We are one week from Shadowkeep, Season of the Undying and a totally fresh series of changes coming to Destiny 2 as a whole. All these changes seem to be very positive, but what is still holding Destiny 2 back from being amazingly perfect? What things have changed over the last two years that should continue in the game? What needs a drastic change? I’m going to break down what I think have been great additions to Destiny 2 and what I think should still be addressed in the following seasons of year 3 and beyond. This isn’t a complete list obviously, but here are ten things that can really shape the future of Destiny as a franchise if dealt with correctly. First, Let’s talk positives, what is making this game all it can be.
Welcome to Build-A-Guardian!
When the Black Armory first came out, the idea of getting a weapon frame, then work on it as a quest, and then going to a forge to make the weapon seemed like a dream. Being able to hunt for roles on the new machine gun or a deadly pulse rifle was an amazing start. There were some lengthy quests and the variety in the pool dried up quick, but it was a great start. The Reckoning had a somewhat similar idea with farming for certain Gambit Prime sets, but the grind was too difficult at the time, the gear was really only useful in one game mode and the RNG for getting the right armor pieces or guns was far too unfavorable.
This all brings us to this season. The Menagerie is the best tool we’ve gotten so far. With some requirements of activity completions like the Forges and some Calice/Rune slotting similar to the Dawning’s Baking, we get to choose the exact weapon or armor we want from the pool with the masterwork of our choice too. This allowed the community to farm for specific rolls and powerful combinations at our pace. It looks like Shadowkeep’s Rune Table (or Lectern of Enchantment) will be this season’s/year’s way to make gear that we want. I hope that they keep bringing us new ways for us to work hard for the things we truly want.
Telling Stories, One Guardian At A Time
After Forsaken’s campaign, we had new weekly visits with Mara Sov to further the story and lore of the Dreaming City, Last Wish, and Shattered Throne. The story didn’t really progress too much, but we saw glimpses deeper into the Destiny world and what might come in the eventual future. The Black Armory brought us an interesting closed story but unfortunately resulted in virtually nothing. Season of the Drifter’s story and various cutscenes with the Invitations of the Nine were a refreshing take on Destiny story-telling model. It was like literally reading a book or watching a TV series being released every week for nine weeks.
I think Bungie will still roll out with a few major story quests at the beginning of each season, but every week could have a growing and progressing story that will allow players to hit the story as they want, or participate in the stories and change the Destiny universe together. I hope they continue this slower burn of content because we normally get more in total and it gives us good reason to keep coming back.
Quest Grinds Galore
In order to get things like the Menagerie Rune’s or Reckoning materials, players just had to play the game with a few specific weapons or objectives in mind. Being able to play the game with a few specific guns in order to complete Exotic quests like Lumina or the pinnacle weapons was great. It felt fair. It felt like I was actually making progress filling in data for Forge weapon frames or collecting Hive Fragments to rebuild Thorn. These specific and reasonable quests should be able to be done in a day or two for the most hardcore players and take most of the season for more casual players. I think these quests are a great way to add long term goals to the game while completing those daily and weekly bounties.
Contest On Contests
Adding in Contest into the World’s First Raid Race was a stroke of genius. Simple, straightforward and makes sense, players can only get help from their power levels up to a certain amount. This meant that the Raid would truly be about which team solves the puzzles and fight the enemies the best. They will be continuing Contest in the Garden of Salvation raid, which was also moved to Saturday the 5th, another great choice to have it on the weekend for more player to play and the hardcore player not have to take off days of work in order to play.
Match Made In Heaven
In the past, strikes and Crucible were the only things that were match-made for years. We had a few other small things up until Year 2. With Gambit, Forges, the Reckoning and the Menagerie, we started to see more large scale and complex activities that would set you with same level players to take on real challenges and get really good rewards. This brings solo players and even big clan players a lot more options to connect with the general public of Destiny while doing truly challenging tasks.
Yes, Destiny is at its best with a group of friends working together with mics and stuff, but there is something special about working through huge battles and completing tasks with the random void of people online. Whether it’s matching emotes, clutch revives or collaborations supers attacks, it means a lot to find like minded people online that you can accomplish something with and never have to speak a word. I hope that Bungie brings more of these activities and open world cooperation into the world of Destiny, it will continue to bring the community together.
