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To the "Destiny 2 looks like DLC" crowd. Why?

Mesoian

Member
Maybe I'm missing something here but this seems like a really silly complaint.

Just off the top of my head

A complete rework of at least 3 sub classes
A complete rework of the weapon loadout
An entirely new story
Improved Graphics
4 entirely new locations
A slew of new strikes
A slew of new MP maps
A reworking of game currency
A reworking of multiplayer across the board
LFG systems and Guilds
Friendly AI characters during gameplay
Improvements to how activities can be launched
Entirely new loot
At least 3 new weapon archetypes
+more I'm very likely missing

Why does Destiny 2 look like DLC but Uncharted 2 or Borderlands 2 or Halo 2 or Mirrors Edge 2 or basically any other sequel doesn't "look like DLC"

Even in Destiny's big DLC Taken King we only got 1 new location and some mild system quality of life improvements. Destiny 1 was certainly a game that evolved but not too the degree that D2 is changing things.

Additionally why does it matter if it looks like "DLC" or more specifically an Expansion.

World of Warcraft gets similar priced "expansions" frequently and that's a game that require a monthly sub to play. People don't really complain then.

I'm basically just trying to understand the perspective of people who feel this is more like a DLC than a Sequel and what basis they are using for comparison


The basic answers my friends, who are deep into destiny, tell me are, "It isn't adding anything, it's just reworking everything."

There are still only 3 classes, even if they work differently. All the maps are different, but MMO's do this all the time, WOW's expansions shake things up in similar ways.

New Strikes, maps, zones, raids were things that would have continued even if Destiny 2 wasn't a thing and they kept Destiny as a games-as-service model.

It feels like this game is made for people who were starving for more destiny content instead of people who were looking for massive meaningful changes. It's more of what was there, but nothing feels that much bigger or newer.

It's fair to say it feels like an expansion, especially when you look at MMO expansions like FF14's or WoW's that have a similar or greater amount of content than Destiny 2 seems to have. That's not a slight against Destiny 2, it's doing what would be considered to be on par with other MMO's. The PVP being reduced in scale is a real interesting direction to go in IMO. For your numbers to go down rather than up is...uncommon at best.

And honestly that no dedicated servers thing is real crappy.
 
It looks like a dlc addon.

That's unfortunately the first impression on destiny 2 and you can't change that.

Whether thats a misconception based on a bad reveal or accurate to how these players will feel when they get their hands on is yet to be seen.

But perception is reality. I see it as yet another destiny 1 expansion and/or an admission that destiny 2 will not provide the missing feeling and gameplay people desired with destiny 1.
 

GamerSciz

Member
The reason it feels like Destiny 1.5 and not Destiny 2 is simple. All those things you mentioned are mostly cosmetic and not necessarily vast gameplay differences. The things they added like Guided games, LFG in game, Matchmaking with everything...those SHOULD have been in Destiny even if patched in later but never were.

Destiny 2 = All the mistakes we made with Destiny 1 we fixed and added some new maps, and new weapons but the game looks and plays the same: Enjoy!

It's not "some new maps and some new weapons." It's literally all new maps and all new weapons. Like it's a different game. You can be reductive about any game. Dark Souls 3 is just Dark Souls 1 with some new maps and some new bosses.

It's Destiny 1.5. Adding new weapons and maps is more cosmetic. Sure they are allowing you to do more in an open world aspect but that was promised in D1. THAT IS THE PROBLEM. D1 promises, so many of them never happened. They are finally coming to D2 but that requires you to spend $60 for a game you had hoped for 3 years ago. It's like a large expansion.

Uncharted the Lost Legacy is 10hrs of gameplay but its only $40 because its considered a bigger DLC is all.

D2 just doesn't come across as worthy of a $60 price tag right now. I have to see more to justify it.
 

jwk94

Member
Cross-posting myself again:

Clearly different setting and look. That's the problem people have with Destiny 2, the visual identity is far too simular to Destiny 1.

Every uncharted is Nathan Drake shooting stuff or it wouldn't be an Uncharted game. That's it's visual identity. However, with each subsequent entry, Naughty Dog is willing to tweak that visual identity to make it apparent that this isn't the game you just played. Those tweaks could involve different art styles, way new areas, or something ass simple as a change to the hud (this is most apparent in destiny 2).

