I’ve probably put over 1,000 hours into Destiny 2 from the time it launched to the day I finally put it down for good about a year ago. So what I’m about to say here isn’t out of hatred for the game or anything like that. I love it, I just didn’t love how it monopolized my time at a certain point. But damn it does Bungie know to keep you in a gameplay loop.
And that’s the thing about the game; that gameplay loop is undeniable. I can’t tell you how many times I told myself “Just 10 more minutes” and it turned into 2 more hours. Fortunately, at this time, I was living alone so it only affected my sleep schedule and nothing else. But man I’d get out of one public event and see some straggling enemies, chase them down and find myself staring at a patrol. I’d do that, then remember i had some bounties attached. I’d cash those in and then pick up some more. On and on this would go and then it was 3 in the morning.
I’M TIRED OF THIS GRANDPA!
My Groundhog Day-esque life with Destiny 2 wasn’t just relegated to the tertiary tasks in the game, no sir. The main loop had me in the cobra clutch too. Waking up on a Tuesday morning just before reset to clear out whatever bounties I had left and refreshing at reset was a regular occurrence. It didn’t start there of course. Originally, I’d just fire the game up on late Tuesday or early Wednesday and start my time then. But once I really locked in with my friends and raids, strikes and nightfalls became the go to, I started playing to keep the pace. My power level had to be growing on par with theirs to stay on point in raids.
My Crucible skills (I’m surgical with that bow) stayed sharp because we always went in together, I didn’t feel the crunch there. And by the way, that gameplay clip remains to this day, the one I’m most proud of. But if you told me there was a recommended power level for something? Well then it was time to grind it out for Prime Engrams and the best possible drops.
And that’s where my time with the game got really consuming. Not in a life altering way, but I know I wasn’t playing as many games as was the norm for me. Destiny 2 became like another job. So I’d “clock in” early Tuesday and then the whole week, I’m pushing for the next level, making sure i check in with Xur on Friday. Spending the weekend on nightfalls and strikes, trying the dungeons in the game, just flat out working at it.
‘Destiny 2’ and the end of our era
I put Destiny 2 for an extended period of time back in 2020, and I was pretty good about not playing it. At some point, I just felt like the game didn’t respect my time. There was a diminishing return for the time I was putting into it. It just became a game of keep up. And I didn’t realize that until I actually stopped playing it. I remember picking it back up in 2021 and feeling like I knew exactly what I needed to do to catch myself back up.
And I did it, but the whole time I was doing it, it felt like work. And it was then that I realized that I was done with the game. I deleted it and moved on. When The Final Shape was announced, I had a brief moment of weakness. I thought “You can’t let the story go unfinished right?”. And I downloaded it to my PS5. But I never fired it back up. I just deleted it again and kept playing other games.
And I don’t miss it. The homies still play and they love it. They should, it’s an excellent game. Bungie doesn’t miss from a gameplay perspective. I enjoyed a significant part of my time with the game. But I’m good without that grind. I’m fine not feeling like I gotta keep up with Destiny 2 anymore. Because I’m telling you, I couldn’t be happier to be, as Bomani Jones would put it, “Off that narcotic”.
The post My Time With ‘Destiny 2’ and Why I Had to Put it Down appeared first on VICE.