Now that we’ve talked about all the good things of the past, let’s talk about things that could use some work or should be drastically altered for the betterment of Destiny’s lifespan.
Secrets, Secrets Are Always Fun
We loved finding Whisper of the Worm. The mysteries of the Naiobe Labs and Black armory were fantastic. The IRL Javelin from Warmind, the wishes and even the first discoveries of the Shattered Throne were all so real and tangible. Messaging friends or frantically looking for ways to solve the puzzle with others in message boards brought this game to like almost unlike anything else. So all I have to say is that I hope the Bungie continues to do things like this. They have shown off a lot of the exotic quests and dungeons, which is great, but they lose a little bit of their impact when it is announced on a blog post instead of the slow creep of secrets being passed by word of mouth between the community. I hope they keep some secrets for the community to find and solve in the coming years.
You Get A Gun, You Get The Same Gun and You Do Too
Now, to get into the nit picking. It is really great to have a bunch of guns from various vendors, quests, planets and seasons. However, I am starting to want a lot less reskins or slight variations in gun, and just want a few guns that feel totally different. For example, I have yet to find a Shotgun that feels as good as my Parcel of Stardust. I know there are objectively better shotguns, however, they all just seem to be a little faster or slower or do a little more or less damage. I would love to see the pool of guns slashed and only have hand fulls of legendary guns that would drop with drastically diverse rolls and perks. So instead of getting every shotgun imaginable, you would only get one of three distinguished shotgun types that would have random perks. This would allow for people to hunt for favorite rolls a lot more instead of swapping to whatever gun is objectively best or trashing dozens of guns without even trying them out. I understand that we are going to hit a new strand of Destiny 2 with Shadowkeep, but I just hope Bungie can see (and they are starting to) that the community doesn’t want (that I know of) hundreds of guns that are all barely different, but a couple dozen that allow players to lean into the personal play style.
The Good, The Bad, and The Quests
When all of us first started the Black Amory, the demon known as “quests grinds” showed its head much more than ever before. I’m over exaggerating, but I will say that as most of Bungie’s quests have been fixed for their Exotic guns and especially to get into a season’s main activity, there are still a few times that a quest or grind goes way too far. Let’s consider the Solstice of Heroes. There were three levels of armor, the armor looked great and it would be readily available to us once Shadowkeep comes out as Armor 2.0. Good stuff, but in order to get a sparrow and special emblem from this event, a player would have to have complete sets on all characters. This meant playing through various activities for hours on end just to have a chance to finish it and then do that exact same grind two more times. Most people didn’t get close to finishing all three, let alone barely finishing one set of armor. Then there was the nerf in some of the armor quests, having to complete a whole set before working on the next set, and the extra glows costing a huge amount of bright dust or real money even after all the grind.
It was doable and the new activity was fun for sure, however, how many hours a day does Bungie want us to sacrifice for one sparrow or armor set (especially in a limited time event)? I understand that some end game and higher level grinds should be available, but it still was a somewhat unpleasant grind or unobtainable for a large chunk of the community. All this said I hope that Bungie considers what really makes a quest grind fun, and what kind of rewards are worth those more intense grinds.
Why Do We Even PVP?
I love playing PVP content. Crucible in just about all modes and Gambit and Gambit Prime are all lots of fun. But I think the player base needs a real reward for seasonal progression and time spent in these activities. Tournaments, special ornaments, vehicles or even emblems and emotes to show the amount of time and skill displayed against other guardians. How cool would it be to have a special emote be for those top 1,000 Crucible players? I wouldn’t be one cause I’m terrible, but it would be sick to see someone show that off, then you would know not to mess with them or be happy they will carry you in competitive. I just think that even a more real ranking system other than Glory that rewarded certain things at the end of seasons would be great instead of some enhancement cores and pieces of forgettable legendary gear.
Bungie has come out saying that they will be focusing on PVP a lot more this year. They want players to want to hop in and hear Shaxx yelling all sorts of nonsense all the time. I hope to see a lot more PVP maps, balance attention, and general love.
Bungie has a lot to work ahead to make Destiny the game they and the community want it to be, but it doesn’t mean that the game isn’t already amazing. With so many activities, weapons, armor and things to do, Destiny 2 year 2 was great overall and year 3 has a very bright future for all guardians. Let us know what you love about Destiny 2 right now and what you would want to change.