A similar logic applies to the cod games, although to a lesser extent. They all are clearly cod, but unless you're visiting a vastly different setting (ww1, vs ww2, vs future), they all maintain a largely unchanged visual identity. That's why everyone always says cod games look the same as the last one. Unless you're very attentive and bother to do a quick comparison, you'll probably think the same thing.

So when people say Destiny 2 looks like an expansion they say that because Bungie didn't so much to change the game's visual identity. They prescribed to the " don't fix what's not broken model." That's all fine and dandy when your shooting is top notch like Destiny, but you need to do something to the visuals to make consumers feel like they're not doing the same thing over again.

If you want me to elaborate further, I'd be more than happy to. I typed this on my phone just after waking up, so my thoughts might be all over the place.

Edit :
You can apply the same logic to why people thought the recent 2d Mario games and Splatoon 2 vs Splatoon 1 look so similar.
 

Wagram

Member
I don't see anything that screams this is Destiny 2.

Then again i'm not the audience they're interested in. I'm not a potential buyer.
 
The first bullet point you listed was "a rework of subclasses." Not exactly a barnstormer of a headline, is it?

Destiny 2 looks like it will be a good sequel that corrects the many issues the first game had and builds on the good ideas it had, but I really can't blame people for feeling underwhelmed by the reveal. A huge chunk of what they showed was essentially quality of life stuff - good changes, to be sure! - and not the sort of bombshell changes some people might expect from a sequel.

Why does Destiny 2 look like DLC but Uncharted 2 or Borderlands 2 or Halo 2 or Mirrors Edge 2 or basically any other sequel doesn't "look like DLC"

Because most of these games were shown off immediately showing off their huge changes. Uncharted 2 immediately upped the ante with its graphics and story presentation. Halo 2 showed off dual wielding and added online multiplayer. Borderlands 2 addressed complaints about the blandness of the first game's setting by immediately showing off more varied environments. Mirror's Edge 2 was shown off as open world rather than linear.

Regardless of how you feel about any of the above sequels, they all leaned into their changes in presentations/marketing/etc. So far, all of Destiny 2's improvements seem incremental. That's not a knock against the game really, because there are a lot of places where incremental changes could massively improve on Destiny's good ideas, but don't pretend "subclass reworks/new strikes, the things you did all the time in the first game" are going to wow everyone out of the gate.
 

Arrrammis

Member
Looking at it from a technical point of view, Destiny 2 feels less like an expansion to D1 and more like a redeveloping of what Destiny should have been if not for the bad development process and last gen based system. We saw these limitations with Rise of Iron (which was the first DLC only offered on PS4 and Xbox One), even within the restraints of the old system Bungie was able to make an environment larger than any other patrol area as well as offering better graphics all around. Now with a fresh start, they have more room to really make the systems work without worrying about those same memory restraints. Even in just the single strike they showcased, they had huge dynamic environments (
The spinning drill
) like ones that we only really saw in the Taken King raid in enclosed spaces with the
piston/dick wall room
.

It does make sense that they don't want to completely start from scratch, but I can see where people are coming from talking about overall enemies and animations. But overall, I doubt Bungie showed off everything new, I'm gonna wait for E3 to make my judgements on it. But as of now, I'll just say that it has potential to be what a lot of people wanted Destiny to be.
 
Maybe I'm missing something here but this seems like a really silly complaint.

Just off the top of my head

A complete rework of at least 3 sub classes
A complete rework of the weapon loadout
An entirely new story
Improved Graphics
4 entirely new locations
A slew of new strikes
A slew of new MP maps
A reworking of game currency
A reworking of multiplayer across the board
LFG systems and Guilds
Friendly AI characters during gameplay
Improvements to how activities can be launched
Entirely new loot
At least 3 new weapon archetypes
+more I'm very likely missing

Why does Destiny 2 look like DLC but Uncharted 2 or Borderlands 2 or Halo 2 or Mirrors Edge 2 or basically any other sequel doesn't "look like DLC"

Even in Destiny's big DLC Taken King we only got 1 new location and some mild system quality of life improvements. Destiny 1 was certainly a game that evolved but not too the degree that D2 is changing things.

