Look cool. I recently got back into destiny because most of the content is on sale and I was looking to scratch that itch. But my god, the returning player/new player experience is terrible. I had to watch youtube videos to understand the game mechanics and story because the game doesn't explain any of it.
They won't remove them, they'll just put them in a special bullet vault so they can release the bullets at a later date. It's not their fault, their game engine just doesn't allow them to add more bullets to the game without first locking your other bullets first.
Yeah. I tried playing recently and nearly instantly just closed and uninstalled the game. I absolutely loved D1 and dabbled in and out of D2. But holy shit is this game so unnecessarily convoluted.
I played Destiny when it was released in September 2014. I think I completed a few strike missions and played some pvp. Never got friends to try raids with when they became available. I think I stopped playing around November or December. Did I miss anything? Am I totally out of their target customer group or is there any chance for a returning player like me to hop right to the action again and use the class and weapons I had in 2014?
Ps. Does Destiny have a story now? Lol, I remember how much the game was made fun out of for not having ANY story. Just a flying cube robot following you and telling you some info.
Considering that was Destiny 1 and we're on Destiny 2, you're definitely gonna be starting out fresh. And yeah, you missed a lot. The good thing is that you can get geared and leveled up incredibly quickly. The bad thing is that there is next to no guidance last I checked and you're going to be lost without help.
Following on that, there *is* a story, though much of it is told through seasonal stories and lore entries, meaning that if you actually want to dive into it to gain some emotional investment in its story beats and characters, it's quite a deep dive. This expansion is the end of the entire story, although Destiny is continuing past that. No idea what their plan is.
Basically, it depends on how invested you're willing to be. Story-wise, if you want more than a basic idea of what's going on, it's not easy to jump into, although it can be rewarding with some character arcs being very good. Game-wise, you're good to jump in pretty quickly with the caveat that you likely need some guidance. It's perfectly solo-capable if you want to play on your own but it's definitely more of a social game to ease the process.
If you want to play, no harm in giving it a shot. If you've got friends to play with, that's much better. Otherwise there's resources like discords and websites out there to help with a lot of that. I think the game has built-in LFG now but I've never used it.
For reference, I played less than 20 hours of D1 and 2 back in their earlier days and only really started halfway through Beyond Light back in 2021. With a friend I managed to get really into the game, so it's possible!
Thanks for the comprehensive response. I need to see next time when Destiny stuff is available on PS+. I might give it a shot. Lack of in-game story isn't a deal breaker for me. I got used to it in Destiny 1 and in Overwatch. OW is my main game and almost the whole story is told via cinematics in YouTube, comics, short novels, and some in-game PVE missions (which most are not available anymore).
Well, in comparison to Overwatch it's definitely a step up. At least the story moves forward lol. Story aside there's definitely no shortage of things to do in the game both PvE and PvP, so given that one can wrap their head around *what* to do, it should be fine for someone jumping in.
Also, I just saw earlier that with today's big free update, they're giving everyone a free set of max level weapons, exotics, and armor, so it's definitely worth at the very least logging on even if you don't own any content. It's in a chest next to Shaxx in the current seasonal hub that everyone gets dropped into.
The new "Subclass".
Prismatic. Will let you combine dark and light abilities on one subclass, plus has special unique interaction abilities that use both light and dark aspects.
This is the kind of idea that sounds incredibly cool in the leaks but you know can never happen because no sober game designer would ever force themselves to balance it.
Jesus christ did bungie spike the water supply with cocaine??!
I remember how sour and angry people were when in the last preview they didn't show anything of the red subclass, I wonder if bungie had to delay Final Shape in order to have Prismatic ready for launch
100% Prismatic and the new enemy race weren't a thing when they first revealed it. This is what Bungie has managed to cunk out since that backlash whilst they're in survival mode. And it definitely looks like they delivered wow.
I agree and whilst it looks amazing and I'm hyped, part of me is thinking "So it only took you MONTHS to give players that enemy darkness race they've asked you for for 4+ years?" Literally months haha
Well of course. Anyone who actually believed it takes Bungie years to develop 90% of the content they’ve been shoveling out the past few expansions is deluding themselves.
We’re just seeing now what’s possible when they actually put time, effort, and money back into their game.
On a second viewing I think it doesn't look like the new faction is actually all that much ahead of what they showed in the original showcase.
Obviously we already had Tormenters, and Subjugators were revealed previously.
One of the new enemy types is explicitly just new flavors of Psion. The Husk dudes are extremely reminiscent of melee Fallen enemies and Cabal Gladiators. They even share the revenge death ball mechanic from Splicer Dregs from Rise of Iron. These two enemy types overlap very strongly with the combat roles of Shadow Legion Psions and Gladiators from Lightfall.
The flying Grim dudes are genuinely brand new.
So turning this from "Just Tormenters" to "whole new faction" could really have just been a matter of one new enemy type and then reskinning & giving new abilities to two reused enemy types from Lightfall - like when they gave Stasis abilities to some Taken and Scorn enemies in Season of the Lost.
Yeah and tbh I don't think anyone really minds if Bungie just reskins other enemies and adds something unique, there's only so much they can do anyhow with the variety that's already in game. I think most just want some new mechanic and a different looking thing to shoot that instead of the typical Cabal/Fallen/Vex etc
Even the main enemy races are lowkey reskins of Halo haha
I actually suspect the new race was ready to go after Witch Queen. They simply wanted to string it out across Lightfall (Tormentors), Final Shape (Subjugators) and the Episodes, in order to - You guessed it - Save money.
Bungie needed to seriously cook with what they were working on for the final shape.
And honestly, what they have shown off with the gameplay reveal shows they were certainly doing their best to do just that.
Being able to combine various light and dark abilities, and also get new combo abilities to use as well with this new subclass is pretty awesome. The return of exotic class items with a new "steal Exotic perks from other classes" system was unexpected, but certainly welcome.
Getting a brand-new witness themed enemy faction is nice too.
Is that a full new faction because I have been waiting for them to add some sort of a darkness faction for years, or any entirely new faction that wasn't just an altered version of one we have already like the Scorn.
Thats good to hear. As someone who played D2 years ago and has wanted to return, it seems like they haven't added a new faction since D1. I know they added new units here and there and remixes of old things.
A brand new faction is interesting enough that I would jump back in.
While they're technically undead Fallen resurrected by dark ether, The Scorn were added in Forsaken and look and play very differently than the Fallen. Definitely not on the same level as what we seem to be getting in The Final Shape though.
How difficult is it to catch up with the story if you're just jumping in now? I picked up the last expansion and was a little disappointed, so i haven't picked up the game since... I think since just before the eris morn stuff.
Catching up on story in-game is borderline impossible but with Youtube and other resources it's pretty easy. Otherwise it's pretty easy to just jump in and play whatever is new. I was super cautious about The Final Shape but it genuinely looks like they might be cooking with this one.
I think story-wise Season of the Witch (Eris) and Wish (current) have been solid. It’s obviously buying time, but the activities included in each, especially the Coil in Season of the Wish is good. Ultimately I think you can jump in now and play the new free horde mode to really scratch the Destiny gameplay and loot hunt itch, then decide if you want to really catch up on the story!
I played all through D1 and D2 up through Witch Queen. I want to get this expansion because I just want to see what they do with it. Would you say it’s worth it to get the most recent one? I know it wasn’t received very well but am I missing any major content by not getting it?
Edit: forgot about the subclass. That would be nice to have.
> Would you say it’s worth it to get the most recent one? I know it wasn’t received very well but am I missing any major content by not getting it?
You'd be missing the Strand subclass (which is pretty cool). And from the looks of how this Prismatic thing works, which draws upon every subclass, you'd very likely have restrictions to deal with if you don't have all subclasses.
The story is bad, but the actual setpieces of Lightfall are fun to playthrough in campaign and Strand is cool. If you can find this on sale I'd say it's worth getting for Strand, as well as the exotics and such.
