Destiny, in medias res
Destiny, as a Franchise, will soon be hitting it’s 9 year anniversary. Launching back on Sept 9th, 2014, Bungie’s Sci-Fi shooter has tread a long, often confusing, road to where we are today, a sort of testament that any live-service offering can course correct with enough time and support. What once was a console-focused loot game with a lack of content and endgame has grown wildly into a multi-season Space Opera epic bursting at the seams with activities for casual, competitive and hardcore players.
…But man, if you have not been following this spiritual sequel saga that came after Halo closely, it is all but impossible to jump on this train now, especially on your own. Case-in-point, I’m currently in the process of trying to get a friend caught up to where Destiny 2 is current day, and it’s kind of fascinating to watch a franchise flounder and fail to hook new players. You’ll often hear game developers and publishers market a new numbered entry or expansion for a game with a phrase like “there’s never been a better time to start playing our game.” For Destiny however, I can think of multiple years prior where jumping in may have been a lot less painful.
The current purpose for this website and blog is to document the hurdles that a new user may run into when trying to dive into the Destiny Universe, as we come up on its 10 year anniversary. As is the nature of any successful live-service or MMO, it’s quite possible that some or all of these pain points could be addressed in a future update or expansion release. However, many of these pain points have existed for years now, and efforts by Bungie to remedy these issues have been, well, “interesting” at best. The best analogy I keep coming back to is that it’s like trying to read a book with half the pages ripped out, your best alternative being some sort of sparknotes overview.
So what kind of things are stopping the average new player from getting up-to-speed? Here are some of the most major
Sunsetting
Coming of the heels of Bungie going independent (for the second time) from Activision, Sunsetting was pitched to the community as a necessity in order to solve a multitude of problems for the game as Destiny 2 went into it’s 3rd major expansion, Beyond Light. Simply put, the game had become too big to work on and maintain effectively, like a big ‘ol gangly teenager. By effectively retiring parts of the game that were deemed to have low player engagement, as well as introduce a gear cap to some of the most powerful gear in the game, Bungie could better focus on serving it’s most active player base, as well as inject new content for their upcoming seasonal model and a more regular pace, and serve as a sort of reset baseline experience.
We really need to emphasize however that this a completely unprecedented move in the gaming industry at large, as wide swaths of the game made no longer accessible, invalidating content that players had purchased years prior. At it’s initial inception, the base Destiny 2 “Red War” campaign, Curse of Osiris, and Warmind DLC’s were no longer playable in any fashion once Beyond Light dropped, as destinations tied to this activity (Titan, Io, Mercury and Mars) were absconded with, both functionally and narratively. Later in 2022, effectively half of the Forsaken Expansion, along with it’s entire narrative and Seasonal content, was also removed from the game. Portions of this expansion, such as the Dreaming City destination and Last Wish raid are still accessible however.
As the franchise stands now, it’s possible to play through the Original Destiny game up to Rise of Iron, but once you move to Destiny 2, there’s a significant gap in the game’s story and play experience that can now only be experienced vicariously through summaries and video recordings. This feels akin to trying to hunt down lost Dr. Who episodes because the BBC did such a poor preservation job.
The terminology used by the company was that this content was placed into the “Destiny Content Vault” (or Vaulted). It has also been alluded to that this content may return in the future, as well as some content from Destiny 1, which we have seen largely in the forms of the Cosmodrome zone on Earth, as well as two reprised Raids from Destiny.
The Seasonal Model
Starting with the launch of the Shadowkeep expansion, Destiny 2 began it’s regular cadence of seasonal activities, rewards, and storylines. Doled out every 3 months (but sometimes delayed), players would see new story beats occur between major expansions, often introducing new major characters, partake in significant narrative developments, and foreshadow what was to come in next year’s major expansion.
To Bungie’s credit, this helped to address one of the major criticisms from the original Destiny launch, that being an effective content drought while waiting for the next expansion release, being more akin to major content patches from a regular MMO and presenting a universe that was seemingly ever-shifting. Consequently, this Seasonal content was made to be temporary within the game, and removed in order to make room as the next season was implemented.
