I really, really hope so. (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Friday, January 12, 2018, 10:06 (2322 days ago) @ MacAddictXIV

The more time I spend with the current system, the more I dislike it. All it does for me is kill variety.

I would love for you to explain that further, but don't feel obligated because I asked.

No problem :)

For me, it’s about situational utility.

In D1, the 3 weapon slots all served distinct utilities. The primary slot was your general purpose weapon. The Special slot was for weapons that were more, well, specialized. Extra effective in specific situations, but almost useless outside their intended role (except for sniper rifles, which were so good in all situations that they broke the game, lol). And then Heavy Weapons; super-high damage, great for clearing mobs or melting bosses, but limited use due to ammo constraints.

That combination of weapon utility created a great range of flexibility and adaptability, which went a long way towards making our Guardians feel as powerful as they did in D1. It also had a big impact on the moment-to-moment gameplay experience. Playing D1 with a Scout Rifle, Shotgun, and Rocket Launcher was a very different experience than playing with an Auto Rifle, Sniper Rifle, and a Sword. The former loadout would encourage you to keep your distance for general combat, then allow short bursts of deadliness at close range, with the ability to clear mobs or do heavy boss damage at mid range. The latter loadout would lend itself towards mid-close range combat most of the time, with the ability to switch to your sword and clean house if you get swarmed, while also being hyper-effective at long range in short little bursts thanks to the sniper rifle.

Both examples I’ve provided lead to very different gameplay experiences, while also providing variety within each experience.

In Destiny 2, Kinetic and Energy Weapons essentially perform the same utility role. Yes, there is some variety thanks to the different kinds of weapons (hand cannons vs auto rifles vs Scout rifles, etc). But while those options do impact your optimal range of engagement, they basically perform the same role. A Kinetic Hand Cannon and an Energy Auto Rifle both get used in the same way against the same enemies. They are both general, all-purpose weapons with similar time-to-kill at similar ranges with similar ammo restrictions and DPS potential. The Energy Weapon has the perk of burning shields faster, but that is a relatively minor difference, with no downside or drawback to prevent you from treating it like a 2nd primary. So while playing with 2 primary weapons does give you the ability to chose 2 different weapons that are ideally suited to 2 slightly different ranges of engagement, they don’t have that much impact on how you play. Your killing the same enemies equally quickly, just from a little closer or a little further away. You’re not “switching gears” the way you would in D1 when you go from using your Scout Rifle to your Fusion Rifle.

Then, there’s the Power Weapon slot. Basically, every gun in the game that does not perform the utility of a general all-purpose weapon is crammed into a single slot. So now, we can’t take a weapon that is great for short bursts of close-quarters damage (shotgun/sword) AND a weapon that is good for damaging bosses (Fusion Rifle/rockets). We need to choose between those 2 options. What this does is it makes each individual Guardian more inherently specialized (which is exactly what they said was the goal in the Bungie Podcast). There are 2 problems with this. More specialized = more monotonous. If you are “specialized” towards a certain role on your fireteam, that means you’re always doing the same thing. The other problem is that certain “specialization” in D2 are almost useless. There are so few times where bringing a Sniper Rifle into a strike is worth the opportunity cost of sacrificing a rocket launcher or a Fusion Rifle.

So while D2 allows you to equip the same number of weapons as D1, those weapons each fill 1 of 2 roles, while each slot in D1 would fill a distinct role, allowing greater moment-to-moment variety.