Gambit Prime, so hot right now, Gambit Prime. In the infant phase of Destiny 2’s Season of the Drifter, just a few days in, most of the focus has been on the new competitive version of everyone’s favorite PvEvP activity.
The Reckoning, a new PvE experience also added the other day, is tied to getting gear for Gambit Prime, so it’s easy write it off as side-thing. I mean, it kind of is, but it’s also a fairly unique four-man activity that is fast and fun.
It also helps take a little bit of the load off of Gambit Prime’s shoulder, varying things up a little bit until some of the other PvE content trickles out.
That said, it’s only ever all those things when you’re actually able to get a functioning lobby going.
The Reckoning takes place in Unknown Space, a cosmic and fantastical desert with a sense of emptiness that I can’t wait to see more of.
It certainly feels that way too when you get thrown into a Reckoning lobby on your own, the timer already half way down, with 0% dominance progress and two dead teammates waiting to respawn.
It’s a scenario that happens way too often. I’ve played quite a bit of Reckoning the past few days to try and get a feel for it, and the Gambit Prime armor that drops from it, and I have literally not spawned in from the beginning with a team of randoms since the very first time I tried it on hour one.
The Reckoning is a rare (first ever?) four-man PvE-only activity. It has a similar vibe to the Black Armory forges, where the goal is to kill stuff really fast, but instead of scrambling to throw charges, the key is just to keep killing non-stop until a counter (Dominance) is high enough.
Unlike the Forges though, it’s designed to be repeated, as you’re not kicked out after completion. You can grind out all the synths you have in one sitting if you wanted to.
With that in mind, it seems pretty obvious that The Reckoning was designed for you to bring your Gambit Prime team in for a little break from primeval hunting to make use of all the armor synths you’ve collected. And, after you’re all finished with that, hop back into Gambit Prime. Sounds like a nice Saturday afternoon with your clan for sure.
The issue is there are probably many more people not playing in pre-made parties. These players are often being thrown into the remnants of groups that have split up.
Just because you want to do eight synths, the other person in your group might just want to do one, or four, and is going to bail when they are good.
It’s a cycle of people dropping in and out. The average player trying to do it solo or with another person while waiting for new people to join are getting slaughtered, and when someone does arrive and see a half-done timer and two dead people, their first instinct is to say “screw this” and re-queue, leaving everyone involved frustrated.
When you’re loaded, it’s described as a Public Event, but unlike most other Public Events where you can at least leave and go do something else easily if it’s a mess, or camp the spawn of one about to start up.
The Reckoning kind of just drops you right into the middle of pit of despair so often and even if you decide to wait it out to restart it, there’s no promise that the other people will.
I appreciate that Bungie actually added matchmaking for The Reckoning, like they did the Black Armory forges. It’s a trend they should definitely continue.
And I also respect the vision I’m assuming they have of Gambit Prime teams jumping in together to bang one after the other out without having to load in after each one. But I’m sorry, it’s just not working out.
The Reckoning is noticeably shorter than Forge runs, so it might be a little annoying for it to end after one run, and have to load it up again for another synth. That’s still preferable though to the alternative of going lobby hopping three, four, five times trying to find a group that is just starting out, or at least isn’t a total dumpster fire.
If The Reckoning is going to get harder with higher tiers, this problem is only going to get more pronounced. Let’s nip this in the bud now then, please Bungie?
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