The hardest factor about Destiny 2 is getting any of your mates to play it. Fans of Bungie’s formidable and imaginative sci-fi shooter have lengthy hoped for a easy on-ramp that will make it simpler to get lapsed gamers and newcomers again into its universe. Destiny 2’s new “Starter Pack” would possibly sound like precisely that. Instead, it’s an expensive bundle of random objects that followers can’t cease dunking on.
Season of the Wish went dwell right this moment with an thrilling trailer and new missions revolving round gathering dragon eggs to win over an outdated enemy. But gamers additionally quietly seen a brand new DLC add-on on PSN, Xbox, and Steam that went dwell alongside the most recent replace. It’s referred to as the Destiny 2 Starter Pack, it prices $15, and it’s one of many extra ridiculous microtransactions I’ve seen. Contrary to what its identify would possibly counsel, the Starter Pack doesn’t embody any expansions, missions, or story content material. It’s only a random assortment of stuff meant to “supercharge” gamers’ arsenals. Here’s what’s included:
- Traveler’s Chosen
- Ruinous Effigy
- Sleeper Simulant
- Exotic Ship
- Exotic Sparrow
- Exotic Ghost Shell
- 125,000 Glimmer
- 50 Enhancement Cores
- 5 Enhancement Prisms
- 1 Ascendant Shard
Those first three objects are all outdated Exotic weapons which have been within the recreation since 2019 or earlier than. They are largely fantastic however solely synergize with particular builds and may all be acquired from the Tower kiosk with out an excessive amount of fuss. The ship, sparrow, and ghost shell are purely beauty and fully depending on private style. In my opinion at the very least, those within the Starter Pack are removed from a few of the recreation’s higher designs.
The supplies, in the meantime, are fairly stingy. Glimmer is Destiny 2’s most important in-game foreign money, earned by doing something and all the things. Cores, prisms, and Ascendant Shards (what gamers lovingly name “golf balls”) are for focusing engrams, rerolling gear, and crafting new objects, none of which is especially useful for brand spanking new gamers, nor very significant within the portions provided. It’s not even sufficient to absolutely masterwork a brand new piece of armor. It’s a weird array of accouterments to purchase for greater than the price of a complete season of the sport.
“I’d say that is pay to win, however actually it’s only a waste of cash,” wrote one participant on the Destiny subreddit. “Pay to lose.” Another wrote, “This is pathetic. 3 mid exotics, just a few crap cosmetics and a few supplies will not be price that a lot. An actual starter pack could be weapons and outdated DLCs.”
There are three broad obstacles to gamers getting again into Destiny 2. The first is that many of the story is now not within the recreation on account of content material vaulting. The second is that Destiny 2’s “New Light” marketing campaign stays fairly barebones and provides no actual route with end-game actions. And the third is that regardless of ostensibly being free-to-play, the entire expansions are paid and unlocking entry to all the things remains to be fairly costly. Shadowkeep, the underwhelming 2019 growth, remains to be usually $25. The Starter Pack simply provides to the noise, complicated gamers with deceptive descriptions like “Fly between locations in your new Exotic ship.” Narrator voice: Exotic ships are simply customized loading display animations.
The Starter Pack additionally comes within the context of layoffs at Bungie amid the delay of 2024’s The Final Shape growth and reported income shortfalls. At a time when the studio is seemingly determined for cash, the $15 bundle simply underlines the gulf between gamers and whoever is main Destiny 2’s monetization technique. It’s one factor to exploit whales, however as Destiny 2 gamers are mentioning, the brand new Starter Pack appears squarely geared toward benefiting from new gamers who received’t know any higher. In the phrases of one in every of them, “This is a few cellular recreation shit.”
Update 11/29/2023 6:09 p.m. ET: Bungie seems to have eliminated Destiny 2’s controvertial Starter Pack from storefornts, together with Valve’s storefront. “Notice: Destiny 2: Starter Pack is now not obtainable on the Steam retailer,” reads an replace on the Steam itemizing. PlayStation Store listings, in the meantime, return error pages.
In addition to roasting the microtransaction on social media and Reddit, some gamers had additionally tried to review-bomb the bundle and alter the Steam tags for it to issues like “psychological horror.”
