Does Bungie Really Care About What Their Fans Think Anymore?

Dead Space 3’s compromises were a bit more subtle , but they still resulted in a not-so-minor departure for the series. Where the first two games were horror games first and shooters second, Dead Space 3 was the opposite. It traded careful resource management and situational weapons for resource crafting and all-purpose creations. Rather than a tense experience that required its players to think on the fly, players got an occasionally startling but overall leisurely romp through an undead ice planet. Once players acquired enough resources to craft a gun with both long and short range firing modes, any semblance of genuine scares and vulnerability went right out the airlock. Supposedly, Isaac isn’t even alone for most of the game thanks to his partner, Carver, appearing out of the ether during every other cutscene. Just like with Fallout 4 and Destiny 2 Armor 3.0 2, Dead Space 3 represented a shift in genre for the sake of more mainstream appeal. The semblance of the game its fans loved was still there, but that’s all it was: a semblance. The traits that made it unique, that attracted a fanbase in the first place, those were either severely watered down or cut out entirely in the name of attracting more casual players.

Well that didn’t take long. It’s only been about a month since Destiny 2 released and it’s already struggling to hold its players’ attention. Many are focusing on loot or the sheer lack of content as the cause, but the game's real issues run a bit deeper. Having loot to grind for is all well and good, but it doesn’t amount to much when there’s not a whole lot one can actually do with it. The game’s economy has also undergone a very player-unfriendly change, one that encourages microtransactions and hoarding over fun and engagement. Even the moment-to-moment gameplay has suffered. What was once relatively fluid and fast-paced combat has become slow and laborious. As it stands, Destiny 2 meets the basic requirements necessary to be called a full and proper sequel rather than a glorified expansion, but falls into the category of unsatisfying sequel that "fixed" all of the wrong things.

Bungie has received massive amounts of criticism ever since Destiny 2 launched and they’re now poised to launch the expansion that will either make or break the game moving forward. They need Destiny 2: Warmind to be a success. They need it to convince players to come back and get invested in the game again. If neither of those things happen, then they’re going to have a hard time getting anyone to fork over more cash (probably forty dollars) for their major expansion coming this fall. Warmind might not be Destiny 2’s true final chance, but one would think that Bungie would still be doing everything it can to show gamers that they’re committed to improving the game, and that they’re eager correct the multitude of mistakes and exploitative policies that have defined its life thus far. That doesn’t seem to be the case, though. Instead of implementing an à la carte system like Fortnite or even just dialing back the cash shop to something closer to how it was in Destiny 1, they’re just adding a slightly less random loot box into the mix.

Light exploration comes to Destiny 2 thanks to Lost Sectors. These sectors are marked on various trees, boulders, walls, and other surfaces across the EDZ with the entrances hidden nearby. Once inside the sector, players will be faced with an elite unit and their entourage.

Having been mixed on Divinity games in the past, I was hesitant to jump into Larian Studios' latest game. It took only ten minutes before I realized I shouldn’t have worried as Divinity: Original Sin is one of the most hardcore RPGs in a long while. This isn’t something that holds your hand; it’s up to your own memory and thoughts to determine the outcome of specific scenarios. You also have to really enjoy detailed menu systems and walls of numeric values for each character to appreciate what kind of RPG this is. Mix in a turned based combat system similar to that of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, with dice rolls and strategic placing, and Divinity: Original Sins is an RPG of the ages.

While I didn’t mind Dragon Age II, it still was a step down from the incredible hardcore experience that was Origins. BioWare was able to meet in the middle, creating a more modern Action-RPG while maintaining an old school essence. There was no game on this list that I spent more time with than Dragon Age: Inquisition, and for good reason. It’s an RPG of the highest caliber, introducing us to Thedas like we’ve never seen it before, and some of the most affable characters to ever grace the Dragon Age fiction. There’s so much lore packed into this sixty dollar package that you’ll be engrossed in the story, not to mention the vast expansive world that has been finely crafted. The branching paths and party specific dialogue also give Inquisition an incredible amount of replay value; never before directly after finishing a game did I want to replay it an entirely different way. That’s not to mention the fights with dragons are some of the most satisfying occurrences to be found. Dragon Age: Inquisition has it all, and while I would like to see BioWare expand upon the addictive multiplayer mode, its campaign drove deep into my addictive personality.