This is the biggest issue with an online-only game, as it is not always up to the player when they can play. Many players fear the day when their favorite game will no longer be accessible due to the servers going offline. The "Destiny 2" community has just been informed by Bungie that their game is in need of maintenance.
For six hours, "Destiny 2" will not be playable. In North America, the offline period begins from 6 AM and ends at noon, which really is not that bad. Those from across the pond have it considerably worse, as the time period takes up most of the afternoon and early evening.
Faction Rallies
It is no coincidence the maintenance is scheduled for today, as "Destiny 2" will see its first major event on September 26th. Faction Rallies are a new gameplay feature allowing level 20 players to join one of three factions. Once someone enlists with either Dead Orbit, Future War Cult, or New Monarchy; they can participate in public events and compete in the Crucible.
As Bungie's first-person shooter is primarily about collecting equipment, these activities reward players with tokens that can be exchanged for loot. As each organization brings its own unique items to the table, this Faction Rallies update adds some much-needed variety to the basic package.
A retrospective
"Destiny 2" was only released a few weeks ago, so it seems strange to already be doing a retrospective.
As its predecessor failed to deliver on its hype, the sequel benefitted from needing to only be better than a disappointment.
Bungie fixed some of the issues with the previous game, like actually including a proper story and cutting some of the fluff in the gameplay. Despite selling quite well, Bungie's FPS saw quite a steep decline in sales compared to the original.
This does not reflect quality but suggests the company did not do enough to entice some players to give the series another try.
The gunplay was always solid and continues to be some of the best in the genre. The design of the worlds offer some variety but are not really anything groundbreaking. The story received quite a lot of praise prior to "Destiny 2's" release, but all the developer really needed to do was make it better than nothing.
The six-hour downtime is likely to annoy a lot of people, but it needs to be done. All games, especially ones this huge, require maintenance and updates to function. As long as the game comes out better than it originally was, then the wait is worth it.