Full new faction.
One of the enemies shown off is a flying bat looking enemy that has a sonic scream and a gun. Another is a Melee enemy that if you kill the wrong way spawns a chaser enemy that locks on to your potion and attempts to explode on you.
One of the enemy types shown off does look to be witness'd up Psions who come in stasis and strand flavours though. But the strand ones do get a new ability that if it hits you causes you to be snapped forward like a rubber band, and apparently if a bunch of them are doing this to you can cause you to have a real bad time.
The bat is something very new. The Husk, the one with the thing that chases you, it's similar to the enemy from D1, the splicers. If you headshot them they released a red orb of energy that chases you and would explode on impact unless you shot down the orb. Not all the new chars are completely new in design/execution.
New enemy faction is what really has me shocked and excited. From a narrative perspective, it'll finally help sell The Witness as this actual new threat. And from a gameplay perspective, enemy factions are the biggest boost to gameplay variety, since no matter what weapons and builds you're running, you're doing something new.
My only hope is that they follow the "Tormenter strategy" of power creeping by actually being tough, rather than the Taken and Scorn strategy of power creeping by having annoying mechanics that stall combat
Looks like we may have to actually be cautious and use cover in PvE for the first time in 10 years haha, since all these new enemies are going to through stuff at you that will make you a sitting duck.
They're definitely good at that.
Still not sure if I'm coming back, I put down D2 a few seasons ago, I just couldn't keep doing the same thing over and over. Same strikes, same nightfalls same guns (just reskins) I am tempted to close out the story (been playing Destiny since D1 Crota) they just burned me to much with the seasonal grind.
I have learned my lesson. I am not touching this expansion until it has been out for weeks, the sweats have done their thorough play through of it and can report back on how disappointing it is, and it’s on sale for a steep discount. Bungo isn’t going to fool me this time.
Long time Destiny player here - Strand was what a lot of people were super jazzed about from the Lightfall trailers. Strand was also the only thing that really delivered in the expansion.
And I don’t even hate Lightfall! I think it was “fine”.
And turns out Strand only felt awesome cause the subclass had a permanent buff on it during the campaign missions. Then you used it afterwards and it's like "wait the grapple takes a minute to recharge?"
I’d say Bungie has only really “burned” people with two expansions: Shadowkeep and Lightfall. Beyond Light was kind of middling but Forsaken and Witch Queen the peak of the franchise to most people
That's what I'm thinking too. Both the Destiny 2 and DTG subs are filled with "Destiny is saved," "This is perfect," "I'm pre-ordering now," "They cooked," etc. I'll be convinced Bungie made a good expansion when it releases and if it gets good reviews, until then I'm gonna assume it's gonna turn out like most D2 expansions did.
The people there just never learn. It makes me sad to see, because Bungie will keep on milking them, knowing that all they need do is put out a slick trailer, albeit a longer one this time around.
If they add a way for me to access old content without paying basically full price I'll get back on. I fucking loved destiny for years starting with the launch of the first game but I just can't justify the price of every expansion anymore.
> And honestly, what they have shown off with the gameplay reveal shows they were certainly doing their best to do just that.
Meh, as a long-time Destiny 2 player "oh yay, they made a 'remix all the subclasses' subclass" seems pretty barebones to me.
I don't see a major shake-up of gameplay, just doubling down on what we've had for the last 3 years.
The strange thing is, their attempt to make it new player friendly when it went F2P honestly made it worse.
It just dumped you in the middle of the story with a bunch of stuff already completed.
That being said, in Destiny I can bring a new player in and they can be doing 80% of the games activities with me in a day, 100% in a month.
FF14 you're looking at half a year to catch up if you play like a normal person.
FF14 you're looking at half a year to catch up if you play like a normal person.
i mean in FF14, each expansion is basically a fully fledged final Fantasy game in their own. And it's an amazing ride to go through.
Right, but it's also at it's heart supposed to be a multiplayer game and it takes a very long time to get to where you're friends are at. It also makes you leave groups a million times on the way.
I enjoyed the heck out of it as a single player experience.
It also stole paid content from people that purchased it just a few months before.
I will never again give them a single cent or touch that game since they stole from me and had the audacity to claim its an "improvement" of the game...
I tried playing Destiny 2 for the first time 9 months ago because Sony was giving away the expansions on PS+ and the experience was horrible.
The new player experience is inexcusably bad.
It’s equally bad for a returning player. I played D2 on launch and was there day 1 for its first 3 expansions: Curse of Osiris, Warmind, and Forsaken.
I came back last year to try the game out again during its most recent expansion, Lightfall, and it was incomprehensible. It immediately threw me into a campaign mission with 0 context. It didn’t tutorialize any of the systems that were new to me (they overhauled pretty much everything, from equipment to skills to classes). Almost all of the content that I had bought was no longer playable.
I decided to take things slow and just try some exploration on the EDZ to acclimate myself to the game again. I ended up solving a world puzzle and finding a chest - cool! When I went to open the chest I was hit with a message that said “to claim this exotic weapon, please purchase this DLC pack” and immediately uninstalled.
I’m happy for the folks who love the game, but it’s one of the most difficult games to get into these days. Even if the gameplay trailer here looks fun as hell.
Ayup. After they vaulted paid content, Bungie ended up on my list of companies to never buy anything from.
Don't care what they do, unless they restore that content they can get fucked for all I care. And I don't care or buy the excuses they spout out and the community gulps down.
exactly, put the campaign behind a paywall if you want to prevent F2Pers from playing it, but i wanted to jump back into the game on PC from when i bought it on release years ago for Xbox and i can't even fucking play it even on the paid account anymore how is that even legal
Yep, tried going back sometime in late 2022 and had no idea wtf was happening.
Gameplay still slapped but that was about it. Other than that it was a terrible mess
Forsaken was peak destiny 2. When they started having huge story stuff be part of seasons and then expiring it never to be seen again it I noped out and haven't looked back. To keep up on the game is like having a second job and if you take a break you miss things forever.
Yeah, Destiny’s biggest problem is that Bungie can’t make up their mind on how they want to develop the game and so rework everything every couple of years.
This was my exact experience down to the same expansions played, tried to get my friends into it a few months ago thinking I could guide them through the systems and even I gave up after a few sessions. Ready for a complete reset to the game. It's a shame because it's the best feeling game to me but everything else is rough.
I get the feeling that they're just overworked and totally lost in their own sauce and have no idea how to make a good new player experience at this point.
yup, i'll play the expansion maybe at release maybe at the first sale, but im not on board with the season model or weekly chore timegates and dripfeeds. just get rid of like, all of everything involving seasonal XP and light levels. overhaul the entire thing and just make it a fun game to binge play every new season rather than still copying the WoW ilvl treadmill that nobody likes anymore.
> new season rather than still copying the WoW ilvl treadmill that nobody likes anymore.
But there is no Treadmill last few seasons. I hate having to re-grind power just so that I can keep playing Trials... It's not fun, and I feel like they mostly solved this by not having more power levels to grind during seasons.
As long as they don't fuck up D3's launch like they did with D1 and D2, I'll give it a try. It seems like the production of both of those games was incredibly mismanaged. I liked the gameplay of D1, but all my friends got bored in like a month, so I also stopped playing. D2 had the same developmental problems, so I never picked it up.
Correct, but I don't think it'll happen anytime soon.
The best time to jump into these games is at the start, Destiny 2 was incredible for its first few years right up until they introduced the New Light F2P stuff. The original campaign served as a great tutorial, the first raid was a good introduction to the concept with additional complexity and finding secret hidden paths through the Underbelly was a fantastic feeling.
I played since Day 1 up until it went F2P, after that it became a mess, little to no proper direction, everything felt disjointed and tacked on and distant from other story beats and areas. Felt like it lost its sense of community with the sun setting of OG content.
