Destiny 2 is basically like a cockroach with its ability to survive and weather the angriest of community sentiment storms. But now? I'm not so sure anymore.
After the launch of The Edge of Fate DLC in July, it truly feels like the game is at a low point, and there have been many of those throughout the franchise's 11 years, beginning with Destiny 1 in 2014. The series has had massive updates to reinvent itself and reignite player interest, but things feel bad and just hard to come back from now, and I say this as a loyal player who has been there from the very beginning.
It's gotten so bad that multiple content creators who have based their careers around the game have been forced to move on. This isn't new, either, but it only exacerbates how truly dreadful the overall vibes around the game have been lately, and it somehow feels worse and more serious this time around.
Top Destiny 2 streamers such as Datto, Gladd, and GernaderJake are just a few of the (seemingly) large number of players who are leaving the game-as-a-hobby behind for other things, at least for the time being. Content creators playing other things won't spell the end of the game themselves, but they are a symptom of many greater issues.
This past weekend, Destiny 2 hosted a race for the recent Desert Perpetual raid, featuring the new Epic modifier that changed up encounters and added difficulty. But a perennial raid racer like Gladd was nowhere to be found.
"When I think about getting on to practice or competing in the raid, I just feel empty inside," he explained in a lengthy social media post. "So many other games excite the shit out of me, but D2 just brings my vibe down. The game feels bland [as f*] to play, and often feels like even more of a chore now. I didn't wanna bring that energy to my team. They deserve better."
Gladd continued, saying that D2's new power grind is "boringgggg," citing the recently-released Portal and loot system "that isn't interesting enough to engage someone like me, who wants an interesting grind and chase."
"I just cannot sit there and chase Tier 5 loot with the current system or increase my level above 500, especially after playing something like Borderlands, where the most interesting loot is thrown at you regularly," he said.
GernaderJake, meanwhile, has built his channel off of streaming Trials of Osiris on weekends, helping gamers obtain PvP greatness. A few days ago, he put out a video explaining why he won't be playing it for this season, meaning he won't be back until the new DLC comes out in December, just like Datto.
I have to agree with the streamers. Destiny 2 feels like a slog more than ever before, and a lot of that has to do with the power grind feeling meaningless, a lack of week-to-week story content like previous years had, and intense competition from several other live-service games.
I will be back to try out the Renegades DLC in December, as others likely will, but how long will that last? Odds are we may be having this same conversation again in the winter.
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The post Most of Destiny 2’s top streamers are leaving the ‘boring’ FPS in a mass exodus and I don’t know if the game can recover appeared first on Destructoid.
