The question is one and simple: what happened to Destiny 2? No, seriously, let's stop and think for a moment: the second title in the saga of Bungie it has literally disappeared from the radars of fans; nobody talks about it anymore, nobody looks for this or that player for raid and company, nobody gets any more information about the new pieces of equipment brought Xur. Nothing. The cosmic void of total indifference has devoured the interest in a title that has been able to give joys and sorrows, and this is palpable: the user, or rather "the ex-user", does not care at all about updates aimed at improving the title, much less the schedule that Bungie has declared to follow scrupulously to always give new life to the game. In reality, Destiny 2 does not deserve such a deep and dark oblivion. In fact, the writer is firmly convinced that this brand is one of the most important of the current generation and not merely for the marketing issue (the first chapter is the most expensive video game in history), but also as regards game design at the base. Destiny has managed to amalgamate two impactful genres such as FPS and MMORPGs, merging them into a single form that we have seen being refined and improved expansion after expansion, up to The Lords of Iron, the last major update in which it has reached an interesting balance, a little shaky, but which with the right supports has undoubtedly settled.
The potential of the Bungie machine was (and is) immense. On paper the title has everything a player can keep glued to to the television: a story that can arouse great interest; a vast lore, very interesting and that touches every aspect concerning the game world, memorable and characterized characters, solid gameplay and contents that with the right time would have benefited the growth in terms of play and franchise. When Destiny 2 was announced, although reactions were different from person to person, everyone agreed that the basic formula would be strengthened: Everything Destiny 1 had to offer would be back even stronger and more interesting than before, with the various updates that the whole community has been clamoring for a long time, with a variety that would finally keep players engaged. Yet, we all know what happened: within a month of the release of the second chapter, the audience has dropped to historic lows. Negatively impressive numbers were recorded and the flop risk around the corner was materializing more and more. Not even the first DLC, dedicated to one of the most important characters of the entire saga, has managed to raise the title, giving only a small initial joy that resulted in a month (needless to say) in boredom. From then on, nothing.
In the last few days, Destiny 2 has made a comeback. The second DLC, in fact, is upon us and will also be accompanied by a series of updates, but this does not interest users almost at all and there is all the air that once again Bungie's efforts will make a hole in the water. This is the origin of the last Polygon article dedicated to Destiny 2, in which "Martullian" asks a question and gives an answer: Is Destiny 2 considered dead?
It must be admitted: both the aforementioned newspaper and myself have reached the same result, albeit through different reasons. Polygon puts at the center of everything some questions that certainly may turn out to be true, but seem to be magnified in some respects. In fact, it does not seem that the main problem has to do with the microtransactions of Eververse, which does not seem to be as invasive except in certain moments such as events. Add to this the simplicity of the “cappare”, the disappointing equipment and an “old school” PVP construction, a bit far from the canons to which the latest productions have accustomed us.
The criticism of Everversum, that is the section that concerns the obtaining of small lootboxes through microtransactions, has always been difficult for me to understand. Rather, Destiny 2 has a great merit that sets it apart from its predecessor precisely on this aspect: the much-hated lootboxes, filled with aesthetic goodies (such as Ghosts, Shaders, Sparrows and Ships), can be obtained simply by filling the experience bar or leveling up. It goes without saying that the complaints about Eververse leave the time they find and if we really had to find reasons for the failure of the game, it would not concern this part. It must be admitted, however, that Bungie did not prove to be properly crystalline and correct with the Eververse, as for what concerns the scandal that saw Bungie secretly double the exp needed to complete the bar and special engrams related to seasonal events. containing excessively low drop rate pieces. These, as mentioned, are cases that can affect if we consider Destiny 2 in its entirety, but that they cannot be the main reason for its failure.
On the contrary, the real failure of the title can be found in three factors: the loot, the variety of activities, the progression. In short, in the solar triad of what makes an MMO (RPG) fun and engaging.
Destiny 2, in fact, sinks fully into the MMORPG genre and to it can be traced back its structure composed of races, classes, subclasses, weapons with perk and special abilities of sorts. Trying to make it transcend this nature means treating it as a normal FPS, which would be wrong. Everything revolves around, before the player's skill, the character's equipment and its level (as regards the PVE part), from here it is easy to understand how the progression of the so-called "gear" keeps the player from farming the various contents , to obtain more and more objects able to help him overcome this or that difficulty that from time to time are parried in front of the player and that will lead him, in the end, either in the six-person raid (hardcore endgame PVE) or in the Trials of the Nine (hardcore PVP endgame). In Destiny 1 this progress was well marked and forced players to take part in all the activities of the two types, depending on their tastes or not, in order to reach the level cap. The difficulty and commitment to reach the top become ever greater and also put players in the conditions of having to cooperate to undertake the various top-level contents. All of this breaks down in Destiny 2. Reaching the level cap in the second chapter is literally nonsense and it can be done within a month simply by completing the weekly tasks made available, which most of the time end in the course of an evening. This seriously affects all those that are the outline activities that have been added (such as the Lost Sectors) that lose their function and end up being completely useless for the purposes of the game. But not only that, a fast and simple progression makes even hardcore endgame content boring, going to bust the flow chart (on which the game design in its fullest generality is based) and the consequent balance between difficulty and skill. This makes even the most difficult activities easier to tackle and overcome, thus causing boredom to set in.
