Regarding the specific test content, Chen Sha had signed a confidentiality agreement, so he hadn’t disclosed anything in the group chat.

But players knew that this game was jointly developed by Tengda Games, Heavenly Fire Studio, and Longyu Group. It used Mr. Pei’s ideas and Tengda’s lead designer, with Heavenly Fire Studio providing the manpower and effort, while Longyu Group provided the funding and promotional resources.

Heavenly Fire Studio and Longyu Group might not always be reliable, but add Tengda and Mr. Pei to the mix, and it instantly became different!

Players were all speculating about what kind of game this would be.

“I heard Bullet Hole 2 is online now. Has anyone played it yet?”

“Not yet. Been busy visiting relatives during the New Year. Planning to find a net café with some childhood friends today to play together.”

“Why hasn’t Old Chen been streaming lately? Didn’t he say he’d stream in the afternoon of the second day of the Lunar New Year? I really wanted to see what Bullet Hole 2 is actually like.”

“I think we shouldn’t have too high expectations… Just look at that unfortunate name. Bullet Hole 1 flopped so badly, getting completely outclassed by Sea Fortress. Bullet Hole 2 is probably just more of the same, likely to get thrashed by Sea Fortress again. What do you call that? Like father, like son? Father and son failing together?”

“Not necessarily. Bullet Hole 2 came from Mr. Pei’s ideas and designer, so now it’s like left hand fighting right hand.”

“Ah, you don’t understand. Let me analyze it for you: Sea Fortress is Tengda’s cash cow. Do you think Mr. Pei would cut down his own money tree? Besides, this time it’s three companies developing together, and Tengda only gets 30%. If he really had good ideas, Mr. Pei would have used them himself. Why would he be so generous as to give them to others?”

“Right, I also think we shouldn’t have too high expectations for this game. It can’t be compared to Tengda’s own games.”

“According to insider information, Mr. Pei traded this idea to Longyu Group for one of their executives. From any perspective, Mr. Pei has no reason to give his full effort.”

“Not necessarily. Don’t always try to guess Mr. Pei’s intentions based on your own thinking. If everyone were as narrow-minded as you, could Tengda have grown so large?”

“Alright, alright, stop arguing. Old Chen is streaming now! What’s the point of discussing this in the cloud? Let’s go watch the stream. We’ll know if the game is good or not after seeing it!”

Fans from the chat group flooded into Chen Sha’s livestream.

By this time, Chen Sha was already waiting like a hunter by a rabbit hole—no, he was well-prepared. He had already downloaded Bullet Hole 2 in advance and had thoroughly explored the gameplay during the internal testing period.

But he hadn’t spoiled too much or hyped it up. He mainly wanted players to discover for themselves what made this game fun.

When Chen Sha first started testing, he was shocked by the game’s unique mechanics and imaginative design. He truly hadn’t expected that an FPS game could be made this way.

Logically speaking, after a series of classic games like Counter-Terrorism Plan and Sea Fortress had thoroughly explored the genre, FPS games should have been on a downward trend.

Many people believed that the decline of FPS games was inevitable. As the Sea Fortress generation of players gradually aged, FPS games would likely fade from the historical stage, and the future gaming world would probably be dominated by MOBA games and mobile games.

But after seeing Bullet Hole 2, Chen Sha had completely abandoned such thoughts. He saw that FPS games still held infinite possibilities!

As a streamer, Chen Sha wanted to deliver the best streaming experience to his audience; and as a veteran FPS player, he also wanted to promote good FPS games and expand the FPS player community as much as possible.

Bullet Hole 2 was exactly the kind of excellent game that could do this.

…

Bullet Hole 2 supported multiple login methods, including Longyu Group accounts, and naturally also offered Tengda account login.

This was inevitable, since Bullet Hole 2 had been heavily advertised as being based on Mr. Pei’s idea and designed by Tengda’s senior designer. Supporting Tengda account login was only natural.

The level of cooperation between the three companies was significant. While Tengda’s exact attitude was unclear, Longyu Group and Heavenly Fire Studio were definitely determined to make a comeback and earn big money through Bullet Hole 2.

After entering the game, unlike Sea Fortress with its story mode, players went directly to the waiting lobby after a quick character creation.

The character creation system wasn’t complex and was divided into two parts: when first entering the game, you could only adjust the character’s base, hairstyle, clothing, and a few limited options. Later in the game, you could fine-tune your character as long as you wanted.

Fortunately, the initial character bases provided were all very attractive and aesthetically pleasing.

This design served as a kind of guidance: encouraging players to quickly finish character creation and experience the core gameplay. Of course, those who couldn’t live without perfecting their characters could take their time in the game lobby.

