The Destiny franchise has been one of the most successful live-service game series out there for nearly a decade. In some ways, it represents both the best and worst of what that model can bring to the table. It has had many ups and downs and its winds are wildly unpredictable at times.
Through all of that, it has maintained one of the most loyal player bases in gaming. I have been playing the franchise since the very beginning, and as with many others, I feel as though this franchise sometimes gives me intense whiplash. When it first launched, there was a lot of talk around the franchise’s supposed “10-year plan.” Many have mocked it, and many live service games have parroted that promise only to fail long before coming close to it.
But not Destiny. In fact, in June, The Final Shape will release and wrap up the franchise’s Light and Darkness Saga which has defined the story since the very beginning… and it’ll be doing it nearly 10 years after the franchise first began. Regardless, Bungie promises the series will continue after this story has ended… but I’m not sure if I want to come along with it.
Destiny’s Rigid Structure
Destiny has had a very particular structure since the very beginning. A lot has changed in the near-decade since the launch of the first game, but overall, much of its basic content structure has remained the same all these years.
Once you beat a new campaign (never very long) it’s time for the end game, which is by far the primary focus of any Destiny player. The end game has gone through many changes over the years, but overall, it is defined by pillars: strikes, raids, PvP crucible, and other assorted minor activities. In particular, the bulk of the game’s content structure is built around completing specific activities each week. Many of these rotate in and out in various ways, and there is the occasional special activity that elicits a bit more excitement. Certainly, the community is adept at finding many secrets that I’d consider remarkably well-hidden.
Regardless, the majority of the game’s content structure comes down to repeating the same activities ad nauseam each week. Do three strikes here. Replay the currently relevant raid each week. Do some bounties. Maybe you’ve got a new quest, but it’s most likely just “kill X number of enemies with X type of weapon in X type of activity.” There are some story developments in the seasons, but they make up a very small portion of the game’s structure and are rarely anything truly substantial from a gameplay standpoint.
Luckily, this franchise boasts some of the best gunplay of any shooter out there. The combat loop is consistently fun and blends beautifully with the various powers and abilities players have, and has mostly just gotten better over the years. The more overpowered you are, the more fun it gets. In hindsight, I think the games were always carried by how fun the core gameplay is for me, and sometimes my interest in the story.
Destiny’s Light Falls
But gameplay can only carry an uninteresting structure for so long. Lightfall was the first year of Destiny content where I essentially did not touch the game at all after the campaign. The campaign’s story disappointed me a lot, with the whole thing feeling very unsubstantial aside from the first and last cutscenes. I went in expecting Lightfall to be this franchise’s version of Avengers: Infinity War to set up The Final Shape as its Avengers: Endgame, and came out feeling like I learned almost nothing about anything, and like nothing happened at all.
Then, nothing about the post-game particularly excited me anymore. Just a year prior, The Witch Queen was released and was one of my all-time favorite expansions and stories in the franchise, and I played its end-game stuff a decent amount, but even by then I was thinking “if post-Final Shape content doesn’t look exciting enough, I may drop the franchise once this story ends.”
Even then, the Destiny bread was starting to finally grow stale, even in spite of an excellent expansion. Not enough to make me drop the series right away, mind you. Of course, I’m gonna play the grand finale! I’ve been here since the beginning. I will be here for the ending… but past that?
Unfortunately, the franchise’s increasingly stale structure seems like something too deeply embedded into what D2 is to be able to be fixed within the confines of an expansion. As such, despite my fond memories and enduring desire to play the game, my actual interest in sticking around has reached a low point that may only have one solution: a massively revamped Destiny 3.
How do you feel about the current state of Destiny? Do you think the new expansion looks good, or do you need more from the franchise? Let us know in the comments below!
