5 Things We Wish to See in Destiny 2

5 Things We Wish to See in Destiny 2

Destiny is the new game that Bungie are calling a ‘shared world shooter’ experience. As the most expensive game made to date it had a lot of expectations to meet, and it met a lot, but maybe not all. Destiny did manage to connect single player, multiplayer, story and competitive modes together well, but it didn’t do much new in terms of core mechanics. Here are a few ways they could improve on the recently announced Destiny 2.

#5 Deeper Customization

As an RPG Destiny doesn’t really open up until a player hits level 20, where the leveling system becomes about buying or finding armour that has ‘light points’ instead of gaining XP. Whilst the main drive of the game is its loot and reward system, incentivising the player to be out looking for bigger and better gear, it kind of stops being fun during the interim. The result is grinding for hours for the possibility of attaining a reward or farming materials by the most basic means.

Instead of having these items in set tiers that cause every player to be hunting down the top legendary or exotic items, it would be interesting if players found or earned modifications that can be applied to any of their items, what if instead of just looting weapons I could find just a new scope that could then be applied to any of my weapons? Or an extra grenade perk that can be applied to any piece of armour?

At this point everything is a scramble for raid gear, a deeper customization system would create a more diverse range of play-styles and a reward system tailored to each player, in turn would drastically increase the diversity of the guardians appearances.

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#4 A More Involved Competitive mode

The PVP mode in Destiny, called Crucible, is fun for what it is. There are four standard game modes: Control (Annex, a mode that revolves around capturing bases), Clash (Team Deathmatch), Rumble (Free-for-all) and Skirmish (A smaller, 3v3 Team Deathmatch) with an extra mode that can change from week to week. This is what gamers have come to expect from competitive multiplayer in first-person-shooters, what we see from Destiny is nothing new or innovative.

It would be great if Bungie could at more complex dynamics to their competitive modes and provide greater motivations for playing The Crucible (really it is just to complete bounty’s and the possibility of gear drops – which, past a certain point mostly become redundant). More game modes is a must, something to appeal to the more hardcore gamers and something for the more casual. Working under the assumption that Destiny 2 will only be on the current generation of consoles it’s time to start expanding competitive modes in games.

#3 A More Fleshed Out Universe

Whilst at the moment Destiny boasts 4 explorable areas (three planets and the moon) they all feel pretty hollow, with most story and strike missions forcing you to tread over the same enemy filled sections countless times. The design of these areas is simply that the maps work in a big circle, with each area leading to another until eventually you get back to where you started.

If each planet had a completely open map, where there are no long paths between areas and the layout is free to explore, where the player is given a choice to find the shortest distance between point A and point B or wander off the beaten path. This could make farming and exploration a lot less tedious. This way Patrol Missions and Public Events could be given context, and their own sub-plot. Imagine if the Vex where invading a human outpost on the moon and you had to prevent casualties, which brings me to my next point.

#2 A Contextualized story

Destiny doesn’t really have a story, it follows the same basic formula; run, shoot and run some more. It works for a short amount of time, but can become tiresome as an FPS.

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Where Destiny struggles the most is being a capable shooter and role-playing-game. A lot of this could be improved by having a more dynamic story, with more varied missions, friendly NPC’s that you have to defend during an onslaught from enemies, or a high value target on a vehicle. Right now the formula is basic and desperately needs to be more diverse. Playing the Daily Heroic Story mission right now doesn’t really make a difference as to which mission it is; but what if you got bonus XP for playing a mission that felt like a unique experience? Instead of playing the same mission over and over, there could be a missions that focused on different aspects of gameplay maybe something more vehicle driven or defending an off world colony.

#1 Choices

Most of the choices a player will face in Destiny are which weapons and armour to equip. This is important, but this is either an easy choice or one that makes little difference. Choices that affect the story or the way the game is played are important, not necessarily the large moral choices of a game like Mass Effect change the story; but something that makes each players experience unique. If character picks a faction that gives them a different set of missions, or there are multiple approaches to a mission. Context is what Destiny lacks the most, having a choice in how the game plays out, how the story is altered or what rewards a player receives could make the experience infinitely more rewarding.

Now it is your turn. Let us know your 5 Things you wish to see in Destiny 2 in the comments.

2 comments

  1. BootHammer

    You summed it up quite well. We need to see more variety, more planets, exciting objectives and possibly most important, unique mission/stories. I love Destiny and have great faith in Bungie that they will give this new franchise the support it deserves.

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