When Destiny 2 drops on Sept. 8, pretty much every facet of the game will be altered, updated or tweaked in some way. That goes for the multiplayer offerings, too, where the developers said they've drawn inspiration from other popular online shooters, such as Overwatch.
During the Destiny 2 reveal event last week, I had an opportunity to sit down with PvP lead Lars Bakken in the Jet Center Los Angeles to discuss everything from the new campaign to his area of expertise, the Crucible. As Bakken puts it, Bungie wanted to polish every mode of play in Destiny 2 and, for the Crucible, that meant creating a bigger focus on teamwork and a positive community. One of the changes players will notice is that they no longer get kills and assists. Bakken said the team pulled inspiration from Overwatch in that regard, all in the name of cooperation.
We didn't want to foster a toxic community, we wanted to encourage teamwork. So we did things like, we don't call out kills and assists separately. We've taken inspiration from other games, like Overwatch, where it's a "Defeat." So if you're doing most of the damage and I do the final damage, in old Destiny, that would have been an assist for you and a kill for me. In Destiny 2, that's a defeat for both of us. We both see off to the side that we both defeated Player X. Then you don't say, 'you stole my kill.' It's now this thing where we're both working toward the same goal and we achieved it.
It's small touches like that, rather than grand, sweeping changes, that will likely set Destiny 2 apart from its predecessor. The PvP mode is one of the multiplayer activities players can use matchmaking to enter, so you never know who you might get teamed up with. Introducing these "defeats" seems like a solid way of creating a quick sense of camaraderie between players. That sense of competition between teammates no longer exists if one of you get a "kill" and the other an "assist."
Bakken explained that these types of changes, including shifting to four-player teams, were introduced to Destiny 2's PvP mode in order to keep things more focused on teamwork and more consistent across all modes. He added that the plan for the Crucible in Destiny 2 was to stick to that phrase, "easy to learn, difficult to master." Bungie wants everyone to be able to enjoy PvP modes, but they also want those modes to reward those who team up and stick around to become truly skilled in that particular arena.
So what do you think, readers? Are you excited for this change or are you just too attached to your personal KDR even when working with a team? Do these quality of life alterations seem like a good move for Destiny 2? Let us know in the comments below.
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