When Destiny 2 first launched, it was a game I was playing every chance I got. I played the first game from launch until Destiny 2 finally released three years later. At first, there were a lot of improvements. The story was actually good, lore was placed throughout the world rather than just stuck in grimoire cards, and the same great shooting was there.
Now, however, after nearly two months of playing, my patience with the game is wearing thin. While some improvements were made, some of the same things I hated about the first game also returned. You still bounce off walls which kills you during platforming, you are also instantly killed when slammed into a wall against some of the powerful enemies, making it that much more annoying. The loot system is still incredibly boring and has in fact been made worse. Only being able to infuse weapons of the same type severely limits what you can do. I have to run around with guns I don't really want to use simply because they are the best I have.
It's clear that Destiny 2 is not a perfect game. If things keep progressing as they are, I certainly won't be sticking around as long as I did the first time. Here are a few of the big changes I think Bungie needs to make to keep me engaged.
Loot and Infusion
Destiny 2's loot system is still incredibly obnoxious and has somehow been made even worse in some areas. It is almost impossible to level up outside of the weekly milestones so I find it difficult to justify logging in every day. Making it so players have a better chance of getting higher level loot from the activities they enjoy would help out a lot with this. It would add more variety while making it feel like the player is constantly improving and leveling up.
The loot system is made even more frustrating because of how infusion works now. Unlike in the original Destiny, players in Destin;y 2 can only infuse weapons into weapons of the same type. Assault rifles can only infuse into assault rifles, and this is a problem. Not only do players now have to grind out decent level loot that they can currently only really do through weekly milestones, they now have to hope they get a weapon that happens to match what they want. This unnecessarily increases the amount of grinding a player may have to do if they want to use a certain weapon. I don't know why this decision was made, but it needs to be reversed if I'm going to stick around. I'm not going to go out of my way to grind just to get a decent leveled assault rifle, I'm just going to not play the game.
Endgame
Endgame is one of the most important elements for any MMO, which Destiny 2 kind-of-is-kind-of-isn't. Unfortunately, Destiny 2 has very little of it. Outside of Raids and Nightfall Strikes, there is nothing to do once you hit the level cap. This is definitely a problem if you want to keep people playing for the long-term.
While the Raid is fun, and there are sure to be more of them as time passes and expansions launch, we need more than that. Raids are extremely time consuming and since Destiny 2 still doesn't have any real matchmaking, it relies on six people getting together to run the raid. When those six people all have full-time jobs, this can get incredibly difficult.
The Nightfall Strikes are just not that fun. While they are a challenge, I hate the timed events in games. They always feel like artificial difficulty, like the devs couldn't come up with any creative and interesting way to make this a true challenge so they just through an arbitrary timer on it. the Nightfalls are no exception to this.
Destiny 2 needs something for the more casual fan to play. The ones who don't always have time to get people together to run Raids or NIghtfalls. With the complete lack of gear, everything else in the game just isn't that interesting. Since Destiny 2 isn't a full-fledged MMO, some single-player endgame content would also be a welcomed addition.
crucible
The Crucible is in an interesting spot. While it can be fun, there is very little variety to it. There aren't enough modes to go through to keep me engaged. I also don't like the fact that I can't choose which modes I want to play. While they claimed by putting everything together in a playlist it would reduce load times, but the load times are ridiculously long anyway so at least don't make me sit through there just to play countdown. I don't want to play countdown. I hate it.
It would also be nice if doing well in the Crucible actually translated into rewards. This would make it a little more competitive and would give players another opportunity to earn high-level gear to level up. As it stands now, however, it just gets repetitive after just a few matches since it is far too easy to play the same game mode over and over.
It would also be nice to have six-member fireteams again. The four-v-four is fun, but it lacks the chaos that came with twelve people running around trying to rack up kills. It would certainly be a nice option that would add some much-needed variety to the crucible.
Conclusion
Destiny 2 is a much better game at launch than the original Destiny. However, that doesn't mean that it's a perfect experience. Logging in regularly to play the game currently feels far more like a chore than something to look forward to every day. Destiny 2 is still plenty of fun with friends but is still a complete bore to play alone. The story was better, but certainly not good enough to replay. There just isn't enough there to keep me engaged in the long-term.
While this could change with expansions, they need to be more than just a few story missions. It certainly doesn't help that Bungie must have known they weren't launching with enough content. It's the only way an expansion pass so soon makes any kind of sense. Unlike a good MMO, Destiny 2 currently feels like nothing but a shell of the game it may one day be. Unlike a proper shooter, Destiny 2 doesn't feel like a complete experience that can keep me playing and engaged for months at a time. Destiny 2 has room to grow, but it needs to change quickly or I won't' be sticking around for those future expansions.
