Actually, the New Territories: Reclaim was indeed just dropped by Bungie. The whole thing is really about a big so-called gold rush for Golden Age tech ever since the Conductor pulled one of those smash-and-grab operations on the Tower. And then it has been opened to the public; well, that’s nice! You must meet Devrim Kay at the EDZ to want to start. But I tell you, the community reaction … well, it isn’t a pleasant one.
Once upon a time, a declaration was released from the official Destiny Twitter. The replies were truly an absolute bloodbath. The players are livid! And it’s not even about the event itself so much; rather, it’s about everything else that has built up over time. The complaints mostly come down to that Iron Banner armor has gone to Eververse rather than the mode itself and that Ash and Iron never brought SIVA back to the Plaguelands.
One player, justapatriot, said that perfectly: “The armor change is a money grab. Period. Nerfing Outbreak Perfected and bringing back plague lands is beyond disheartening. No Siva in the plague lands is A HUGE mistake. 120+ hours for a 50 power level climb is wasteful of our time.” And many more could be heard shouting similar remarks in the comments.”
The Iron Banner armor is one of those issues that just set people off. What appears to have happened is that there was a concept art showcase of this Gladius armor set by Bungie and the players thought it was for Iron Banner. Then the ArtStation page disappeared and of course, annoying surprise, the armor is in Eververse? Snowii called it “so shameless it’s mind boggling,” calling into question Bungie’s two favorite phrases, “We’re listening” and “Let’s fucking do this thing,” which is really just salt in the wound.
And that SIVA business…oh man. Players are furious that they brought back the Plaguelands but done nothing with SIVA. myYouTubetrash said, “Did she find some leftover SIVA and release it on the EDZ transforming it into a ‘Plagued Land’? Of course she didn’t. An actual story and something new is too hard for you guys,” which might be a bit harsh but really wells up the disappointment.
Some players might as well be saying “through with” in the current state of the game. voice of reason advised, “From the bottom of my heart, this is by far the worst destiny expansion. I’d have zero problems if you just revert every single change before EoF. Bring us back to the final shape.” And no_obey was even more direct: “Bro, this is shit. Just roll back the game to Echos and delete the rest.”
There is still the complaint about how too fast is the power grind, as theJthatmatters said, “Nah, I am good spending 25m for a single +2 drop and some low power bs. The juice just isnt worth the squeeze anymore. The power grind sucks and it takes too long.” And Trials matchmaking fixes are still being asked about, with Ether flatly saying, “Y’all ever gonna fix trials matchmaking or nah?”
There was a wave of confusion about the new event itself when _pathfindertom_ said, “I don’t understand Ash and Iron. What is it meant to be? Reclaim is like for a week only? I feel like I am missing something.” Which, if your players don’t understand what your new content actually is, probably isn’t a great sign.
Another feeling the players are having is that the Bungie has been putting the game on sale rather than on good content. catofthings summed it up quite nicely: “Plz be serious did you guys really think you did a good job on the Year of Prophecy? So far it just seems like the Year of False Promises and Aggressive Monetization.”
It’s just really sad watching that because Destiny 2 really has a solid player base that really love Destiny 2, but lately, they’ve all felt broken by a few recent decisions. The ever-present Weasel stated, “I may have quit destiny. Its still sad to see it like this.” When the old-timers talk of quitting, that’s ever a bad sign.
Although new, New Territories: Reclaim seems to be landing directly on previously existing player frustrations in other areas of the game. Between Eververse, the lack of that SIVA content people were banking on, and just the doubts about the trajectory of the game, the community’s reception has pretty much been outright negative.
Whether or not Bungie will try and shore up any of these issues or just march right along stupid is certainly going to be one to watch. The Destiny community is pretty unruly when they’re unhappy, and right now, they’re making sure that everyone knows how they feel. Whether it leads anywhere one way or the other is up in the air, but right now, the new event’s reception is looking pretty grim.
