Well, that didn't take long. Looks like the standard crowd came out with their bash hammers as usual and then you had the other silly children proclaiming "I told you so". I personally took my time to go through what was made available to us to this point in time, and there's still a few more things out there worth looking at. This is another one of my lengthy posts, but please go through it if you're interested, and to be honest, I'd like it if at least a Bungie developer would read this post to get an insight into what they did right, and what they did horribly wrong. First off, let's talk about what they did that was great for this game, it's good to provide constructive criticism into problems as well as solutions made to problems to ensure the overall direction is moving in the right form. So, what did they do right? [b]1. New missions, strikes, and a Raid:[/b] Now, I'll get to quantity versus price later, but you do need to admit the addition of anything to this game was desperately needed, and I do give them props for making a strike that was longer and more challenging than the previous incarnations, and a very exciting and challenging Raid experience. [b]2. New Gear:[/b] With the DLC came some additional gear, which also looks good so far. Obviously, I cannot make a full judgement on the gear as I have yet to acquire the pieces of interest for this DLC, but the new stuff does look good, and I commend Bungie on that as well. [b]3. World Events[/b]: This was a good move, even if not directly associated with the DLC itself, adding onto the full world for everyone to use was a definite plus. [b]What they did right (TL;DR Form):[/b] The addition of new content was definitely needed for the game, and it's good that they finally got around to bringing new PvE content to the game where it was desperately needed. That's all I've got for my beliefs in what was properly done for the DLC. If the formula worked on that alone, then yes, Bungie did a good job. Unfortunately for their sakes, it does not. What's wrong with this DLC then? [b]1. The Amount of Content:[/b] Asking for $20 and providing a limited experience that uses prior areas with no new explorable maps is a big no-no. True that some of the content was there before, and we got the rest from the 2.4GB patch a while back, but that's inexcusable. This game is lacking in story, and things to do, and only giving us 2 repeatable missions, a new strike and a raid does not quantify to $20, more like $7.99 - $10. [b]2. The Raid:[/b] Is too hard. Yes this can and likely will be fixed over time, but I'm sure many of you are just as frustrated at some of the parts of the new Raid. If you all recall, this was originally supposed to be a Level 28 Raid, and what we got in the DLC would have fit perfectly for a Level 28 Raid, with the Hard Mode being Level 30. Asking for Hard Mode at 33 seems a bit too steep here, I think it should be reverted back to the 28/30-31 model. [b]3. DLC "Walls"[/b]: Many players are frustrated at the DLC content being placed in activities such as the Daily and the Weekly. From my perspective, yes I would also like to see the new content inserted into the playlist, but blocking out people who don't buy the DLC is not the way to go about things. I've been an advocate for a long time of making the Daily / Weekly activities randomized for each individual player to provide a differing experience for everyone, and pulling activities from the pool of what they own sounds like a much better approach compared to locking people out, that way they can still do the activities they like, even if they don't want to buy your DLC. [b]4. Hard Mode Lockout:[/b] I want my Necrochasm today, not in January when we can go into the Hard Mode of the raid, oh wait, maybe February because RNG does seem to hate me, and Level 33 CE is going to be hellish. If you're going to release a new raid, make the [b]full[/b] raid available on the release date. I personally would have been much more happier if you had to complete the new story missions / strike in order to unlock the raid, but I don't think we should be locked out of the full raid until January. [b]5. Still Lacking Story:[/b] This DLC did not bring us "more" as you told us it would in your previews. Yes, we all wanted more. And by more we meant more cinematics, more dialogue, and much more information on the story. We could care less about Eris and her failed adventure into Crota's Lair, we want to know more about US in general. This is something that really needs to be resolved, and soon. There's much more I could go on with in terms of what went wrong with this DLC, but those are the main points, the point being is that we were told that there would be much more new content in the first DLC, and Bungie delivered. The only problem is that they didn't deliver the amount we asked for, or anything near what we wanted from them. So, my review. Yes, these gaming magazines are getting it right. Bungie really needs to get their heads out of whatever form of conscience they are in right now, this is not going to work for them, and if they expect players to continue to drop $20 for 3 missions, a strike, and a raid, they're going to find out how quickly a game can become a ghost town. Will the die hard fans continue to support them, yes they will, but the fact of the manner is simply to put that the game itself is growing way too slowly to continue to provide for the players as they want. [b]What needs to happen?[/b] Bungie, please pay close attention to what I have to say here. I'm not going to deny that you have a great framework in place, the mechanics are rock solid, minus a few bugs and the gameplay blows most RPGs out of the water, and this game is addictively fun for players. But the fact of the manner is that your development and marketing is simply killing you here big time. I know this will be hard for you to comprehend as it seems like you're currently on some form of ego trip, but you guys seriously need to sit down and realize that you've messed up big time here. Own up to that mistake and let us know that you understand what you've done wrong here. Trust us, I understand that you guys have a hard job, but to build up a massive hype for something that is lackluster at best only breaks further the very thin fabrics of trust you have left with us. Now, I know that you have DeeJ lurking these forums to tell us "Everything is going to be all right", but we'd rather have some direct assurance from the workers themselves. Give us your insights into why you're doing something the way you're doing it. But there are two things that you guys really need to do if you want to rebuild any form of trust you've lost with this DLC. 1) It would be extremely wise, for you to come out and formally apologize for the lack of content, and honestly don't put it off, we're losing interest every day. If you really want to rebuild what you've lost, start taking the Feedback forums much more seriously, many of us have provided you with remarkable ideas, some of them would be extremely simple to add to the game, and it would change things for the better. Why don't you actually comb through there to find things that would help the game. 2) I don't give a damn what Activision says about this, but look to the example of AC Unity. Ubisoft owned up to their mistakes and rebuilt their trust by giving everyone a DLC pack for free. Even if you don't do the same, you need to give people who bought this lacking pack something to give them their money's worth. Why don't you sit down for the next 2 - 4 weeks, and create a few more story missions, or even another strike and give it to everyone who bought the DLC. That would definitely add some lasting value to the purchase and the community would be much happier. [b]Conclusion[/b]: Yes, you messed up Bungie, but it's still early enough in the game's lifetime to fix the problem. But you've got to acknowledge that you've got a problem before you can fix it. That's what I think.