Additionally why does it matter if it looks like "DLC" or more specifically an Expansion.

World of Warcraft gets similar priced "expansions" frequently and that's a game that require a monthly sub to play. People don't really complain then.

I'm basically just trying to understand the perspective of people who feel this is more like a DLC than a Sequel and what basis they are using for comparison

I'm just playing a bit of devil's advocate here, because I feel like a lot of these people have valid criticism, but they're being overshadowed by the usual destiny hate train.

So:

A complete rework of at least 3 sub classes: A rework and replacment of 3 subclasses doesn't feel new. People will ask why this could have been a fourth subclass? This sounds like something that can be done with an expansion (and was done with an expansion previously.

A complete rework of the weapon loadout : This is probably my favorite thing, but also something we don't have all the specifics about. So it's hard to fully appreciate this until we get all the information.

An entirely new story : Again, previous expansions came with an "all new story" so until we can actually get this in our hands and experience it front to back, it doesn't feel like much of a bullet point.

Improved Graphics : This is to be expected with any sequel. You can call it entitlement if you want, but it's not really a bullet point worth getting excited about.

4 entirely new locations : At the cost of 6 existing locations.

A slew of new strikes : Not enough information. We know 1 exists. We don't know how many we'll start with, but if it's only 5 or 6, expect an uproar because those strike playlists get old fast when you have a 20-25% chance to play the same strike you just finished.

A slew of new MP maps Again, not enough information. People want a count. And even if we get a count, it's not going to be half as many as what we already have in Destiny 1.

A reworking of game currency No specifics were shown. Hard to get excited over vagueness.

A reworking of multiplayer across the board : If you're talking about matchmaking, then yes. This is actually exciting and very good news.

LFG systems and Guilds Actual Good news.

Friendly AI characters during gameplay Have we seen NPCs in combat scenarios? Because it seems like there are just going to be social hubs on planets now without needing a loading screen/orbit. Not enough information to get excited about.

Improvements to how activities can be launched : This is a Quality of Life improvement and while it is nice. It shouldn't be a bullet point.

Entirely new loot Every expansion so far has new loot. This is not a Bullet point.

At least 3 new weapon archetypes: Would be easier to be excited about this if we knew more specifics about it. Also, we've had 2 new weapon archtypes introduced from expansions in the past. So why is it special now?



I'm sorry if i come off more negative. Generally, I enjoyed the presentation itself. But Bungie has burned any remaining 'benefit of the doubt' away from a lot of fans. They're feeling cautious. I'm feeling cautious. As it stands for me, I'll be waiting post launch to see how things play out.


Meanwhile, lets look at what Bungie is taking away from us:
6v6 and 3v3 PvP modes are gone.
Vehicles seem to be gone.
Swords seem to be gone (and moved to the new Warlock super)
Trials is gone (temporarily)
6 Destination are gone
20+ PvP maps are gone

Basically. Imagine if WoW removed all of Vanilla when Burning Crusade came out? Destiny was built like an MMO and even sold like one slightly. So this move was never going to be clean.
 

hobozero

Member
Let me say right off the top that yes, I am buying it, and yes, i liked Destiny 1 a whole lot.

These here are the bare minimum that any game needs to be considered a sequel. Think about what you wrote. If these are not changed, then you are literally buying Destiny 1 again:

An entirely new story
Improved Graphics
4 entirely new locations
A slew of new strikes
A slew of new MP maps
Entirely new loot

If the game didn't have new loot, areas, and maps, it wouldn't be a new game.

Next are Quality of Life improvements that other games have typically either had at launch or added through QoL patching:

A reworking of game currency
LFG systems and Guilds
Improvements to how activities can be launched

People have been asking for these literally since the launch of Destiny. Everyone is very pleased that they are being introduced, but again, it doesn't feel like a sequel was entirely necessary for these to exist.

