Bungie has just rolled out a new activity for Destiny 2 that is called Reclaim – the players have to actually reclaim the Plaguelands from The Conductor who is losing her grip with the Vex Collective. She has been heard to be after some lost Golden Age tech or something like that for powering something; and this new mode is now unlocked to everyone to jump into. Honestly, though? The reaction from the community has been… pun intended – an entirely different thing.
There lies the little amusing element of this series of events. The official Destiny account tweeted about the Reclaim thing, and instead of keeping the hype about new content high, the replies were flooded with complaints. They were present instantaneously. One of the top comments by DANILO saying, “Eververse set back on Iron Banner!!!!! Tough week for you guys, but you deserve every bit of headache 😬,” pretty much set the tone for what has followed.
Bungie can’t even catch a break with this much negativity. Folks are actually joking about returning to Destiny 1, and that’s never a moving sign. WaterTyreis straight-up said, “Im going back to D1”, and you know what? They’re not alone in their sentiments. The whole vibe is that this current state of Destiny 2 just ain’t it for many players.
That must be the other story: Iron Banner armor. Several players voice their dissatisfaction. Olii shares, “Don’t care change the IB armor,” with a crying emoji. Seems like Bungie decided to sell Iron Banner armour on the Eververse shop rather than allowing players to grind to get it through actual gameplay, and the displeasure coming out of the players cannot be overstated. Like, at all.
Matchmaking mess-ups are among other big ones that everybody complains about. SkaiSports exploded about playing at 2.2 KD stat and getting matched with teammates who “can’t shoot their guns” while on the other side, there are Crotus users on console. And “Game is so bad now, actually makes me sad” — just… oof. It hits different.
Some players are actually going as far as to ask people to go and play anything else. Heretic1971 states, “Have you guys played BL4? Now that’s an awesome looter shooter. They have nailed it,” as Quantum__ just adds, “Like we care. Borderlands.” It’s as if Destiny players are looking over to other games and querying as to why they are still putting up with Bungie.
The power delta system is another target being roasts. Kevlar_020 asked: “Can we get rid of delta? It’s not fun being forced to do reclaim at -60 power only to get the new loot.. I don’t want to do any activity if I need to bash my head on a wall because 1: Enemies are bullet sponges 2: My teammates don’t even understand the basic puzzle of encounters”, which kind of just sums up the frustration.
There’s this whole K-method about SIVA as well. JcTehada stated, “The conductor seeks SIVA to empower herself” with a thinking emoji, and DAMMIT666TMPDAN said, “Plaguelands? Nah, more like plague has took over the lands and made it no fun land with no Siva which is what made it what it was. Come on now.” Players remember when Plaguelands was with SIVA, and they’re not happy about its current absence.
But those asking for Destiny 3 are everywhere. “No one cares anymore. Move on to D3 please. We need a fresh start.” Says fishkisser123 and probably most of the voices of players who believe Destiny 2 has expired.
All this negativity we are seeing is already a lot! soulsalwayson said, “Locked and loaded for this one!” meaning that there are definitely some players who are happy to check out the new activity. In contrast, Me007gold was intrigued by the mention of Golden Age technology, questioning, “Golden age technology you say?” accompanied by a thinking emoji.
Just like games in transition tend to do, this situation invites comparison. Bungie knows what going through this feels like and have gone through Destiny’s ups and downs ever since its conception. Remember when they fixed a lot after the launch? People loved them for listening back then. Now? Well, now they’re back in the doghouse.
One interesting thing about the complaints is how specific they are. They are not just “game bad” accusations – people are pinpointing specific issues with the Eververse/Iron Banner shenanigans, matchmaking, power delta, and SIVA being missing. They’re not vague complaints – players know precisely what they want to be changed.
Reclaim itself probably could be really fun – we just aren’t sure because everyone is too busy being mad about everything else. But that is the tragedy with live service games: when the players lose trust, any new content is just more fodder for criticism.
Bungie really are going to have their work cut out to build back the community. Theoretically, for instance, the new activity sounds quite exciting: taking back the Plaguelands, fighting the Vex, and hunting for Golden Age tech; but if there are aspects of the game players are furious about, well, this said activity probably will not really matter.
It is terribly hard for any developer right now. You put down some new content with the intent of uplifting the players. Still, the resentment toward other systems will overshadow the new content and berate it instead. The Destiny community has always been passionate about things, but right now, that passion is channeled towards what they see as problems that need fixing.
Maybe the Reclaim activity will really hit the nail on the head for everybody. Perhaps Bungie will use that opportunity to patch a lot of these concerns. For now, though, the reaction to this new content drop only underlines that Destiny 2 players have obvious bigger fish to fry than any single activity.
