Well that didn’t take long. It’s only been about a month since Destiny 2 released and it’s already struggling to hold its players’ attention. Many are focusing on loot or the sheer lack of content as the cause, but the game's real issues run a bit deeper. Having loot to grind for is all well and good, but it doesn’t amount to much when there’s not a whole lot one can actually do with it. The game’s economy has also undergone a very player-unfriendly change, one that encourages microtransactions and hoarding over fun and engagement. Even the moment-to-moment gameplay has suffered. What was once relatively fluid and fast-paced combat has become slow and laborious. As it stands, Destiny 2 meets the basic requirements necessary to be called a full and proper sequel rather than a glorified expansion, but falls into the category of unsatisfying sequel that "fixed" all of the wrong things.

Destiny 2 did manage to fix a couple of small issues from the first game, but it’s otherwise taken several steps back. Its consumable cosmetics and loot box-style method of awarding gear encourages hoarding and disengagement from the end-game grind. Its failure to offer at least as many features as the original Destiny has unsurprisingly led to rapid onset of player boredom. Worst of all, its neutering of the PvE’s moment-to-moment gameplay has resulted in a sequel that just isn’t as much fun to play. Destiny 2 may indeed have a loot problem as so many are loudly pointing out, but that’s small potatoes compared to these major fundamental flaws.

Over the course of its lifespan, most players agreed that Destiny’s most persistent problem was a general lack of content. There just wasn’t enough to do between DLC expansions. The thing is, those expansions never actually helped all that much. It would only take a week or two for the hardcore crowd to start complaining about a lack of content again. Some would blame those players for spending too much time with the game and burning through that content too quickly, but it’s only natural that players would quickly burn through expansions when they often didn’t include many new features. I was cautiously optimistic that Destiny 2 would address the real issue at the heart of its forebear’s content woes, but this sadly hasn’t been the case. It’s added a few minor features in the form of the new director, a map, small activities in its explorable spaces, milestones and flashpoints, but that that’s it. Oh wait, scratch that. Milestones and flashpoints are just re-branded bounties, so they’re actually not new at all. So not only does it offer less content than Destiny’s final form, but it still hasn’t addressed the first game’s core problem.

The biggest improvement was the most recent update fixing a massive number of woes that have been plaguing Destiny 2 since day one and adding certain improvements where needed. Sniper rifles are useful now; it’s been six months and a weapon choice has been entirely useless up to this point. For anyone who played Destiny, jumping back in now will bring you right back to when Icebreaker was popping Vex heads off from a comfy distance. This isn’t just a rant about snipers being bad and boo-hoo, terminus horizon god roll this is just one major example of one of the many pitfalls Destiny 2 has been filling in. The best part is all weapon choices seem to have gotten a nice healthy balance. Every gun feels good to use and is reminding me more of old play in Destiny with the improvement of Destiny 2. Classes have also seen dramatic improvements; not once did I find myself using the Sunbreaker until this most recent patch.

It's been less than a year since Destiny 2’s launch, with highs and lows, but mostly lows. Players may have fallen off Destiny 2 faster than a Sparrow racing its way through…oh wait (I miss Sparrow Racing). It's this exact feeling, however, that Bungie is battering its player base with. For those who have come from Destiny and stuck around -- through gritted teeth -- and those who are newcomers to the IP, it's been like climbing a vertical mountain that's starting to invert itself on the way up. Slowly, Bungie has course corrected and it's filling in much of the gaps that should have been filled in to begin with. When an entire weapon selection is useless for much of the first year, something might be wrong, especially because it leads to one of the worst grievances of all -- not having fun.

At the time of this writing, Guided Games is still in beta for Leviathan and with good reason, which will be discussed in a moment. The third week due to everyone having a life outside of video games, even fewer people could make it which meant it wasn’t happening with the group that we had been trying to attempt Leviathan with. Of my own volition I was determined to complete this dang raid. I turned back to Destinylfg.net and what I found was a pattern seen in Destiny’s community all gaming communities for far too long — elitism. Before reading any further, go to Destinylfg.net right now and put the search to the Leviathan Raid either LFG or LFM…OK done? Did something stand out? Was it that most people searching said something along the lines of "LFG must be 305 PL quick run must know what to do" This will be the most common thing seen on this website: elitists looking for other elitists to run with and the challenge of Leviathan doesn’t help in the slightest. This not only deterred me, a Destiny vet, but probably deters many new guardians as well. Why even try the raid if those who want to run it only want the best of the best? While I know Sherpas exist (people who will take the time to run new folks through the raid) — I’ve even run in a few Sherpa groups myself — they are few and far between. Only eleven percent of Destiny 2 players have completed Leviathan and I don’t see that number climbing much faster, but only time will tell. When Destiny 2 launched around fifty percent of players in the first Destiny had completed some sort of raid content, which was after a three-year period with the game. Where does this leave Leviathan then? Not looking good and it doesn’t speak well to PvE endgame content for the future of Destiny 2.