Again, this creates a sort of “lost-media” effect, where players can no longer participate in important narrative beats as the occurred originally. How did Prince Uldren become the Crow? Why are there Fallen and Cabal in the tower? How was Savathun’s worm removed? All of these questions, and more, new players cannot have answered by the game as effectively when they happened. Their best bet is to hear about them second hand from another player, or watch from a lore video on Youtube.
Condensed intro
The original Red War campaign for Destiny 2 really did a lot of heavy lifting, serving as a narrative justification to reset the player’s power and gear, while also serving as a decent onboarding ramp for new players to mantle into the universe.
And now that’s gone. To replace it? A modified version of the original Destiny intro, edited together to fit a new place on the timeline, and be a complementary sample as the game shifted to a free-to-play model.
Recent replay of this new intro has had mixed results at best when introducing players back to this world. Tutorial via notifications has been the modus operandi for a while now, but is far more grating with the increased frequency within a short window of play. Additionally, many of these missions will restrict co-op play, much to the chagrin of any veterans seeking to assist fresh Guardians. The highlight of the entire experience has to be the “Spark of Hope” exotic quest, tailored to introduce a solid amount of platforming and combat that makes good use of the Riskrunner SMG. Even still, this does not serve as an effective replacement for the original conflict against the Red Legion.
The Guardian Rank System
The most recent addition to Destiny’s myriad of systems, Guardian Ranks stands as a system meant to handle multiple tasks, from showing new players the ropes, to allowing Veteran players to display their prowess to the community at large. Lots of lifting for one small number next to your name to do.
While better than nothing, this ends up being a shadow of the slow roll-out of mechanics and systems a new Destiny 2 player would experience when the game launched with the Red War campaign. Designated to mostly pop-ups that invade new Guardian’s screen, it can be easy to miss some explanations or examples, compared to having some in-game narrative explanations of activating patrol beacons, or engaging in certain playlist activities. Additionally, the content
rotation of higher-tier objectives, as well as locking behind advanced modding systems, continues to be a source of frustration.
Confusing Product offering
What do you even recommend to new players to buy at this point? The scattershot offering of so many different Campaign expansions, Weapon packs, Anniversary pack, Silver bundles and Deluxe editions is immediately off-putting to any new player, especially without any guidance. Even more frustrating is that Destiny had much more generous free-to-play offerings prior to sunsetting content, when the Red War, Curse of Osiris and Warmind were a part of that slate. Instead, players upon logging in and completing the New Light experience are bombarded with expansion advertisements, assuming they aren’t automatically launched into a Seasonal opening mission mid-narrative.
Lack of in-game tools
There is still so many tools and quality of life features outside of the game that are essential to easing some of the friction and pain points still common after 9 years, and it’s up to a player stumbling in to a forum or reddit post to have these surfaced?
Looking for players for non-matchmade activities like Raids? Bungie is still planning for a system in-game at a later date, but at least their own Search Fireteam website and app will do inviting in-game. Need to manage your inventory while out of of the tower? The app again, or the community created Destiny Item Manager can change how you categorize and compare all of your loot, even elucidate the leveling system. Want to read up on past events and story? Find a good youtube channel, or browse the Ishtar Collective as a searchable archive for any plot thread your curious about.
These tools are great, and they help to transfer Destiny into a great game for some. It’s just a shame they are all found outside of the game with no comparable equivalent.
Some of these factors above, I’ve known about for a time, but replaying through the intro with a fresh Player has really brought to the forefront the absolute barrier to entry that exists for a player who isn’t well-versed in all these specifics. Arguably, there’s never been a worse time to try to get in to this game as we draw to the end of this haphazardly planned saga. I do wonder if we’ll ever regain some of the content that was cut out from the game, or if this sort of “half-game” will be the legacy that remains post Final Shape.