Do People Still Play Destiny 1

Bungie/Activision

Destiny 1'southward community is alive, raiding, and hesitant to motion on

Fifty-fifty after Forsaken, some players don't feel at home in the sequel

By Mar 1, 2019, 3:00pm EST

In 2014, Bungie released Destiny, a boodle-based multiplayer shooter with exceptional mechanics that also featured a shallow, frustrating endgame grind. Over the form of three years, Bungie turned it around to go a game with plenty of things to exercise and see. Destiny 2 followed the same trajectory, with a and then-and so launch in 2017 and its improved Forsaken expansion in 2018. Merely there's a small contingent of players who nevertheless spend virtually of their fourth dimension with the original Destiny.

In the wake of Destiny ii: Forsaken's release, we've spoken with people in the original Destiny community, from members of the various Destiny subreddits to the admin of The Last Destiny City Discord, a server devoted to the first game. Old-schoolhouse players have complicated feelings toward the sequel, but 1 thread is mutual with all of them: They recall the original Destiny is more fun.

Growing pains

When the original Destiny ended in March 2017, Bungie released a final commemoration that gave players reasons to go dorsum and collect everything in the game. Called Age of Triumph, the update revitalized the game, setting information technology upward to have a life beyond any ongoing programmer support. Bungie also returned the old raids to full power, making them viable once over again, and made quality-of-life changes to vendors. This final update to Destiny created the game that players had spent three years request for: a game with meaningful, repeatable content and progression systems to go with Bungie's satisfying combat.

When Destiny 2 launched in September 2017, it failed to achieve the standards set by Destiny Year 3, a problem that was compounded by some unsatisfying combat tweaks. In an try to brand the game'southward competitive multiplayer component more off-white, Bungie placed all one-hit-kill weapons like shotguns and sniper rifles in the power weapon slot (alongside rocket launchers and swords). This meant that players could simply employ these powerful weapons when their scarce ammo was available.

In general, power was harder to come past in Destiny 2. Without easy access to weapons like shotguns or sniper rifles, players struggled to take down larger enemies en masse. Abilities were less strong and didn't regenerate as quickly. Guardians even moved more slowly than they did in Destiny one. Gainsay had always kept Destiny bustling through the bad times, even when at that place wasn't plenty content. Players withal refer to Destiny 1'due south combat with loving nostalgia. One user from the Destiny Legacy subreddit, L0r3_titan, told united states, "My D1 Titan could vanquish up all iii of my D2 characters at the same time with i hand tied behind his back."

Guardians face off confronting waves of Hive on the Moon in the original Destiny.

Bungie/Activision

There was also no endgame to Destiny 2, significant that players were once again left waiting for meaningful, repeatable content and progression systems to proceed with information technology. Past December rolled effectually, many of Destiny 2's hardcore players had already gone through the campaign, reached the max power level, mastered the Leviathan raid, and gathered all the gear in the game. Destiny ii was beaten.

Just Destiny i could never be beaten. Random rolls kept weapons interesting every time y'all picked one up, with new perks creating new scenarios to wield it in. There are Destiny 1 players in 2019 still looking for that perfect Hawksaw whorl. At launch, Destiny ii didn't have random rolls or hush-hush quests. Reddit user morphine_sulfate told united states of america that they relied on Destiny to keep them busy when Destiny two ran out of content.

"I found myself spending much more fourth dimension on a fresh D1 Hunter than all three of my D2 characters," morphine_sulfate said.

Attached

As players dragged their anxiety through Destiny 2'south lack of an endgame, the rage began to grow. Players left Destiny 2, disappointed and angry that information technology was — at the fourth dimension — the inferior Destiny game. Over a year afterward, folks are still playing Destiny i. They raid through the challenge modes, play Crucible, collect randomly rolled weapons with perfect perks, and chase exotics that elude them. Aside from vacation events like Festival of the Lost, everything is still playable in the Age of Triumph.

"The community is fairly healthy," said andromolek from the Destiny subreddit. "It'south really held together by an intense dislike of [Destiny 2]. Can't bring together a party without someone (completely justifiably) ragging on D2 for being a bad game and inferior to its predecessor."

Destiny and Destiny 2 players honey to complain about each game'southward shortcomings: bad loot drops, bad items, bad boss fights, bad physics engine, bad deaths, bad everything. It's a tough love language that the Destiny community all uses with each other, but it's jarring when you first come into it.

A Hunter takes aim with an old sniper burglarize

Bungie/Activision

Ii worlds united

In response to the complaints, Bungie released Forsaken in September 2018 to bring Destiny two closer to Destiny. It brought back random rolls, and players were now able to wield powerful weapons in a secondary slot. Information technology stock-still Destiny 2's content problem by calculation repeatable activities like Gambit, and an endgame surround that contains secrets. Players started coming back to Destiny 2, simply that doesn't mean people take abased the original Destiny.

Specter, the admin of The Terminal Destiny City Discord, told us that even as Destiny 2 improves, he finds himself proverb, "This is definitely better, simply it'southward still non D1."

Destiny has always been a flawed series, simply Destiny'due south launch issues made players come together in solidarity to find the beauty in the feel. To walk away and play something else, even a sequel, feels similar abandoning home. Redditor morphine_sulfate of the Destiny Legacy subreddit told us that trying a "throwback raid" — Crota's End, from Destiny's first expansion, The Dark Below — encouraged them to spend more fourth dimension collecting the items they'd missed in that game.

They told u.s. that while they play more Destiny two than one nowadays, the first game helped keep them engaged when things were bad in Destiny 2. "I haven't had success bringing my clan dorsum to D1," they told us. "But I have to remind myself that they've played D1 content into the footing. For me it's notwithstanding pretty fresh. I log on weekly and run strikes considering I enjoy the gameplay and still have a ton of boodle to find. Nightfall attempts have mixed results solo, only I give it a shot every week. I load upward on strange coins and hit up the squid guy (the Exotic merchant, Xur) every Fri."

Players even so accept boodle items to hunt in Destiny, and new content to look forward to in Destiny 2. And while some take said the legacy community died with Forsaken, enough of others say they have no problem getting a crew together to run an old raid or have out some fellow Guardians in the Crucible.

Iii Guardians gear up to patrol the Moon in Destiny.

Bungie/Activision

New things are scary, and old things tin be outdated. But exploring the solar system every bit a Light-wielding wizard warrior even so feels exciting for Destiny 1 fans.

During the drought betwixt Destiny two: Curse of Osiris in December 2017 and Destiny ii: Warmind in May 2018, I myself dipped my toe dorsum into Destiny to play through the Wrath of the Auto raid'southward challenge mode. Information technology'd been so long that my graphic symbol wasn't upwards to snuff, and I was running with folks I'd never met before. But they pulled me through and reminded me what to do, as if they were Destiny professionals.

As nosotros raided, nosotros chatted a chip virtually the differences between the two games. Everyone was interested in Destiny's futurity. Destiny one could live on forever, or Bungie could shut down the servers tomorrow (though they've given no indication of doing this). Destiny 2 split the Destiny community — ride or die for the original or the sequel — and things have changed.

Destiny and Destiny ii oasis't achieved parity, and they never will. But each is beloved for its ain reasons. In 2019, you lot can love both games without betraying the cadre principles of the other.

Source: https://www.polygon.com/2019/3/1/18150511/destiny-1-players-raids-community

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