It’s hard to believe that it has already been three years since Destiny first hit the scene . It came from a developer that had, and still has, an incredible track record when it comes to space shooters, so it’s no surprise that their next project after Halo took off in the way that it did. Love it or hate it, destiny 2 updates has quickly become one of the biggest new franchises released this generation thanks to tight mechanics and addictive gameplay.
Destiny 2 is headed in the right direction. Perhaps it’s too little too late or maybe it could pull a healthy player base back in. For now, Destiny 2 is trying its best and is showing signs of quality of life for its future. Today it’s no surprise when buying a new game to be hit immediately by a patch, because what game makes it out of the door ever without having to go through a few updates and patches once it’s out the gate? Usually a major update will hit games freshly released within the first month followed by the steady stream of content and improvements. All of this is commonplace in the video game world and yet we as the audience still find time to get mad that games aren’t the perfect embodiment of what was envisioned. Developers do have a responsibility to be open with their audience and it does become a let down when certain things promised are nowhere to be seen or the game is more broken than let on. So let the saga of Destiny as it continues through the ages be a lesson, one that we are seeing more and more frequently – Anthem is on the horizon, after all. But it’s our responsibility as players and developers to keep the dialogue going to get the best experience possible from all sides. Good luck out there, Guardian.
While including a loot box that doesn’t award duplicates is better than only having completely random loot boxes, doing so doesn’t take away from the fact that Bungie’s game is still highly encouraging its players to engage with loot boxes instead of actually earning loot. It also doesn’t take away from the fact that they’re still pushing random microtransactions in a game with a sixty dollars price tag and paid DLC. What’s more, they don’t appear to see anything wrong with this.
However, probably the most disgusting offense this expansion imposes on players is that vanilla players are now locked out of key content they had access to just weeks ago. The Prestige Leviathan raid now requires a Power Level that can only be attained by purchasing the DLC. This is especially terrible for PC owners who have only had six weeks to enjoy this content. Considering ‘Dark Below’ did not lock vanilla Destiny players out of the ‘Vault of Glass’ hard mode, there’s no excuse for what’s going on here.
Curse of Osiris does include two new strikes, but both are pulled directly from the campaign with no changes. Crucible doesn’t fare much better with only two new maps on Xbox One and PC, and three on PS4. Unfortunately, as of publication, Crucible is wholly broken thanks to the Prometheus Lens, a new trace rifle that is completely unbalanced. Bungie says they’re working on a fix, but a solution has yet to materialize nearly a week after launch.
The RNG system is still here but has been streamlined to be more rewarding. Faction Leaders regularly dole out Legendary items after you turn in enough Faction currency to them, which can be found by participating in activities in the world, playing Crucible, breaking down old items and participating in Strikes. All-in-all, it’s not much of a chore to get to a high Power Level to take part in the late game activities. What has been negatively impacted in Destiny 2 is a player’s ability to customize their Guardian and earn certain rewards
This is where the Cabal are fiercest, and it doesn’t help that they have also been looking into the Vex Gate, so you will need to get past their forces to make any progress. It’s revealed that the Vex are returning through this gate to the Black Garden for an undetermined reason, so like any good Guardian, you follow them through. This is where you will arrive at a very unnerving location as the Vex seem to be worshiping a Black Heart. The final boss of the vanilla game, the Sol Progeny, is summoned to defend this heart, and upon defeating them, light is restored within the Traveller.
In the same year we got great expansions like The Frozen Wilds for Horizon Zero Dawn , Defiant Honor for Nioh and In The Name of the Tsar for Battlefield 1 , it’s amazing how dull Destiny 2 – Expansion I: Curse of Osiris is. Filled with half-baked ideas, repetitive mission design and the smallest explorable area yet, Curse of Osiris feels as empty and meaningless as The Dark Below. The expansion’s campaign fails to push the overall narrative forward and does little with its interesting setup, the Crucible is a mess until Bungie patches it, and the Infinite Forest feels like it needed more time in the oven. Add in some extremely-questionable business practices and you have the most disappointing expansion to hit the Destiny franchise. Though the expansion is as beautiful as ever, and the gunplay as solid as before, Curse of Osiris fails to provide Destiny 2 or Bungie with a new lease on life.