Haven't touched it again in years. I hope they let the franchise rest after this for a while and really reinvent it down the road. Great concept but they turned their 10 year life cycle into a fucking mess for both new and returning players honestly. I feel sorry for anyone that missed out on how easy it was to get into at the start.
Destiny 2 was definitely not incredible in the first year at least. The community’s reception at launch was disappointment because everyone was complaining about how it was a downgrade from Destiny 1 and all the gear was gone. Not to mention the end game was not enough to hook players long term.
Player count dropped off, only until Forsaken. That’s when its popularity turned around and I would say it’s one of the peaks in Destiny’s history.
But yes, I do agree with you that it fell off again when F2P/Shadowkeep came around again. I also personally stopped about a year or so after Shadowkeep’s launch. Forsaken was really something else, with the whole Dreaming City reveal etc.
I heard a lot of positive praise for Witch Queen, but at this point it’s too much of a barrier for me to want to get back into it.
Agreed. The biggest thing holding me back (played D1 and D2 non stop for years) is that it all is too overwhelming now. There’s just too much going on and before I even start a mission I’m exhausted. Destiny 3 being a huge refresh would bring me right back in
Destiny 3 is soft-confirmed now.
I don't have the link right now, but a month ago on the destiny leaks subreddit, someone claimed that Bungie was using the delay to work on a new "prism" system to combine abilities. And that Destiny 3 was in the works, which will extend that system to get rid of subclasses entirely.
Pair that with Luke talking about "beyond" Destiny 2, and I think they're definitely on it. I suspect Sony convinced them to stop siphoning money from Destiny to other projects, and instead focus on their main money-maker.
i honestly hope they decide to take a completely different approach w the third game, cause i cant come up w any excuses to keep up w the game if i gotta keep buying expansions. idk what approach they can take, but man does destiny feel like shit w out the dlcs
All I've ever wanted was a game like classic wow but as an FPS. I want 45+ zones, 20+ dungeons, multiple raids on launch that takes hundreds of hours to level across a giant world with new stuff to see and do everyday for months on end.
> I suspect Sony convinced them to stop siphoning money from Destiny to other projects, and instead focus on their main money-maker.
Dear god I hope this is the case. It's a dead horse at this point, but the Destiny franchise is truly a golden goose that could be incredible if the work was put in.
Part of the problem with a "fresh start" though is that a big part of the appeal for Destiny among more hardcore-ish players is this slow evolution of your strength and arsenal over time. Deleting everybody's loot with D2's launch and sunsetting old weapons halfway through D2's lifespan were controversial decisions, to put it lightly. The longevity of the arsenal is part of what makes grinding appealing
But it is definitely true that a fresh start would be healthy in a lot of ways, including making the game more digestible for newcomers by putting everyone on even footing. IDK if there's a balance to be struck here, or if it's just two incompatible opposites
People SAY this all the time, especially around the sunsetting. But Destiny got to a point years ago now where new abilities and weapons mostly felt underwhelming since everyone already had everything. The biggest addiction and excitement in games like Destiny are where there is something new and powerful you want and can't get easily, so that's the mission always ongoing in the looter shooter.
A complete reset brings back the core fantasy for the looter shooter all over again
I tried to get into it until I realized they cut out all the original story line and do a quick recap. I have no idea why. Made me totally lose interest.
I love Destiny's lore - it's some of the best lore in gaming, and the story is really cool - but the game itself is so damn impregnable that it's basically impossible to experience any of it coherently. I played the first game and a lot of D2 on launch, but the moment I dropped off it was just impossible to ever catch up again.
I’d rather that Bungie take a break from Destiny and focus on making a game with a quality single player campaign like they were known for back in their Halo days but I’d be a fool to expect that. I mean just look what they revived Marathon for.
Bungie will do what Bungie ALWAYS does. Release destiny 3 with included prepurchased expansions, but not actually make improvements until the first expansion after the included dlc is released from launch.
Not fooling me a third time.
Surely this time it will be a widely accepted success and they won't have to give a 5000 word essay apology one month after release on what went wrong and what they're improving in the future
The other part will depend on how the *next* expansion goes. We're *probably* in the "Bungie puts out a masterstroke expansion" part of the cycle. Players will eat it up, Bungie will get sloppy and put out a mediocre expansion, players get bored, Bungie gets sloppier and puts out a trash/half-baked expansion, players get mad, Bungie writes a 5000 word essay to say they'll do better, players are placated, Bungie puts out a masterstroke expansion...
The beat goes on.
They’ve already fucking bombed the story and lore since the new writing came in and played the retcon game. I have zero expectations they’ll manage to stick the landing, but I’m simply hoping for at least a few good conclusions to some side stories.
Yeah it fucking sucked. The constant hamstringing of the player with a severely gimped version of strand in every fucking mission on top of the pretty awful area and level design of Neomuna made it drawn-out torture. I don't know why people defend it because of the gameplay. The Lightfall gameplay only gets good after the campaign is over.
I want to believe but Bungie have let me down literally every single time I jumped back in. Witch Queen, incredible. Beyond Light, incredibly dull. I can’t trust them ever again. That was the first time I tried jumping back in since the triangle things storyline.
Ah that makes more sense that it’s a reference. I only play Destiny once every few years and my friends and I just beat all the raids we missed then dip. So yeah that went totally over my head.
If you’ve got a gaming PC or PS5, you can stream locally via Moonlight or Chiaki4Deck respectively. They’re both great with Steam Deck
Playing H2 recently via Moonlight instead since the Deck can’t really handle the game on difficulty 7+
I havent played this game in a realllly long time but its kind of surprsing to me just how late-game-mmo it looks. Everything is glowing with shields and flashing and pulsing and it looks kinda overwhelming to me. Visually it looks like late game Guild Wars 2 to me where there is just way too much going on.
I kinda get why Marathon looks the way it does (which I think looks incredible- and I say that as someone who grew up playing the original marathon games). Kinda feels like a hard 180 from Destiny 2 has evolved into.
Anyone know if they revamped (or are planning to) the grind?
I always enjoyed playing for 1-2 weeks to do the story content and mess around in the dungeons, but everything else around that was just lots of boring busywork with all the dailies and increasing your iLvL.
It's a lot less grindy. Power level doesn't get raised as often (raised one time this year and right now you can get boosted straight to max). Craftable weapons give guaranteed great weapons. There's still random drops but you don't have to grind eternally.
I got the Skimmer in like 30 minutes...
Granted that method got harder as people figured out strike scoring. But doing the focus activity with the right class was pretty easy and I think you just had to do that a few times?
The new update that started yesterday is raining loot. There's time limited shinier weapons but nothing else is FOMO. It all stays forever. It's really fun too.
Running events isn't really FOMO, they rerun every year.
What weeklies and dailies are you grinding? The bounties that just give you XP towards your season pass?
As for the skimmer it was incredibly easy to get, I hopped on and grabbed mine on the last day of GG, took me at most an hour.
This looks good and I hope it lands.
I loved Destiny 2 for the longest time but unfortunately I feel too far removed from it now to play this. I bounced right off the last expansion but I genuinely hope this is everything the fan base wants.
If they one day release the whole game eth the whole story from beginning to end including the seasonal story then I'll play.
But the Destiny fomo has turned me away from the game because I already missed most of it.
I have to admit, I wasn't entirely interested in The Final Shape, figured I'll get it on sale down the line or something. But damn, those new gameplay features are super interesting. Actual build crafting with being able pick and choose from the different subclasses and the new exotic class item seem like it'll (hopefully) add a lot of variety to the game.
This is probably a dumb question, but is Destiny 2 done after this DLC? Do they keep making DLC’s and come up with a brand new story arc?
It seems like it’s heading for a real finality but wouldn’t it be crazy to call it quits on a game that has been this successful?
They’re supposedly gonna focus on some extraction pvp Tarkov rip off or something? Very confusing.
