The Long Game
Developer/publisher Bungie Format PC, PS4, Xbox One Release 2017
Progress g reports p on the games g we just can’t quit, featuring the indie identity crisis of Destiny 2
One year on from Bungie’s shocking split from Activision, the picture of the future of Destiny as made by an independent studio is much clearer. To put it another way: there is no more room for excuses. A little slack could be cut in the Forsaken era, as Bungie suddenly found itself with neither publishing support nor the help of the Activision satellite studios that contributed significantly to the making of Destiny’s 2018 expansion. Two seasons in to the Shadowkeep era, Bungie’s vision for Destiny is taking shape. We’re not sure we like what we see.
Prior to Shadowkeep’s release last September, series director Luke Smith explained his frustration at how big Destiny 2 had become. Just about every activity, in every game mode and on every planetary destination, was a source of high-level (or ‘powerful’, as Destiny styles it) gear. We liked this structure; we could log on and do whatever we felt like without feeling like our time would be better spent on an activity we didn’t enjoy. But Destiny has now been condensed. Each season comes with a new activity type or two, with its own loot pool; three months later, the seasons roll over, and those activities and gear are gone for good.
Not that we are pining for Vex Offensive, the signature game mode in the now-departed Season Of
The Undying, a bland Horde mode we were tired of within a week. And Bungie’s new approach to storytelling across seasons – the story builds to a notional crescendo which lays the narrative foundations for the next instalment – is yet to bear fruit. The much-hyped battle against the Undying Mind, the supposed climax of Season Of The Undying, was merely Vex Offensive with a different boss battle.
Yet our real concern is with that structure, and what it means for the casual player. Not only are we funnelled into certain activities if we want to maximise our levelling; we must do them knowing that much of what we gain will only be temporary. The battle-passstyle Season Pass allows infinite progression, but only until the end of the current season; the Seasonal Artifact, which lets you slot unique powers and mods into weapons and armour pieces, also expires every three months, and the armour sets you spent the season building will need replacing with drops from the new season. It’s a structure that stings both daily and casual players, the former losing their hard-won gear and progress, the latter standing at the bottom of a mountain they can climb a third of before they’re booted back to base camp. Bungie has much to figure out; for now, our climbing gear is back in the loft.