Destiny 2hit a high point, bringing tons of praise, last fall when it released its Shadowkeep expansion to kick off its Year 3, but hype and engagement have waned as the year has gone on. The presence of the pyramid ship on the Moon and the promise of the encroaching Darkness introduced by Shadowkeep’s story and even the Garden of Salvation raidgave players an enjoyable experienceand hope to where the game could go in the following year.
With that also came a new annual structure with Bungie taking full control ofDestiny 2after its split with Activision and the end of its Year 2 Annual Pass that was developed with the help of some of Activision’s studios. Bungie said it could not maintain the content delivery of the Annual Pass as it moved forward into Year 3, which meant a new seasonal structure that Bungie could support.
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But that has caused its own problems. Many fans point to underwhelming content drops, predictable and samey seasonal activities,the game’s over-reliance on bounties to attempt to engage players in seasons and events, and more. But Bungie is starting to detail many of the changes that it has in the works, many of which will not appear in the game for two more seasons, which should also coincide with another fall release and the start of Year 4. The question is, will these changes fix the problemsDestiny 2has been experiencing?
Using Forsaken as a Model
In many ways, Bungie is looking toDestiny 2’s past and a number of the changes appear to be bringing back a bit of the model that players experienced with the successful Forsaken expansion from 2018.Forsaken was a huge expansiondrop that featured a big story, a new raid, and additions in the game’s core activities (remember, it also added Gambit which is now a core activity). The Annual Pass continued to build off Forsaken throughout the year. Players should not expect a full return of Year 2, but instead Year 4 will likely be an evolution made from the learning of both Year 2 and Year 3.
Year 4 Should Reduce FOMO
The biggest positive this change should make is to FOMO. If all goes right,Year 4 should reduce FOMO, or the fear of missing out, in some key ways. The change to Forsaken’s more annual focus should mean that more of the game’s content will be available for the entire year instead of only within each season. Currently in Year 3, players have complained that seasons (and sometimes to a worse extent, events) are the only way to get certain weapons, armor, and other loot. If players take time off from the game, they will miss out on those items without any way to catch up when they return.
Bungie reiterated thatDestiny 2cannot continue to expand forever, but the length of time that certain content stays around should increase in Year 4. In its explanation, Bungie said that “the core parts of the activity experience” from a season will continue after the season has ended. In an example given if this new strategy were to apply to Year 3, it would see the Sundial activity persist past the season it appeared in because it is the core seasonal activity; however,the obeliskswould be retired as they are more of a peripheral tie-in to that core Sundial activity. The gear from that season would continue to drop from the Sundial.
Making Core Activities More Relevant
A side-effect of new content coming into each season of Year 3, plus the pursuit of completingeach season’s Season Pass, the core playlists of the Crucible, strikes, and Gambit have become less important to play. Outside of completing some bounties, players do not have much motivation to play the activities are supposed to be core toDestiny 2.
One wayDestiny 2is looking to fix that in Year 4 is to put more gear into the loot pools of those activities. Continuing the hypothetical example of the Sundial above, Bungie said it would handpick some ofthe Sundial gearto put into those core activities to give players another place to earn gear so that way they aren’t pigeonholed into each season’s activities and instead can also be rewarded by playing more activities.
Annual not Seasonal Narrative
Along with the activities and the gear that have been pushed into seasonal timeframes in Year 3, much of thenarrative that has been delivered this yearalso came through only through these seasons. For players who keep up with the game, it hasn’t been an issue, but new or returning players have almost no way to experience any narrative that appeared in previous seasons.
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In contrast, the Annual Pass built of narratively from Forsaken and the story persisted even after a new content drop was released. Even now, players who own Forsaken and the Annual Pass can go back and catch up on quests and narrative from that entire year, such asthe Emissary quest from Season of the Drifter. That does not exist in Year 3, with much of this year’s seasonal content expiring at the end of the season it appeared.
But in Year 4, Bungie is looking to make sure that players can experience the stories of the entire year no matter at what part of the year they hop into the game.
Making Year 4 Not Feel Like a Chore
With the current model of Year 3, especially its reliance onbounties for XP and seasonal progression,the game often feels like a chore. An average play session often looks like this: go to the Tower, collect bounties, swap loadouts, complete bounties, swap loadouts again, complete bounties…and the play session goes on.
In Year 4, Bungie is hoping to ease this process andmake bounties feel more optionalrather than the best way to progress in both the season and in events. Plus it is looking to implement a feature further down the road that will allow players to pick up bounties from the Director instead of spending 10-15 minutes running around to destinations and picking up bounties before ever jumping into actually playing the game’s activities.
Even though Forsaken gave players a lot to do, it often got the feeling right that players' to-do list was a list of pursuits to progress through instead of a daily, weekly, or seasonal chore list that needed to be checked off before moving onto the next checklist. This has led to fatigue in many players, which Bungie hopes to fix in Year 4.
Overall,Destiny 2’s Year 4 will likely be an evolution from all of Bungie’s learnings from the past, as it attempts to make the right mixture of bringing back the parts of the game that have worked while letting go the aspects that have held it back.
Destiny 2is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
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