Welcome Back to Jaggy's Corner!
Today I will be talking more about Destiny 2 and the End of Service update that released on June 9th. I have to begin by saying that I'm rather shocked at what I've experienced since quitting a year ago. I will also state that since I began writing this piece, more news dropped that has made me LIVID with Sony. I might give a brief blurb on that as well, but this piece is primarily meant to talk about my experience in Destiny 2 after returning.
Decision to Return
I suppose the first thing I need to begin with is my decision to go back to the game in the first place. And I will begin here because at the end of my last
Jaggy's Corner, I was unsure whether or not I would return to the game. While I know that a lot of people were going to pick up the game again to stand in solidarity of the Petition to start developing a Destiny 3, I was not contemplating a return because of that reason. It's strictly because I wanted revenge on Gahlran in Crown of Sorrow. What you may not be aware of is that Crown of Sorrow almost screwed me out of an emblem. The goal was simple: to complete each raid at least once to get it. With Beyond Light looming on the horizon and a huge list of achievements I was completing before content would be removed from the game, I wanted to get this particular emblem. At that time, I used mostly Auto Rifles, Submachine Guns, and maybe a hand cannon or two - though I wasn't good at using many precision weapons. Anyways, it was the only raid that was holding me back from the emblem since the other ones I was able to get done with friends. Due to my inability to do significant damage on the Knights and other reasons, I almost didn't get a clear.
Gahlran, The Sorrow-Bearer
I also debated going back to the game because I never had the chance to experience Sparrow Racing League. Various Destiny community members talked about how much fun it was in Destiny 1, but we never had it in Destiny 2. When Destiny Rising released with SRL included, it reignited players to beg for the game mode to be added to the live service game. Upon the announcement of Destiny 2 shutting down, the players received a few massive posts that covered all of the changes and additions to the game. The planned Shadow and Order update was abandoned, and we would be getting Monument of Triumph instead. Not only did they refresh all of the loot, but they added a ton of quality of life features, as well as Pantheon 2.0, and the fabled Sparrow Racing League.
But, none of those things would influence my return - despite my excitement for many changes that would launch on June 9th. What would make or break my return was if it was going to cost me anything and how much would that cost be. See, prior to June 9th, no one could give me a clear answer whether or not I would need the Edge of Fate or Renegade expansions to play Pantheon 2.0 or Sparrow Racing League. What I did know was there would be massive discounts on all the expansions. They even finally released an all in one bundle pack which was heavily discounted as well. And the cherry on top was that you would no longer need the dungeon key pass to get into dungeons (which I always thought was the dumbest decision they ever made. One does not paywall the dungeons, one paywalls the raids and/or competitive playlists. You're less likely to get cheaters that way. Remember I said LESS, not ELIMINATE.) So, the knowledge that I wouldn't have to pay a ton was good, but still I received differing responses on whether I would be able to do the activities I wanted to do - especially after I learned about what Pantheon 2.0 would be. I would have to wait until June 9th to determine if I would return. Then, a friend of mine saw that they qualified to get the Old Lights emblem and gifted me Edge of Fate and Renegades. Problem solved - and not because I asked. Anyways, what's hilarious about that is that I was going to accept Edge of Fate and reject Renegades.
The Reason I Quit the Game in the First Place
When we originally saw the news about what kind of content we would see after The Final Shape, I was excited. We'd get more story about characters and groups that have been talked about for YEARS and knew absolutely nothing about. But during the Final Shape days, I was already in a low place, although after completing the story with my friends, I was crushed but also happy. It was essentially goodbye, not only for me, but for everyone else in the community too. People dropped out of the game like flies. My friends list became smaller and smaller after The Final Shape, and not because I removed anyone. People simply stopped logging into the game. It was harder to do the things I enjoyed like Raids and GMs. It got to a point where trying to complete achievements was virtually impossible.
Then Bungie released information about The Edge of Fate. There would be tiered gear and set bonuses. A Portal which would, in theory, help players figure out what to do next in the game which pissed players off more than anything. A story covering The Nine (FINALLY) and another raid. And then they made a terrible decision to make the next saga about Star Wars...
Look, I know there are a lot of people who absolutely love Star Wars but the fact is there is so much Star Wars content out there, that it felt like a cash grab. Realistically, it WAS one. Bungie was bleeding money so much at this point that Sony needed to find a way to keep the studio afloat - especially after the massive cost they bought the studio for which was $3.6 Billion dollars. Unfortunately, beating a horse is not the play. People get sick of the same old narratives and this would be walking right into the same shit. Let me be clear though, I don't hate Star Wars, I hate how the franchise is absolutely everywhere. It's SUFFOCATING. And for an extra bit of lore, both my mom and I helped a friend apply his makeup for their cosplay of Darth Maul when Episode 1 launched in theatres. Both my mom and I worked at a theatre ON OPENING DAY and our friend made the FRONT PAGE of the papers for that cosplay. My whole family was excited for the new Star Wars movies, including me. But after seeing them, I was massively disappointed. It wasn't as great as I had hoped and Jar Jar Binks angered me. With that, I was completely done with Star Wars. See, I stand by the original three movies with their flaws and all. Frankly, the only Star Wars content I care about is the Lego Star Wars games... Hate it or love it. It's my choice here. You can love the franchise all you want because I'm not going to stop anyone from enjoying franchises and characters. However, a company cannot rest on their laurels forever. And Sony pushing Star Wars into the Destiny world, a world that had its own rich and exciting lore, didn't make sense. Between The Portal being the biggest pain point and the shoe-horned content, the Destiny community went out the door in droves.
