Operation Nightfall is a welcomed addition to the Firewall Zero Hour family. It does bring more pros than cons but still needs a bit more love to truly get this on track to a perfect VR experience. It’s getting there, especially if more updates like this are released.
Firewall Zero Hour — Operation Nightfall
When Firewall Zero Hour first released to the PSVR, I had a sneaking suspicion there was more to come from it. The vanilla launch seemed like it laid the blueprint for bigger and better updates in the near future. Sometimes when you look at the structure of a game, you can almost see the holes that need filling, what works/what doesn’t, and potential expansions in certain areas (missions, cosmetic, etc.). This was the case with FZH. It was good, but it could be better.
Last month, Sony Interactive Entertainment and First Contact Entertainment released a huge update called Operation Nightfall. This expansion, for the lack of a better term, brought in new maps, more missions, more perks, more contractors, and more reasons to keep the PSVR experience alive. It was truly nice to see that FZH wasn’t a fly-by game that people would forget as soon as they left it. First Contact’s initial game gave good reason to keep playing, and this expansion made those reasons more legit.
Let’s dig right into the highlights.
Maps are usually the first thing to catch people’s eyes when looking to see more value in FPS gameplay experience, so we’ll start there. While I only played one for this review, named Hangar, it was definitely a good way to start the update’s review. This is a hangar map that has a transport aircraft residing in it, which can give you some idea of its girth. The structural landscape is multi-tier with lots of entrances and exits, as well, which is great for confusing and fooling one’s enemies. I found this map particularly interesting because the devs have cleverly piled boxes of cargo all around for you to visually peer around, while at the same time purposely using harsh dark/light to hide enemy soldiers coming for you. It’s not a comfortable map to play on, as it shouldn’t be and is built to not make the experience easy, for defender or attacker. And you might be thinking to yourself, “Wow, that sucks.” It sucks if you suck, but if you don’t, then you could probably appreciate the design. It’s a nice design and a great addition to the game. It will certainly give you some challenge. Who wants an easy map to navigate when you’re trying to up the intensity of PvP gameplay? Not me. Well, probably some Call of Duty players who demand easy things. They wouldn’t be up for this challenge. Anyway, Hangar is methodical in design and purposeful in execution.
Other mentionable/notable things about this update include:
– Weapons: Even more motivation to keep going. If you can keep coming back for more, then you can keep gaining more. The launch of the update released three new weapons to the FZH world with The Richardson SG12, Sarge, and Raptor. They’re based on weekly missions, so you have to wait and obtain them when they’re available for retaining. Much like the mission rewards, it’s pure motivation and makes the game a bit more effective when it comes to bringing you back over and over again. Keeping the dream alive and keeping your audience happy is a great thing when you’re trying for good gaming retention.
– User Interface (UI): While I wasn’t too thrilled with the vanilla launch of FZH with regard to how the user interface worked, I will say that it has gotten better with this update. Is it perfect? God, no. I still think that you have to get this back into QA and run some usability testing on it because it still needs help, but at least I can work my way through it because of my previous experience.
With the above said, if First Contact and SIE hope to gain new people, they have to continue to improve this UI more because it’s still a bit confusing. The picture below shows you the user interface when the game loads in, which doesn’t look bad with regard to structure, but labeling still needs a heavy amount of information architecture work. For example, I was trying to launch Nightfall by clicking on the Nightfall picture (far left) for the first 15 minutes of my experience. I kept thinking, “Is this not launched yet? Am I early?”, and it was none of that at all. My train of thought was that it was a separate window within the FZH shell, but the actual update is within the game itself (I know, I’m an idiot, but just stay with me on this). Once I understood that and got the structure of the interface down, I was fine, but I can’t imagine being a first-time PSVR owner and trying to navigate this frustration-free. Long story short, it still has some work to do with organization. It’s improved, don’t let my criticism fool you, but there is still work to be done.
– Mission Rewards: There are free (8) missions, premium (8), and bonus missions. While I can’t say much for the rewards, mainly because I struggle at this game at times, I will say that they’re pretty nice options to have, as well as good motivation to keep going. You should also note that the premium and bonus missions rewards are only available with the op-pass ($9.99). If you like the game, then it’s a no-brainer.
– Improved AI: I’m glad they improved the AI in this game. It’s now more than mannequins shooting at you. The enemies try in PvE now and are even complete bastards at times. It was a welcomed addition to the overall gameplay, and it helps you more with PvP matches.
Other things that come with this update is the use of Op-Pass and Hack Keys. Starting with the former, the op-pass essentially allows you access to all rewards and all things wonderful in this game. That doesn’t mean you come in fully loaded, rather it means you have access to elements in the game that free-pass doesn’t have access to from the start. You still have to earn the rewards and such, as well as progress.
The latter, Hack Keys, help you complete operational missions in the game, though you will not gain XP from them. You get full Crypto, though. Shockingly enough, they do cost money, but they keep the game funded, which is fine. They also get people continually interested in it, which is also fine. In this day and age of F2P, it’s not uncommon for these choices to be made in the gameplay design. The actual game itself is so darn good that there isn’t a lot a shade I want to cast on this option. I do enjoy the fact that you gain no XP, which makes this option a lot more balanced with regard to gameplay outcomes.
Beyond the above, there are contractors to be had, skins to be obtained, and skills to be unlocked (as well as other backend improvements). To put it shortly, this is a solid update that improves the game, but, as mentioned previously above, there is still room to grow.
Overall, Operation Nightfall is a welcomed addition to the Firewall Zero Hour family. It does bring more pros than cons but still needs a bit more love to truly get this on track to a perfect VR experience. It’s getting there, especially if more updates like this are released.
