"Outside of the Prismatic Matrix, players may continue to earn Bright Engrams each time they level up, and they can still purchase these engrams if they want a chance to get everything from the Season 3 catalog. Additionally, we’re increasing the number of items available from Tess each week with Bright Dust, from 14 to 18 items.
As the name suggests, The Last City is the central hub of Destiny and is the only safe haven on Earth. Well, maybe safe haven isn’t the best description of the city and the state of civilization, especially considering the events at the beginning of Destiny 2, but it’s certainly better than what awaits those on the outskirts. The massive walls weren’t built for show, nor are they there to keep Titans out, but instead hostile alien races that have been left over from numerous battles following The Collapse. Most notably are The Fallen, but you’ll also see a monstrous species called The Hive on Earth, as well, due to their hideout being relatively close to the planet.
We’ve created a game that has its own culture now and every Destiny player has adapted to the current classes. What we wanted to do was strip those powers away, make players think about their characters in some new and exciting ways, and then embrace new forms of fighting within each subclass.
Now we are onto the post-release downloadable content that tries to add a little bit more to the world. Unfortunately, the first two pieces of DLC don’t much story-related content. The Dark Below does set things up for the Taken King as it introduces the semi-important NPC, Eris Morn, who was the lone survivor of a six-person fireteam when attempting to kill a Hive God. It would seem that the destruction of Crota’s Sword back on the Moon wasn’t enough to completely squash the Hive threat as they’re back with Crota himself, trying to gain access to Rasputin, an AI that’s protecting Earth. After stopping the invasion of Earth once more, you go down into the depth of the Moon and kill Crota. He’s the prince to a Hive God, so he’s not exactly easy to take down.
Placing all the powerful weapons in the same category has good potential for PvP, but it’s also a functional misstep in terms of PvE. Power weapon ammo drops more often in Destiny 2 than heavy weapon ammo in Destiny 1, but still not nearly as often as kinetic or energy weapon ammo. So right away there’s less incentive to use that ammo for any weapon other than a rocket or grenade launcher. Why waste that relatively rare and precious ammo on a sniper rifle when it could instead be spent on something much more powerful? It’s the same issue with abilities in that they’re all restricted by ridiculously-slow cooldowns. Instead of enjoying the ability to toss a grenade into a group of minor enemies, dodge around the battlefield at one’s leisure or even pop a super to take on a mid-boss, the game encourages players to bank them instead. To use one’s abilities in any situation other than the most desperate is to see them go to waste. Nobody wants to be caught staring at a cool-down meter when they’re stuck in a tight spot. These can at least be adjusted a bit with mods, but who wants to waste their mods on anything other than top-tier armor? The net result is gameplay that’s gone from fast-paced, fluid and fun, to something slow, limited and dull with no incentive whatsoever to make use of the game’s most enjoyable weapons and powers. If the developers truly felt that these changes were necessary to achieve a more fun and balanced Crucible, then perhaps it would have been better to just separate the Crucible from the rest of the game.
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.
While Destiny might not be your standard MMO because it’s also a shooter, it's nonetheless doing something similar to the likes of the original FFXIV. Destiny 2 Edge of Fate is raising itself to the ground and just like a flower that finds a way to bud up through the ashes, just maybe Destiny 2 will deliver on things its parent game couldn’t. By the likes of the new trailer , as flames consume the Last City and the Towers burn with it, it gives cause to rise up and begin the fight anew. This is a time for Guardians new-and-old to band together and join in what is sure to continue a name of legacy, even if Destiny didn’t quite get everything right. Before any of that can begin, Destiny is turning it on and by far this is the best time to give it the send off it deserves.