Destiny 2 is at a crossroads. The common state of the sport, combined with several shady practices and the poorly handled communication thereof, have conspired such that it feels just like the loyalty of a big chunk of its participant base is hanging by a thread.
Here’s everything we know about Destiny 2’s upcoming Curse of Osiris DLC.
Last week, after SE7EN.WS and others coated reviews from the group that Destiny 2 was throttling XP rewards, artificially slowing players’ progress toward loot boxes, Bungie admitted that such a system existed. This was by no means defined to gamers, or linked to gameplay – it was not like an RPG limiting your XP beneficial properties since you are in Zombie standing, or one thing. This is a sport taking the rewards it promised gamers, and slashing them behind their backs.
I wrote last year about games’ innate fairness being part of their appeal – for essentially the most half, you already know what rewards to anticipate for the hassle you place in. That’s justice. No marvel so many individuals are so indignant about Destiny 2’s newest controversy – it appears like theft.
Bungie didn’t assist issues with their treatment. They deactivated the system, sure, however they then doubled the XP required to achieve a stage. That little nugget was not noted of the information replace accompanying the supposed repair, so the group needed to do extra testing to determine it out, that means any sense of gratitude to Bungie was quickly soured by one more nasty shock. I perceive that it was Thanksgiving within the US on the finish of final week, however would one other paragraph within the replace, explaining why Bungie felt it essential to double the XP cap, actually have been so onerous so as to add?
There’s a recurring notion on Reddit that the dearth of transparency is the actual downside. Yes, some folks will at all times need every thing totally free, however I’ve seen loads of upvoted feedback saying they don’t thoughts a little bit of a grind for a loot field, however when you find yourself led to anticipate rewards at a sure price, solely to find via testing and frustration that the speed is way harsher, that’s not truthful.
It jogs my memory of Destiny 2’s first scandal, when an in any other case clean launch – with console veterans delighted by numerous quality-of-life modifications – was soured by the invention that shaders could be single-use. They may have managed the response by saying the change forward of time, alongside their justification of it. Instead, they left the group to find it by watching early streams. Then as now, it got here as a nasty shock.
Now is the worst doable time to danger the group’s ire – Reddit’s listing of complaints about Destiny 2 has been steadily rising since launch, and they don’t want one other provocation.
Both Exotic and Legendary loot feels much less thrilling now, with the joyous response movies of lastly getting a Gjallarhorn sacrificed on the altar of stability. It has made the Crucible a much less exuberant place – there are fewer sniping montages and triumphant solo performs, and as a substitute a concentrate on team-shooting the occasional fool who has run off by themselves earlier than cruising to a win via man benefit. With all endgame actions contributing equally to the facility grind and no memorable perks on raid gear, even in Prestige mode, incentives to repeat the raid have been massively weakened, leaving hardcore gamers with little to do.
These frustrations have been simmering for some time now, lengthy sufficient for Bungie to listen to them and promise motion. They say that the Curse of Osiris DLC will add a number of new actions, together with Heroic strikes and a ‘raid lair’ to extend the endgame. At TwitchCon 2017, Bungie additionally mentioned some promising changes to the token economy and live events. Handling the XP throttling fallout is a disaster that Bungie didn’t want, and one among their very own making.
The builders are taking it significantly sufficient that they have canceled (or perhaps postponed) the last Curse of Osiris livestream so sport director Luke Smith and challenge lead Mark Noseworthy can provide “their assessment of Destiny all up,” and “how we’re reacting to your feedback with some game updates that will arrive in the next few weeks.”
But we’ve been right here earlier than. A single replace is a plaster on the leaking wound that’s Bungie’s continual incapacity to elucidate issues. I hope we may also get some assurance that they are going to be extra vocal, and can simply inform us if they’re fiddling round below the hood, somewhat than leaving us to find by ourselves that our automotive is immediately half as quick. In the final 24 hours, group supervisor David ‘DeeJ’ Dague has been very chatty on Twitter, so hopefully that may be a signal of extra to return. Destiny 2 remains to be extremely popular with a whole lot of 1000’s nonetheless taking part in every day [https://destinytracker.com/], however a big chunk of the sport’s hardcore gamers are at stake right here. Bungie had higher do a hell of a job with that replace at this time and with the Curse of Osiris DLC when it lands subsequent week. It appears like a make-or-break second for a lot of Destiny 2 gamers.
That contains myself. I’ve really felt this fashion in regards to the DLC for some time, however for various causes. The awfulness of the unique Destiny’s story is the stuff of memes, however its deeper lore is authentic and difficult, and I had hoped that Destiny 2’s marketing campaign would deliver that to the fore. Its story was at the very least coherent – it had that over its predecessor – however it was hokey, simplistic, and cliched. It felt like a strategy to ease new gamers into the universe, most notably us on PC, and I settle for this was an necessary overture to make. But now that it has been made, I see no excuse to not delve into the tougher stuff, /particularly/ as a result of Osiris is on the coronary heart of a lot of it. If Bungie simplify his character and the challenges he poses to the Speaker’s orthodoxy, it makes it even tougher to consider that they’ll ever benefit from their very own universe’s potential.
That could be a tragic disgrace, as Destiny nonetheless holds a uncommon promise. How many different sci-fi shooters of its finances and ambition are you able to title? It might be nice. I would like it to be nice. But in the mean time it’s simply exhausting.
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