Bungie’s Complex Problem
Bungie has accomplished many things with Destiny. They took the core of a first person shooter and built an MMORPG around it. It was always clear that Destiny was an FPS first, which is why the gun-play is polished above all else. They were also the first game to implement raids into first person shooters. Raids in Destiny are 6-person activities that require cooperation and tight communication to complete, not to mention great skill.
The raids in Destiny 1 were some of the most rewarding experiences I’ve ever had in gaming. It was the first time I experienced complex mechanics in an FPS, and is likely the main reason I’ve stuck around Destiny for so long. There’s a good mixture of excitement, anxiety, and fear going into a raid. Clearing the different encounters often feels like luck at first; narrowly escaping by the skin of your teeth. The encounters have you grab special items, fire in specific sequences, and dance between special buffs and de-buffs to complete them. Raids also feature a few of the smartest and most epic boss battles I’ve ever faced in video games. From an artistic standpoint, raids feature some of the most incredible environments, music, and creature designs in the game.
The issue with raids in Destiny comes with player participation. They are all 6-player activities that have no in-game matchmaking. So you need to either have 5 other friends willing and ready to jump in, or you have to rely on out-of-game solutions to find your fireteam. This led to a less than 20% player-base participation in raids during Destiny 1’s life-cycle. This meant that Destiny’s best and most rewarding content wasn’t experienced by over 80% of its players.
Celebrating the Solution
With Destiny 2, Bungie has aimed to help solve this issue by offering in-game queuing of sorts. However, the feature is underdeveloped with some glaring fundamental flaws. While Bungie hopes to continue their efforts to get more gamers playing their raids, they haven’t stopped making more complex and interesting encounters that can be played by more players. This seems to be why they focused so much of their development effort on the new game mode Gambit, coming with the Forsaken expansion in the fall. I’ve gone over what the game mode entails in my previous article from earlier this week, but at E3 I was able to play the new mode and get a feel for it.
Gambit marries PvE and PvP in a compelling way. We first heard of a new game mode back in April. A group of 40 content creators and community leaders were invited to Bungie headquarters for a special summit. They came back under strict non-disclosure agreements, and could only express that the game mode was something you typically don’t find in first person shooters. My mind instantly raced, trying to think of what it could possibly be.
Something Familiar
When we finally learned about Gambit and the fact that you have to collect and bank motes you collect from fallen enemies, I came to a realization. Only days before the news broke, I had just jumped into the world of MOBA games with our very own Caitlyn. We jumped into Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm and played a map called Tomb of the Spider Queen. In that map you have to defeat special enemies to collect gems, eventually summoning a final boss to help overcome your opponent team’s defenses, not unlike Gambit. It was incredible to have a flash back to something I had played for the first time earlier that week. Now I know that Bungie has tapped their fountain of youth.
They took raids from MMORPGs and now they’re taking ideas from MOBAs. It is incredibly ingenious, the best part being that Gambit is 4v4 with matchmaking. It also has no level or power restriction, essentially ensuring that everyone is on an even playing field. This all means that Gambit will be available and approachable to many more players than raids typically are.
Destiny is in a unique position to continue evolving the RPG shooter genre, and now even more players can experience mechanic-driven objective modes. Everyone can have the satisfaction of having to think a bit more about what you’re doing, rather than how hard you’re pulling the trigger. Gambit doesn’t have to be any more complex than it is. While it shouldn’t and won’t ever replace the true raid experience, it will make these aspects of Destiny much more approachable.
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