For now, one of the biggest criticisms leveled at Destiny 2 is that there’s little incentive to invest in the game long-term. Most endgame players simply complete their weekly Powerful Gear milestones and then don’t touch the game again until the next weekly reset, and even dedicated raiders and Crucible competitors struggle to play with any sort of consistency. Fortunately, Bungie is not only aware of that problem, it has big plans to directly address it with the upcoming launch of the game’s Forsaken expansion.
During a recent interview with GamesRadar (the same interview that confirmed the return of daily heroic story missions), Bungie’s Steve Cotton and Scott Taylor talked about some of the new ancillary systems the expansion will introduce, systems that will give players of all stripes more long-term goals to work towards. Here’s what Taylor had to say:
“Year Two kicks off with [Forsaken], which is a transformative moment for Destiny. We’re not only delivering all that, but we have Triumphs, which is a new set of achievements that every player is going to get. We have the Collections, we’re changing the weapon slots, we’re adding random rolls, all those things are for all Destiny players. And then on top of that we’re doing events. We’re still going to have events that are available to everyone, seasonal rewards, PvP, all of that stuff.”
As Taylor mentions, the Triumphs and Collections systems will be available to all players, even those who don’t own Forsaken. Taylor went on to say that Bungie’s newfound dedication to an ongoing, ever-evolving endgame experience means that there will be less of a focus on cinematic content that a player might appreciate once or twice, and more emphasis on tangible endgame challenges and incentives:
“On top of that, we also know that there are a lot of players who really want Destiny to be a hobby. We’ve definitely heard loud and clear that they want endgame challenges, more Exotics, more loot. So instead of doing the [content] drops that have that cinematic focus on that campaign that players might only play once, we want to lean into that Escalation Protocol-type experience that the really devoted endgame players are craving, and really deliver those more often.”
It’s important to note that, for now, the promises that Taylor makes in the interview are just words. Bungie has admittedly struggled in the past with matching up what it delivers to the expectations of Destiny 2 fans, but if it can make good on what Taylor promises, the Forsaken expansion (which launches on Sept. 4) should be just the shot in the arm that Destiny 2 needs. In a separate E3 interview, Bungie also explained how the new weapon slot revamp (another feature being introduced in Forsaken) will give players more control over the sorts of weapon loadouts they can use.