Destiny 2 did a 180 degree turn with how the loot pool dolled out those sweet, sweet items. Where in Destiny it could feel like pulling teeth just to find an exotic, Destiny 2 was happy to shower Guardians in them with its new reward structure. Like everything else in Destiny 2 Update 9.1.0.2 2 though, it couldn’t help but have a slight fault, those exotics every Guardian wants just aren’t… exotic. Exotic items in Destiny had a feel about them because they behaved in a way that was reminiscent of some of the quirkier items to come out of video games ( the Cerebral Bore ). They weren’t supposed to be godly, but some of the perks had just enough of a twist to make them feel unique. Only one exotic comes to mind in Destiny 2 that shines in this regard, a new grenade launcher titled "The Colony" that was part of the expansion. The other exotics with Curse of Osiris do look to be pushing in the right direction, but like everything else in Destiny 2, only time will tell with how people feel about these new armaments when preforming.

With these sorts of compromises becoming commonplace, it’s no wonder that there are many gamers out there who’ve become afraid of the casual audience. More and more often they’re seeing niche series they enjoy getting compromised and simplified for the sake of attracting the casual player. Are they right to vilify the casual audience? No, absolutely not . Like it or not, the casual audience is vital to gaming’s survival and it’s not the their fault that publishers are trying to get their attention. Instead of insulting and ridiculing casual players, hardcore fans should be trying to bring them into the fold. In fact, publishers and developers should be trying to do the same thing. Major departures like Fallout 4 and Dead Space 3 would better serve their creators and IP as side-games rather than mainline series entries. If a given publisher’s goal really is to expand a series’ player base, then use these sorts of games to attract people that can actually be converted into fans rather than simply going for the easy sale. They should be trying to create long-term customers rather than simply attract short-term guests. There is still great value to be found and lots of money to be made in the various genre niches. Their fans are passionate and are willing to support honest effort if it means getting more of what they love. It’s just a matter of respecting them and the series they love when trying to increase their ranks.

Having faction leaders like Devrim is a step forward for Destiny’s open areas. He’s a strong personality, and it is good to listen to other characters that aren’t Nolan North’s-voiced Ghost. The inclusion of NPCs, however, still don’t provide players with everything they need, as you’ll still need to travel back to social spaces to decrypt engrams and access your vault. A more seamless experience that incorporated social spaces into the open area would have been much preferred.

A new set of class specific abilities are being added as well. These abilities stay the same no matter which subclass you choose, and are generally meant to help your teammates. Titans can plant down a shield, Warlocks can cast an area of healing and Hunters get a dodge roll similar to the one that was part of the Nightstalker subclass. The first two are activated by holding down the circle or B button and the Hunter's roll is done by double tapping it. They are all a nice addition to each class' set of abilities and are super tactical. They were all incredibly useful in both PvE and PvP.

Dead Space 3’s compromises were a bit more subtle , but they still resulted in a not-so-minor departure for the series. Where the first two games were horror games first and shooters second, Dead Space 3 was the opposite. It traded careful resource management and situational weapons for resource crafting and all-purpose creations. Rather than a tense experience that required its players to think on the fly, players got an occasionally startling but overall leisurely romp through an undead ice planet. Once players acquired enough resources to craft a gun with both long and short range firing modes, any semblance of genuine scares and vulnerability went right out the airlock. Supposedly, Isaac isn’t even alone for most of the game thanks to his partner, Carver, appearing out of the ether during every other cutscene. Just like with Fallout 4 and Destiny 2, Dead Space 3 represented a shift in genre for the sake of more mainstream appeal. The semblance of the game its fans loved was still there, but that’s all it was: a semblance. The traits that made it unique, that attracted a fanbase in the first place, those were either severely watered down or cut out entirely in the name of attracting more casual players.

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.