SPEAKING WITH A FREE TO PLAY GUARDIAN ABOUT THE SUNSET

It’s no secret that the transition into Beyond Light and the Season of the Hunt began with a massive wipe of the planets roster. On November 2nd, at 9:55PM Eastern, we had the opportunity to venture back into The Last City to watch the Traveler heal itself, before a bone chilling cutscene. In the clip, we watch as darkness cloaks Io, Titan, Mars, and Mercury, all the planets we knew to be leaving us come November 3. Destiny servers shut down shortly afterwards, and upon trying to log in, players were met with an equally haunting message; “The Light cannot save you. Seek us out on Europa.”

As thrilling as this event was for the plot, there was a downside to it. With this update, Destiny 2 lost most of its free-to-play content. Three campaigns, five raids (of which three were free), and four whole destinations. That leaves any players that don’t want to, or can’t afford to spend money on this game in a bit of a pickle.

I had the chance to speak with one of these players, who goes by soul_of_ra on Twitch. Here’s what he had to say about the game.

Dalton: When did you start playing Destiny? What was it that made you want to get into the game?

Soul: I started playing seriously around September of this past year, when I got a computer that could actually handle it. I tried playing it on my old computer, but it couldn't run it well. I started playing because a lot of my friends were playing it, and it was something social to do during the COVID-19 pandemic. Anything that lets me have a social life during this pandemic, I'm open to try.

D: What makes Destiny stand out to you from other games? What genre would you classify it as?

S: Genre? It's like a couple things all at once. It's an MMO, and a first-person shooter, and a looter-shooter. I think what makes them stand out to me is how they have so many ways to play the game. You've got, like, the crucible, there's story aspects, there's tons of stuff to collect. I think the movement of the game, and the way you move your character is super smooth.

D: As a free-to-play player, how did the recent sunsetting impact you? What areas of the game are most affected by the sunset, and what areas are least affected?

S: Like you mentioned, I haven't put any money into the game. At this point, most of the content is locked behind a paywall. I think there's an intro quest, but it's basically just a tutorial, so it doesn't make sense for me to do that. It removed a lot of what I was able to do in the game, so I had to adapt and find new ways to play the game. It's been a lot of exploring planets. I used to have eight or nine different places I can go, and that was basically cut in half. The least affected things are PvP activities like Crucible and Gambit, with the only differences being that some players will be coming in equipped with Stasis and exclusive weapons that I can't use. I've been having to adapt a lot lately in those sorts of activities as well.

D: Do you think it's false advertising to call Destiny 2 a free-to-play game, when so much content is locked behind a paywall?

S: At a surface level, no. You can still download the game, go everywhere, and do things on every planet without paying. I think the term free-to-play is misleading, but not necessarily false. I think "free-to-start" is a more accurate term.

D: What do you think Bungie could have done differently with the sunset for the sake of free-to-play players?

S: I think they could have made content from previous expansions like Forsaken free. There isn't a free raid since Leviathan has been removed. It doesn't necessarily have to be a complete expansion that they make free, but something. The removal of locations is big; I understand why the planets that left did so for the lore reasons, but from a free-to-play aspect it sucks a little. I've seen on social media that higher ups at Bungie are listening to FTP players and trying to find a good free solution to keep FTP players invested in the game, but feels almost a little late for that.

D: Bungie has told us that the content they've removed is bound to come back at some point. Is there any particular zone or activity you want to see come back in future seasons?

S: I'd love to see Leviathan come back. I liked the aesthetic of it, just as much as the gameplay of it. I think Calus is a super cool concept of a boss fight, but the communication aspects are awesome. You kind of have to be working as a team with all the callouts. If I had to pick one of the planets to bring back, I think Mars had the most to do in terms of activities, events, and other things. That's just my opinion though.

Special thanks to Soul for coming through for this one. Make sure to follow his Twitch channel and catch a stream sometime.