I unapologetically loved the first Destiny; I put over 1,000 hours into it. My excitement for the sequel was initially boisterous, then was tempered by the beta. Something felt off. The movement felt different and the game itself felt somehow altered.
Fast forward to the retail release. I thought the campaign was a significant improvement over the first, but everything else fell short. Strange changes were implemented, seemingly for no good reason. Shaders were made weirdly complicated. There were no more unique rolls on weapons. The endgame felt instantly tired. I wasn’t hooked at all. I wanted to be hooked, but I wasn’t.
I tried to keep an open mind about the first expansion, Curse of Osiris, but it was lackluster at best. The new space to explore was far smaller than expected. The repetition was laughable, even for Destiny. After I completed the expansion, I put the game down and hadn’t gone back.
Until this week.
It speaks volumes that I completely forgot Warmind released this week. I was reminded by a random tile on the PlayStation Store, and realized it was almost May 8th (which was yesterday at this point). Normally, I would have been so excited to realize an expansion for a game I’d loved was right around the corner, but with Warmind, I was marginally interested at best.
My clanmates (and regular teammates, no less) and I never did the raid when the game released. Not once. We used to regularly raid in the first game. I know all of us wanted to see the raid through at least once, but none of us ever did. That also said so much to me.
I feel like every new bit of information that comes out of Bungie (and, admittedly, I’ve not kept up to date with each new announcement) addresses minor things, but not the massive elephant sprawled all over the game. And, honestly, I genuinely have no idea what it would take, change-wise, for me to be into the game again. My partner and I were talking about it yesterday and he said at this point, he’d rather they cut their losses and just started working on the inevitable Destiny 3.
I agree with that, honestly. I know they have a big shake up coming later this year but, unless it turns things around a la The Taken King, I don’t know how interested I am. At this point, they would have to change the game to more resemble its predecessor for me to climb back on board. And even then I’d be hesitant.
I don’t envy the team at Bungie right now. I really don’t. I still stand by my statement that Destiny has the smoothest gunplay and traversal of any game out there (and the moment to moment gameplay is exceptional), but the experience feels empty in a way the first never did.
To be fair, I’ve not played the game at all since Osiris released. I know various changes have been implemented. Perhaps I will be swayed once I dive in to Warmind and see those changes in action.
I have an open mind. But I have no excitement. And that is a disappointment in and of itself.
Categories: games
Rebekah Lang 
I’m in the same boat as you. Dumped unholy hours in to the original Destiny and was originally super excited for Destiny 2 and ended up loving the campaign as well. But the hook was gone. I came back and played through the Osiris expansion campaign but not much more than that and yesterday came and I thought about it for a minute and then continued on without even going to download it.
I’ll play it for sure. I mean, I did purchase the season pass so I already own it. But I’m not super drawn in to return to it and considering the original kept me coming back over and over, that’s a huge disappointment less than a year out from release.
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We are, indeed, in the same boat. The only difference is that I downloaded Warmind. I started it with my team last night and it’s perfectly acceptable so far. There is one neat thing so far, but I don’t want to spoil it for you.
I hear you for sure on the disappointment. I never expected D2 would turn out like this.
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Intriguing :) I really enjoyed D2 when it first came out. I haven’t played the expansions though. It just seemed like a complete thing to me after the campaign… like I played it and enjoyed it and now I’m done and happy with it :) It’d be nice if they did a major expansion like Taken King. That’d probably lure me back into it. But these little expansions (Curse and Warmind) don’t look like anything major to me. I’d get em if they were cheap, but there’s way more stuff on PSN to drop £30 on than the D2 season pass :)
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I think we are just coming at the game from two very different perspectives. For a lot of us, Destiny was always about the endgame.
They have already talked about doing that kind of major expansion later this year, but we’ll see how that actually changes things.
I bought the game with the season pass so I already had it. Otherwise I’d have held off, too.
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Ah that’s fair :) For what it’s worth, I fully expect to return to D2 in the future because that’s what happened to me with D1. I was disappointed with the D1 launch title and didn’t bother with the little expansions. But Taken King convinced me and from that point on, I really loved the game and played it for two years :)
If Bungie can follow that same pattern and release a big thing this September, I’m virtually certain I’ll buy it :) The only difference would be I loved D2 from the start.
Alas… This all depends on if Bungie’s September expansion is a big deal or just another Curse of Osiris :P
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Rebekah, I hate that D2 isn’t what you’d thought it would be. I hope things get better for you. Meanwhile, how’s your time with GoW? I am working my way towards Mimir. :)
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Aw, thank you Richard, alas, it’s just a game, albeit a sort of let down situation. Hopefully they learn from how things have gone and adjust both this game and the next entry accordingly.
I have yet to play any more God of War. :( How are you enjoying it?
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I’m still working! I had back to back presentations yesterday another one tomorrow and a lot of typing left to do. I’ve taken to listening to Disney soundtracks while I work. It was obsessively Moana for awhile but I’ve moved on and at this moment it’s Hercules. I did manage to sneak in a couple of Thanos themed Fortnite matches. It’s a fun diversion, alas no infinity gauntlet for me yet. With the backwards compatibility of Dragon Age 2 for the Xbox One I really want to finally play that game. Sometime soon I’ll download Destiny 2’s Warmind. However, the scuttlebutt that I’ve read hasn’t been positive due to complaints of recycled levels. Oh Bungie.
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Oh Megan, really? Goodness. They need to ease up on you, even just for a bit!
Aww, that sounds nice! I love Disney soundtracks, too!
I’m glad you were able to squeeze in some Fortnite! Hopefully you get that gauntlet sooner than later. :)
As for Warmind, I can attest there is the usual repetition, but there are a few neat things in play! It’s not enough to rope me back in for the long term, but I am enjoying what I’m playing of it.
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I’m glad to have something to, for at least a bit, step into regularly with you et al, but I don’t foresee coming back to it for longer than it takes to see the bulk of the new content.
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Me too, me tooooooooo, Iguana!
And me, too.
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