They cut D2 content, but added Vault of Glass remixed
Things have been a little roughly lately for Destiny 2, but the new Vault of Glass helped a bit.
Backing up, the egregious transmog system (which is still implemented as-is) has been universally panned. The clear intention to get players to basically buy up cosmetics has been sniffed out, amid a tiered monetization system that has both microtransactions and season passes on top of premium releases. It’s a little silly. But Destiny 2 got a win with the Vault of Glass raid, which just hit last week.
Interestingly, the Vault of Glass is actually the perfect raid to re-release for multiple reasons. It was at the height of Destiny’s hype, before more polarizing raids like Crota entered the fray; and some consider it the best raid in Destiny history even today. Today, it’s a free raid that doesn’t require the most recent expansion, which is a win.
So what changed? Not a whole lot from a macro-perspective, but a few boss fights have an interesting “Simon” memorization game now (shooting the Oracles in order). And by “interesting” I mean a nightmare to run in Vault of Glass pick up groups where everyone is on a completely different page. You know who was on the same page, though? Clan Elysium, who snagged the world first clear.
Of course, it had some classic Bungie trials and tribulations first. After joking about “funny business,” Bungie emphatically qualified their statement about teams using glitches to beat the vault; specifically the trick of “pushing raid bosses off ledges.” Hilariously enough this same type of bug existed in the original. Never change, Bungie.
Oh, and uh, there wasn’t much of a lore reason to actually go back here, and there wasn’t a concerted effort to actually do a “big deal” story tie-in. That’s sort of Bungie’s thing these days, as the web of Destiny has become far too large to spin in a cohesive manner. Still, Vault of Glass!