A free-to-play version of Destiny 2 is one of Bungie’s best ideas to date. The move will no doubt introduce the game to new players, who will then continue to support the game with rabid enthusiasm… as long as they can figure out how to play it.

It’s incredible that new players have so much free content at their disposal. Developed by Bungie and published by Activision up until its recent Shadowkeep expansion, Destiny 2 may have more launch content than any other free-to-play release to date.

RELATED: Destiny 2: Shadowkeep Review Part I: The Campaign & Armor 2.0

Unfortunately, this is also its challenge as it seeks to open up its player base with New Light.

A truncated version of the Destiny storyline, the game opens with a story mission that explains how a small robot known as a Ghost found the Guardian, who is the game’s protagonist and the player’s character. This mission briefly offers an overview of the battle for the Light and what it means.

And then it just… stops.

Onboarding Challenges Cause Confusion

Theoretically, the game would immediately bring the character into the series of campaigns that laid the groundwork for lore-heavy Destiny 2 as it stands today.

But instead, the game implores the player to reach a 770 Power level in order to progress, which means immediately visiting worlds and entering Strikes and Crucible matches.

To be fair, it’s tough for any new player to jump into a game that has an active fanbase, tons of content, and lots of nuanced mechanics. Think of how tough it is to jump into a game like Warframe or Rainbow Six Siege, which both feature control mechanics that are unusual to FPS games.

But even in both of those games, the progression path is fairly straightforward. While the mechanics of each may be tough to master, both of those games give players clear objectives that are designed to help them understand how the game works as a whole.

New Light, on the other hand, is a little bit messy. The aim is to give new players immediate access to as much of the game’s free content as possible. While there are things like map indicators and markers, it’s hard to imagine that people can understand how to navigate the map if they’ve just figured out how to open it.

via: PC Gamer

And unfortunately, in Destiny 2, details like these truly matter.

Even players who have some Destiny experience can find themselves struggling to understand the New Light quest structure. And if that’s a challenge, then one can imagine how hard it might be for a brand new player to handle the game’s bounty systems, loot infusions and skill trees, among other things.

Of course, these were all things Destiny players eventually figured out. But they had years to do it, not days.

In a perfect world, a game’s onboarding experience wouldn’t need a companion guide. The reality is that people who are interested in trialing the game are unlikely to look at one, preferring instead to jump straight into the tutorial.

As it currently works, players jump right into a universe filled with activities that cloud the game’s purpose. To be fair, some would argue that the campaigns aren’t really the purpose of the game anymore, though they’re necessary to propel the story forward.

But case in point: It takes about several hours to level high enough just to unlock the Red Legion, Curse of Osiris and Warmind campaigns — the very same campaigns that give context to the game’s existence.

A Simple Fix

It has to be a challenge to playtest a game when attempting to market to a large fanbase comprised of people who all want different things. The assumption here is that players want to immediately jump into the game to figure it out for themselves. New Light seems to neglect that people are interested in the lore and the backstory, so they’re not particularly invested in things like strikes and adventures at the outset.

There’s actually a simple fix to all of this, which is to give gamers an early option as to whether they want to play through the campaigns first or jump right into exploration. For now, after the original Destiny introduction mission, the New Light Quest simply consists of reaching power level 770. This essentially means that players are on their own to grind. Naturally, this leaves them to explore the Introduction questline, which already creates two distinct quest lines to track.

Otherwise, It's A Grind

The problem is that, only hours into the game, there are numerous paths to keep track of but little understanding of why they matter in context. And that becomes a grind. While not nearly as bad as some of the game’s weapon and item grinds, there’s something unsettling about going through the motions with a mindset of, “Okay, so when do I get to the game itself?” Certainly, there are more fun introductions to the worlds than chasing Servitors around the European Dead Zone with a shotgun and a sword taking up two slots in a player’s inventory because those are the only high-powered weapons the game has given a player to work with.

It doesn’t appear as though Destiny 2’s creators originally intended this to evolve as a free-to-play game that would launch at the beginning of a major expansion. As such, veteran players can commend Destiny 2’s developers for making the most out of a tough situation. Perhaps that’s why Bungie is so heavily relying on its veteran players to explain things to the community.

via: Bungie

Overall, New Light is A Worthy Endeavor

After the initial hurdles, it seems likely that players who do manage to make it through the game’s onboarding will want to stick around. After all, the game managed to retain players even through its repetitive Curse of Osiris campaign. As to whether Bungie will be able to monetize those players, it’s hard to say. It’s not immediately obvious to them how much of the entire experience they’re missing without Forsaken. So, if the implication is that it’s just more of the same style of content available for Season 1, it’s unlikely they’ll want to shell out the cash.

Still, it’s a worthy endeavor. Bungie can hope it will attract and retain new players the way a game like Warframe does. Warframe, which is also a free-to-play game, has a dedicated community comprised of loyal fans who are willing to pay to support its development. Most of their money goes right back into making the game even better.

Ultimately, as a free-to-play game, developers should expect that the fanbase may need more handholding at the outset to get the most benefit from the game in the long run. This is where New Light falls short. However, if history is any indication, Bungie will immediately get to work on improving the experience, just as it did when so-called "vanilla Destiny" failed to meet player expectations.

3.5 Out Of 5 Stars

A copy of Destiny 2: New Light was downloaded via Steam for this review. The free-to-play game is now available for PC, Xbox One, and PS4.

Destiny 2: New Light

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