Fair Game | What ‘Destiny 2’ Needs to Fix Immediately

There is so much happening in ‘Destiny 2‘ at the moment. There are ‘Moments of Triumph,’ three new pyramid ship arrivals, and a brand new exotic quest for a really cool trace rifle.

There’s so much going on with its development, but is it just me… or is @DestinyTheGame 2 somewhat boring to play?

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All of the new stuff is interesting; however, the new stuff in Destiny 2 isn’t really “new.” The power level grind is a hot issue right now, but that’s not what I mean. What I’m talking about is all of the busy work and repeated content used to drag out quests.

The new quest for the exotic Ruinous Effigy is one of the better quests of recent memory. Yet, that last step bothers me beyond belief. It was the tipping point making me legitimately consider leaving the game–for good.

Destiny 2: The new routine, again

The exotic quest is awesome, at first. You are sent to find peculiar objects on four different planets. Then, you must kill 15 randomly spawning enemies on two of those planets. We haven’t done anything like this before. It’s all new content in the game…until the final step.

Before we get the gun, we have to grind rounds of Gambit or the Reckoning (pictured) while getting void kills. This highlights one of the biggest issues of the game right now. I understand Gambit and all of that ties into the darkness story line, but it feels like filler content.

Come to think of it: That’s all of the current weekly quest. You do some public events and grind out specific content, only to do a slightly different version of the mission from last week.

Hey Bungie: Why not just start there?

This is one of the only times Bungie gives gamers a reason to play a lot of the game’s content. Nobody plays Gambit unless they have to for a quest or bounty. Same with public events, lost sectors, and other adventures.

You grind everything out, get the gun…and for what? There’s not much of a point of doing anything else after that. Crucible and Gambit, what could be shining game modes are barely fleshed out and only feel like tools to fill in quest steps. Seals and triumphs just aren’t cutting it.

When the endgame is solely based around loot, it creates a very shallow endgame.

Eventually, you’ll get everything in ‘Destiny 2’. Why should you care about ranking up in Crucible (pictured) or getting a high score in the nightfall?

There’s no leaderboard or competitiveness to it. There’s nothing to keep you playing other than pure enjoyment.

If there’s nothing to do after I get the gear, then why do I want the gear in the first place? The game quickly unravels and players–present company included–lose interest. All they’re left with is what comes at reset. That leads into a larger problem.

The Bigger Power-Level Issue

The power level grind is an issue that has recently came into light in the ‘Destiny 2’ community. People are tired of doing the same things, week-after-week, season-after-season just to play the new content.

Each season the power level cap is raised. The new content is released with the requirement of a high power level. So, each week people need to get all of the available powerful drops. This keeps them playing all of this content. Nonetheless, you’re only doing it because you have no choice.

There’s no adventure or excitement of getting a powerful drop. It’s just a checklist. Do this a certain number of times and get that. It’s incredibly boring, especially when there’s no other reason for doing the content.

To be frank, it’s busy work. Every student’s worst nightmare is busy work.

Me

It’s simply not fun.

We could have an engaging PvP system like ‘Call of Duty‘, or rich worlds we inherently want to explore like ‘Skyrim‘. Instead, we zoom through the worlds trying to get from point A to point B as quickly as we can to check it off of our list. This is what ‘Destiny’ has become for a lot of players.

The Game Needs a Revamp

Players come and go from ‘Destiny’. It is part of why the game is known. The game gets something wrong, and then by the time the next expansion rolls around it’s great again. These players don’t come back just because of good reviews. They come back because one thing the game always gets right is that that the guns feel good.

Damn, do they feel good.

So good, in fact, that we don’t mind playing the same content over and over again just to get the newest one. It’s what makes ‘Destiny 2’, well… “Destiny”. Bungie deserves tons of praise for designing the gun-play.

The guns are the best thing, but they shouldn’t be the only thing. Right now they are. The story’s kicking into gear, but the game-play loop feels so bland and generic that it desperately needs a revamp.

‘Destiny 2’ is a fine game, great from certain points of view. But, it could be so much more.

This game has the potential to blow a lot of other games out of the water, but it just isn’t taking it. It’s focused on giving us lame excuses to keep older content relevant instead of designing it that way in the first place.

My advice to Bungie: create content and systems that stand on their own without the help of bounties and quest steps. Players will flock to the game and be even more excited to chase the new gear.