If the best loot in Destiny 2 no longer comes from the game, but is instead almost exclusively from the in-game shop, then the soul of Destiny is at risk, says our shooter expert Sven Galitzki. To him, the game almost resembles a shopping simulator.
What defines Destiny 2? What defines the core of Destiny? What is the soul of the game? Many play together with their friends and enjoy shared adventures in Destiny 2; some simply enjoy competing with others in PvP.
For most, myself included, the loot is likely one of the most important, if not the most important aspect of Destiny 2. After all, it’s the loot and the infamous loot spiral that motivate us time and again and drive us to dive back into the Destiny universe.
Hand on heart: Would any of you have sunk hundreds or thousands of hours into Destiny if there hadn’t been cool carrots like the Gjallarhorn, the Recluse, or the One Thousand Voices dangled in front of us by Bungie?
New exciting and rewarding loot for our guardians – whether it’s new weapons, armor pieces, ships, or ghost shells – is for many the heart, the main drive, the soul of Destiny.
Clearly, this whole thing is also set against a visually and audibly appealing backdrop in a fantastic universe.
But in the end, it really comes down to loot.
Loot is the heart of Destiny 2
What has kept me motivated in Destiny: The hunt for cool items is what has kept me entertained even during times of content drought.
I personally place a lot of importance on the appearance of my guardian. The armor can have the best stats, but if it doesn’t look good, I won’t put it on my guardian at all.
If I can combine top stats with good looks, I don’t say no. I’ve spent countless hours farming certain armor pieces to give my guardian the perfect look for me.
Among my favorite activities in Destiny was the hunt for the top or ritual weapons as well as the Nightfall-specific rewards.
In short: There were phases when the content in Destiny didn’t captivate me anymore, but I always found something to keep myself occupied with the hunt for certain missing items or in PvP. But that has changed recently.
Destiny 2 is no fun for me with Season 10
That’s why I’m currently taking a break from Destiny: Since Season 10, I haven’t been regularly playing Destiny 2 for the first time.
Overall, there simply isn’t enough new content this season that could motivate me to regularly put on my guardian’s clothes. Furthermore, I have reached a point where content that previously motivated me just isn’t fun for me anymore. Even the return of the Trials couldn’t change that.
What makes activities fundamentally attractive? The fun factor and – yes, that’s right – the rewards, i.e., the loot.
It wasn’t just the meager content that led me to play less. Since Shadowkeep, another problem has increasingly crept into Destiny 2 that has significantly contributed to my sporadic gameplay since the season of worthy – the loot in the Eververse.
This was the turning point for me: With Shadowkeep in October 2019, the core game of Destiny 2 was supplemented with numerous additional contents that became Free-to-Play, and there was a noticeable shift in the in-game store Eververse.
Tess Everis’s shop has since been intensely supplied with new, quirky, and creative offers – whether they are new ornaments for weapons and armor, cool new sparrows, or visually appealing ghost shells.
The big problem is: The new loot is only available through the Eververse. New loot through gameplay has become rare in Destiny 2 and is far less appealing than the Eververse’s offers. You can immediately tell whether an item comes from the game or the shop.
In principle, Destiny 2’s loot system has developed such that the tastiest carrots are now almost exclusively from the shop – perhaps also through the last levels of the season pass. And within the game, the quality and, it feels like, the quantity of loot is noticeably decreasing.
For example, there are no top weapons anymore; from formerly 3 ritual weapons, only 1 remains in Season 10 – and that should actually have come in the last season.
New obtainable ornaments, ghost shells, or ships through activities? Scarce.
The developers repeatedly emphasize that they have to make cuts with their resources in specific areas or must decide between new loot or “new” features like the Trials. But the Eververse does not suffer from this. It continues to overflow with new ornaments and other cosmetics in Season 10.
In short: The coolest and best-looking loot is mostly available through the Eververse in Destiny 2. And when the best stuff in a loot shooter comes almost exclusively from the in-game shop, something is wrong. Because loot is the soul of Destiny. And this soul is increasingly being devoured by the Eververse.
This problem Destiny 2 must urgently address
For me, besides attractive content, this is the biggest problem: To name the problem:
- In Destiny 2, the balance between in-game and shop loot is simply no longer right.
- In-game, the quality and quantity of attractive items is declining, while the Eververse is filled with more and more of them.
- Especially the replayability and attractiveness of in-game activities is suffering greatly.
Because for many of these items from the shop like finisher animations, new ghosts, or weapon or armor ornaments, I would now “grind my ass off” if they could only be obtained through gameplay.
And when I say gameplay, I mean for example as strike-specific rewards, as rare drops in raids, from the escalation protocol, or from one of the many other cool activities that are currently just languishing in Destiny 2 – and not through dry glimmer bounties that ultimately lead me to the shop, or through the deft grip on the wallet.
Yes, I know Bungie needs to make money, but… the balance has to be right. And it is not at all at the moment. With this massive imbalance in the balance, the developers create no (urgently needed) incentives to play – they create incentives to shop in the store – whether with in-game currency or real money. No matter how you turn it – in the end, you can’t avoid the shop if you want to equip your guardian with the coolest stuff.
And this imbalance is something Bungie urgently needs to fix if they don’t want the game to turn from an MMO loot shooter into a shopping simulator. Because Destiny 2 is not far from that.
Is the break from Destiny 2 good? Not really… I actually hoped that I would feel more inclined to play Destiny 2 again due to the break. After all, it’s said that a little distance can work wonders. But I am increasingly realizing (and it hurts my heart): if nothing changes at this point, I doubt I will play Destiny 2 as intensely as before.
Furthermore, through the break, I’ve come to experience another problem with Destiny 2. Currently, the game is structured in such a way with its seasonal model and the associated pass that it doesn’t allow for breaks in principle, and if you do take a break, you are even punished. You miss out on a lot – story-wise and in terms of loot.
Destiny 1 and 2 will always be my favorite games and I sincerely hope that Bungie can steer the ship at the critical points again. But right now, it doesn’t look like that.
And so I have to sadly say that I am looking more forward to a possible (and hopefully better) Destiny 3 than to another year of Destiny 2 in its current state. Because for me, Destiny is no longer what it once was, but merely a shadow of its former self.
Something is changing: By the way, Bungie has recently announced: They are aware that a lot of players are currently unhappy with the state of Destiny 2. Therefore, there will now be an information offensive addressing the most urgent criticism from the community in the weekly developer blogs. They will start with plans against cheaters and measures for better Trials.
