Photo: Ubisoft
Destiny fans are starting to gear up in earnest
for Rise of Iron, the fall DLC for the game that will be the its fourth expansion since vanilla launch back in 2014. Meanwhile, its rival
The Division’s next DLC is called…
…wait, let me Google this…
“Survival” and it comes out….just a second….
…uh, September, it looks like?
The point I’m trying to make is that while interest in
Destiny may have its ebbs and flows, there’s always some level of consistency where the playerbase gets extremely excited about a Twitch stream reveal or a Game Informer cover story, and this is magic I don’t think
The Division has captured since launch. Once upon a time, it seemed like these two games would be rivals fighting for turf, but as time marches on, it seems more like
Destiny is winning the war, and if
The Division is here to stay, it may only be as a lesser entry into the loot-shooter genre.
Why is this?
The Division originally did look like it had the potential to do real damage to
Destiny, stealing away its bored players and keeping them around with free updates and frequent DLC. But now, the long term health of
The Division seems uncertain, while
Destiny is poised for yet another annual renaissance with
Rise of Iron. So, what’s up?
Photo: Bungie
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Destiny Has Built An Audience Over Time Rather Than Lost It
Do you remember when vanilla
Destiny first came out, and everyone was more or less saying…what
is this game? It was smaller than people hoped, seemingly more shallow too, but over the months and years, Bungie worked tirelessly to improve things, and now, the current version of
Destiny is without a doubt the best version of
Destiny. I would argue (and I think most would agree) that each DLC has been better than the last, and paired with major structural changes to the game (infusion, Three of Coins, etc), the game has finally found a sort of equilibrium that feels comfortable, and sustainable.
The Division, in contrast, impressed people the most during its surprisingly engaging story campaign, but as the game updated itself, though certain issues were fixed, fundamental structural problems remained.
The Division, many months after launch,
still is plagued with loot and leveling issues, from drops to perks and everything in between. The introduction of Gearscore has arguably made the game worse, while Infusion made
Destiny better. As such, this feels like one of the reasons interests in
The Division is waning, because the game isn’t getting noticeably better in time, and in some areas, it actually feels like it’s getting worse.
“DLC” versus DLC
The Division had an edge over
Destiny in the sense that they offered a number of free updates to the game that had new activities like Incursions and HVT missions, but when it came time to actual, paid DLC to hit the market, fans have been…underwhelmed.
Underground DLC introduced randomized missions and some new guns/armor/an Incursion, but…that’s really it. Compare that to similarly priced
Destiny DLC which offers new missions, activities, a Raid, story content, items, etc. And I doubt
The Division is ever going to get
any DLC or an expansion on the scale of
The Taken King or
Rise of Iron. Its DLC is mostly about introducing new game modes (as seems to be the case with
Survival, as well), rather than adding story content or other significant additions that are all perhaps being saved for an outright sequel.
Destiny, on the other hand, keeps expanding the core game
dramatically, bringing players back every few months or so.
Photo: Massive/Bungie
Incursions Are Not Raids
A fundamental problem with
The Division is that has not found that one type of “sweet spot” activity that all players seem to love. That was supposed to be the Dark Zone which combined PvP and PvE, but obviously that didn’t really pan out, so they pivoted to Incursions. When the concept was first announced, it seemed like they might be the equivalent of
Destiny’s much-loved Raids, but at best, they’re maybe like one
portion of a Raid, and paired with odd mechanics and preposterously brutal difficulty settings at higher levels, players have not really warmed to them all that much.
Destiny players
adore raids like the Vault of Glass or King’s Fall, but can you say the same about
The Division players and Incursions, even if they’ve gotten better in time? For the most part, no, I don’t think you can.
The Division Does Not Have True PvP
One important way
Destiny has maintained player interest over time is because the game boasts a robust PvP system both for casual players and those taking it more seriously in the form of events like Iron Banner or Trials of Osiris.
The Division, meanwhile, has the ability to shoot other players in the Dark Zone, but this is not “competitive” PvP in any sense of the word. Balance is almost non-existent in
The Division’s PvP encounters, and there’s no structure to it. No objectives. It’s just a cesspool of betrayal, thievery and trolling which is technically the stated
goal of the Dark Zone, but it turns out in practice, that’s not very fun for players who want to A) just farm PvE enemies in peace or B) want a meaningful PvP experience against players who aren’t try to flee and/or troll them. At this point, it seems like it’s too late for
The Division to get anything like this, and it’s part of the reason sustaining a playerbase during “downtime” has been tough.
Photo: Ubisoft
The Division is Splitting Its Playerbase With New Content
Destiny has its infamous “PlayStation exclusive content” whenever new DLC rolls around, meaning a new map or strike or gun that only Sony players can use, but
The Division has gone a different direction. In its deal with Microsoft, it releases new DLC on Xbox a month before it comes out on PS4, effectively locking away the much larger portion of its playerbase from the new content. Rather than creating a community that can play and discuss new content together, it fractures the base and makes a huge group wait until the Xbox players are done “beta testing” the new content, as it were. This bad for both groups because PlayStation players have to wait, and Xbox players have to endure problems with DLC that are only fixed later, like in this recent case,
Underground missions were dropping only two sets of gear, making them feel fruitless.
Destiny, meanwhile, launches everything at once, and even though PS-exclusive stuff is irritating, the fans still get to celebrate the release of new content together at the same time.
Destiny Only Gets Better At The Endgame, The Division Gets Worse
After everything that’s been added to
The Division post-launch, HVTs, Underground, Incursions, etc, I
still don’t think any of that has been better than the base game where you played through story missions and cleared the map of alternate objectives. The leveling and gear curve was smooth, the difficulty was bearable, the missions were in-depth and engaging. But once you hit endgame, you simply never encounter anything that good again.
Destiny, of course, was the opposite, where the “true” game doesn’t really start until you hit max level and beat the story at least once. By making the endgame the most desirable part of the experience, they’ve allowed players to stick around indefinitely.
The Division, by contrast, has players wishing they could go back to playing new, fun story missions and getting meaningful gear upgrades again.
Destiny is not perfect and
The Division is not a total disaster, and I have split time pretty equally between both the last few months. But now that
Destiny is spooling up to release another major content expansion, it does seem like
The Division is getting left behind for all the reasons I mentioned. The game is structurally broken in ways that feel impossible to fix at this point, and new content doesn’t add as much there as it does when we see
Destiny DLC. Both series will probably endure as
The Division 2 is a sure thing, at the very least, but in terms of being a defining gaming IP of this generation, I think only
Destiny can claim that mantle at this point.