After the announcement that Destiny 2 will put the Tangled Shore into the Content Vault, many players were only moderately enthusiastic about it. They once again feel robbed by Bungie. Why is there even a Content Vault in Destiny 2, they wonder.
Bungie has once again announced that in February 2022, with the launch of “The Witch Queen“, more content will be moved to the Destiny 2 Content Vault. With the Tangled Shore and Spider, another complete location is disappearing, which many players still visit regularly. The dissatisfaction is accordingly large. After all, this involves paid content that is now being taken away from the players again.
Sure, the Tangled Shore may no longer be story-relevant and also not as frequently visited, but it was once paid content. I find it somewhat cheeky to just remove it and make players pay again for a new destination.
argues Destiny 2 player Steffen K. via Facebook
It is not like this with other developers
For many players, this approach and the existence of the Content Vault is fundamentally incomprehensible.
Strong arguments from the Destiny 2 community are:
- That Bungie even has and needs a Content Vault is unorthodox in the industry.
- In other games it works without and the players know that.
- Comparisons with World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy are cited as positive examples.
- Bungie should make this content permanently accessible via the timeline or legacy.
The players are upset: It doesn’t help that Bungie argues that with “The Witch Queen” many new, unknown contents and locations are coming into the game. Even if the removal is explained sensibly in the story, and the paths to Glimmer and material purchases are shorter, it changes nothing about the fact that all these cool things are no longer playable. No one knows when or if they will ever return. This is not well received in the Destiny 2 community.
Why is this only the case with Destiny 2?
The file size plays only a very small role. The main reason is that Bungie had to technically further develop Destiny 2. So, fundamental changes were made to Destiny 2, which will positively impact the game both technically and visually in the future.
Destiny 2 has mentioned these reasons for the Content Vault:
- Bungie completely revamped the engine to make it better in the long term.
- It was simply something that needed to be done if there was not going to be a Destiny 3.
- The mere testing interface of Destiny 2 had reached an overwhelming complexity of code.
- And this also includes that old content has to leave the game.
We want Destiny 2 to be the best action MMO in the world, and that means we have to be much more agile and flexible than we are today. But the simple fact is that the size and complexity of our game prevents us from improving Destiny as quickly as we would like to and as you wish.
DeeJ in June 2020 on bungie.net
Even something as simple as bringing back an old Crucible map is a technically demanding task for the developer. It requires that the old map be completely rebuilt in the new engine system.
It doesn’t make sense to blame Bungie
No matter how unfair this situation is, Destiny 2 players have to deal with it. It would be better to provide Bungie with constructive criticism on what needs to change about the Content Vault to make it feel better for the players. Because in the future, Bungie will gradually move content from Destiny 2 to its Content Vault.
This is how Bungie could do better
In the meantime, the Content Vault already contains many of the best missions from Destiny 2. Among them are The Arrival, The Whisper of the Worm, and in the future, the Signs mission in the Tangled Shore. All missions that players really enjoyed and that now simply do not exist due to the Content Vault.
The Content Vault feels too one-sided: A major problem is that the Content Vault currently feels like a black hole. It absorbs everything and spits out nothing. Although Bungie is also bringing back old content from the vault, it is a lot of Destiny 1 content.
- The location Cosmodrome
- The raid The Glassed Chamber
- Some strikes, like The Devil’s Cave or Fallen S.A.B.E.R.
Of course, this was a great remake for many Destiny 1 players. Even that new players who don’t know Destiny 1 were able to play these contents for the first time. But this does not change the fact that everything that has been put into the Content Vault from Destiny 2 is still missed.
The best Destiny 2 missions are very much missing from the game
There are Destiny 2 contents that do not deserve to survive forever in the vault, such as
- The Tribute Hall: It is comparable to a shooting range and nowhere else could you try out new weapons so well. There was free ammunition and free enemies that never shot back.
- The Whisper of the Worm: Those who couldn’t jump in Destiny 2 definitely learned there, and that the hard way, including a time limit.
- The Arrival: Here players were chased by a crazy robot through narrow corridors. Everyone wanted a selfie with T.R.E.V.O.R. Even if it surely cost them their lives.
With some distance, it is noticeable that Bungie is focusing very much on the contents of Destiny 1. They are only rolling out old content from Destiny 1 back into the game. The only thing that will come back from Destiny 2 are a few of the old Crucible maps. This is not enough for the players.
Bungie still owes this proof: It would have to be proven that Bungie can also bring back Destiny 2 content, after an engine rework, as a legacy just as easily. That would be a step in the right direction. It would then feel only half as frustrating for many players if content has to be stashed in the Content Vault.
But that simply has not happened yet.
What do you think about Bungie bringing back one of the most popular Destiny 2 activities each season? Would the Content Vault feel less frustrating for you then? Or is this model just unnecessary for you?
