Let’s discuss some problems. The Season of the Witch is over, and so it’s time for the Season of the Wish in Destiny 2. And the first problem is that nothing really changed.
The Season of the Witch provided players with a plotline that revolved around Eris Morn becoming the Hive Goddess. You know what they say about the enemy if your enemy? This statement holds true for Destiny 2 as well, with Witch Queen’s Ghost Immaru offering a safer way to enter the Witness’ portal. All that Savathun demands in return is the death of her sister Xivu Arath.
Players spent time looking for the Whisper Cards (something like the tarot) that would buff allies while destroying the hive, and bringing “tribute” to Eris so that she could finally harm Xivu Arath. We endlessly farmed the Arena again and again: arrived, presented offerings, started a fight, completed a quest, and dived in again all to get a box with a bunch of shitty loot and go at it again. Sometimes we’d spice up the routine with a visit to the Savathun Spire that we’d clean along the same route from the very beginning and until the final boss.
We also had other activities: for example, the task of Commander Zavala to go through a raid. Or maybe a Nightfall! Or how about Gambit’s tasks where you are tasked to kill monsters, collect particles from them and defeat a Primeval. Because millions of Primevals killed before are not enough.
Or, maybe, it’s time to tackle the orders of Lord Shanx? Dive into PvP arenas, capture flags, ensure your team’s survival, plant a bomb or even become the King of the Hill? Sounds good, but over the last 3 years I’ve had just just about enough PvP fights. Limited-time PvP events and challenges would be great if it weren’t for the fact that Iron Banner or Trial of Osiris have long since become stale.
This is Destiny 2’s main problem: the lack of something innovative and new. Of course the developers continue to introduce new dungeons and raids. But even those cannot really boast brand-new gameplay, instead offering the same mechanics under a new coat of paint. Endless, monotonous monster-slaying in any activity got seriously old by now. Crucible. Gambit. Raids. All of it and more like it happened 3 years ago.
As an example, we’ve spent 2 hours doing the seasonal quest related to the collection of Orbs of Power. We chose Nightfall as our activity, knowing that we’ll be facing endless enemies until the first stage is over. Ults netted us 5 to 7 Orbs, melee attacks just one… Nad you have to collect a thousand per person, with there being 3 of us. We farmed these 3k orbs for 2 hours and then swapped to another game, having grown bored with the grind.
To not simply provide unsubstantiated claims, here are some stats and the dungeon report:
If earlier dungeons lasted 15 to 30 minutes maximum, the new Bungie’s policy of complication simply overwhelms you with the number of mobs, damage from enemies and dozens of attacks per second from your surroundings.
I have a build that is aimed at survival, with 100 points of resist on the armor. There is absorption of damage from AoE attacks, from elemental attacks, healing and regeneration from orbs, and more. But the second we arrive at the arena with the boss, me and/or my team constantly die. To be more precise, I personally die from 2 enemy attacks. Let me note that enemies almost never shoot past you. 2-3 attacks from enemies that hit you within a second of each other, and you easily croak. It feels like the resist stat doesn’t matter anymore and the armor properties don’t really work.
I am not a true hardcore player that solo a raid, no, I consider myself a casual player that enjoys the game on its average difficulty. And I clearly understand that our clear time is not perfect, our characters have average gear, and we down bosses not in one but in three-four phases. But even our hardcore guildmates complain about the sheer number of mobs, about the damage, and the overall stuffiness of the game.
Destiny 2 is really trying to choke its players with the boring arenas, the typical bosses, the same weapons that is the recolor of old models with a couple of perks. Another peeve of mine is that beautiful armor comes from microtransactions only as of late.
The game’s content has become so meager that we can’t help but worry about the upcoming expansion – Destiny 2: The Final Shape. It becomes even more worrisome if you take into account the layoffs. According to Bloomberg about a hundred people lost their jobs, 8% of Bungie’s total staff (1,200). Support departments (public relations, publishing) were hit the hardest. Even before the layoffs, Bungie’s CEO Pete Parsons predicted a 45% decline in studio revenue in 2023 due to the loss of Destiny 2 players after the release of Lightfall and low pre-orders for The Final Shape.
Even among my guildies, quite a few simply canceled their pre-orders of The Final Shape due to the layoffs, the expansion being postponed and the “development” current seasons are going through.
One of my guildies shared his opinion on the last couple of seasons. With the help of the guild, he reached the 100th level of the season pass right before it was over:
“The previous season was so interesting that I played it for a total of 5 days: two in the beginning and three just before it was over. At least this time the game actually features an interesting plot that managed to intrigue me. Seasonal challenges were also changed in order to make them more casual, previously I had to start working at it a month before the season was over, but now all I needed was three days”.
Overall, our guild liked one of the two seasonal activities and the seasonal crafting weapons. But Lightfall’s problem continues to travel from season to season: too many mobs! This is especially noticeable in the second seasonal activity that looks like a set of timed arenas with various difficulty levels.
There, the number of opponents and their overall damage make the gameplay incredibly unattractive and as stuffy as possible. Otherwise, we have just another average Destiny 2 season with the same annoying distribution community that had been forced down the community’s throat over the last 15 seasons. I really hope that they change at least something up for The Final Shape, or it might truly become the last expansion of Destiny 2.
Another problem of Bungie’s is the approach similar to Blizzard’s: Fun Detected, Fun Nerfed, and the extension of the season. It will last for 7 months total. Seriously? What are players going to do all of this time?
Participate in the New Year event that had not been changed over the 3 years of the game’s existence and still provides the same gameplay and rewards? The rest of the events are also simply reruns of their 2022’s counterparts without changes even to the visuals of the rewards. I have no idea if Bungie truly believes it to be the apex of entertainment to farm the same thing for the 3rd year in a row, but the start of the NY event const us even more people.
“The beginning of the season brought us a new dungeon that turned out to be quite good if you close your eyes to the hell that happens on the final boss. The theme of the season and its plot advancement are intriguing, but, as always, I will log into the game at the very end of the season to get everything and leave again. For a long time Destiny 2 has felt like shift work that you approach every three months. Except now it is SEVEN months. And I absolutely have no idea what we’re going to do in the game all this time”.
Lately all new Destiny 2 content had been there only for a quick run through. Crota’s End raid was of this kind back in the original Destiny and got added to the sequel without much change. The entire raid had already been completed by a solo player. Loot is not very interesting besides finishing off your collection and adding it to transmog. Pit of Heresy, a 5-year old raid, still looks more interesting. It’s worth running through it once when you have nothing better to do just to refresh what happened in the original Destiny in your mind.
Similar thing is happening with the dungeons: pretty visuals, but nothing beyond them. Endless hordes of mobs bashing at you along with the bosses are a sad solution to the complexity of the encounters. And I won’t get tired of repeating: there are too many of them.
The new content amounts to the stuffiness and grind brought to the absolute. I hope that Bungie listens to their players, and The Final Shape will bring something different, something worth it.
