Time-limited Content Can Make Playing Destiny 2 Feel Like Work

Following a hiatus of about two years, I returned to Destiny 2 about a month ago. Before that hiatus, I found myself bored beyond belief in a game I expected to unreasonably love. I put many hundreds of hours into the original Destiny, and while I churned through a year worth of the game, I found myself really questioning why I was even bothering to play.

Naturally, Destiny is one of those series that eventually pulls you back in. Following a revamp, and the introduction of a free-to-play version, the game has certainly changed a lot in the past two years. In fact, I felt almost overwhelmed after returning, because so much changed, and there was so much content to catch up on.

Destiny 2 fans have high expectations

What I have learned is that while I have new content to enjoy, much of the game has similar flaws as before, and while I have no desire to leave the game anytime soon, I do worry that things are not going to improve that much. I have a beef with unimaginative quest-lines that require you to do so many grindy arbitrary goals, but that’s not as bad as some other realities.

Since returning to the game, I’ve also returned to stalking news sources and communities for the game, and it’s become clear to me that a lot of people are reaching a point of serious frustration with how Bungie wants to roll out fresh content. After promising gamers early access to a sweet exotic, the Corridors of Time (CoT) quest-line was launched, requiring a complex puzzle to be solved by the community. It’s not the worst quest in the game, and it certainly has a lot of lore to take in. The problem? It’s already gone.

Destiny 2’s Corridors of Time quest

Since I was already overwhelmed with content once I returned to D2, I barely paid attention to this whole CoT thing, and underestimated how little time I had to actually get it done. I actually completed the quest yesterday, and didn’t really feel satisfied. I forced myself to take a break from work to log in the past couple of days just to work towards this expiring quest.

As many have said around the web, this kind of quest makes the game feel more like a job than it should. People have lives, and these lives are often busy. Not everyone can easily commit the hours that are required to get through this quest-line – yet some force themselves to because Bungie has decided that the fear-of-missing-out is one of the best ways to lure people in. In reality, it’s just leading to more frustration.

Destiny 2’s The Menagerie

Add to this the fact that the in-game store Eververse continues to get plenty of support. Each “Season” brings about new items, some of which can be had with in-game currency, and most being had with real currency. I was looking through the in-game collections book the other day, and noticed that 100% of the season 9 Sparrows (mounts) are exclusively tied to Eververse. There was a single Sparrow from season 8, and it could be gained via normal gameplay (but it was Legendary, not Exotic like all seven of the season 9 Sparrows).

And my biggest beef, which is hard to even craft into words: there’s still no compass on the radar?!? You have to open the map every time you want to check you’re going in the right direction.

All of this being said, I am still having a lot of fun with the game since returning, helped by the fact that I have more content to catch up on than I’ll even have time for. But… this is typical Destiny. There are highs and lows, and many questions about what the developers are thinking. No one likes expiring content, especially when it locks in exclusive unlockable lore or weapons.

There’s a great thread over at reddit with user feedback on the entire Corridors of Time quest-line. You can add your own feedback, or see what the community at large is saying in general.