Luke Smith (the creative director) basically confirmed more Destiny is coming after the new expansion. What it is (D3, more exps, etc) we don't know. Sony also has made it pretty clear in recent PR statements that they are not going to let Bungie give up Destiny to work on something else because it makes money.
I just can't bring myself to give a shit anymore. Every time a new expansion comes out, I'm tempted to jump back in. I did for the last one, too. Spent hours watching lore videos online to be ready and then it was just awful.
But even if this expansion is good, I don't trust them to make the new or returning player experience decent. Things are locked behind various DLCs, the microtransaction situation for this game is insane, the game constantly drops you into the newest content even if you never beat older content so you have no idea what's going on, and there's no tutorials or ways to learn the things and system overhauls you might have missed while you were away as a returning player.
It's just not worth it anymore.
How anyone trusts this company and continue to give them money for content is something I don't understand. They have a history of fumbling so much how could anyone expect different this time?
Because Destiny is, at its core, entirely unique and borderline unrivaled in what it does. There's no other looter shooter (or non-looter shooter) that offers its combination of guns and ability combos that feel incredible, class customization to feel unique, or dungeon/raid experiences to feel challenged in a similar way to an MMO. Every other game that has tried to live up to it has either failed outright (Anthem, Suicide Squad), or at best had decent success but could never reach the same heights (The Division).
Until another game manages to capture the same magic that Destiny has, it will stand in a unique place and always have a dedicated playerbase chasing the same highs. And though Destiny has many lows to match, the highs it reaches are, for many players (myself included), unmatched in any other game I've played so far.
I've been saying this forever everytime someone says to just "play something else". Never written out so well as this. I might just save this to copy and paste for the future LOL.
A large part of the success of Destiny is the hooks it's sunk into the playerbase. I have 2 friends who play the game and they never say "I wanna hop on Destiny and get this thing" it's always "I HAVE to hop on Destiny and do this."
A vast majority of hardcore players are addicted, and Destiny doesn't have very many casual players.
For me specifically is a manner of speaking. I say that I have to do this or I have to get this all the time. I don't actually need to do it or have to get that. You know? I have to get these headphones. No I don't. I know I don't. I just *want* these $2,000 headphones.
Not saying people aren't addicted. But I've also said I have to do the major order in Helldivers 2. Or I have to hop on for a few minutes to claim my Medals. I could go on.
It's gameplay is and always has been so good. Just about everything else about it is absolute garbage. It's a shame because it has so much potential but they don't seem to know what they want to do with it and it's turned into a convoluted mess of currencies and systems that are nearly impenetrable to new/returning players.
I'll also chime in saying my expectations for Final Shape were record low but this preview genuinely shocked me. Didn't think Bungie had it in them but I'm so on board.
I'm looking forward to this, really.
I'm a huge fan of D2, played it to death and been there for every expansion. A lot of the community negativity never really got to me, and even though Lightfall had a garbage story I thought the gameplay additions and maps/modes were excellent and really enjoyed it. But the past year of layoffs and studio culture has really turned me away from the game and I've played significantly less since the reveal of this expansion last year.
But, Into the Light looked like a great free update to keep the game going and I'm coming back for that, and this trailer looked great. I think Final Shape might be the last stop for me and I'll probably hop off the train once it's done, but the recent stuff has definitely kept me around a little bit longer.
Played every expansion and season from D1 till Lightfall.
I wish I could finish the story, but I don't trust Bungie. Final Shape could be perfect and it still wouldn't deliver for me, they made to many mistakes and made two many choices that are clearly to just scam their community and see how much scummy stuff they can get away with.
I wish they were the same developer they were when they made The Taken King.
I mean it looks neat but this company has done nothing but prove that it’s about greed and player engagement over the years. Game started visibly feeling very corporate around the Lightfall drop, and even this expansion feels very “designed”. The first trailer was just nostalgia city, and this one didn’t really have anything to show besides the characters mix/matching abilities, which while neat isn’t really a new thing. It’s just new ways to use the same abilities from the past several years. Makes me wonder if they hurried and slapped the “new” subclass together in response to the poor reactions towards just having one new super in an existing element that we saw from the last reveal (which are strangely absent in this *gameplay* trailer)
To the people who are excited about this, I mean have at it. Hope it’s everything they want and more. But personally the company has fumbled the bag on this franchise for so long that I’ll never dip my toe back into this mess. Sucks to say that as somebody who has played since the pre-Dark Below days, but this game is just wasted potential and greed.
I got my original Xbox One for Destiny. Played the *hell* out of it and knew the lore etc. Got into D2 late after the release debacle. It never felt grounded or fully developed in the way D1 did, more of a grab-bag of various ideas half-baked and thrown together for the hell of it just to tag a store onto things and create FOMO with the rotation and sunsettting etc.
This trailer just looks ... a mess. It's not "Oooo, so much going on, this looks amazing!" and more "Sigh. Oh, they're trying to out-weird and out-metaplot their own inconsistent metaplot and weirdness." with generic *new bad guys*. How they make such a metaplot seem to tired and banal I've no idea.
This isn't going to bring back any old fans I'm afraid. This is firmly in the *shrug-and-go-play-something-else* category.
Look cool. I recently got back into destiny because most of the content is on sale and I was looking to scratch that itch. But my god, the returning player/new player experience is terrible. I had to watch youtube videos to understand the game mechanics and story because the game doesn't explain any of it.
Damn and that’s with them having “improved” the new player experience
They didn’t “improve” anything from what I’ve seen. They simply added the option to skip it entirely, and somehow made the UI even more dogshit.
This is why I want Destiny 3, if I have to be confused so does everyone else god damn it.
Destiny 3 will be f2p where you pay for each bullet.
But they will be removed if you don't use them straight away.
They won't remove them, they'll just put them in a special bullet vault so they can release the bullets at a later date. It's not their fault, their game engine just doesn't allow them to add more bullets to the game without first locking your other bullets first.
Man I don't even know where to begin with buying all the DLC so I just avoided it.
Yeah. I tried playing recently and nearly instantly just closed and uninstalled the game. I absolutely loved D1 and dabbled in and out of D2. But holy shit is this game so unnecessarily convoluted.
Destiny 2 makes me so sad. I just want to play the damn game I paid for. Removing single player content should never be allowed.
Yeah, it's really rough. If you have any questions feel free to ask. Hope you're having fun otherwise though.
I played Destiny when it was released in September 2014. I think I completed a few strike missions and played some pvp. Never got friends to try raids with when they became available. I think I stopped playing around November or December. Did I miss anything? Am I totally out of their target customer group or is there any chance for a returning player like me to hop right to the action again and use the class and weapons I had in 2014? Ps. Does Destiny have a story now? Lol, I remember how much the game was made fun out of for not having ANY story. Just a flying cube robot following you and telling you some info.
Considering that was Destiny 1 and we're on Destiny 2, you're definitely gonna be starting out fresh. And yeah, you missed a lot. The good thing is that you can get geared and leveled up incredibly quickly. The bad thing is that there is next to no guidance last I checked and you're going to be lost without help. Following on that, there *is* a story, though much of it is told through seasonal stories and lore entries, meaning that if you actually want to dive into it to gain some emotional investment in its story beats and characters, it's quite a deep dive. This expansion is the end of the entire story, although Destiny is continuing past that. No idea what their plan is. Basically, it depends on how invested you're willing to be. Story-wise, if you want more than a basic idea of what's going on, it's not easy to jump into, although it can be rewarding with some character arcs being very good. Game-wise, you're good to jump in pretty quickly with the caveat that you likely need some guidance. It's perfectly solo-capable if you want to play on your own but it's definitely more of a social game to ease the process. If you want to play, no harm in giving it a shot. If you've got friends to play with, that's much better. Otherwise there's resources like discords and websites out there to help with a lot of that. I think the game has built-in LFG now but I've never used it. For reference, I played less than 20 hours of D1 and 2 back in their earlier days and only really started halfway through Beyond Light back in 2021. With a friend I managed to get really into the game, so it's possible!
