I recently got back into playing Destiny 2, and it’s been, overall, pretty complicated.
I mean, I guess I’m having fun. Yes, I am. Maybe. The core of the gameplay (shooting, jumping, using abilities, throwing grenades, and especially punching things) feels great, like it always has. I’m being compelled to play, which is maybe why what I’m about to say next is sort of beside the point, but I don’t think it is.
The problem I have with Destiny is that the gameplay isn’t really the focus of the game. All the years I’ve been away, it seems, have been focused on layering levels upon levels of character building, modding, crafting, and otherwise adding a bunch of crap that means I spend as much time in the menus as I do in the actual game. It’s like when someone pours a bunch of sugar into their coffee, and you sarcastically say, “Want some coffee with your sugar?”
Let me just break down a VERY SMALL part of what I’m talking about….
Destiny 2 requires you to level up your character (there are three different classes), along with each individual piece of equipment you have (you have 9 slots each for hemet, arms, chest, legs, flag thingy), as well as three (or four or five?) subclasses, a seasonal artifact, your personal AI assistant (called a Ghost), and other things I’m sure I’m forgetting about or don’t have the slightest idea of. You ALSO need to add and configure different mods to all of these things as well, which each have stats in one of six (or seven or eight?) different areas that need to be somehow all coordinated across weapons and armor so that they achieve a symbiotic relationship with your play style AND whatever modifications are happening within the given mission/activity you are playing. Not only that, but in order to unlock all these mods and upgrades and what not you have to activate/collect bounties, pathfinders, triumphs, challenges, seasonal items, commendations, and I’m sure a bunch more shit that is going over my head.
There is more than this as well, I’m just mentioning SOME of what I’ve encountered coming back to Destiny after a few years.
“Yes but a lot of that stuff is for the advanced players and you can just ignore it and play casually can’t you?” No, not really. At every turn, the menus and maps in Destiny are flashing prompts and banners to do this and upgrade that, and you can’t really progress and contribute to many activities without paying at least some attention to all of the systems at work.
The game screams at you, “You must learn the ways of Destiny or die!”
Destiny has always been a game that requires you to look outside the game to keep up with the latest meta, like what guns were the best at the moment, based on the latest minutiae of DPS and hitboxes and god knows what else.
But this. This is another level.
Coming back to Destiny felt like a breath of fresh air at first, but so often, it just feels like work.
If this all sounds amazing to you, either you are way younger than me and/or don’t have young children and/or we can’t be friends.
With all that being said, I’m still looking forward to playing again. So I guess all this is working…somehow.
Send me a friend invite (furious Phil), and join the insanity.
Comments welcome!