll maintain enjoying, as a result of I’m me. However I do suppose followers had been hoping for one thing extra completely different and fewer counting on continued, and even elevated, timegating than what we’ve seen to this point.
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Choose up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller collection and The Earthborn Trilogy.