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This May Finally Kill Off Destiny

This May Finally Kill Off Destiny

Destiny is in a worryingly premature content slump. That fact alone is really disappointing, but what’s concerning me more is that everyone is willing to admit it; die hard fans, casuals, veterans, and newcomers – we’re all on the same page. We assumed that The Taken King would be ushering in all of the novelty and story-driven purpose that we’d been longing for since Destiny launched in 2014. I say “we” to represent the Destiny community as a whole, but in truth I myself didn’t even get the game until October of 2015; it came with my shiny, limited-edition PS4. How disappointing, then, that after just three months of semi-regular play, Destiny and all of its DLC has started to bore me.

Activision and Bungie had originally planned on a schedule that called for the release of two DLC packs and an expansion every year. It turns out Bungie bit off a little more than it could chew in that regard, and that’s totally understandable. If you’ve done any research about the engine that was built from the ground up just for Destiny, you know that creating, loading, and editing maps, assets, and scripts is paralyzingly time-consuming. Hey, we’re all human. I don’t expect those devs to work 70 hours a week just so I can have a few extra quests – but what we’re getting instead just isn’t cutting it.

Right before the new year I was still optimistic. This year the focus was going to be on special events and loot. That’s fine by me, the Festival of the Lost was pretty fun and as long as the community is engaged in something exciting and novel, we’ll have no problems waiting for the big update , or “Destiny 2, this September. So what’s changed since mid-December?

For starters, the Sparrow Racing League (SRL) kind of sucked. I had fun my very first race, started thinking that the races lasted a little too long by my second go, and after the third race I never went back. I got two pieces of really cool looking gear out of it, and I was just one race away from completing a SRL quest and a few bounties, but I just couldn’t make myself go back. I know what you’re thinking, and no, I didn’t suck at it – I finished in the top 3 every race and won one of them – it was just that boring to me. Well whatever, no one hits a home run on the first swing. The next event will be better.

This May Finally Kill Off Destiny

Or not. Our next event is a Valentine’s Day celebration called Crimson Days. The main event? Crimson Doubles, a 2v2 Crucible gametype with some exclusive loot. Come on, Bungie. Unless you spring some serious, fun new mechanics for that gametype or tease some unbelievable loot, I can’t imagine anyone is going to care. Crucible matchmaking can already be kind of slow – it’s not Destiny’s biggest draw at all, even though I love it – and I doubt that a small, 2v2 gametype will be the thing that wins everyone over. Bungie doesn’t even sound excited about it. They literally described the event as “…on a scale close to Festival of the Lost.” Wow, really? It’s almost as big and cool as the last decent special event? Say no more!

The stale, crunchy icing on top of this cake is the news that “Destiny 2 has been pushed back and out of September ’til who-knows-when. Past Crimson Days, we have no idea what kind of content or events might be planned for us in the meantime, but word on the street is that Bungie has asked its live team to brainstorm some DLC to make up for the delay of Destiny 2. It doesn’t sound like a good time to be working at Bungie. With the impending release of Tom Clancy’s The Division , a game drawing many comparisons to Destiny for its RPG / FPS elements and loot-heavy focus, there’s a good chance that the majority of disgruntled Destiny fans craving something new will be migrating to The Division as long as the launch goes smoothly. There are many more incredible RPGs on the horizon as well.

I still love Destiny, and I did invest a serious amount of time into my main character, so I’m hoping Bungie will give us a reason so come back. Until then, I’m beginning to think about how much space I can clear up on my PS4 by deleting it. What about you guys? Are you sticking with Destiny no matter what, or has the short-lived thrill of The Taken King driven you into the arms of another game?

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