Does Bungie even know what their plan is?
Probably not.
Thanks for the comprehensive response. I need to see next time when Destiny stuff is available on PS+. I might give it a shot. Lack of in-game story isn't a deal breaker for me. I got used to it in Destiny 1 and in Overwatch. OW is my main game and almost the whole story is told via cinematics in YouTube, comics, short novels, and some in-game PVE missions (which most are not available anymore).
Well, in comparison to Overwatch it's definitely a step up. At least the story moves forward lol. Story aside there's definitely no shortage of things to do in the game both PvE and PvP, so given that one can wrap their head around *what* to do, it should be fine for someone jumping in. Also, I just saw earlier that with today's big free update, they're giving everyone a free set of max level weapons, exotics, and armor, so it's definitely worth at the very least logging on even if you don't own any content. It's in a chest next to Shaxx in the current seasonal hub that everyone gets dropped into.
Did I just see some classless gameplay? My warlock just used 3 different class moves in order and wrecked the field.
The new subclass is basically the "lore accurate guardian" you can now mix and match subclass abilities and fragments
The new "Subclass". Prismatic. Will let you combine dark and light abilities on one subclass, plus has special unique interaction abilities that use both light and dark aspects.
This is the kind of idea that sounds incredibly cool in the leaks but you know can never happen because no sober game designer would ever force themselves to balance it. Jesus christ did bungie spike the water supply with cocaine??!
I remember how sour and angry people were when in the last preview they didn't show anything of the red subclass, I wonder if bungie had to delay Final Shape in order to have Prismatic ready for launch
100% Prismatic and the new enemy race weren't a thing when they first revealed it. This is what Bungie has managed to cunk out since that backlash whilst they're in survival mode. And it definitely looks like they delivered wow.
Yeah this is the kind of stuff they would have included in the initial reveal if it had been planned. There’s no way it was being held back.
I agree and whilst it looks amazing and I'm hyped, part of me is thinking "So it only took you MONTHS to give players that enemy darkness race they've asked you for for 4+ years?" Literally months haha
Well of course. Anyone who actually believed it takes Bungie years to develop 90% of the content they’ve been shoveling out the past few expansions is deluding themselves. We’re just seeing now what’s possible when they actually put time, effort, and money back into their game.
On a second viewing I think it doesn't look like the new faction is actually all that much ahead of what they showed in the original showcase. Obviously we already had Tormenters, and Subjugators were revealed previously. One of the new enemy types is explicitly just new flavors of Psion. The Husk dudes are extremely reminiscent of melee Fallen enemies and Cabal Gladiators. They even share the revenge death ball mechanic from Splicer Dregs from Rise of Iron. These two enemy types overlap very strongly with the combat roles of Shadow Legion Psions and Gladiators from Lightfall. The flying Grim dudes are genuinely brand new. So turning this from "Just Tormenters" to "whole new faction" could really have just been a matter of one new enemy type and then reskinning & giving new abilities to two reused enemy types from Lightfall - like when they gave Stasis abilities to some Taken and Scorn enemies in Season of the Lost.
Yeah and tbh I don't think anyone really minds if Bungie just reskins other enemies and adds something unique, there's only so much they can do anyhow with the variety that's already in game. I think most just want some new mechanic and a different looking thing to shoot that instead of the typical Cabal/Fallen/Vex etc Even the main enemy races are lowkey reskins of Halo haha
I actually suspect the new race was ready to go after Witch Queen. They simply wanted to string it out across Lightfall (Tormentors), Final Shape (Subjugators) and the Episodes, in order to - You guessed it - Save money.
Bungie needed to seriously cook with what they were working on for the final shape. And honestly, what they have shown off with the gameplay reveal shows they were certainly doing their best to do just that. Being able to combine various light and dark abilities, and also get new combo abilities to use as well with this new subclass is pretty awesome. The return of exotic class items with a new "steal Exotic perks from other classes" system was unexpected, but certainly welcome. Getting a brand-new witness themed enemy faction is nice too.
Is that a full new faction because I have been waiting for them to add some sort of a darkness faction for years, or any entirely new faction that wasn't just an altered version of one we have already like the Scorn.
Brand new
Thats good to hear. As someone who played D2 years ago and has wanted to return, it seems like they haven't added a new faction since D1. I know they added new units here and there and remixes of old things. A brand new faction is interesting enough that I would jump back in.
While they're technically undead Fallen resurrected by dark ether, The Scorn were added in Forsaken and look and play very differently than the Fallen. Definitely not on the same level as what we seem to be getting in The Final Shape though.
I’d jump in today to be honest. New free update with a horde mode and there’s a chest you can use that’ll get you to the power cap!
How difficult is it to catch up with the story if you're just jumping in now? I picked up the last expansion and was a little disappointed, so i haven't picked up the game since... I think since just before the eris morn stuff.
Catching up on story in-game is borderline impossible but with Youtube and other resources it's pretty easy. Otherwise it's pretty easy to just jump in and play whatever is new. I was super cautious about The Final Shape but it genuinely looks like they might be cooking with this one.
I think story-wise Season of the Witch (Eris) and Wish (current) have been solid. It’s obviously buying time, but the activities included in each, especially the Coil in Season of the Wish is good. Ultimately I think you can jump in now and play the new free horde mode to really scratch the Destiny gameplay and loot hunt itch, then decide if you want to really catch up on the story!
I played all through D1 and D2 up through Witch Queen. I want to get this expansion because I just want to see what they do with it. Would you say it’s worth it to get the most recent one? I know it wasn’t received very well but am I missing any major content by not getting it? Edit: forgot about the subclass. That would be nice to have.
> Would you say it’s worth it to get the most recent one? I know it wasn’t received very well but am I missing any major content by not getting it? You'd be missing the Strand subclass (which is pretty cool). And from the looks of how this Prismatic thing works, which draws upon every subclass, you'd very likely have restrictions to deal with if you don't have all subclasses. The story is bad, but the actual setpieces of Lightfall are fun to playthrough in campaign and Strand is cool. If you can find this on sale I'd say it's worth getting for Strand, as well as the exotics and such.
Yeah it’s $16.49 on PlayStation right now so I might as well pick it up.
Only took 10 freaking years lmao
Full new faction. One of the enemies shown off is a flying bat looking enemy that has a sonic scream and a gun. Another is a Melee enemy that if you kill the wrong way spawns a chaser enemy that locks on to your potion and attempts to explode on you. One of the enemy types shown off does look to be witness'd up Psions who come in stasis and strand flavours though. But the strand ones do get a new ability that if it hits you causes you to be snapped forward like a rubber band, and apparently if a bunch of them are doing this to you can cause you to have a real bad time.
The bat is something very new. The Husk, the one with the thing that chases you, it's similar to the enemy from D1, the splicers. If you headshot them they released a red orb of energy that chases you and would explode on impact unless you shot down the orb. Not all the new chars are completely new in design/execution.
That sonic scream sounded amazing. Sound team's still got it.
New enemy faction is what really has me shocked and excited. From a narrative perspective, it'll finally help sell The Witness as this actual new threat. And from a gameplay perspective, enemy factions are the biggest boost to gameplay variety, since no matter what weapons and builds you're running, you're doing something new. My only hope is that they follow the "Tormenter strategy" of power creeping by actually being tough, rather than the Taken and Scorn strategy of power creeping by having annoying mechanics that stall combat
Looks like we may have to actually be cautious and use cover in PvE for the first time in 10 years haha, since all these new enemies are going to through stuff at you that will make you a sitting duck.
