Opinion: Lightfall Has Shown a Problem With Destiny
I have been with the franchise since the Destiny 1 Beta. I have donated to nearly every cause Bungie has run via their Bungie Foundation or the Bungie Store. I’ve most of the emblems, roughly everything from Eververse and quite a bit of Destiny merch, and I even made the effort to snag those ghost shell fragments from the all-but-failed GCX Space Station scavenger hunt. I enjoy the game, the lore, and the friendships I’ve forged along my Destiny journey through both games. With all of that said, some glaring issues with Destiny 2 need to be addressed in a public forum, as I don’t feel Bungie is delivering for their community.
Since the release of Lightfall, the most recent expansion for Destiny 2. Nearly everything done to the game feels like it was implemented to extend play time, boosting Bungie’s playtime hours. Most of what has been added or changed feels cheap and grindy. With a few relatively common sense changes, the game would see a boost in playtime hours from folks genuinely wanting to play or grind. Much of the “grind” thus far with Lightfall/Defiance feels unnecessary, mainly regarding the Guardian rank and commendations system.
The Problem With Guardian Rank and the Commendations System
Guardian Ranks and the Commendations system were added recently to Destiny 2. As with most things Bungie lately, it is underwhelming at best and most certainly disappointing. Especially given that they’ve had to make changes multiple times since launch. It makes someone like me wonder who thought it was a good idea. I would pay good money to be able to sit in on their weekly brainstorming sessions if only to ask: “Walk me through your thought process on how you arrived at this being a good idea or a solid path forward”.
I know certain players will respond with: “People will always cheese things”. While this is true if players regularly look into how to put up with issues. Instead of bringing them up and combating them, then these problems need to be looked at or addressed. The same could be applied to the Guardian Rank system overall. In past seasons, your accomplishments had a running tally. This meant that if you completed a milestone early in the season and later it dropped as a seasonal challenge, it was already marked complete.
That has seemingly gone away in the seasonal challenges and the Guardian Rank grind. Paired with the recently increased difficulty and bullet sponginess of nearly every enemy in the game. Something like grinding five master lost sectors multiple times is not the most fun way to spend my time in Destiny 2. Especially when I already had to do that a couple of Guardian ranks ago. The commendations for farming, giving, and receiving add a passive-aggressive element that the game certainly didn’t need.
Folks seem to hand them out until they hit their needed Hawthorne cap. Then it feels like good luck on receiving a commendation from anyone other than folks in your fire team. As Bungie said, the whole Guardian rank and commendation system was supposed to show others who the knowledgeable, helpful, and talented Destiny 2 players were. But with the repeated nerfs to requirements, what’s the point? I’ve seen plenty of rank 8’s and 9’s that didn’t know mechanics. Or failed to bring load-outs capable of stunning the champions in an activity. This is on top of the fact that for the first two weeks of Lightfall. You couldn’t even inspect your Commendations screen without your game crashing.
Personal Distaste of Neomuna in Destiny 2
Neomuna, the latest destination for Guardians to explore, feels like a dollar-store version of a Halo forge map. It feels lifeless and devoid of any real character. When paired with the story we’ve experienced thus far, it makes little sense what purpose the locale serves other than offering more to do. The location and characters feel shoehorned and unnecessary for Destiny 2’s story overall. Take all of that, then add Nimbus, and I have little desire to do anything on Neomuna unless necessary for a pinnacle. Especially when considering that many times I’ll load into the terminal overload area to either find it empty or that someone has pulled the heavy and bounced out, leaving any who want to start it up short on ammo.
The Vex Incursion also feels half-baked and not very fun, if for no other reason than a similar lack of players in the area. As well as spawn times that can overwhelm the lack of players. Between the nearly empty load zones, destinations, and the inconsistency with high-value target health, public event elements, and an annoying hydra in Liming Harbor. Neomuna is the least favorite destination I’ve encountered in my Destiny travels. Nimbus doesn’t help, as they are the most annoying NPC in the Destiny universe.
Why couldn’t we have a Gears 5 choice between them or Rohan? Most people I feel would have chosen Rohan over Nimbus. Nimbus is simply a poorly written, poorly voice-acted, and poorly implemented character. As Bungie is a strong advocate for inclusion and representation. It feels, to me at least, that Nimbus simply deserved better treatment as they are the first non-binary individual in Destiny 2. Osiris, Saint-14, and Ana all seem to receive stronger overall treatment in their representation. Rohan was not much better if I’m being completely honest. Paired with Osiris’ growing need for approval and dependency on praise. Many characters show signs of creativity and writing fatigue. But Nimbus, unfortunately, trumps them all for me.
Concern For Bungie’s Image Behind the Scenes
I had a bad feeling about Lightfall for a while. But it certainly worsened when they released the ViDoc just before launch. 90% of the folks in the video were new faces. That wasn’t a good look for a game heavy in lore, on a nine-year run, and a community with a level of expectations that certainly were not met. It feels as though Bungie has shifted nearly any and all with any Destiny 2 hands-on experience to one of the other IPs they are currently developing. This is paired with the lack of transparency on seemingly simple issues. Whether that be for story, continuity, or gameplay mechanics. This all cemented that feeling and certainly looks like that is how Bungie is operating these days.
