Yesterday, Bungie’s latest dungeon dubbed ‘Equilibrium’ was made available in Destiny 2, right? Immediately, the official Destiny Tracker account took the opportunity to engage the users and asked them: rate it from 1 to 5. The replies flooded in and there was a wide range of views expressed. It seems that they wanted a simple number and actually got a long therapy session with the whole community discussing the game condition. Some players are calling it a masterpiece, a 5 out of 5 hit. Still others are… just to say a few, are comparing it to a ‘glorified campaign mission’ or a ‘bullet sponge.’ We are going to unravel this chaos.
To start with, for the ones who just want the truth: the newest dungeon in Destiny 2 Equilibrium, is already on the menu. Player’s initial impressions are extremely divided. Some are very positive and are thrilled by the dungeon’s mechanics and difficulty while the dissenters express problems with the dungeon’s design being repetitive, difficulty of ‘feat’ for loot requirements, and not being innovative regarding recent dungeon releases. Overall, this is a debate that highlights the continuous problem of community feedback on Bungie’s seasonal content pacing and reward structures.
Definitely, the hype around the release was very much alive. Normally, dungeons are beautiful, semi-raid-like, and can be done with little number of players. The last few—Warlord’s Ruin, Vespyr’s something, Doctrines of something—I can never remember their full names—were pretty awesome. Thus, the expectations for Equilibrium were extraordinary.
Then it was the time for its unveiling, and just like this, the web was divided into two fighting camps as it usually happens.
On one side are the unshakable supporters. Even ‘Izanagis’ the player gives it a 5/5 rating without flinching, saying it is “the kind of content Destiny has been needing for a long time.” They appreciated the blind run, the challenges, the boss ideas. An other player, Sara Richey, called it “an easy 4.5.” with exciting mechanics. AzulArtz said that it was ” a little short .. but very very sweet. 5.” As a result, the dungeon for a large section of the community was a perfect match. Enjoyable, engaging, just hard enough not to be life draining. GambitMan called it “fun and engaging at the same time,” which, let’s face it, is the ideal scenario for any content.
But if you keep on scrolling down a bit further, you will find that the other camp is really, really upset.
The criticisms are… very precise. And at times, absolutely blunt. Username ‘BoneShackles’ analyzed the entire thing and gave a detailed 3/10. He pointed out as chief flaws “the uninteresting mechanics,” “the bad pacing,” and “a lot of reused stuff.” He was particularly against the new ‘Apprentice’ buff system which takes over your grenade and requires a click of the joystick to swap, particularly if that button is also your melee. Sounds like a controller nightmare! The first boss was branded a “boring bullet sponge” with annoying doors. Ouch!
This was an opinion that was shared by many. ‘Regulus’ supported that and called it a “glorified campaign mission” and a “slap in the face” considering the last three dungeons. ‘Old74Guy’ did not even score it but exclaimed that the whole season had been “nothing but bullet sponges” and wondered how many times Bungie would be able to make the players “empty their magazines while getting nothing.” That’s a general feeling among players nowadays.
The ‘feats’ system dispute is a thing we should not overlook. A lot of gamers have practically deducted a large chunk of their points based on the fact that the best gear was obtainable only by completing the specific challenges within the dungeon. ‘PParker9423’ rated it a 3, arguing that “the only way to get any meaningful gear is tied behind doing feat runs and that is unappealing.” This is the classic Bungie strategy: have players run the activity, then make them do it again under even more difficult conditions for the coveted loot. Some gamers like this while for others it is simply draining and futuristic.
We have had the same attitude towards the contest mode as well. For the first few days, the dungeon was under the contest mode which made it much more difficult. ‘JayBeeDee777’ rated the dungeon a 1 specifically “because of contest.” While others were debating whether it was a fair move or not. ‘Aqua’ claimed that the last boss was not hard, just “artificial difficulty bc you get booped everywhere.