The remaining items listed:

A complete rework of at least 3 sub classes
A complete rework of the weapon loadout
A reworking of multiplayer across the board
Friendly AI characters during gameplay
At least 3 new weapon archetypes

Sound pretty good, but: I watched the same stream you did, and I think you might be overstating these a bit. You could easily call it a "change" of the weapon loadout, not a complete rework (you still carry 3 weapons, have 3 ammo types, etc). I didn't play enough PvP to know if its a complete rework, so I won't comment there.

I don't think it was unrealistic for people to have hoped for more, or even more info (like, how large are the new planets? etc), given what most sequels (including Bungie sequels) have done in the past.

I remain hopeful, as I am sure all Destiny fans do, but don't assume we are weird or entitled for thinking Bungie could have done more. (Hope this doesn't come across as snippy - thank you for your detailed post, I think it makes a good starting point for a discussion!)
 

Shredderi

Member
The first bullet point you listed was "a rework of subclasses." Not exactly a barnstormer of a headline, is it?

Destiny 2 looks like it will be a good sequel that corrects the many issues the first game had and builds on the good ideas it had, but I really can't blame people for feeling underwhelmed by the reveal. A huge chunk of what they showed was essentially quality of life stuff - good changes, to be sure! - and not the sort of bombshell changes some people might expect from a sequel.



Because most of these games were shown off immediately showing off their huge changes. Uncharted 2 immediately upped the ante with its graphics and story presentation. Halo 2 showed off dual wielding and added online multiplayer. Borderlands 2 addressed complaints about the blandness of the first game's setting by immediately showing off more varied environments. Mirror's Edge 2 was shown off as open world rather than linear.

Regardless of how you feel about any of the above sequels, they all leaned into their changes in presentations/marketing/etc. So far, all of Destiny 2's improvements seem incremental. That's not a knock against the game really, because there are a lot of places where incremental changes could massively improve on Destiny's good ideas, but don't pretend "subclass reworks/new strikes, the things you did all the time in the first game" are going to wow everyone out of the gate.

Well said.
 

cordy

Banned
I wonder...

If Destiny had completely new everything and everything people wanted...would people believe Bungie or would they say "they're lying like they lied before" like they did previously?

Secondly...who says that's everything they've got for D2?
 
I don't think it was unrealistic for people to have hoped for more, or even more info (like, how large are the new planets? etc)

Apparently the european deadzone is twice as large as their largest patrol map from D1 and they're adding more interesting side content to fill it, so that's a decent point of reference.
 

E-flux

Member
If you would have shown me the gameplay trailer with the new class action cut out i would have asked if it was the new expansion for destiny. From the reused animations (which is fine) to everything looking so fucking similar makes it look like an dlc to me.
 

HMD

Member
Reused enemies, reused gun archetypes, reused subclasses, reused UI. All of that without offering a new hook, something other than running "the new raid" and getting new exotics. I'm a day 0 buyer but I'm still not as excited after watching the mediocre looking PVP and the boring looking strike, especially when you consider the fact that special weapons are now classified as heavies and bosses will take for-fucking-ever to die with only primaries and the occasional heavy ammo drop. I mean if you're gonna remove special weapons then you probably need to rework the way your bullet sponge bosses work now that we can't just burst them down with snipers or shotguns.
 
Everyone was expecting AC - AC2 or Uncharted - uncharted 2. (So I was I.)

To be fair, Bungie bridged most of the AC-AC2 gap with The Taken King expansion. I don't think it's fair the expect a live service game to have the same level of improvement in a sequel that you see in a story-based single player adventure. If either Naughty Dog or Ubisoft had updated the games you mentioned with additional story content that added new systems, story, and areas you'd probably say the same thing about their sequels as well.


That being said, there's definitely more to Destiny 2 than what we've seen so far. Telling us some talking points for E3 would have gone a long way towards easing some skepticism methinks.
 

JZA

Member
I want to be excited for Destiny 2, but can we get some actual numbers and specificity instead of "a slew" of new stuff? A "slew" seems like it could 3 or 20 or 50. I think after the barebones launch of the original and all the empty dev promises, the devs should be as specific as possible talking about the sequel.
 
I want to be excited for Destiny 2, but can we get some actual numbers and specificity instead of "a slew" of new stuff? A "slew" seems like it could 3 or 20 or 50.