Meet the Sith Lord...
It crushed me to know that the first raid since VoG that I did not participate on Day 1 was The Desert Perpetual. It is the first raid in history to let players choose a wing so to speak. All of the encounters would need to be completed before reaching the final boss, but you wouldn't have to bash your head against an encounter for the entire Day 1 experience. Between Star Wars shovelled into the game and the feedback I had heard about the Portal, I was glad I didn't pick up anything related to Edge of Fate - even though narratively I really wanted to know.
Monument of Triumph
So, since a friend made the decision for me on whether I would play on June 9th, I loaded the game up late that day. In fact, people came into my stream surprised to see me on Destiny again. Since I wasn't worried about spoilers for my return in terms of what was in the TWABs (I still refuse to call it the other name), I already knew about a lot of things that would be in the Monument of Triumph final content drop.
All the information did not prepare me for what I've experienced since my return. First, I spent about two hours in the Tower looking over all the artifact changes, the armour changes, the reprised weapons you could get, the focussing of weapons for each activity, a plethora of items you could buy with legendary marks, a better implementation of the focussed activities, and so much more. I have so much to do in the game now and that is even before I try my hand at Pantheon 2.0. It is a gauntlet of various raid bosses with different mechanics. For reference, the first Pantheon spanned over the course of two months. Week 1 was four bosses; week 2 had five bosses, week 3 had six bosses, and week 4 had eight. That's a lot of raid fights to do to get emblems and status. Pantheon 2.0 includes bosses from raids that were taken out of the game. It has a second mode with current raids. And there is a new third one that has a fight I know rather well - at least better than the others.
Anyways, after dissecting all the gear and the changes in the Tower, and giving my friend half formed sentences and thoughts, we eventually made it to the EDZ because why not? I have to say, I was suddenly having fun again. I tossed one Gun Powder Gamble and a bunch of enemies walked straight into the blast radius. I cackled wildly. For my return, I changed absolutely nothing about my build or my gear. I simply leveled everything. Apparently I'm not as rusty as I thought.
Once I started to remember how to play and where to stand for things, I went into a couple strikes with my friends. It's wild to me that a year has passed and I still recall a great deal of things. Once I was satisfied with my abilities again, I decided to start the Edge of Fate story. Honestly, I was not prepared for what I witnessed. The lore from Edge of Fate is just as awesome as I expected it to be. I LOVE the matterspark mechanic and most bosses took only one or two attempts to complete. Though, it should be noted that this is the first campaign that I didn't start on Legendary difficulty because I wasn't preparing for a Day 1 raid. I could simply ease back into the game. It has been a long time since I've had real FUN in Destiny 2 like when I first began my journey.
I'm not even going to talk about Renegades because it is truly sickening to me. I'm going through it with friends who didn't mind going as fast as possible so the suffering would be reduced. And the only reason for this is because you need to finish the Renegades story to try the Dungeon and I do enjoy experiencing the Dungeons in the game. Renegades is exactly what I feared it would be: a brainless, lifeless expansion with modified units and sound effects taken directly from Star Wars. There's even a Destiny version of the lightsaber and I'm annoyed. I'll use the Shiny, thank you very much. (The Shiny is Black Talon, by the way).
The Layoffs and Final Thoughts
Earlier this week the news dropped about how many people would be laid off from Bungie. Then, we learned of the specific people who were let go. Names like Scott Taylor and John Ebenger. But the most surprising of all was Jason Jones, one of the Co-Founders of Bungie. In fact, most of the senior staff members across all aspects of game development were let go. Even several of the Marathon team was axed by Sony. To cap it all off, Mr. over delivery himself Justin Truman (who seemed to do absolutely nothing when he took over Pete Parsons role) has stepped down from Bungie. Whether he was forced to or not is not something I can speak to, but he's gone as well. Basically, they axed the people who made Destiny what it is, from the very beginning of development. To say I'm furious is an understatement.
However, nothing grinds my gears more than a shitty AI-generated meme created in light of these non-sensical layoffs. Plainly, I just want to scream at the world right now...
Anyways, I don't want to dive down that rabbit hole because this would be way too long if I did. Suffice it to say, I'm going to play Destiny 2 until I feel like quitting and that will be the end of it. I'll achieve whatever I can and then I will walk away from Sony products as much as possible.
Bungie deserved better than to be sliced and diced so hard by Sony. And the community deserved a real explanation instead of tone deaf curated public statements like the dumpster of posts we received over the last couple of days.
Yeah. We all deserved better than this. So, Destiny, I guess this is a real goodbye. We'll miss you once the servers are gone.
