Destiny 2’s new “loop” format seems like an additional Timegating feature at the moment

“We’re halfway through the second week of the new Destiny 2 game.”episode“, heading into the third week. So far, I’ve seen… almost nothing to distinguish it from the seasonal form. There was an extra scene at the beginning, but maybe that was more related to the final form, but elsewhere? Everything seems identical.

Well, actually, it seems that looking ahead essentially doubles as seasonal time. Some fans had hoped this would do the opposite, ditching the nature of weekly quests and story in favor of three “acts” that you could play at your leisure. That’s not how it works. It’s the same weekly rhythm as before, where you take 4-5 steps in the seasonal story to move forward, and then you wait.

Now there are new ways to tell time, other than just telling stories. we’ve got:

• More weapons are being added to existing episode sets that will not be unlocked until future shows.
• A timed battle pass with rewards that cannot be earned until you start other actions.
• The above includes things like timing the Red Death catalyst for a future Battle Pass stage that can’t be won for weeks.
• New benefits have been unlocked for the artifacts which will override the existing ones but again, it’s something you have to wait for rather than the artifact being more fun up front.

I get it, it’s a fine line between keeping players engaged and not letting them get too frustrated by the ready-made waiting story or locked items. Even outside of the timing, I think players were hoping for a bigger change in seasons than just…longer seasons. Same format, same HELM home base, same everything.

We could all be proven wrong here and the concept could evolve over the course of the current Echoes episode, but also into the future. Specifically, we have to remember that Echoes is something that was developed entirely alongside The Final Shape where 95% of the resources were going, so it makes sense for the second two episodes to be larger and significantly more different. It seems that way, at least, plus I think I’d be more engaged with a non-Vex-based story, given what I’m seeing of this so far.

As it stands…well, I’ll keep playing, because that’s me. But I think fans were hoping for something a little more different and less reliant on constant or even increased timing than we’ve seen so far.

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