Skill Up’s Beyond Light Review (Destiny)

by cheapLEY , Wednesday, December 30, 2020, 09:45 (1210 days ago) @ Claude Errera

I don’t necessarily disagree with that premise. And I do have hope that Destiny will continue to get better. The series has had its ups and downs for sure, but I think, overall, it’s been an upward trajectory. Beyond Light absolutely feels foundational to what the game might be moving forward. Losing so much content without replacing it in equal amounts was always going to feel bad.

I don’t want to say that I’ve lost hope, because that’s not really what it is. More that I’ve just come to terms with the game that Destiny is. It will never reach the potential I see in it unless they actually completely ditch the power grind, and I see the chances of that as basically zero. Destiny not being the game I wish it was isn’t the same thing as believing it won’t get better.

I just look at the history of Destiny and every single new thing is met with “If wasn’t for X, this would be great.” I think it’s time for folks to stop making excuses and accept that Bungie is just making the thing they want to make. Which isn’t to say that they’re completely happy with it and think it’s perfect. But come on, all of these problems with sunsetting and the economy of upgrades and rewards were completely foreseeable and they did it anyway. Maybe it was necessary to build the game better going forward, but they did not do nearly enough to make that a compelling argument. And I say that as someone who likes Beyond Light as much as any previous era of the game, if not more.

The way I see it is that it’s still trying to straddle the line. He says it’s only for hardcore players. I think that’s largely true. The material economy is a great example of that. But, on the other hand, other than like GM Nightfalls (and champions, obviously), nothing in the game is difficult enough to make build consideration necessary. But unless they completely refine the upgrade system (and mod availability, as SkillUp stated), they can’t make that necessary because then new and casual players wouldn’t be able to play at all. I think every service game faces the same problem, and I’m not sure anyone has really figured it out , but Destiny in particular really seems to struggle with it. It doesn’t feel good from either perspective, I don’t think.