 August 28, 2018. The day the PlayStation Virtual Reality headset got its first must-have multiplayer title with first contact entertainment's Firewall Zero Hour. It's hard to believe a year has already passed since Firewall released. This channel started gaining steam when I began covering Firewall months before its release because for some reason nobody else seemed to be talking about us, at least not as much as I had wanted. And after that, the hype built and it built until the game finally launched. The Firewall that released that day isn't exactly the same Firewall that we have one year later, and the journey we've been on to get here can be described as a rollercoaster ride of great highs and one month long lows. But one thing is clear, the ride is not over yet, so let's take a look back on the first year of Firewall's life. Full disclosure, before we begin, I am a community moderator for first contact entertainment, so while I'm not an employee, and the following opinions are my own genuine opinions, feel free to add some pinches of salt if you don't like how that smells. This video is a continuation of Firewall four months later, which itself was a continuation of Firewall one month later, so check those out if you're not up to date. But to give a quick recap, Firewall launched on August 28, 2018 and it was a success. It was the talk of PS viewer town, though not always for all the right reasons, other than some early feeding problems that were ironed out relatively quickly in updates. There was one large issue that had people complaining about Firewall from the get go, and that was a lack of dedicated servers and host migration. A first contact entertainment came out and said that because Firewall runs on Unreal Engine 4, which doesn't nasively support host migration, that to add such a thing would be a huge undertaking for them, but in the meanwhile, the team would look into other methods of alleviating the problems. And now, one year later, we of course know that the game still doesn't have host migration and getting kicked to the main menu because a host decided to leave is an understandable frustration that we still have to put up with to this day. However, Firewall does have something one year later that many people douse it back around launch, and that is of course a very active player base. There are very few PS viewer exclusive multiplayer games that can boast having quick fill-in lobbies one year after launch. Some people predicted Firewall would be dead after a few weeks, one game and review website even gave Firewall a lower grade because they suspected Firewall's lobbies would be a ghost town long before now, but here we are 12 months later, and as long as there's no matchmaking bugs at the time, you'll easily find a match in Firewall. And why is that? Well, despite First Contact Entertainment being on the receiving end of a lot of criticism over bugs and errors, some were deserved than others, the team have lived up to their word when they said Firewall was not a release and forget game for them, and steady support has added to the game over the last 12 months. Add to that the fact that Firewall has no real serious competition, yes, in its genre, and you have a recipe for a healthy player base. So how have First Contact Entertainment been supporting Firewall over the past year? Other than big balance changes like nerfing the grenade launcher, buffing the Taylor CQB and changing some laptop spawn locations on original maps, they've been busy adding new content into the game. In the first few months, they added free guns, a free map called Containment, new contractors to buy, Nash, Node and Jag, and their skills, though their skills were free for all to access and cosmetics to buy. And the content that was added to the game during those months followed this pattern of release, burying the map right up until May 2019 when everything changed. That is because in May 2019, Firewall did away with drop in DLC in a seemingly random manner in favor of a more structured approach in the form of seasons. The first of these seasons revealed was called Operation Nightfall, and it was to bring many changes to Firewall. Firstly and most nosesably, it revamped Firewall's user interface, giving us a fresh close up paint and given players much requested features like editing contractors in the lobby. Secondly, it established a new format for content release. Each season would last 12 weeks, at the start of the season, one contractor and one map would be available, and then halfway through the season, another contractor and another map would release. However, instead of paying for the contractors and cosmetic items like normal, Operation Nightfall also introduced op passes. These passes, which cost 10 dollars or euros, would allow you to access two new contractors as they released, as well as allow you to collect cosmetic rewards for completing the new operation missions. These operation missions are a series of tasks that unlock weekly, designed to give players goals to achieve and reward them with something a little more tangible than just XP and crypto, such as weapons and cosmetics, although daily tasks were also added for that purpose too. This new system did draw some criticism thanks to one key change. So before seasons, when a new contractor became available for purchase with their new skill, their skill would be added to the game for all to access, even if you didn't buy the contractor. But now, when a new contractor is