Bungie teases Future 2’s “Metroidvania” enlargement with new idea artwork, talks “subsequent technology” armour

Bungie’s efforts to construct enthusiasm for Future 2‘s future amid vital layoffs on the studio and fan considerations proceed with but extra teases for subsequent 12 months’s Codename: Apollo enlargement – which is now confirmed to be whisking gamers to a “Metroidvania-inspired vacation spot”, as seen in new idea artwork, and arriving alongside “subsequent technology” armour.

Bungie introduced Codename: Apollo again in September as a part of “main adjustments” that’ll see the studio launch two “medium” Future 2 expansions yearly, as a substitute of a single main launch. On the time, Apollo was described as a “non-linear character-driven journey”, with the phrase “Metroidvania” floated however not confirmed.

Now although, as a part of its newest developer stream, Bungie has shared a bit of extra element on what’s to come back. Codename: Apollo, as beforehand confirmed, arrives subsequent summer season as the primary of Bungie’s twice-yearly “medium-sized” releases, which, for context, are stated to be roughly the identical measurement as Future 1’s Rise of Iron enlargement.

Every may have its personal distinctive marketing campaign and post-game content material that gamers can “dive actually deep into” past the preliminary expertise – Apollo kicking off Future 2’s new Frontiers saga with a journey to a “Metroidvania-inspired vacation spot” that includes a “non-linear marketing campaign that places [players] within the drivers seat of exploring its world and its story”.

Bungie says gamers may have freedom to discover a number of locations from the off, with some areas solely changing into accessible as soon as a particular merchandise has been discovered elsewhere. Alongside the best way, there will be characters to satisfy and decisions to make, with Apollo set to function between 25 and 30 “completely different threads” of tales gamers can tease out as they full completely different actions – the concept being to maintain them on this planet and all the time exploring.

The studio stays evasive in the case of specifics, however idea artwork (above) for the brand new enlargement reveals “individuals [players] have not met but” in Future, and inspirations for Apollo are stated to vary from early 60s prog rock like King Crimson and Jefferson Airplane, to Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-5 and the TV present Scavengers Reign.

No matter Bungie finally has in retailer, it is being described as an “unique world” that is “tailor-built across the pleasure of discovery”, the place Gamers will purchase highly effective talents to uncover secrets and techniques and carve a path to the nice thriller on the coronary heart of the planet.

Additionally coming subsequent 12 months as a part of efforts to revitalise Future 2 is a system Bungie is asking “subsequent Technology armour”. This, it explains in a prolonged weblog publish, is meant to make armour “thrilling once more” by giving it distinctive properties and extra manageable stats. Primarily, this can imply a “smaller variety of distinctive stats on any piece of armour, with bigger contributions to those stats, and each stat level offering a profit.” There’s much more element in Bungie’s publish, although, so it is price testing the entire thing.

Earlier than all that, nevertheless, Future 2 is poised to embark on its newest season, Revenant: Act 1, which will get underway subsequent week. Prime of its additions is the brand new Onslaught: Salvation mode, that includes three maps (Widow’s Court docket was demoed in the course of the livestream), new enemies, and new defensive talents. There is a turret, as an illustration, plus improved Stasis Sluggish tripwires, and an airstrike that sends a devastating blast from above when enemies stray into its radius. Count on all that (and extra!) when Revenant begins on eighth October.