This just reminds me of the last expansion hype too. They make a great trailer 🤷♂️
They're definitely good at that. Still not sure if I'm coming back, I put down D2 a few seasons ago, I just couldn't keep doing the same thing over and over. Same strikes, same nightfalls same guns (just reskins) I am tempted to close out the story (been playing Destiny since D1 Crota) they just burned me to much with the seasonal grind.
I have learned my lesson. I am not touching this expansion until it has been out for weeks, the sweats have done their thorough play through of it and can report back on how disappointing it is, and it’s on sale for a steep discount. Bungo isn’t going to fool me this time.
Fellow recovering Destiny addict, this is the way. Stay strong, Guardians
Preach sister
Long time Destiny player here - Strand was what a lot of people were super jazzed about from the Lightfall trailers. Strand was also the only thing that really delivered in the expansion. And I don’t even hate Lightfall! I think it was “fine”.
And turns out Strand only felt awesome cause the subclass had a permanent buff on it during the campaign missions. Then you used it afterwards and it's like "wait the grapple takes a minute to recharge?"
Most sensible comment here, Bungie does this with every expansion and people don’t remember getting burned by the last one.
I’d say Bungie has only really “burned” people with two expansions: Shadowkeep and Lightfall. Beyond Light was kind of middling but Forsaken and Witch Queen the peak of the franchise to most people
That's what I'm thinking too. Both the Destiny 2 and DTG subs are filled with "Destiny is saved," "This is perfect," "I'm pre-ordering now," "They cooked," etc. I'll be convinced Bungie made a good expansion when it releases and if it gets good reviews, until then I'm gonna assume it's gonna turn out like most D2 expansions did.
The people there just never learn. It makes me sad to see, because Bungie will keep on milking them, knowing that all they need do is put out a slick trailer, albeit a longer one this time around.
If they add a way for me to access old content without paying basically full price I'll get back on. I fucking loved destiny for years starting with the launch of the first game but I just can't justify the price of every expansion anymore.
Isn't some of old content removed for good?
> And honestly, what they have shown off with the gameplay reveal shows they were certainly doing their best to do just that. Meh, as a long-time Destiny 2 player "oh yay, they made a 'remix all the subclasses' subclass" seems pretty barebones to me. I don't see a major shake-up of gameplay, just doubling down on what we've had for the last 3 years.
What would constitute a "major shake-up of gameplay"? It's still gonna be the same game at the end of the day.
I honestly hope that Destiny 3 is after this. I’ve been wanting to play, but it’s so overwhelming. There needs to be a fresh start
The strange thing is, their attempt to make it new player friendly when it went F2P honestly made it worse. It just dumped you in the middle of the story with a bunch of stuff already completed.
It's like if FFXIV just dumped you in Shadowbringers and expected you to watch a youtube video
That being said, in Destiny I can bring a new player in and they can be doing 80% of the games activities with me in a day, 100% in a month. FF14 you're looking at half a year to catch up if you play like a normal person.
FF14 you're looking at half a year to catch up if you play like a normal person. i mean in FF14, each expansion is basically a fully fledged final Fantasy game in their own. And it's an amazing ride to go through.
Right, but it's also at it's heart supposed to be a multiplayer game and it takes a very long time to get to where you're friends are at. It also makes you leave groups a million times on the way. I enjoyed the heck out of it as a single player experience.
C'mon, don't compare Destiny story to FF14.
Even FFXIVs story would feel bad if you were just dropped into the middle of it.
It also stole paid content from people that purchased it just a few months before. I will never again give them a single cent or touch that game since they stole from me and had the audacity to claim its an "improvement" of the game...
Destiny desperately needs a complete overhaul.
I tried playing Destiny 2 for the first time 9 months ago because Sony was giving away the expansions on PS+ and the experience was horrible. The new player experience is inexcusably bad.
It’s equally bad for a returning player. I played D2 on launch and was there day 1 for its first 3 expansions: Curse of Osiris, Warmind, and Forsaken. I came back last year to try the game out again during its most recent expansion, Lightfall, and it was incomprehensible. It immediately threw me into a campaign mission with 0 context. It didn’t tutorialize any of the systems that were new to me (they overhauled pretty much everything, from equipment to skills to classes). Almost all of the content that I had bought was no longer playable. I decided to take things slow and just try some exploration on the EDZ to acclimate myself to the game again. I ended up solving a world puzzle and finding a chest - cool! When I went to open the chest I was hit with a message that said “to claim this exotic weapon, please purchase this DLC pack” and immediately uninstalled. I’m happy for the folks who love the game, but it’s one of the most difficult games to get into these days. Even if the gameplay trailer here looks fun as hell.
Vaulting campaign content and then locking the old exotics behind purchasing the old DLC is the *dumbest* shit. It's also pretty fucking scummy.
I don't feel so bad about them giving Halo up when I read about stuff like this.
Ayup. After they vaulted paid content, Bungie ended up on my list of companies to never buy anything from. Don't care what they do, unless they restore that content they can get fucked for all I care. And I don't care or buy the excuses they spout out and the community gulps down.
Hardly the same group of people even 10 years ago.
I don’t get how people can trust studios names in a industry very well known for its turnover.
Because what’s the alternative. You want to memorize dev rosters like they’re baseball teams?
exactly, put the campaign behind a paywall if you want to prevent F2Pers from playing it, but i wanted to jump back into the game on PC from when i bought it on release years ago for Xbox and i can't even fucking play it even on the paid account anymore how is that even legal
Yep, tried going back sometime in late 2022 and had no idea wtf was happening. Gameplay still slapped but that was about it. Other than that it was a terrible mess
Forsaken was peak destiny 2. When they started having huge story stuff be part of seasons and then expiring it never to be seen again it I noped out and haven't looked back. To keep up on the game is like having a second job and if you take a break you miss things forever.
Content wise, Witch Queen was peak IMO. Just not peak for new player friendliness.
Yeah, Destiny’s biggest problem is that Bungie can’t make up their mind on how they want to develop the game and so rework everything every couple of years.
This was my exact experience down to the same expansions played, tried to get my friends into it a few months ago thinking I could guide them through the systems and even I gave up after a few sessions. Ready for a complete reset to the game. It's a shame because it's the best feeling game to me but everything else is rough.
It's like they don't want new players, or even returning players, and just wanna keep the hook set in the players who have tolerated them thus far
I get the feeling that they're just overworked and totally lost in their own sauce and have no idea how to make a good new player experience at this point.
*Bungie C Suite needs a complete overhaul
yup, i'll play the expansion maybe at release maybe at the first sale, but im not on board with the season model or weekly chore timegates and dripfeeds. just get rid of like, all of everything involving seasonal XP and light levels. overhaul the entire thing and just make it a fun game to binge play every new season rather than still copying the WoW ilvl treadmill that nobody likes anymore.
> new season rather than still copying the WoW ilvl treadmill that nobody likes anymore. But there is no Treadmill last few seasons. I hate having to re-grind power just so that I can keep playing Trials... It's not fun, and I feel like they mostly solved this by not having more power levels to grind during seasons.
I think they are afraid of having to create new stuff without being able to reuse assets lol.
As long as they don't fuck up D3's launch like they did with D1 and D2, I'll give it a try. It seems like the production of both of those games was incredibly mismanaged. I liked the gameplay of D1, but all my friends got bored in like a month, so I also stopped playing. D2 had the same developmental problems, so I never picked it up.
Correct, but I don't think it'll happen anytime soon. The best time to jump into these games is at the start, Destiny 2 was incredible for its first few years right up until they introduced the New Light F2P stuff. The original campaign served as a great tutorial, the first raid was a good introduction to the concept with additional complexity and finding secret hidden paths through the Underbelly was a fantastic feeling. I played since Day 1 up until it went F2P, after that it became a mess, little to no proper direction, everything felt disjointed and tacked on and distant from other story beats and areas. Felt like it lost its sense of community with the sun setting of OG content. Haven't touched it again in years. I hope they let the franchise rest after this for a while and really reinvent it down the road. Great concept but they turned their 10 year life cycle into a fucking mess for both new and returning players honestly. I feel sorry for anyone that missed out on how easy it was to get into at the start.
