It is unclear whatDestiny 2’s community will look like beyond Year 3. While there is no known time frame for aDestiny 3reveal or release, nor any official confirmation it exists yet, it is clear that Bungie will need to put all the effort it has intoDestiny 3to future-proof a long life-cycle ahead of the future competition. With titles like Borderlands 3 coming out now and other epic and similar titles likeGodfallandStarfieldon the horizon,Destiny 3will likely need to stand-out and maintain a dominant foothold.
Destinyfranchise director Luke Smith stated that Bungie has a"five-year vision" forDestiny 2, confirming the game still has a couple years left in it at the very least, depending how that is interpreted. And a lot can change by then when it comes toDestiny 2, its seasonal events, its major story expansions, and its eventual sequel, so learning and testing the waters now is likely a good thing.
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The Current Dilemmas of Destiny 2
At the present moment,Destiny 2’seasier difficulty in recent timeshas been a point of contention among fans. While it has the potential to attract more casual fans, especially given its newer free-to-play model, many of its hardcore fans appear to be turned off by the easier difficulty. Many feel as if it does a disservice to those who put lots of hours into the game to earn better equipment and develop skill-levels that can better confront the necessary challenges the game’s quests present.
While these details may seem minuscule, there are clearly problems withDestiny’sformula that will put it at a disadvantage with current and future looter-shooters. Currently,Borderlands 3is taking the looter-shooter sub-genreby storm (despite its own problems), with plenty of content and drops that make it stand out in its field. While addressing fan concerns and making the necessary improvements are obvious design choicesDestiny 3must address, this only scratches the surface for what the game must present itself as overall.
Destiny’s Bigger Issue
To see both successes at launch and sustainability for many years thereafter,Destiny 3not only has to solidify a winning formula, but the franchise has to ready itself for the tough competition on the horizon, such as thelooter-slasher known asGodfall.It is important to go back and recall the original reveal of the firstDestinygame and how its initial launch was mired in controversy and much disappointment among many fans who had heightened expectations. When the firstDestinywas originally revealed, fans expected a gigantic universe to explore, more akin toSkyrim’sepic open-world proportions and size, with a story of grandeur, and a fully fleshed out MMORPG experience utilizing high-production shooting mechanics.
WhenDestinywas finally released, the game simply did not meet the expectations many fans had. First, the maps for each planet, while rich and packed to a degree, were by no means epic in scale to those seen in other open world games such asSkyrim.Destiny’sinstanced zones, with a limited number of players at a time, were teased by some gamers referring to it using the phrase “MMO lite.” AndDestiny’sbare bones story tellingwas perhaps its biggest disappointment overall, as many fans expected a drawn out space opera.
PerhapsDestiny 2’ssaving grace was in its improvements upon all those elements to a limited degree, coupled with the fact that fans had a more clear vision of what to expect the second time around. Despite vast improvements over the original,Destiny 2was still nowhere near the scale of the original vision fans had in mind for this franchise, being a giant universe for them to explore at their fingertips. This would be accomplished by other games.
No Man’s Sky,despite having its own shortcomings, still captivated many gamers' imaginations and demonstrated what an exploratory interplanetary open-world game could be in terms of technology and raised the bar for Sci-Fi. In addition, Ubisoft is shaping up to a science fiction game world inBeyond Good and Evil 2, allowing players to travel from micro-level indoor environments seamlessly into gigantic open-world environments and full planets with no load times. Bethesda is alsohard at work withStarfield, a game that is all but expected by fans capture the deep and intricate lore, storytelling, and size of anElder Scrollsgame set in space and on different planets.
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Some may argue thatDestinyis a different type of game, that should only be comparable within the spectrum of the looter-shooter, but even there,Destiny 3has lots of work to do in consolidating a winning formula. The competition inBorderlands 3,Godfall,and others is simply a whole new landscape for the franchise.
Destiny 3truly needs to shine not just by offering the necessary itch for those fans having a craving for a looter-shooter, but rather,Destiny 3needs to stand out by expanding the franchise outside of the basic genre.Destiny 3should also be accessible to both PC and console players, and ship itself as something brand new for everyone.
Bungie should not merely viewGodfall, Borderlands, The Division,and other similar types of games as its sole competition. As the franchise which essentially established the looter-shooter genre in its current conception,Destiny 3needs to re-invent this structure once again and redefine what this genre is by expanding it and looking at other Sci-Fi role-play games. It will take more than merely a winning formula in regards to the looter-shooter’s current elements.
Solutions for Destiny 3’s Success
Destiny 3needs to offer storytelling that can attract players who desire a deep plot. It does not necessarily need to be on the scale ofMass Effect, but given thatGodfall’sliterary inspirationstease a fairly intricate plot,Destiny3 must set the bar very high. WhileDestiny 2’sstory was an improvement over the first game, with a less cryptic plot and more direct storytelling, it still was not enough to attract players whose first priority may be in looking for a space opera.
In regards to storytelling, to start, Bungie should offer a plot that will stronglymoveDestiny’snarrative forward into the future, without its focus being too heavy on lore and in the past. After all, lore is normally an optional essence most enjoyed by more hardcore fans who are driven to understand every nuance of a game’s universe.
While few would expectDestiny 3to copythe procedural generation ofNo Man’s Skyin creating planet-sized open-world maps to explore, the game’s settings could still use some work. Many ofDestiny’shardcore players do not mind the grind and repetition of replaying missions multiple times to collect the best loot, yet most can also agree that more unique areas to explore and less time replaying the same areas is a more enjoyable experience.
Furthermore, there are certain types of fans who are automaticallyturned off by heavy grinding and farmingand wish to only play through missions or areas once, then move on to the next area. There are those who don’t mind it at all, but the overall structure still leads to burn out.Destiny 3’suniverse should at least be large enough to allow players to obtain enough unique hours of gameplay and progress that they can complete the game to some degree without needing to farm particular areas over again repeatedly.
Overall, there are a decent amount of gamers out there who simply wantthe next large, epic and vivid open-world to explore, whichever developer may offer it. AndDestiny 3can easily check off this goal by providing fans an engaging and fully fleshed out world to explore which takes no shortcuts, all while enjoying the fast paced action that comes in the looter-shooter package within it.
Bungie needs to put everything it has intoDestiny 3to create the ultimate online looter-shooter. Its competition will be stiff, and it will not merely be other looter games that stand in its path to success.Destiny 3needs to bring to fruition the more expansive vision many fans had come to expect of theDestinyfranchise a great many years ago, and finally see it through, while establishing a winning and innovative looter-shooter formula within this much larger package.
