Broken Valentines
When Bungie announced the Crimson Days event for Destiny, my heart sunk a bit. I mean the notion is nice, but really, we all know that the Tower makeover is basically just an excuse to sell more microtransactions.
“But you can pay for the [insert popular meme here] Drake Dance.” Should I just…uninstall it now, or?
Readers have asked when I plan on hanging up Destiny, and I think that time is this week. Nearly all of my raiding group wasn’t feeling up to playing, and some, after dabbling in Crimson Days, quit in disgust. Yes, I’m being dramatic — this is a video game about shooting various aliens with little to no in-game backstories (why didn’t they take David Cross’ material!)– but that’s just the reality. Destiny is a very good game that’s just handled poorly. Let’s take a look at what Crimson Days entails.
The Tower is decorated with cute Valentine imagery, which is fun for a few minutes until you realize that it’s not nearly as in-depth as the previous Festival of the Lost event, despite twice the hype and buildup. Then there’s two free basic-level emotes, and a handful of limited edition™ premium ones you can net for roughly $5. The cherry on top is a PVP mode called “Crimson Doubles,” which pits two Guardians against another team of two, and then powers-up one member if the other dies (which is not actually beneficial if you play Bladedancer because it ruins your invisible effect — oops!).
Okay, great! So how long does the fun last? Around 30 minutes. That’s mostly because Crimson Doubles feels like a repackaged mode that’s existed since the game’s launch. After 15 or so games I have yet to see a Ghost (much less a 320 Ghost), which is the sole draw of the event for hardcore players. If Doubles were more fun, I’d be inclined to play it a bit to get my elusive Ghost, but since I’d likely have to grind it out for days on end to even see a viable drop,I’m just going to Jerry Seinfeld my way out of the situation now.
Even casual fans have been noting how much of a letdown Crimson Doubles is, because regular old Crucible gear is interspersed with the rewards. It’s kind of like spending your afternoon doing Nightfalls at a Light Level of 315 to get a set of 305 Ghosts. This albeit limited survey suggests that getting a 320 Ghost is subject to a less than 1/500 chance.
The kicker? There’s no matchmaking. Wait, what? Yep, due to some technical reason beyond Bungie’s control, there is no matchmaking for this two-person, opposite of “massive” event (for those of you who insist the game is an MMO for some reason, despite the largest activity only supporting six players). Because the community is so great, and so passionate, they actually did a lot of Bungie’s work for them and created their own fun Tinder-like matchmaking system. Like all of the good matchmaking platforms (DestinyLFG, /r/fireteams), they are unofficial.
To add insult to injury, the slightly different Ghosts and the reskinned PVP event is only available for one week. After that, it’s back to thinking about how you want to break up with the game. Did Bungie not make enough money to fund real DLC yet? AAA development really isn’t sustainable if that’s true, and the “10-year plan” for the series is looking rather bleak unless big changes happen on top.
It’s crazy when you remember how much momentum Taken King had just a few months back.