No one knows because the game isn't out yet and they only showed one strike, the introductory story mission, and then a whole lot of PvP stuff. So really, anyone complaining or defending the amount of content has no idea what they're talking about currently.

EDIT: Keep in mind this was definitely a reveal announcement *for current Destiny players and core fans of the game*. That's why they spent so long talking about the community, social features, and have disseminated most of their information through streamers that they invited to be part of the reveal.

There'll be a whole lot more at E3 I'm sure.
 

Brazil

Living in the shadow of Amaz
A complete rework of at least 3 sub classes
A complete rework of the weapon loadout
An entirely new story

Improved Graphics
4 entirely new locations
A slew of new strikes
A slew of new MP maps
A reworking of game currency

A reworking of multiplayer across the board
LFG systems and Guilds
Friendly AI characters during gameplay
Improvements to how activities can be launched
Entirely new loot

At least 3 new weapon archetypes
+more I'm very likely missing

All of the bolded happened within expansions and free patches during the original Destiny's lifetime (some more than once!), and the others that didn't surely don't feel big enough to warrant a numbered sequel. You're not helping your argument.

I'm not even particularly bothered by what they are offering in the sequel and I don't care about whether it ends up being a separate experience or an expansion... But it does feel closer in scope to something like The Taken King than to what I'd expect out of a complete sequel.
 

BraXzy

Member
Where was the innovation? The new features? The fresh ideas?

The core experience is great and nobody is asking for the game to switch into a MOBA, but come on, so much is iterative and QoL changes and more of what we've had in the past. Much like... a DLC drop.
 
Let's just say people wouldn't be as underwhelmed if they just called it Destiny: Season 2.

I think for casual fans and people who played Destiny but have since stopped it has to be marketed as a sequel, since the game has received four expansions and Destiny: Subtitle would create needless confusion.
 
They were a space combat mechanic away from being a full fledged sequel. I'm afraid they've been downgraded to DLC as a result.
 

Kibe

Neo Member
I wonder...

If Destiny had completely new everything and everything people wanted...would people believe Bungie or would they say "they're lying like they lied before" like they did previously?

Secondly...who says that's everything they've got for D2?

Why would they undersell their game?
 
I think for casual fans and people who played Destiny but have since stopped it has to be marketed as a sequel, since the game has received four expansions and Destiny: Subtitle would create needless confusion.

I stopped playing Destiny after The Taken King. What they have marketed as Destiny 2 has me more confused rather than a good subtitle.
 

MaKTaiL

Member
Have you seen the new strike? Hahahaha. It's basically the same boss we've been killing forever under a different name. Atheon, Nexus, etc. I think the lack of a new enemy is the major reason why this feels like an expansion instead. Taken King added the Taken and this one.... Nothing.

PS.: I played everything on Destiny 1 and I loved my time with it but I don't feel like buying Destiny 2 at all, specially now that they brought back DLCs instead of Yearly Expansions. I feel like Destiny 2 is just repeating the same mistakes from 2014 again.
 
For every valid complaint about the reveal there is at least 10 people posting about how all the complaints are just 'hating'

It's a pointless circlejerk.

At first glance, the changes Bungie have made don't feel like they are going to add up to a big enough change for me to put another 1000 hours in.

However, watching the PvP matches from yesterday do show some possible changes that may really add up. The addition of the class ability (shield, reload dash and buff aura) have the potential to really add a layer of strategy to encounters. That is the sort of change I am craving. If the changes have enough of an impact then that would feel 'sequel' to me.
 

eggandI

Banned
same looking gunplay, same enemies, same classes, nearly same graphics, same animations and exact same UI. oh and also same boring looking guns
 

emrober5

Member
If you honestly can't see how someone would form that opinion OP, then there is no convincing you.

This is the absolute bare minimum Bungie could have put into a sequel. I had issues with Destiny and thought many of the problems stemmed from it being cross-gen, but I guess I was wrong.
 

Kibe

Neo Member
It's pretty obvious the reveal event wasn't selling the game to anyone other than people who already love Destiny. It's a long road to E3, there'll be more information soon.

