Destiny 2 has been one of those games that always managed to hold its own ground despite getting into its sixth year and ninth year for the whole franchise. However, since the release of Lightfall, a few critical concerns have started to cast shadows over Bungie’s critically-acclaimed looter shooter.
Lightfall was one of the best-selling expansions for Bungie to date, and it feels like while the game is getting bigger, pulling in more new players with each release, the technical state of the game is getting worse.
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To recap, since Lightfall, there have been an increasing number of server connectivity issues almost every week. But this is just one of the three issues the community needs Bungie to address.
Missing Items: Promised Armor Sets for Playlist Activities
One of the most pressing concerns among the Destiny 2 community revolves around missing items, mainly the promised armor sets for playlist activities.
Back in 2020, Bungie stated in one of its weekly blog posts that it would be creating new armor sets for each of the three core playlist activities each year – Crucible, Gambit, and Strikes. “We will create new sets like this each Year (e.g., Year 4, Year 5, Year 6, etc.),” said Bungie. Up until The Witch Queen expansion, Bungie did add a new set of armor for these activities each year.
However, while Lightfall’s release added some new and shiny armor sets to the game, the core playlist activities were left in the dark and did not receive any new items that were promised earlier by the developer.
This concern is frequently raised by Destiny fans, appearing regularly on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and the official Destiny subreddit. Indeed, when compared to armor obtained from endgame activities, some players may find the design of these core playlist armor sets to be lacking in excitement or creativity.
But it’s important to mention that incorporating new content—such as exotic quests, cosmetics, or weapons—is always beneficial for a game. It incentivizes players and encourages them to spend more time in the activity.
Gambit: Long Overdue for Meaningful Updates
If there’s one activity that hasn’t seen the light of major content updates, it’s definitely Gambit—originally added with the launch of the Forsaken expansion. With its hybrid PvP and PvE objectives, Gambit quickly became a fan-favorite activity in the game.
However, without regular updates, even the most enjoyable activity can start to lose its appeal, and this is what’s happening to Gambit. To give you a quick reminder, it’s been over four years since Bungie released and added a new map for the Gambit mode.
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Gambit has a total of six maps, but two of them were taken out of the game in Year 4. As a result, there are currently only four Gambit maps that players can access. In 2021, game director Joe Blackburn took to Twitter to answer the community’s questions and discuss the game’s future in a detailed thread.
On the same day, Blackburn clarified that the “long term” plan is to create new maps for the Gambit game mode. However, it seems they have either shifted their focus to other parts of the game or straight out canceled the new maps for Gambit.
It’s been nearly two years since that tweet, and players are yet to see a new Gambit map added to the game. Bungie must acknowledge and communicate their plans for the future of Gambit to set player expectations effectively.
Increasing Server Issues of Destiny 2
This brings us to the last and the most important question among the three: the current technical state of the game and the ongoing server connectivity problems that have been troubling Destiny 2 since the release of Lightfall.
Destiny 2 has consistently faced server problems throughout the years, but the situation appears to be worsening with each new update, especially with the latest expansion. It feels as if we are getting “emergency downtime maintenance” nearly every week.
Before Season of the Deep’s launch, Bungie announced that it plans to set a fixed 1.5 hours downtime period on the update days to address server connectivity issues and improve overall stability.
However, since season 21’s launch, we’ve seen at least three instances where players were getting kicked out of the game. Just this week, Bungie announced 24-hour background maintenance, which resulted in server crashes and ultimately led to Bungie taking the game offline for an extended period.
While it is true that maintaining live service games can be challenging, especially at a scale of Destiny 2, it’s also imperative for Bungie to actively address these concerns in order to nurture a positive player experience and sustain the game’s long-term success.