Dear Bungie, Before I begin my preface, I would like to express the biggest point I am trying to make in this letter to you, Bungie. Just because I am posting this letter to Reddit r/DestinyTheGame and the destiny forums does not invalidate my opinions, and neither does my young age of 18. THIS LETTER IS BASED ON MY OWN PERSONAL OPINIONS, WITH LITTLE BITS AND PIECES OF FACTS SPRINKLED IN. It should not be hard to tell which is which. Allow me to preface this letter by saying the following: I do not have any video game production. I do not work for any prestigious entertainment industry, but I am a part of the largest populous in the world: the consumers. I have been playing video games since I learned to walk, with the first one I can remember being Pokemon Gold. I have played your games ever since Halo: CE and I was always astounded by the care and detail that went into that one, and the subsequent sequels/prequels/spinoffs that followed. I know the greatness that can arise from your games and I have come to expect the same level of quality in everything we do, and I remember my hype going from the original Titanfall to the orginal Destiny in an instant while I was in middle school. Wow… five years flies by doesn’t it? With the announcement of the joint announcement of the ten-year partnership between Bungie and Activision, I felt a small sense of familiarity. I remember after Halo 3 hit the shelves that Microsoft allowed Bungie to leave its exclusivity after completing two more Halo franchised games, those being Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach, two of my favorite video games of all time. The familiarity spanned from Bungie stepping out of one contract into the next, and honestly, I was excited about it, because it meant a new universe made by the creators of my favorite games would bring new memories to my friends and I. I love the Destiny universe. That is a controversial topic, simply because the games are not what I love. I love the lore. I can fondly remember playing through strikes and PvP games while listening to lore videos on subjects such as the “Book of Sorrows” or the Ahamkara, spoken to the world by people such as My Name is Byf or Myelin Games. But, like many others, I was disappointed with the games themselves. Destiny 1 ended on a completed note. The key-word in that sentence being “ended,” because it started in what felt like pre-alpha. There was this sense of boredom after completing the mainline missions -- that had nonexistent story, mind you -- and the marketing that was done missled all of it. The game that reached my hands in September of 2014 disappointed me, and the only thing that saved it was The Taken King. So much more lore came into play here, and an actual story existed. The Taken King was executed very well, and that is where my love for the Destiny universe blossomed. The expansion after that? Well… that should have been free, in my opinion. It was very lackluster and added little in terms of new gameplay. The enemies felt the same, and the story was shorter than ever before. I didn’t care for the SIVA, because it really just felt like the Fallen. At least with TTK the Taken had more distinct features and consumed every race -- regardless of how I felt about fighting them. The Taken were just more interesting to me, and even though I loved the end of Destiny 1, I felt like the universe Bungie created was going to crash and burn. Destiny 2 should have saved this universe. Matthew Ward told IGN the following: “I hope people complain about how much story we have. That'd be the Reddit thread I'd like to read. 'Too much damn story.’” I think this was just said to sell the game more. With my first time playing Destiny 2, I loved the surface of the story, because that’s all there was. There was no deeper meaning to D2’s story, no interesting cast of characters, and no end-game, whatsoever. There were very few strikes to play, and the ones that were there felt the same as the last. There was no innovation. In Destiny 2, there were many quality of life changes, however, such as lore being in the game, being able to auto-mantle ledges, cool sound design, and a very slightly less static version of Zavala. I feel like D2’s story was just Cayde-6 being capitalized on. And to add the first layer of toppings to a cake made of cardboard, the lore may have been implemented into the game, but there was such a lack of it you might as well have scrapped it in the first place. Let’s talk end-game. Destiny 1 had more end-game in vanilla -- which is still sad, because even that was lacking -- than D2 does following the expansion 1 release, which felt like a spit in the face to people who wanted D2 to be great. If there is one thing the Infinite Forest cannot simulated, it would be an end-game. The most recent update, the “Go-fast Update,” skipped over one of the biggest complaints fans had about D2, and that’s the slow time-to-kill. How can an update with a title such as this one not speed that up, and not increase how fast your guardian runs, which is the mode of transportation used the most in the destiny universe? Let’s talk raids. When I heard that Bungie was going to implement an end-game event with the word “Raid” tied to it, I instantly thought of World of Warcraft and got excited. I was rightfully hyped, because there were 30 raids in vanilla WoW. How many were there at the end of year one? 2. I know, it’s unfair to compare those two games, because one is a MMORPG and one only has some “MMO elements.” Therefore, WoW and Destiny are too different to compare. Even so, hearing about these massive events, I was hyped to have something to do. But after you complete each raid once or twice, I felt like they got easy. They were fun at times, and King’s Fall holds my personal favorite video game memory, but after that… meh. Bungie. We all know what you are capable of. I have heard that D1 experienced problems with updates due to outdated hardware and an engine that did not suit the vision you had, but I feel like those are excuses. With that budget of $500 Million, why didn’t you upgrade to better machines, build a better engine, or just make more stuff before the first one came out? And finally, why did the sequel feel like a mere proof-of-concept for the pitch of the Destiny universe? I am not alone when I say that I want you to succeed, Bungie. But if I’m being honest with you, my wallet, and myself, I felt I had more to do in Halo: Reach than I have currently in any of the Destiny games. I have little faith with the September expansion, and none for Expansion 2 which is coming actually soon. We are nearly halfway through the 10 year contract... what will save Destiny from extinction? Sincerely, Someone who misses the old Bungie, but wants the new to succeed.