If you’re anything like me then you struggle with keeping promises to yourself. On a diet? Hello pizza. Saving money? But bars… The same applies to DLC in games. I always tell myself that I won’t bother but then suddenly I have the season pass and bucket loads of cosmetic items. I’m an addict and the first step is to admit that. So now you know my shame let’s talk about the one franchise that taunts me and pulls me back time and time again.
Now I do genuinely love Destiny. The style and gameplay suits me down to a T, and there aren’t many games I’m so committed to with my friends. In fact I owe a few of my friendships now to that game… So what’s my problem? The DLC… I mentioned it right at the start of this piece… Try to keep up! The original Destiny was a fun romp through the solar system with enough to keep you going for at least a few weeks, but not much more staying power than that. Strikes got repetitive and the daily grind for loot was certainly tedious. Without the right fireteam you can be forgiven for quitting and never going back. It was only the social aspect that kept me going. That and a beautiful throwing knife streak every now and then!
With the first DLC pack The Dark Below the community was promised much more replayability. New Strikes, a new raid and a ton of new guns and armour pieces. Great! Right? Wrong… Sure we got some more content as promised and it made the game much more playable but it came at a cost. A literal cost. For £17 you were rewarded with… Not much when you really think about it. In fact I remember feeling pretty cheated almost immediately after purchase. Again it was only that all of my gaming friends played that kept me coming back.
Now this has become a recurring trend in Destiny with the first 2 packs coming with little real content and a similar price tag… Then came the bigger “Story” expansions like Taken King and Rise of Iron which hit us with £35 add ons that once again seemed to add very little but a few more weapons and armour kits and a few cutscenes that added NOTHING to the overall experience.
A fair few of us hoped that this wouldn’t continue with Destiny 2 but lo and behold here we are again. Destiny 2 may have more to do in the environment than its predecessor but there still isn’t enough to keep us all playing forever. In fact it’s safe to say the grinding for loot in this game is EVEN WORSE than before! Starting with only one raid also meant the grind wasn’t even all that interesting and just hurt the experience even more so I thought to myself…”This time I won’t fall for it. No more DLC” and like I said before I was wrong. I avoided forking out for the first DLC for as long as I could but it started to sting when I realised I was losing my friends one by one to Bungie’s giant cash vacuum and eventually I would have to download. Sure the game is still playable without downloading but while your friend will be off trying the new content the best you’ll get is a shader and emblem from the new packs to tease you for NOT paying the toll.
So yes I broke and bought the first 2 DLC packs for Destiny 2. Hoping that would be enough but no sooner had I finished a run of loot farming was I surprised with the announcement of Destiny 2’s first BIG DLC, Forsaken. Straight away I balked at the hefty £35 price tag and assured myself I wasn’t going to bother… But as time goes on and the release date closes in I’m getting more and more tempted. My wallet getting slightly more open and my hand slowly writing out the holiday application form to my boss for a day off to smash through all the new content in what like… 4 hours tops?
What the hell is wrong with me…
Have you been hit by DLC scraping away at your wallet…? Let us know your stories down below in the comments!!