To this discourse one could object that Destiny 2 actually presents "extreme" modes of raids and assaults (dungeons) Cala La Notte, but the question is always the same: you have to also balance the degree of loot obtained by completing these activities. If the player finds himself getting the same equipment that is obtained in the basic version of that content, the effort is not equal to what you actually go to squeeze in your hands. In short, the game is not worth the candle.
The second problem can be seen in the loot and in the system that allows us to obtain it. In Destiny 2, unlike its predecessor, 80% has been relegated to pawns, tokens to be exchanged that allow us to fill a bar at the end of which we will be given a drop by the relative NPC. If the first chapter was linked to the completion of certain objectives (such as the weapons of the Gunsmith and the rank-up in the Crucible and in the Assaults), now this trading currency will present itself as the most important resource with which to obtain the equipment of the various NPC. This was also badly calibrated: the system has become quite invasive and has engulfed much of the drop mechanics, what is more, the ease with which they got into possession made it extremely fast to obtain the equipment, which for their part is also quite limited. The same legendary and exotic, as well as not being many, also have fixed and already unlocked perks, completely canceling the exp path that led us to complete the weapon or farm to get that specific weapon with those specific perks. However, a spear must be broken against this system: the token mechanics, however badly managed, offer continuous recycling and a consequent generation of resources such that each object dropped is never completely useless and can be disassembled to obtain pledges from trade to other NPCs.
The last words on the issue can be spent on PVP. The Player VS Player of Destiny has always been one of the most played activities of the title with annexed, as we have been able to see, not insignificant modes able to give players particular objects and objectives able to also show their skills to the rest of the game. community. This branch has always been the most difficult in terms of balancing, especially when you have a game that was built more for Player VS Environment than for player versus player. Although the first Destiny also had problems in balancing the classes and their powers, Destiny 2 seems to have completely broken the fragile balance on which the first struggled to stand. In particular, the two choices that the user had to say were the changes made to the weapons system and those made to the skills, which have weakened and enhanced some classes. To start with the first, to push the primaries that found very little space in the first chapter, it was decided to dedicate the first two slots to this type of weapons and relegate to the third, as in a huge cauldron, all the rest of the weapons. Snipers, pumps, rocket launchers, swords and so on have been reduced to "destructive" weapons and this, in addition to killing the variety of weapons that players can carry with them, makes some kinds of weapons preferable to others, forcing players to use half of the weapons in the game. This stagnation, however, does not concern only the third category, but also the first and second (kinetics and energetics): the weapons used by users will always be the same, creating very little variety. This is the case, for example, of the MIDA Multi-Instrument which was abused in the first months of the game. The appreciation for this type of system did not last long and its flaws quickly surfaced, boring longtime players. Another sore point concerns the reskin of skills. Surely the reinterpretation of the old subclasses was a very welcome surprise, but this negatively affected the gameplay of the same. We soon found ourselves shopping with a series of balances with little logical sense: fists of the Titans that in terms of damage inflicted are identical to those of the other classes, grenades that have lost their effectiveness (such as sticky grenades), hunters' bows slightly out of the box. And on the latter, the writer has had many bad experiences, so much so that he finds himself several times in a team alone in the midst of entire teams of Hunters all with the same equipment - as shown in the embarrassing photo below taken by undersigned. The Player VS Player has become in no time one of the most disappointing FPS experiences tried in recent times, capable of making us regret that of the first chapter which, between its ups and downs, managed to be at least pleasant.
What remains to be said is simply a question to which I personally give a dry answer: Is Destiny 2 Dead? No it is not, and if you really want to give him a state of health you could say that he is dying. So, is it salvable? Yes. It is, Destiny 1 was, Destiny 2 can and will be, but only if there is transparency, a real commitment and an iron will to resurrect the title on the part of Bungie. Time ago, The Taken King was crucial and rewrote a hitherto unbalanced title, the same thing can and must happen with this second chapter. It is the last chance that Bungie has to give new life to a job that is really struggling to take off, also because of a little exciting first DLC that has brought the players together only for a very short time before dispersing them again and that has very badly exploited one of the most important characters of the game, which instead, more than a simple DLC, deserved an expansion. Yep, an expansion! Many of the criticisms made of Destiny 2 concern its very existence as a stand-alone title. Most of the fans, in fact, wondered about the nature of the Bungie title, coming to the conclusion that perhaps there was no need for this sequel, but for a very big new expansion that would rewrite the game. This idea was initially criticized by myself, but at present I have had to change my mind. In fact, if you wanted to consider Destiny a MMORPG like the ones we know (World Of Warcraft in primis, as regards the historical-narrative progression through the various expansions), you could embrace the hypothesis that the best thing for the title it was a big expansion, bigger (and perhaps more expensive) than the Taken King, able to make all the necessary changes without losing the old content which, in turn, could have been subject to new restyling. Not only that, but all new players would have been forced to go through the first expansions and the first DLCs of the first Destiny, finding themselves a lot of things to do not indifferent. In this way, the Bungie operetta would have found itself in the same state of an MMORPG and would have kept the players busy for a long time, also justifying the arrival of some paywalls and various season passes. Perhaps this would have saved the game from the media disaster, or perhaps not, but decreeing as dead a title that is not even halfway through its life cycle and that has had other examples of rebirths behind it is undoubtedly premature.
To conclude: is Destiny dead? Not exactly. He is certainly dying, but he can be saved.
Bungie is the mother of Halo, got us used to strong emotions, epic and incredible moments that we carry and will carry inside forever. This Destiny has the smell of his great work, we can smell it. It is there, without ifs and buts. So please Seventh Column, turn the Light back on once more and this time make it manifest brighter than ever.