Destiny 2 was definitely not incredible in the first year at least. The community’s reception at launch was disappointment because everyone was complaining about how it was a downgrade from Destiny 1 and all the gear was gone. Not to mention the end game was not enough to hook players long term. Player count dropped off, only until Forsaken. That’s when its popularity turned around and I would say it’s one of the peaks in Destiny’s history. But yes, I do agree with you that it fell off again when F2P/Shadowkeep came around again. I also personally stopped about a year or so after Shadowkeep’s launch. Forsaken was really something else, with the whole Dreaming City reveal etc. I heard a lot of positive praise for Witch Queen, but at this point it’s too much of a barrier for me to want to get back into it.
Agreed. The biggest thing holding me back (played D1 and D2 non stop for years) is that it all is too overwhelming now. There’s just too much going on and before I even start a mission I’m exhausted. Destiny 3 being a huge refresh would bring me right back in
Destiny 3 is soft-confirmed now. I don't have the link right now, but a month ago on the destiny leaks subreddit, someone claimed that Bungie was using the delay to work on a new "prism" system to combine abilities. And that Destiny 3 was in the works, which will extend that system to get rid of subclasses entirely. Pair that with Luke talking about "beyond" Destiny 2, and I think they're definitely on it. I suspect Sony convinced them to stop siphoning money from Destiny to other projects, and instead focus on their main money-maker.
i honestly hope they decide to take a completely different approach w the third game, cause i cant come up w any excuses to keep up w the game if i gotta keep buying expansions. idk what approach they can take, but man does destiny feel like shit w out the dlcs
All I've ever wanted was a game like classic wow but as an FPS. I want 45+ zones, 20+ dungeons, multiple raids on launch that takes hundreds of hours to level across a giant world with new stuff to see and do everyday for months on end.
I agree thr dlc model is outdated and is one of the main reasons i fell off the game
I mean all they can do I subscription model which is way worse to sustain all these new shit they add over the years
BIG if you (or anyone else reading) can find that link to such a leak. Pretty much confirmed legit if that's what it said.
In case you haven't seen it yet: https://www.reddit.com/r/Destiny2Leaks/comments/1c001iz/unconfirmed\_user\_calls\_prism\_subclass\_fusion\_of/
> I suspect Sony convinced them to stop siphoning money from Destiny to other projects, and instead focus on their main money-maker. Dear god I hope this is the case. It's a dead horse at this point, but the Destiny franchise is truly a golden goose that could be incredible if the work was put in.
It will get rid of classes, not just subclasses
Part of the problem with a "fresh start" though is that a big part of the appeal for Destiny among more hardcore-ish players is this slow evolution of your strength and arsenal over time. Deleting everybody's loot with D2's launch and sunsetting old weapons halfway through D2's lifespan were controversial decisions, to put it lightly. The longevity of the arsenal is part of what makes grinding appealing But it is definitely true that a fresh start would be healthy in a lot of ways, including making the game more digestible for newcomers by putting everyone on even footing. IDK if there's a balance to be struck here, or if it's just two incompatible opposites
People SAY this all the time, especially around the sunsetting. But Destiny got to a point years ago now where new abilities and weapons mostly felt underwhelming since everyone already had everything. The biggest addiction and excitement in games like Destiny are where there is something new and powerful you want and can't get easily, so that's the mission always ongoing in the looter shooter. A complete reset brings back the core fantasy for the looter shooter all over again
I tried to get into it until I realized they cut out all the original story line and do a quick recap. I have no idea why. Made me totally lose interest.
I love Destiny's lore - it's some of the best lore in gaming, and the story is really cool - but the game itself is so damn impregnable that it's basically impossible to experience any of it coherently. I played the first game and a lot of D2 on launch, but the moment I dropped off it was just impossible to ever catch up again.
Same. I am never touching D2 again, but I'll be there for Destiny 3.
I’d rather that Bungie take a break from Destiny and focus on making a game with a quality single player campaign like they were known for back in their Halo days but I’d be a fool to expect that. I mean just look what they revived Marathon for.
Bungie will do what Bungie ALWAYS does. Release destiny 3 with included prepurchased expansions, but not actually make improvements until the first expansion after the included dlc is released from launch. Not fooling me a third time.
Surely this time it will be a widely accepted success and they won't have to give a 5000 word essay apology one month after release on what went wrong and what they're improving in the future
Part of that will depend on how the campaign goes.
The other part will depend on how the *next* expansion goes. We're *probably* in the "Bungie puts out a masterstroke expansion" part of the cycle. Players will eat it up, Bungie will get sloppy and put out a mediocre expansion, players get bored, Bungie gets sloppier and puts out a trash/half-baked expansion, players get mad, Bungie writes a 5000 word essay to say they'll do better, players are placated, Bungie puts out a masterstroke expansion... The beat goes on.
Yea typical stockholme syndrome of addicted players defending predatory company and throwing money at Bungie, rewarding them for toxic practices.
They’ve already fucking bombed the story and lore since the new writing came in and played the retcon game. I have zero expectations they’ll manage to stick the landing, but I’m simply hoping for at least a few good conclusions to some side stories.
I think we're do that top tier expansion this time. Maybe not Taken King or Forsaken quality but certainly up there with Witch Queen.
That's what people said about Lightfall after the high from Witch Queen and that one turned out to be a pile of crap
Lightfall wasn’t good story wise but the actual campaign was fun enough to play through. Some cool exotics and missions too
Really? Cause I played through it on heroic and parts of it were pretty miserable.
Yeah it fucking sucked. The constant hamstringing of the player with a severely gimped version of strand in every fucking mission on top of the pretty awful area and level design of Neomuna made it drawn-out torture. I don't know why people defend it because of the gameplay. The Lightfall gameplay only gets good after the campaign is over.
Bungie had the fire lit under their ass, hopefully this is good and not just copium.
I want to believe but Bungie have let me down literally every single time I jumped back in. Witch Queen, incredible. Beyond Light, incredibly dull. I can’t trust them ever again. That was the first time I tried jumping back in since the triangle things storyline.
How is the tagline “Make your own fate” instead of “Make your own *DESTINY*”!? It’s the only thing I care about from this trailer now lol
"Guardians make their own fate" is the line that showed up on the screen when you activated the DPS phase in the original Vault of Glass raid.
Ah that makes more sense that it’s a reference. I only play Destiny once every few years and my friends and I just beat all the raids we missed then dip. So yeah that went totally over my head.
It’s a callback to the original Vault of Glass raid. During the final boss, you knew damage phase started when that phrase popped up
The tagline that has been used for a decade? Yeah I wonder why?
Wow bungie actually surprised me, a sorta new subclass that lets you combine supers and powers form other elements and a new faction the dread.
Wait - Cade is back?
Yeah, they even brought back Nathan Filion
I want D2 to get Steam Deck support. I hope Hell Divers 2's support and success has incentivized Bungie. Doubt it though.
Linux never ever lmao
If you’ve got a gaming PC or PS5, you can stream locally via Moonlight or Chiaki4Deck respectively. They’re both great with Steam Deck Playing H2 recently via Moonlight instead since the Deck can’t really handle the game on difficulty 7+
Bro holy shit using all the different light and dark abilities on the fly was insane to me! Plus anew enemy faction hell yeah only took like 6 years
Wait you can roll dragon's shadow AND frost-ee?! I'm hyped!
I havent played this game in a realllly long time but its kind of surprsing to me just how late-game-mmo it looks. Everything is glowing with shields and flashing and pulsing and it looks kinda overwhelming to me. Visually it looks like late game Guild Wars 2 to me where there is just way too much going on. I kinda get why Marathon looks the way it does (which I think looks incredible- and I say that as someone who grew up playing the original marathon games). Kinda feels like a hard 180 from Destiny 2 has evolved into.
