The Culling 2 Officially Declared Dead, First Game Goes F2P

Not every title that tries it hand at Battle Royale makes it and that's the tumultous ride that The Culling 2 faced. But it wasn't simply detrimental numbers, it crashed and burned so hard that the developer himself has decided to pull the sequel from shelves entirely. This news comes shortly after Xavient opened up about doing some "soul searching" regarding the future of their studio.

The director of operations over at Xaviant, Josh Van Veld, took center stage in the video above to discuss the failure of The Culling 2 and where they go from here. "The culling 2 was not a game that you asked for, it's not the game that you'd expect to be a worthy successor to The Culling." Because of that, they have pulled the game entirely.

For those that have already purchased the sequel will be receiving full refunds as the director reaches out to Steam and various other clients concerning their full withdraw. It is very easy to see in the video above that this was not a decision made lightly and that it does in fact impact the team in a very big way. It's not an easy situation to be in, and certainly not a comfortable place to be at when seeing a project launch to such a negative perception.

The game itself shows a "very negative" review score on Steam itself, with many calling it a "blatant cash grab" and in no way faithful to the first title. One user even said, "This game is beyond disappointing. Not even as a failed successor to The Culling 1, but as a video game on its own. Graphics are worse than a mobile game, character/gun models/assets all look borrowed, animations are terrible. When you bandage you hold an invisible roll of bandages and there are no quick keys for using bandages/stims (and no way to customize keybinds). Guns are hilariously unrealistic. There are no swimming or ladder-climbing animations, instead you awkwardly hop up boxes to get on top of certain structures and you just walk on top of the bodies of water.

If you expected a sequel to The Culling 1, this is not it. There are melee weapons but there are so many guns, melee weapons aren't viable. The announcer exists, but only in sporadic speakers throughout the map. I think I heard him twice in the 15ish games I played. Other than that, this game has nothing to do with The Culling 1."

The first game will be relaunching and when it does, it will be entirely free-to-play. Though unfortunately the sequel could not be enjoyed by many, the first title did have a lot to offer players in terms of experience and an enjoyable play style.