Destiny 2
Alright, I suppose I should prepare myself for a take that’s may get me crucified, but at least hear me out.
I was trying to think of a list that went through my favorite weapons in Destiny 2’s Season of the Deep and I could only think of like, three. I went to Light.gg to look at the list and just…wow. There are so, so many new weapons this season, so how could I really only feel strongly about a few of them (mainly the Centrifuge exotic, Chattering Bone and the Until Its Return shotgun).
Adding up the grand total of both new and reprised weapons this season (the vast majority reprised), 43 weapons were released or re-released this season. Some old ones brought forward, some existing ones with new perks, and a small handful of brand new ones. Plus, three exotics, seasonal standard these days.
I do wonder if at this point, Destiny is just becoming diluted with weapons for its own sake. You want loot? Well here’s an absolute truckload of guns to sift through. We already have a stuffed vault full of existing favorites, many of which are exact copies of these ones, just with old perks. Though sometimes even better perks, when certain things are removed to make way for underwhelming new ones.
I find myself wondering if part of Destiny’s loot problem would be better served by fewer guns that are just…more interesting. Crafting has opened up some possibilities here, but I feel like there’s a better way to do this, somehow. Fewer weapons that you invest more into, that you can customize more, that feel unique from one another instead of the 45th 120 hand cannon in the game or the 53rd rapid fire pulse.
Maybe a third of the list
I think there’s another half of this too. There is way, way too much weight put on weapons as loot, and not nearly enough put on armor. In other loot-based games, armor is half of what you’re farming, if not more, given that you usually have more armor slots. But in “streamlining” armor for accessibility purposes, Destiny 2 has all but eliminated it as a loot pursuit for any reason other than cosmetic transmog. You do not need to chase mods, you get them all by default. Once you get maybe two solid distributions of stats on sets you like, you’re sort of done…forever, outside of maybe one activity to farm artifice armor for again, just another small stat boost.
The only real armor “chase” every season is one new exotic for each class, where you do 3-10 Lost Sectors and it’s handed to you. Exotic focusing has been a total bust and again it’s…just not interesting to pursue two specific stat spikes on armor after all these years. Oh cool this armor is a 69 instead of my 66. There’s just nothing exciting here. “Incredible” armor drops are people getting 25 resilience and 29 discipline and 2 mobility. Wow.
I’ve brought the armor thing up before, but between weapons bloat and the utter uselessness of most armor (it’s become close to blue drops at this point, my old enemy), I think looting in Destiny is not in a good place. Perhaps not the “fixed roll” days at launch, the most baffling decision in series history, but it’s not good either, and I think we need some change.
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