Each week feels more disappointing than the last. When the Seasonal story intro mission is 10x as engaging and interesting as the entirety of the Lightfall campaign. That’s a problem but Season of Defiance is in no way a great Season either, however. It is far better than the Lightfall story, location, and characters. Even so, Queen Mara comes across as hamstrung, Amanda Holiday’s fate was plastered on the wall from week 1. The subsequent lack of attention to detail in not only the seasonal story but the expansion overall has me genuinely curious if the “Destiny Killer” that has been rumored all these years is, in fact, Bungie themselves.
The lack of attention to detail seems worse in Destiny 2 now, more so than it has ever been. Eververse store issues, improperly labeled item names, icons, characters, events, and the like scream that the folks that truly cared about Destiny 2 have moved on to new projects. While those who are working the game now are simply keeping it running to keep players interested in the final expansion and keep them spending their time and money in and on Destiny 2.
Monetization Concerns for Destiny 2
Eververse was supposed to fund all the secret missions and fun stuff, according to Bungie. The prices continue to go up, and they recently said they were done with the secret stuff because it was too hard to do well. Funny how with everything that is wrong with Destiny 2 or that glitches, things that do not work as intended. Eververse keeps running and taking money without fail.
Normally that sort of thing wouldn’t bother me. But with the apparent lack of investment from Bungie. To the Eververse team, I have to ask a similar question: “Who thought this was a good idea?”. Destiny 1 had cool armor and weapon skins. Destiny 2 also has those, but not nearly as consistent or of the quality of the first game in my opinion. Bungie wants Eververse to be a cash cow. Cool, but give players a reason to spend their money on more unique commodities.
Offer that flaming blue skull from Destiny 1’s Festival of the Lost. Offer hologram and animated armor effects similar to those from Destiny 1’s raids. Why not offer boons to help boost RNG chances at armor, weapon, ship, and sparrow drops? Run flash sales every so often to entice player spending. Additionally, you could make everything in the store available for bright dust and lengthen the opportunities to earn it. I’d love to see Bungie offer the same server rental option that Battlefield 4 offered.
Let me rent my server, have my tower, and let me have the opportunity to purchase or earn themes for my tower. that others can load into. Festival of the Lost in Spring, The Dawning in July, or Crimson Days on Turkey Day, sounds like a solid plan to me! As well as Boons to help/significantly boost the chances to earn bright dust and other materials needed to build craft, transmog, and upgrade gear. A boon that increases drop rates for Raid and Dungeon armor, weapons, or exotics. I’d buy them by the dozen. Players would also likely spend hours grinding requirements to earn enough bright dust to buy the above items, provided they were all offered for bright dust and silver.
A Downward Trend
Speaking of materials, what is the issue with strand memories? When I finished acquiring all the needed aspects and fragments for one character. I could no longer earn or collect strand memories on that character. Similarly, once I had enough to purchase all the remaining items needed for my other two characters. I stopped collecting strand memories from the sources around Neomuna. As Bungie stated we’re getting more aspects and fragments in the future. Another unnecessary and artificial playtime extender. If I want to grind out and collect 25k strand memories, I should be able to. However, if I have no further need for them, I should be able to dismantle them for any one of the various currencies.
I say all of this not solely because I’ve become bitter and cynical toward Bungie and their ability to deliver. I say all this because I enjoy playing both Destiny games. It is a massive disappointment that everything regarding narrative, quality of content, respect for community members’ time invested playing the Destiny games, and the appearance of an utter disregard for the money folks spend on the game go through this downward trend.
As someone who made a career out of “expectation management/realignment” and “making the magic happen” regarding deliverables to those I worked with and for. It has become exhausting to see and hear Bungie meander about in near-blatant mediocrity. This minimally viable product is a depressing strategy. That shows that the core of the Destiny team has either moved on or is no longer willing to put in the effort to deliver a quality product. In regards to the minimum effort they continue to put forth, at this point, to quote Alan Shore: “It’s either consent, acquiescence, or disinterest; take your pick”. But I think it’s safe to say they don’t much care. As evidenced by the repeated substandard deliveries, and fixes we regularly receive.
In Conclusion
Please take all of this, and apply it to a restaurant analogy. You’d be furious if each offering Bungie makes were a meal you were paying for at a restaurant. Half the time, your order comes out wrong; there is a bread basket with butter but no bread or knife; there’s a glass with ice but no beverage but at the end of the “meal”. You would still be expected to pay the total price and tip well.
Bungie has lost multiple steps as time went on. It is time, I feel, that the community stopped tolerating it and showing Bungie that we are, in fact, tired of it by voting with their wallets and investing their time into other games that are either more rewarding, work properly, or are cultivated by a team that is clearly still motivated and driven to provide the best product they can. Not just a product that will put butts in seats and controllers in hands.
Full Article Credit by: Matt Aka Sarco.
