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What We NEED in Destiny 2

What We NEED in Destiny 2

Sorry, Destiny haters. I see you in our comments section, but I have to beg to differ. At its core, Destiny is a damn good game that appeals to a wide variety of people. I don’t even normally like console shooters, and I enjoy playing Destiny because of its user-friendly controls and interesting setting. That said, the game definitely has its trouble spots, and now that Rise of Iron is out, it’s time to look to the future. Destiny has been a rough ride, with a troubled development history and bizarre, ever-changing post-release plans. There are also some persistant issues and omissions that really need to be fixed in the future. My top needs for Destiny 2 are to see a rebooted story, a clear road map for players, and more variety to spice things up.

A Story Reboot? But My LORE!

Yeah, here’s the thing. Destiny ‘s story and lore have been a mess from the beginning. I know there’s this huge underpinning of lore behind what we’re doing, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to read an encyclopedia on a separate site just to find out why I am shooting these angry bug guys. We know there are deep mysteries behind Destiny ‘s world. We’d love to know what happened to the Traveller and what the Darkness really is. But the story so far has been told so poorly and in such a scattered manner that it simply cannot continue without being at least somewhat rebooted.

Everybody needs to start Destiny 2 on the same page. We need a simple, easy-to-understand major narrative that actually progresses as the game is expanded. Just saying, “Oh guys, now THIS new bad thing showed up!” is not progression. We can have complexity, but it has to be layered on top of information that any player can easily grasp and access by simply playing the game’s missions. At Destiny’s heart is a clear narrative of guardianship, of protection of all that we love from a seemingly implacable foe. But that message gets lost in the torrent of factions and the terrible technobabble that currently dominates Destiny ‘s storytelling. It’s time to back it up and hit the basics. Some of the Destiny lore may need to change in order for Destiny 2 to be easier to understand and have room to grow in the future. I think that’s a worthwhile sacrifice.

Maps: They’re a Thing

When I talk about a clear road map, I mean that both literally and figuratively. The literal part is easy. Maps, Bungie. They’re a thing. They are extremely useful for navigation. If your level is too weirdly twisty-turny to be properly displayed on a map, imagine how a new player feels trying to get from place to place in that thing! Fix it. Give us a main map within the game and a mini-map that we can choose to display on screen if we wish. It’s a basic necessity in any game featuring a persistant, online world. Just do it.

The other clear road map we need is one for how the game will progress after launch. Launching multiple expansions in a year (Year One) didn’t work out so well, that’s fine. Putting out micro-updates that didn’t add anything substantial to the game (Year Two) didn’t work out so well, either. I don’t even know what Year Three has in store. Does anybody? Destiny 2 needs to find its footing and decide what kind of MMO it wants to be. I don’t know the answer, because there isn’t another MMO out there quite like Destiny . I just know that after the chaos and controversy that Destiny ‘s update schedule has caused, we’re going to need some serious leadership from Bungie when it comes to Destiny 2 ‘s road map.

What We NEED in Destiny 2

Variety Is the Spice of the Darkness

Destiny has been a game of huge ambition that doesn’t fully translate onto the screen. One of the biggest issues we’ve seen is a lack of variety – in settings, in class types, and particularly in the enemies we face. Destiny ‘s settings have a lot of promise, and when it does impressive set pieces, it does them very well. The weird cubic world of the Vex, the Hull Breach on the Dreadnaught, the huge freighter ship in the new Plaguelands zone – these are all fantastically memorable settings. Unfortunately, too many of Destiny’s maps boil down to “narrow tunnels and/or narrow futuristic interior spaces.” I would love to see a bolder sense of design that extends throughout different worlds, and I’d like to see a sense of place to the settings. If they are now home to all these dark alien species, how and where do said species actually live? Currently, we have no answers, and more distinct worlds that feel lived-in would add a lovely sense of variety to the game. Oh, and can we maybe see more of Earth than Russia?  That one PvP map in central Europe is super neat.

More distinct classes is probably a controversial topic, but I think they should be at least a touch less same-y than they are now. Even if we all have the same kinds of weapons for balance purposes, could they prehaps shoot different looking ammo depending on class? Class balance is an eternal bugaboo in online games, but I feel like Bungie has been overly conservative on the issue. If I’m a warlock, why do I spend most of my time shooting ordinary bullets instead of amazing psy-bullets or lightning rounds or whatever?  If I’m a hunter, I want more tools to be a stealthy, sniper type. Maybe I could get a pet who retrieves drops for me or something. Then titans, as the prototypical Space Marine class, can feel more distinctively Space Marine-y and straightforward compared to the rest.

Finally, enemy variety. This is by far the biggest need for Destiny 2 . We all know the Fallen, the Vex, the Cabal, and the Hive. The Taken did a great job twisting those basic enemies and making them into something new. But then Rise of Iron came along with the Splicers, another example of taking the same basic enemies and tweaking them… even less. That’s just not good enough for a game that people are supposed to want to play for a long time. We need more enemy races. We need more enemy behaviors. We need more enemy tricks, for more than just bosses. Maybe two enemies that look the same could even act differently in different circumstances. As much fun as playing Dreg and Vandal Shooting Gallery can be, I’ve had enough of it now.

What about you?  What do you need from Destiny 2 ? Do you think there should be a Destiny 2 at all? Sound off in the comments.

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