Destiny 2
One of the most baffling storytelling decisions in Destiny history is what I’ve seen Bungie do with Veil Containment this season, a short quest that leads to a new hand cannon, and yet after that, it’s a weekly check-in that has dropped some of the most significant lore of the past few years.
I’ve talked about the content of that already, the reveals about The Veil, Maya Sundaresh, Lakshmi-2, Cloudstrider tech, the list goes on. The audio logs are a must-listen for anyone who cares about Destiny’s story, and yet almost no one even knows this exists in the game.
Data shows that no more than 4% of the Destiny playerbase has completed even the first Veil Containment quest to get the hand cannon (I believe you may have to complete a Lightfall exotic quest first?), and of that 4%, I’m sure only a fraction know that you need to return to a little mission node literally off the map every week for these big story reveals.
Destiny 2
A few weeks ago there were interviews with the narrative team circulating where they talked about not only how important Veil Containment was, but how it was actually going to continue with reveals all year, which means at least the next two seasons before Final Shape.
Fine, but good lord, you have to change this delivery mechanism. 95% of the playerbase should not be missing this. My personal advice is to straight up just put it in the HELM with a flashing node like the radio messages we get there. Say you’re “downloading it from Neomuna” or whatever reason you want to give. Hiding it in this little node in the corner that no one can even see is absurd.
Make it a weekly seasonal challenge. Make it an achievement. Hell, make it a weekly pinnacle exotic drop just to show up to listen to it. None of this is the case. There’s not so much as even a flashing indicator on Neptune that you should be going there.
Normally, Destiny has gotten its storytelling down pretty well with a combination of cutscenes, in-game conversations, mission dialogue, radio messages and lore books. Veil Containment does not fit into any of those categories given its inaccessibility and the very good work from the narrative team on this content should not be hidden by this delivery mechanism. For next season, at least, this has to move somewhere else and be featured front and center every week there’s a new message. Otherwise, why bother doing it at all?
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