I don't think it's that obvious, since an entire new platform got introduced to the game, the PC players. This event was their great chance of winning a lot of fans.
 

KrebStar

Member
I feel like a small part of the problem could be with how it was presented. They kept saying things like "a brand new strike" and "a new raid", the way they would when talking about an expansion. That obviously wouldn't be enough to undersell it on its own, but it also wouldn't help if someone were already feeling that way based on the footage.
 
But it's not even in the same stratosphere as wow and at this point since the launch it hasn't tried to be. I think people are still holding on to pre-d1 launch promises that just aren't part of the vision anymore.

what's compared is not how much content is added to Destiny and WoW but how the bullet points in the OP read the same.
 

entremet

Member
Humans are intensely visual. Tons of our brain is used for visual processing. And as such superficial impressions are going to override the types of details you posted, OP.
 
I think it's more the way they talked about it on the stream than the actual game. They used a lot of phrasing you'd hear if they were talking about an expansion. "There's a new raid", things like that. This was very much a show for those who are already into Destiny though.
 

Kibe

Neo Member
Yep. E3 is less than a month away. More eyes will be on the game during that time if it'll be shown on someone's stage.

What are you guys expecting from E3 ? I honestly don't know what to look for, never played the game before.
 

Pizza

Member
I thought the original game was pretty weak overall so just giving more of that isn't exactly telling me I need to jump into the sequel.

And unless i read lies about the first game's dev cycle, this game is built off of content cut out of the first which isn't a great look imo

Scream at me if I'm wrong there please
 

nnarum

Member
Unrealistic expectations, that's why.

I think the only real expectations were 60fps, and dedicated servers.

For console especially this is a let down. They said some limitations for fps last game were that it was a cross gen game. I think that is why we are all disappointed that it's only 30 fps.
 

SpokkX

Member
Destiny 1 was way smaller than they first claimed so you would think Destiny 2 not being cross gen would actually sell their original scale of vision

Instead it doesn't look much better than the last DLC and much of it sounds like tweaks to the cross gen original in what we have learned is not much of a story appeal brand and instead is supposed to wow us with gameplay and world content to explore

Pretty much this

Going full next gen you expect new structure and real changes. Not just you can hop between plaets without going to the hub while still loading between "planets" (that are just 2x Destnys miniscule planets/areas)
 

daveo42

Banned
It looks more like an expansion that adds in QoL improvements that some thought should have been there day one.
 

geordiemp

Member
Destiny 1 was way smaller than they first claimed so you would think Destiny 2 not being cross gen would actually sell their original scale of vision

Instead it doesn't look much better than the last DLC and much of it sounds like tweaks to the cross gen original in what we have learned is not much of a story appeal brand and instead is supposed to wow us with gameplay and world content to explore

So what do you expect in a new release of a franchise, do you expect a mario kart shooter with RPG elements, or a mario kart 2D platformer....

I am confused, did P5 not look like a new p4 ? Also how big are the maps...do you actually know .....Or are you spouting nonsense....OK , Seems to me people are just trolling and talking crap

And nobody wants an empty map and go to the mountain with no enemies to fight, thats just rubbish. If you wnat to walk up an empty mountain, play Zelda.

I think the only real expectations were 60fps, and dedicated servers.

For console especially this is a let down. They said some limitations for fps last game were that it was a cross gen game. I think that is why we are all disappointed that it's only 30 fps.

With Jaguar there is no 50 enemies on map and 60 FPS happening, was never a possibility....Jaguar cant handle it, thats what next gen ZEN is for, more enemies and frame rate. PC's ill get 60 with I5 / I7 class full on CPU;s.

Dedicated servers I agree with, game should have it,
 
What's worse? The people who think it looks like an expansion pack? Or the people who can't accept that some people have a different opinion than they do?

I think it looks like an expansion pack and not a sequel. That fact will not affect your enjoyment of the game.
 

Kyne

Member
titanfall > titanfall 2 = "too many changes! you fucked it up!"
mirrors edge > mirrors edge 2 = "too many changes! you fucked it up!"

destiny > destiny 2 = "not enough changes! you fucked it up!"

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
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