CW: Nevin doesn't lick Bungie's boots. (Destiny)

by Korny , Dalton, Ga. US. Earth, Sol System, Wednesday, November 11, 2020, 14:03 (1476 days ago) @ CruelLEGACEY
edited by Korny, Wednesday, November 11, 2020, 14:24

Obviously it’s still early, and obviously we’ll need more time for some of the changes to sink in. But after completing the campaign and spending another 3-4 hours running around doing post-campaign quests, I’m feeling like this might be the worst D2 expansion, with the exception of Curse of Osiris.

I really like the approach to boss encounters in this expansion. They're give-and-take style fights, where your survival depends on constant situational awareness.

Oddly, the first boss fight (against Phylaks) was way more interesting than most of the fights in Forsaken, and was more what I wanted out of the fight against the sniper in that expansion, where you are forced into cover, and have to move quickly around it, lest you get frozen.

Other than that, yeah. Seeing the absolute worst public event pop up in the expansion left me with a "oh yeah, let's keep those expectations tempered" feeling 20 minutes into Europa.
And pretty vistas aside, the long trips down empty caves (best skipped on Sparrows) really don't do it for me.

That said, I am enjoying the (at least temporary) increase in difficulty. Dying to Hobgoblin Snipers feels refreshing.

On the plus side, Europa is gorgeous. All the scenery and locations are beautiful. And I love the weather effects. But looks aside, I don’t feel like it had been implemented in a way that makes it a compelling patrol destination. We’ll see if that changes over time.

It's a bit too much snow-and-slopes for me. I was hoping we'd get really into exploring the frozen city to the North, or crashed ships, or something... But alas, it's mostly frantic running between the three main Patrol spots, since the quest objectives are scattered to each corner of the map for no reason.

For me, the big ugly elephant in the room is sunsetting, and how it has effected my play through. I was having a decent enough time for the first little while, when I could get by with my old gear. But once that level climb kicked in, and I had to start using whatever random weapons dropped as I played, the whole thing fell apart. For me, most of the weapons in D2 just aren’t enjoyable to use. And if the weapons aren’t fun, then none of the combat is fun. And as luck would have it, every single weapon that dropped for me during my play through was hot garbage. I would have been thrilled with “mediocre”, but they were absolute trash, with the lone exception of a new exotic that I was able to use for 1 mission before it was too under-levelled to continue using it. Finally, long after finishing the campaign, I’ve gotten a bow and a grenade launcher that I kinda like, and it’s starting to feel more like “Destiny” again. But at this point, I’m already mostly “done” with Europa. I’ve done most of the new stuff, and at from here Europa is kinda just another patrol space, filled with patrol activities that I never have any interest in doing.

Yeah, having to rely on that crappy pulse rifle for several missions was lame, and I wasn't about to give up my great-looking armor set when cutscenes loomed around every corner, so I was underleveled the entire night.
I was lucky that the Exotic Cypher weapon was powerful (I got that overshield-granting LMG, which was a lifesaver)

If nothing else, at least they label which weapons are locked at 1060, so you can delete en masse.

Sunsetting isn’t my only gripe, though. I don’t think the campaign is particularly good. Bungie has settled into a formula for how they like to roll out their story missions. Unfortunately, Forsaken still remains the best example of this campaign structure, and they’ve gotten progressively worse since then IMO. And the writing/dialogue in this expansion might be the worst in the franchise. They’ve mostly left behind the campy “marvel-style” banter that was so cringey in vanilla D2, but the dialogue now is just as dumb, only it takes itself way more seriously. It feels like they’re really trying to have the characters say deep, meaningful, impactful things to each other, but it’s all just moronic. From a lore point of view, I’m sure there’s a lot here that lore fans will love (plenty of exploration of Destiny’s backstory), but in terms of the character-driven narrative, the whole things is a big miss for me.

It definitely feels like a formula that Bungie is getting a bit too comfortable with. I'm not surprised, as Luke Smith himself said that we will never have another Forsaken/TTK-sized expansion again. So yeah, the Bungie that would innovate and blow their previous innovations out of the water every few years is gone for good. Now we're stuck with Guardian Games, seasonal horde modes, and a "fight these mini bosses then the end the main boss threat, then wait for the Big Bad to be teased for a whole year" routine.

At least the lore tabs are better organized!

Finally, the thing that I really didn’t see coming: I think the new “stasis” powers make the game instantly worse. Even if I’m not using them, simply having them exist in the game around me has already caused plenty of frustration. Being frozen by an enemy is never, EVER fun. It’s a frustrating experience every single time, especially when getting frozen leaves your health at critical levels, so that by the time you break free you’ll almost certainly get picked off by a random Dregg. Having enemies that will decide the throw their “freeze” blasts at me right as I jump over a chasm, when I had no possible way of dodging, causing me to plummet to my death made me chuckle the first time it happened to me. But by the 5th or 10th time, the novelty has worn off and it just feels awful.
Aside from fighting against stasis powers, I also find it frustrating to fight alongside stasis powers. I’ve lost track of how many times I was about to headshot an enemy when a giant wall of ice suddenly pops up and blocks my shot because a random blueberry threw a grenade at just the wrong time. And these abilities are an absolute shit show in the crucible. Abilities that require little or no aim, immobilize opponents, and cause explosive chain reactions while also blocking movement, line of sight, and fire? What could go wrong ;)

Games like Warframe and Overwatch have freezing and wall mechanics, but they figured out how to make them feel good long ago.
In both games, your bullets go through your teammate's abilities (with the exception of Mei's wall in OW, and Limbo's rift in WF).
And getting frozen is a gradual thing that will slow you more only if you let it, and in OW, when completely frozen, you are only frozen for two seconds, and don't have to push anything to break free.

In D2, getting frozen is a roll of the dice. Were you lucky enough to get frozen with some cover, or did the ice bump you upwards slightly, giving enemies a clear shot at a stationary target?

I died several times to the latter incident.

Freezing mechanics in games are generally not fun, and should be avoided at all costs unless you've really thought them through. Bungie did not, but I don't know how they're going to work with them to make them better (Maybe a counter for how much Freeze you're afflicted by, and you only freeze stiff at Tier 3?).

All I can say is that at this point, I’m really really glad I didn’t buy this expansion (I got it through Gamepass). The real bummer for me is that the D2 that I really love is now mostly gone. It’s been a gradual process over the past 18 months or so, with tweaks and nerfs and gameplay changes slowly undoing all my favourite things about the game. And now, most of it is just straight-up gone.

Same. If I had paid $40 for a shallow loot pool, anti-fun mechanics, and the smallest-yet-buggiest "annual" expansion yet, I would have been mad.
I expect the "Dear Leader Bungie" crowd to enjoy the expansion (and miraculously not run into a single disconnect, crash, or bug like I was plagued by), but I'm not a big fan of Kool-aid, so I'll probably be sitting most of this year out (although those Hunt-themed Warlock ornaments are pretty sick, so I might just chase those) while they sort this mess.

Also, anyone notice that a lot of Emotes were stripped down? Whether they're missing facial animations or effects, it's surprisingly noticeable (and random).

On the bright side, I did still enjoy the few games of control that I played last night, even with the new stasis powers in play. Auto rifles still shred, so I won’t need to put away my Summoner any time soon :)

I'm looking forward to running a 120 hand cannon. Love that this season's perks benefit my Fighting Lion. >:)