It had to be said that the staff at Heavenly Fire Studio were a bunch of perverts who knew exactly what they were doing. They didn’t make many male characters, and those were unremarkable and ordinary, but the female characters were different—every base looked good no matter how you adjusted them.

This was a traditional strength of Chinese game companies, or rather Asian game companies, far ahead of Western character creation.

Chen Sha was experienced and naturally chose a female character, because the game had a third-person TPS mode, and no one wanted to stare at a male character’s butt all day in that perspective.

Melodious background music echoed in the preparation lobby, and the lobby’s background was also noteworthy.

Behind the character was a vast plain, with the ground surface generally appearing desolate and yellow, but occasionally dotted with oasis-like grasslands. It looked somewhat like an abandoned battlefield, with a hint of alien landscape.

In the distance were towering mountains and tall, tech-filled buildings. Nearby, you could see the details of buildings and ground surfaces—some buildings and surfaces were rusty and weathered, while others were sleek and bright, like future tech or alien technology.

Many different styles were cleverly blended together, and you could roughly judge the story background and purpose of an area through the environment and appearance of buildings.

Characters wore ordinary military uniforms during character creation, but now they were changed into high-tech battle suits.

These high-tech battle suits differed somewhat in style from the battle suits in the Sea Fortress and Duty and Choice crossover DLC. It seemed that Bullet Hole 2’s technology was far more advanced than Bullet Hole 1, higher than Sea Fortress, but lower than Duty and Choice.

Additionally, characters had some special accessories, and the equipment at different body positions would change based on the character’s role and scavenged resources.

For example, the battery of the radiation suit at the chest position would change color according to its power level; the armband on the right arm would clearly indicate the difference between battlefield commander, squad leader, and ordinary soldier with striking patterns; and tools related to professions would hang at the waist and back, such as medical boxes for doctors and toolboxes for engineers.

For experienced players like Chen Sha, these were all details.

For viewers who hadn’t played before, although they didn’t know that all these details corresponded to in-game mechanics, they could feel that this game was completely different from both Bullet Hole 1 and Sea Fortress.

“Wait, this is Bullet Hole 2? What the hell does this have to do with Bullet Hole 1?”

“I can’t find any similarities in the visuals at all. If I had to say there’s a connection… maybe both games use special training as their background? But that’s not unique to Bullet Hole; it’s a common feature of most Chinese FPS games…”

“Is this the correct way to develop a sequel: First, announce you’re developing a sequel to Bullet Hole; then, develop any random game; finally, forcibly call it Bullet Hole 2?”

“It looks like a sci-fi style, reminds me of Sea Fortress DLC. Should be pretty exciting! But… why isn’t there a story mode?”

Quite a few viewers were concerned about the lack of a story mode.

The success of Sea Fortress had made story modes quite popular. An excellent story mode could better guide players, helping them become familiar with basic operations and weapon systems.

As a new FPS game, it should have a story mode for everyone to experience, as this would significantly lower the entry barrier.

Chen Sha smiled slightly.

Why was there no story mode? Because for Bullet Hole 2, it truly wasn’t necessary!

The reason Sea Fortress originally included a story mode was fundamentally because Sea Fortress’s game mechanics and gameplay weren’t different enough from other FPS games. Although Sea Fortress had Ghost Mode and Zombie Mode, these alone weren’t enough to completely outshine Counter-Terrorism Plan and Bullet Hole.

Facts had indeed proven that Sea Fortress’s story mode was eye-opening for players at that time, becoming one of its biggest advantages.

But now, the gaming environment had changed, and Bullet Hole 2’s game mechanics were extremely rich, completely different from all FPS games currently on the market. This differentiation was enough, so there was no longer a need for a story mode. Instead, the focus was on showcasing these new mechanics.

“I’ve created a squad. We’ll start when it’s full, so it depends on your reflexes.”

Chen Sha logged in with his Tengda Games account, which had many fans and friends who played Sea Fortress together, so his squad filled up instantly after he created it.

Clicking the start game button, he found three different modes, each with a brief introduction.

The first was “Deathmatch Mode,” which, as the name suggested, was a pure shooting mode where players selected a small area on the large map and went in just to shoot.

The second was “Survival Mode,” where players entered, scavenged for resources, and tried to survive. The last person standing would be the ultimate winner.

The third was “Campaign Mode,” which built on the survival mode but transitioned into a red versus blue team battle. Players could fully utilize map mechanics and resources, respawn after death, and capture strategic locations under the command of the battlefield commander to achieve final victory.