The toughest factor about Future 2 is getting any of your mates to play it. Followers of Bungie’s bold and imaginative sci-fi shooter have lengthy hoped for a easy on-ramp that might make it simpler to get lapsed gamers and newcomers again into its universe. Future 2’s new “Starter Pack” would possibly sound like precisely that. As an alternative, it’s an expensive bundle of random objects that followers can’t cease dunking on.
Season of the Want went reside immediately with an thrilling trailer and new missions revolving round accumulating dragon eggs to win over an outdated enemy. However gamers additionally quietly seen a brand new DLC add-on on PSN, Xbox, and Steam that went reside alongside the newest replace. It’s known as the Future 2 Starter Pack, it prices $15, and it’s one of many extra ridiculous microtransactions I’ve seen. Opposite to what its identify would possibly recommend, the Starter Pack doesn’t embody any expansions, missions, or story content material. It’s only a random assortment of stuff meant to “supercharge” gamers’ arsenals. Right here’s what’s included:
Traveler’s ChosenRuinous EffigySleeper Simulant Unique ShipExotic SparrowExotic Ghost Shell 125,000 Glimmer50 Enhancement Cores5 Enhancement Prisms1 Ascendant Shard
These first three objects are all outdated Unique weapons which were within the recreation since 2019 or earlier than. They’re principally fantastic however solely synergize with particular builds and may all be acquired from the Tower kiosk with out an excessive amount of fuss. The ship, sparrow, and ghost shell are purely beauty and fully depending on private style. In my view not less than, those within the Starter Pack are removed from a few of the recreation’s higher designs.
The supplies, in the meantime, are fairly stingy. Glimmer is Future 2’s essential in-game forex, earned by doing something and every thing. Cores, prisms, and Ascendant Shards (what gamers lovingly name “golf balls”) are for focusing engrams, rerolling gear, and crafting new objects, none of which is especially useful for brand spanking new gamers, nor very significant within the portions supplied. It’s not even sufficient to absolutely masterwork a brand new piece of armor. It’s a weird array of accouterments to purchase for greater than the price of a whole season of the sport.
“I’d say that is pay to win, however actually it’s only a waste of cash,” wrote one participant on the Future subreddit. “Pay to lose.” One other wrote, “That is pathetic. 3 mid exotics, a number of crap cosmetics and a few supplies shouldn’t be value that a lot. An actual starter pack could be weapons and outdated DLCs.”
There are three broad obstacles to gamers getting again into Future 2. The primary is that a lot of the story is now not within the recreation attributable to content material vaulting. The second is that Future 2’s “New Mild” marketing campaign stays fairly barebones and affords no actual path with end-game actions. And the third is that regardless of ostensibly being free-to-play, the entire expansions are paid and unlocking entry to every thing remains to be fairly costly. Shadowkeep, the underwhelming 2019 growth, remains to be usually $25. The Starter Pack simply provides to the noise, complicated gamers with deceptive descriptions like “Fly between locations in your new Unique ship.” Narrator voice: Unique ships are simply customized loading display screen animations.
The Starter Pack additionally comes within the context of layoffs at Bungie amid the delay of 2024’s The Remaining Form growth and reported income shortfalls. At a time when the studio is outwardly determined for cash, the $15 bundle simply underlines the gulf between gamers and whoever is main Future 2’s monetization technique. It’s one factor to take advantage of whales, however as Future 2 gamers are stating, the brand new Starter Pack appears squarely geared toward benefiting from new gamers who received’t know any higher. Within the phrases of considered one of them, “That is some cell recreation shit.”
Replace 11/29/2023 6:09 p.m. ET: Bungie seems to have eliminated Future 2’s controvertial Starter Pack from storefornts, together with Valve’s storefront. “Discover: Future 2: Starter Pack is now not accessible on the Steam retailer,” reads an replace on the Steam itemizing. PlayStation Retailer listings, in the meantime, return error pages.
Along with roasting the microtransaction on social media and Reddit, some gamers had additionally tried to review-bomb the bundle and alter the Steam tags for it to issues like “psychological horror.”