released, that skill is only available to those who bought the op pass for the duration of the season, essentially making them timed exclusives to pay in customers. This was fairly harmless when it came to Ruby's skill, which let you loot dead bodies for crypto, but when Lynx released mid season with his ability to self revive, we entered into a bit more of a gray area. But that wasn't been talked about too much when Nightfall released, and that's because when Nightfall launched, Firewall entered into its darkest days, the great downtime of 2019. The update that brought operation Nightfall brought a bevy of other fixtures and improvements from the first contact entertainment team. However, it was apparent immediately that some of these changes were causing huge issues. Black screens, blue screen crashes, lobbies not filling, matchmaking not working for about an entire month. Firewall was absolutely plagued with these issues, and although first contact entertainment released updates after updates in quick succession, it was a long time before Firewall became reliable again, and we could enjoy the great new hanger and FOB maps. Thankfully, when Firewall's second season arrived, which is called Operation Darkweb, and that's the one we're currently in right now, its launch was a much, much smoother experience. Operation Darkweb follows the format established by Nightfall in terms of content. We got a new up pass to purchase, a new contractor at the start of the season, the knife throwing cane, and we got a brand new map, the newsroom map, which seems to be an instant fan favors. New weekly operations were added, one of which allows you to access one of two new guns coming in this season. However, Darkweb deviates from the Nightfall format by also adding a brand new equipment, for the very first time in the game's history. Now players can get a motion sensor, which they can place on the map to detect enemies through walls. It's a fairly big addition to the game, as it has directly impacted how people are playing, with some people being more cautious than before, slowing the pace of the game up a little bit. In the mid season updates, we can expect another new contractor, Proxy, who can apparently hack into camera feeds with her skill called Eagle Eye, and a new map called Cargo, which takes place on a cargo ship. We also know a new piece of equipment will be arriving called Instant Smoke, which is pretty much what it sounds like, a smoke grenade that detonates upon impact. Looking into the future, we know a third season is on the way, as it has been teased already and should arrive in October, and we can assume it will follow the general format established by the first two seasons, with a new up pass, two new contractors, and two new maps being pretty much guaranteed, along with new weekly missions. But will we see more seasons after that? Well, according to First Contact Entertainment's CEO, Hess Barber himself, who popped into one of my live streams, we will indeed see, and I quote, many more seasons. So even now, one year later, Firewall Zero Hour has a bright looking future ahead of us, but there is another game worth mentioning here. Solaris Off World Combats is a brand new virtual reality game from First Contact Entertainment, in development for both PSVR and PCVR. This game was teased back in June during the upload VR E3 showcase, but the tease was just of a title screen, so it's impossible to say how fair into development Solaris actually is. It seems to be in a very early stage. Now, why do I bring up Solaris? Well, First Contact Entertainment are a small studio, so it's only natural to wonder how much longer Firewall will be supported as their attention shifts to their newest title. According to Hess, we have many more months of Firewall to look forward to, and I know I'll be happy if we get a season 4, 5, and maybe even 6. And so here we are, one year since Firewall launched, and as we've discussed, a lot has changed. I particularly like the new seasonalicy of Firewall now. It always feels like there is something to look forward to just right around the corner, thanks to this change. And yes, we had one very rough month there, but it seems like the worst is behind us now. And yes, we still don't have host migration, and we might never even get those, but it's clearly not stopping people from playing. Firewall may also finally be getting some serious competition laser this year in the form of Alvo, if that game can live up to its expectations. But honestly, I won't be surprised if I'm here again in August 2020, making a Firewall 2 years laser video and talking about content that has still been this game. Maybe even a hardcore mode amongst us, I hope so at least. And that is it for this video lads and ladies. I hope you enjoyed this, and thank you for watching. Before I end the video, let me give a big thank you to my Patreon supporters who are on screen right now. Thanks to their generosity, I've been able to improve the quality of the content I've been making on this channel. And let me give a particular mention to Crumb and Peace Hawkins, who are supporting me on the top tier on Patreon for a shout-os in these videos. So thank you very much lads for your generosity. You can support me on Patreon too if you really like my content, the link will be in the description, but you can also help me out for free by liking and sharing and doing all that usual shite too, and I'll appreciate that as well. I'll see you in the next one. Bye for now.