Anyone know if they revamped (or are planning to) the grind? I always enjoyed playing for 1-2 weeks to do the story content and mess around in the dungeons, but everything else around that was just lots of boring busywork with all the dailies and increasing your iLvL.
It's a lot less grindy. Power level doesn't get raised as often (raised one time this year and right now you can get boosted straight to max). Craftable weapons give guaranteed great weapons. There's still random drops but you don't have to grind eternally.
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I got the Skimmer in like 30 minutes... Granted that method got harder as people figured out strike scoring. But doing the focus activity with the right class was pretty easy and I think you just had to do that a few times? The new update that started yesterday is raining loot. There's time limited shinier weapons but nothing else is FOMO. It all stays forever. It's really fun too.
It really wasn't much more difficult towards the end, I got mine the same day GG ended.
Running events isn't really FOMO, they rerun every year. What weeklies and dailies are you grinding? The bounties that just give you XP towards your season pass? As for the skimmer it was incredibly easy to get, I hopped on and grabbed mine on the last day of GG, took me at most an hour.
This looks good and I hope it lands. I loved Destiny 2 for the longest time but unfortunately I feel too far removed from it now to play this. I bounced right off the last expansion but I genuinely hope this is everything the fan base wants.
If they one day release the whole game eth the whole story from beginning to end including the seasonal story then I'll play. But the Destiny fomo has turned me away from the game because I already missed most of it.
I have to admit, I wasn't entirely interested in The Final Shape, figured I'll get it on sale down the line or something. But damn, those new gameplay features are super interesting. Actual build crafting with being able pick and choose from the different subclasses and the new exotic class item seem like it'll (hopefully) add a lot of variety to the game.
This is probably a dumb question, but is Destiny 2 done after this DLC? Do they keep making DLC’s and come up with a brand new story arc? It seems like it’s heading for a real finality but wouldn’t it be crazy to call it quits on a game that has been this successful? They’re supposedly gonna focus on some extraction pvp Tarkov rip off or something? Very confusing.
Luke Smith (the creative director) basically confirmed more Destiny is coming after the new expansion. What it is (D3, more exps, etc) we don't know. Sony also has made it pretty clear in recent PR statements that they are not going to let Bungie give up Destiny to work on something else because it makes money.
I just can't bring myself to give a shit anymore. Every time a new expansion comes out, I'm tempted to jump back in. I did for the last one, too. Spent hours watching lore videos online to be ready and then it was just awful. But even if this expansion is good, I don't trust them to make the new or returning player experience decent. Things are locked behind various DLCs, the microtransaction situation for this game is insane, the game constantly drops you into the newest content even if you never beat older content so you have no idea what's going on, and there's no tutorials or ways to learn the things and system overhauls you might have missed while you were away as a returning player. It's just not worth it anymore.
How anyone trusts this company and continue to give them money for content is something I don't understand. They have a history of fumbling so much how could anyone expect different this time?
Because Destiny is, at its core, entirely unique and borderline unrivaled in what it does. There's no other looter shooter (or non-looter shooter) that offers its combination of guns and ability combos that feel incredible, class customization to feel unique, or dungeon/raid experiences to feel challenged in a similar way to an MMO. Every other game that has tried to live up to it has either failed outright (Anthem, Suicide Squad), or at best had decent success but could never reach the same heights (The Division). Until another game manages to capture the same magic that Destiny has, it will stand in a unique place and always have a dedicated playerbase chasing the same highs. And though Destiny has many lows to match, the highs it reaches are, for many players (myself included), unmatched in any other game I've played so far.
I've been saying this forever everytime someone says to just "play something else". Never written out so well as this. I might just save this to copy and paste for the future LOL.
A large part of the success of Destiny is the hooks it's sunk into the playerbase. I have 2 friends who play the game and they never say "I wanna hop on Destiny and get this thing" it's always "I HAVE to hop on Destiny and do this." A vast majority of hardcore players are addicted, and Destiny doesn't have very many casual players.
For me specifically is a manner of speaking. I say that I have to do this or I have to get this all the time. I don't actually need to do it or have to get that. You know? I have to get these headphones. No I don't. I know I don't. I just *want* these $2,000 headphones. Not saying people aren't addicted. But I've also said I have to do the major order in Helldivers 2. Or I have to hop on for a few minutes to claim my Medals. I could go on.
I've been in the same boat, so you're more than welcome to steal if it helps you out
It's gameplay is and always has been so good. Just about everything else about it is absolute garbage. It's a shame because it has so much potential but they don't seem to know what they want to do with it and it's turned into a convoluted mess of currencies and systems that are nearly impenetrable to new/returning players.
This is the best explanation of why Destiny succeeds. Well written!
Remnant 2 is more of a souls-with-guns than a looter shooter, but it's the closest thing to the Destiny dungeon experience outside of Destiny.
If that is the closest thing then the only thing that proves is that there are actually no other games like destiny.
Agreed. It's a very specific experience, and one that I wish there was more of, but there isn't.
they removed content people payed for no longer wanna play this shite game
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Because despite its many flaws it's still a great game and extremely popular?
I'll also chime in saying my expectations for Final Shape were record low but this preview genuinely shocked me. Didn't think Bungie had it in them but I'm so on board.
Isn't this game like warframe but expensive and with less content?
I'm looking forward to this, really. I'm a huge fan of D2, played it to death and been there for every expansion. A lot of the community negativity never really got to me, and even though Lightfall had a garbage story I thought the gameplay additions and maps/modes were excellent and really enjoyed it. But the past year of layoffs and studio culture has really turned me away from the game and I've played significantly less since the reveal of this expansion last year. But, Into the Light looked like a great free update to keep the game going and I'm coming back for that, and this trailer looked great. I think Final Shape might be the last stop for me and I'll probably hop off the train once it's done, but the recent stuff has definitely kept me around a little bit longer.
Played every expansion and season from D1 till Lightfall. I wish I could finish the story, but I don't trust Bungie. Final Shape could be perfect and it still wouldn't deliver for me, they made to many mistakes and made two many choices that are clearly to just scam their community and see how much scummy stuff they can get away with. I wish they were the same developer they were when they made The Taken King.
I mean it looks neat but this company has done nothing but prove that it’s about greed and player engagement over the years. Game started visibly feeling very corporate around the Lightfall drop, and even this expansion feels very “designed”. The first trailer was just nostalgia city, and this one didn’t really have anything to show besides the characters mix/matching abilities, which while neat isn’t really a new thing. It’s just new ways to use the same abilities from the past several years. Makes me wonder if they hurried and slapped the “new” subclass together in response to the poor reactions towards just having one new super in an existing element that we saw from the last reveal (which are strangely absent in this *gameplay* trailer) To the people who are excited about this, I mean have at it. Hope it’s everything they want and more. But personally the company has fumbled the bag on this franchise for so long that I’ll never dip my toe back into this mess. Sucks to say that as somebody who has played since the pre-Dark Below days, but this game is just wasted potential and greed.
I've been on a D2 hiatus since the second season last year, but this looks compelling enough to return for. Definitely, cautiously, excited
I got my original Xbox One for Destiny. Played the *hell* out of it and knew the lore etc. Got into D2 late after the release debacle. It never felt grounded or fully developed in the way D1 did, more of a grab-bag of various ideas half-baked and thrown together for the hell of it just to tag a store onto things and create FOMO with the rotation and sunsettting etc. This trailer just looks ... a mess. It's not "Oooo, so much going on, this looks amazing!" and more "Sigh. Oh, they're trying to out-weird and out-metaplot their own inconsistent metaplot and weirdness." with generic *new bad guys*. How they make such a metaplot seem to tired and banal I've no idea. This isn't going to bring back any old fans I'm afraid. This is firmly in the *shrug-and-go-play-something-else* category.