5 Games that Redeemed Themselves in 2018
Destiny 2
This time last year Destiny 2 was going through an identity crisis. It wanted to try and appeal to both the hardcore players while still being extremely inviting to new players, but it wasn’t doing either of those things well.
The end game grind just wasn’t worth it to players and the systems to get the best loot needed to be looked at again.
This past September Destiny 2 released its biggest expansion yet, Forsaken.
Similar to the Taken King Expansion in the original game, Forsaken brought a ton of new content, but also focused heavily on giving those hardcore Destiny players difficult challenges and progression to keep them coming back.
Forsaken coupled with a new plan to roll out content more frequently has helped breathe new life into the game again.
Destiny 2 players are happy with the new gear they’ve been hunting and the Last Wish raid was a huge improvement on the previous raids Bungie had designed.
With a smoother progression system, new strikes and raids, and an endgame grind, there has never been a better time to be a Destiny 2 player.
5 Games that Redeemed Themselves in 2018
Star Wars Battlefront 2
The Star Wars Battlefront series has had it rough for the past few years. After EA took over the license and released Star Wars Battlefront in 2015 the community was upset at the lack of a single-player campaign and was underwhelmed with the amount of content sold in the base game.
Fast forward to the 2017 release of Star Wars Battlefront 2, in which there was a promise of a campaign, characters from the prequel trilogy, and an expansive multiplayer.
The game delivered on these fronts but was plagued with an entirely new problem, microtransactions.
The game’s progression system was directly tied to random loot boxes that could also be purchased with real money, which affected things like damage output, and unlocking famous Star Wars heroes and villains.
It was a disaster and the community backlash was so large that EA finally stepped in a removed the system altogether.
In March of 2018, an update was released that totally overhauled how all of these systems worked.
Instead of getting your buffs through the random crates of Star Cards, players will be able to choose which buffs they want and obtain them with in-game experience points. In fact, you can’t even purchase loot crates in Battlefront 2 at all anymore.
With this new overhauled progression system and the new maps, modes, and characters they have been adding since launch, Star Wars Battlefront 2 has actually become a great Star Wars experience for fans.
5 Games that Redeemed Themselves in 2018
Sea of Thieves
When Sea of Thieves was first announced many E3’s ago on the Microsoft stage it took the world by storm. A new IP developed by the talented folks at Rare had players buzzing about this new pirate adventure game.
In March of 2018, it finally released and while many players were having a good time with it, the sentiment of “what exactly do you do” echoed loudly. Sea of Thieves, like many games as a service, suffered from an upfront content problem.
Rare has been working hard and this year released two major expansions for the game.
The Forsaken Shores brought a new area filled with volcanoes and deadly skeleton pirate ships, while the Shrouded Spoils brought heavy fog and new ship and cannon cosmetics. These two expansions helped flesh out the world exponentially.
Sea of Thieves is about creating your own pirate adventures with friends and Rare has been putting in the work to give you new challenges to face, treasure to hunt down, and enemies to fight like giant sharks, krakens, and of course other pirates.
Sea of Thieves is also getting a new PvP centric mode titled “The Arena” in 2019. This game has changed drastically in just a short time of 9 months and they have their sights still set on the horizon.
5 Games that Redeemed Themselves in 2018
No Man’s Sky: NEXT
It feels like forever ago that Sean Murray was up on the Sony E3 stage promising the world to us in Hello Games’ new adventure titled No Man’s Sky. The idea of a huge systemic world where it was just so big no one would ever see a fraction of what it has to offer. Well, it released to huge criticism after the game’s nonstop hype train went off the rails leading up to its release.
The game’s mystery filled player’s heads and after a certain point, it was clear that no matter what the final product would be, the expectations of this game were just too high.
Instead of cutting their losses with no Man’s Sky the determined team at Hello games plugged away releasing multiple updates to the game to deliver the promise they initially gave. No Man’s Sky NEXT was a huge step in the right direction.
Previous updates had introduced base building, freighter ships, and gameplay tweaks which all laid the foundation for NEXT.
This free update introduced the long-awaited multiplayer feature that was thought to be part of the original game back in 2016. Players could now explore this vast world together and feel a little less alone in this giant universe.
Along with some welcomed tweaks like condensing the amount and types of resources players need to craft certain items.
NEXT also added ringed planets to their universe which are a whole new beautiful sight to behold. If you haven’t played No Man’s Sky since its initial launch it is definitely worth the time to check out.
Grab a friend, fly off into space, build a base you two can call home, and explore this never ending universe. In fact, they are already talking about their next big update to the game.
5 Games that Redeemed Themselves in 2018
For Honor
For Honor, the strategy based brawler, had fans intrigued when it was first revealed on the Ubisoft stage a few years back. Pitting Samurais, Crusaders, and Vikings against each other in deep melee combat was something that just wasn’t being offered anywhere else.
The game generated a lot of steam after its multiplayer reveal and then its single-player campaign the subsequent year, but when it launched players just didn’t seem to stick with it.
Server troubles, a grindy progression system, and a few overpowered characters seemed to trouble the game momentum out of the gate.
This past October For Honor released the Marching Fire update and the Marching Fire Expansion. The free update gave players graphical enhancements, a new progression system, and the new castle siege mode titled “Breach”.
While the paid expansion gave players early access to the brand new faction the Wu Lin clan. This faction has four new characters who all bring something unique to the table and add a layer of variety to the mix when facing off against the other factions.
Instead of each piece of gear granting players individual stats, the system has been reworked to be entirely perk based. gear will now add to the perks you have equipped, so figuring out which give will increase your perks the most is beneficial.
The new mode Breach brings an entirely new way to play For Honor. Players are split into two teams, if you are attacking your goal is to march a battering ram to the defender’s castle and bash the door down.
Defenders win if they can run out the clock, deplete all of the attackers respawns, or simply destroy the battering ram headed their way.
Breach also has side objectives to add to the mix like AI boss fights that offer powerful buffs if defeated, and defending players can set up to make attacking more difficult.
For Honor also brought dedicated servers to the game earlier this year and have been quietly making a ton of improvements throughout 2018.
