Bungie is attempting to move away from the mechanic-heavy, unforgiving nature of Destiny‘s King’s Fall raid released last year with the sandbox shooter’s Taken King expansion, the developer’s lead designer Gavin Irby has suggested in a recent interview.
Speaking to Game Informer as part of a wider article exploring Bungie’s approach to the development process of each new raid, Irby explains how the final confrontation with Oryx, along with the boss fights leading up to his throne room, remains difficult for many players even now, despite being over-levelled for the content as the mechanics remain as difficult as they were upon release.
It’s hard. It’s largely a function of what your light level is versus the raid. King’s Fall has this property of where even if you’re over-leveling the mechanics don’t get easier so it still maintains this high difficulty, which at the time we felt was a virtue because people specifically wanted it and had been asking for it.
However, with the fresh slate that a new expansion offers, Irby says that Rise of Iron‘s Wrath of the Machine will perhaps follow the same route as the Year 1 Vault of Glass and Crota’s End raids by becoming easier as a player’s Light Levels increases. “I think maybe now the community might be ready for something a little different that they can actually overlevel and get some mastery over,” says Irby. So with any luck, there won’t be a repeat in the likes of getting stuck on the final phase of Oryx for two hours straight this time around.
Destiny‘s Rise of Iron expansion launches September 20 on Xbox One and PlayStation 4.