I’m... not :( (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Wednesday, November 11, 2020, 11:54 (1416 days ago) @ cheapLEY

Obviously it’s still early, and obviously we’ll need more time for some of the changes to sink in. But after completing the campaign and spending another 3-4 hours running around doing post-campaign quests, I’m feeling like this might be the worst D2 expansion, with the exception of Curse of Osiris.

On the plus side, Europa is gorgeous. All the scenery and locations are beautiful. And I love the weather effects. But looks aside, I don’t feel like it had been implemented in a way that makes it a compelling patrol destination. We’ll see if that changes over time.

For me, the big ugly elephant in the room is sunsetting, and how it has effected my play through. I was having a decent enough time for the first little while, when I could get by with my old gear. But once that level climb kicked in, and I had to start using whatever random weapons dropped as I played, the whole thing fell apart. For me, most of the weapons in D2 just aren’t enjoyable to use. And if the weapons aren’t fun, then none of the combat is fun. And as luck would have it, every single weapon that dropped for me during my play through was hot garbage. I would have been thrilled with “mediocre”, but they were absolute trash, with the lone exception of a new exotic that I was able to use for 1 mission before it was too under-levelled to continue using it. Finally, long after finishing the campaign, I’ve gotten a bow and a grenade launcher that I kinda like, and it’s starting to feel more like “Destiny” again. But at this point, I’m already mostly “done” with Europa. I’ve done most of the new stuff, and at from here Europa is kinda just another patrol space, filled with patrol activities that I never have any interest in doing.

Sunsetting isn’t my only gripe, though. I don’t think the campaign is particularly good. Bungie has settled into a formula for how they like to roll out their story missions. Unfortunately, Forsaken still remains the best example of this campaign structure, and they’ve gotten progressively worse since then IMO. And the writing/dialogue in this expansion might be the worst in the franchise. They’ve mostly left behind the campy “marvel-style” banter that was so cringey in vanilla D2, but the dialogue now is just as dumb, only it takes itself way more seriously. It feels like they’re really trying to have the characters say deep, meaningful, impactful things to each other, but it’s all just moronic. From a lore point of view, I’m sure there’s a lot here that lore fans will love (plenty of exploration of Destiny’s backstory), but in terms of the character-driven narrative, the whole things is a big miss for me.

Finally, the thing that I really didn’t see coming: I think the new “stasis” powers make the game instantly worse. Even if I’m not using them, simply having them exist in the game around me has already caused plenty of frustration. Being frozen by an enemy is never, EVER fun. It’s a frustrating experience every single time, especially when getting frozen leaves your health at critical levels, so that by the time you break free you’ll almost certainly get picked off by a random Dregg. Having enemies that will decide the throw their “freeze” blasts at me right as I jump over a chasm, when I had no possible way of dodging, causing me to plummet to my death made me chuckle the first time it happened to me. But by the 5th or 10th time, the novelty has worn off and it just feels awful.
Aside from fighting against stasis powers, I also find it frustrating to fight alongside stasis powers. I’ve lost track of how many times I was about to headshot an enemy when a giant wall of ice suddenly pops up and blocks my shot because a random blueberry threw a grenade at just the wrong time. And these abilities are an absolute shit show in the crucible. Abilities that require little or no aim, immobilize opponents, and cause explosive chain reactions while also blocking movement, line of sight, and fire? What could go wrong ;)

All I can say is that at this point, I’m really really glad I didn’t buy this expansion (I got it through Gamepass). The real bummer for me is that the D2 that I really love is now mostly gone. It’s been a gradual process over the past 18 months or so, with tweaks and nerfs and gameplay changes slowly undoing all my favourite things about the game. And now, most of it is just straight-up gone.

On the bright side, I did still enjoy the few games of control that I played last night, even with the new stasis powers in play. Auto rifles still shred, so I won’t need to put away my Summoner any time soon :)