How Do You Like Your Destiny – With Or Without Cheese?

Those that have ever played a game know about the fine lines between taking advantage of a glitch and cheating. The lines are argumentative and subjective at best. Even new games have not gotten rid of these methods and exploits.

As Destiny continues to evolve, Bungie has taken yet another of these advantages away from players. With patch 1.0.2.2, the “cheesing” method used in the Templar fight has been removed. Instead of being able to hide out on a distant platform, players now must actually battle the boss in a fair fight.

In some way the removal of this method seems almost moot. Any given raid team should be properly coordinated enough to handle this fight straight out. With the proper strategy and teamwork any team is capable of ending this fight just as quickly, if not more so, than the cheesing method.

I’ve never gotten to fight the Templar in a proper battle because the group always defers to the “easier” method. Now that this has been removed, Bungie has forced all players to actually fight for and earn their reward – at least for this part of the Vault of Glass.

As intrepid as gamers are, there is sure to be another cheat or exploit found. Who knows, maybe a player will find a way to jump on top of the Templar and melee it to death. Maybe somebody will find that magical spot where you can be hit or attacked but can take shots at the boss until you run out of ammo.

Some may thumb their nose at Bungie for evening up the fight. I, however, commend them. Not only does it restore part of the Vault of Glass to the level of battle that it was meant to be, it also pushes the player to fight the fight and earn their reward.

Don’t get me wrong and think that I am saying that Bungie has fixed all their issues, not even with the Vault of Glass itself. There is still that pesky little exploit used to kill Atheon, the final boss, single-handedly but Bungie assures that that is also being taken care of.

As Destiny goes forward it will continue to improve. Not only was a crack in the Vault of Glass repaired this week but some weapons were balanced as well. In response to their Iron Banner event, Bungie took steps to take over the top advantages away from some weapons and enhance other weapons to make the playing field more level.

As for the rewards system…well, that still needs some work. Previous patches have helped but the random loot drops are just too random. Inside the Vault of Glass I’ve seen one player get three weapons, Ascendant materials, and two pieces of armor whilst I received a smaller amount of Ascendant materials and a shader. Tough luck for me but there is a point where players don’t feel that their reward is actually a reward but rather an insult.

Then there is still that crazy Cryptarch back at The Tower. Since a previous patch, the decrypted engrams you bring him never go down in quality but rarely go up. I’m ok with that but what really gets me is when you bring a Legendary engram for a class item and it unlocks a class item for a different class. For example, I was playing as my Titan and the Legendary chest engram unlocked a chest piece for a Hunter – a class I don’t even play. Is this Bungie’s form of jabbing you in the side to play the other classes? Well, it won’t work on me.

There will always be parts of any game that people feel are not quite right. As long as Bungie and other developers remain committed to improving their game and keeping the majority of the players happy I will be satisfied.

For the rest of you out there…how do you think Bungie has handled Destiny so far? How do you think it stacks up to other games that have struggled to fix their imperfections?

Paul Novak is a self described Polish ninja toiling away as an IT professional but more into gaming and writing. Physically existing in the west side of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania yet existentially flowing with the ether of the Internet. Found here at What’s Your Tag? and on the Twitter @dudewantshisrug. Game on with Team XBRO!