The people running Bungie and Activision aren’t stupid. It takes a great deal of smarts and business acumen to successfully run and grow any kind of company; they know exactly what they’re doing. They’re trying to make it sound like they’re doing their fans a favor, but we wouldn’t be seeing this if that were truly the case. If they really wanted to do their consumers a favor, they could do any of the following:
Casual players are the single largest audience in gaming; there’s no getting around it. This is the audience that every major publisher wants to appeal to; the one group that every development studio hopes will latch onto their game. After all, capturing the attention of the casual or mainstream audience usually means massive success and wondrous profit. So it’s understandable that they, publishers especially, would have a vested interest in making their games more accessible and Queenbreaker Catalyst 2025 appealing to that audience. Making that appeal often means simplification. The simpler the game is, the more accessible it is, the more mainstream appeal it can have. While there’s nothing innately wrong with making one’s game more accessible to the wider gaming audience, doing so always comes at a cost. Just as a game cannot be both simple and complex, neither can it simultaneously serve its niche and successfully appeal to the mainstream audience. Therefore compromises must be made, usually ones that rob the game of what made it special in the first place.
Looking back at the original beta for vanilla Destiny, there was a tremendous amount to do and see, even some leveling involved. The Destiny 2 beta feels like Bungie is keeping their cards close to the chest because anything that could rock the boat might just tip it over. Destiny is successful, but it comes with a reputation, and scuffing up that reputation in anyway could make or break sales numbers once September rolls around. The beta gives enough of itself to put players at ease while also remaining the carrot and the stick. For a Destiny fan, it’s easy enough to digest; take everything learned from Destiny and apply that to this beta, it’s a guaranteed good time. For those who might be making their way back though, this might look more like a shooter than the online multiplayer game Bungie promised. While I can only speculate as to why the amount of content was significantly trimmed down, it’s probably for good reason or it’s just actually a beta.
Placing all the powerful weapons in the same category has good potential for PvP, but it’s also a functional misstep in terms of PvE. Power weapon ammo drops more often in Destiny 2 than heavy weapon ammo in Destiny 1, but still not nearly as often as kinetic or energy weapon ammo. So right away there’s less incentive to use that ammo for any weapon other than a rocket or grenade launcher. Why waste that relatively rare and precious ammo on a sniper rifle when it could instead be spent on something much more powerful? It’s the same issue with abilities in that they’re all restricted by ridiculously-slow cooldowns. Instead of enjoying the ability to toss a grenade into a group of minor enemies, dodge around the battlefield at one’s leisure or even pop a super to take on a mid-boss, the game encourages players to bank them instead. To use one’s abilities in any situation other than the most desperate is to see them go to waste. Nobody wants to be caught staring at a cool-down meter when they’re stuck in a tight spot. These can at least be adjusted a bit with mods, but who wants to waste their mods on anything other than top-tier armor? The net result is gameplay that’s gone from fast-paced, fluid and fun, to something slow, limited and dull with no incentive whatsoever to make use of the game’s most enjoyable weapons and powers. If the developers truly felt that these changes were necessary to achieve a more fun and balanced Crucible, then perhaps it would have been better to just separate the Crucible from the rest of the game.
Once upon a time, Bungie justified microtransactions by saying that all future, non-major expansions would be free. They held that promise throughout the lifespan of The Taken King and Rise of Iron, but have since broken it. Not only do we have to pay for expansions again, but most of the loot that could previously be earned during Destiny’s lifecycle is also all locked behind microtransactions. Every ship, sparrow, cool shader, ornament, and emote can’t be obtained by completing challenges in-game, but only by opening Loot Boxes. Considering that Bungie was just caught handicapping XP gains to encourage real-money purchases, this move feels entirely wrong.
Destiny 2 did a 180 degree turn with how the loot pool dolled out those sweet, sweet items. Where in Destiny it could feel like pulling teeth just to find an exotic, Destiny 2 was happy to shower Guardians in them with its new reward structure. Like everything else in Destiny 2 though, it couldn’t help but have a slight fault, those exotics every Guardian wants just aren’t… exotic. Exotic items in Destiny had a feel about them because they behaved in a way that was reminiscent of some of the quirkier items to come out of video games ( the Cerebral Bore ). They weren’t supposed to be godly, but some of the perks had just enough of a twist to make them feel unique. Only one exotic comes to mind in Destiny 2 that shines in this regard, a new grenade launcher titled “The Colony” that was part of the expansion. The other exotics with Curse of Osiris do look to be pushing in the right direction, but like everything else in Destiny 2, only time will tell with how people feel about these new armaments when preforming.
