Gambit has had a long and contentious history since it came to Destiny 2 with the Forsaken expansion in 2018. While initially praised, the lack of attention from Bungie regarding the mode has left a sour taste in many Destiny 2 players' mouths.
As such, many players have taken to the Bungie forums and various Destiny subreddits to voice their concerns, criticisms, and postulate with one another on how best to "save" the mode. Because it's clear that if Bungie doesn't do something drastic with the mode sooner rather than later, players might abandon it outright outside of the weekly engram drop. For a mode as unique as Gambit, in a game in need of more regular content like Destiny 2, that would be a shame.
The History of Gambit
Gambit made its debut with the release of Forsaken and the appearance of the Drifter. In it, two teams of four compete against one another to slay enemies, bank the motes dropped from the slain enemies, and race to summon their boss first. The first team to summon and defeat their boss wins the round with two out of three rounds winning the match. Initially, it was a tremendous success and the community praised its addition to Destiny 2.
With Season of the Drifter, Gambit got two more modes added. Gambit Prime was a single-round and more intense version of the original game mode. Gambit Prime made use of roles in the mode and players could focus on being things like the Invader, Reaper, Collector, and Sentry. By collecting the gear for each set, the perks for each role were enhanced. The idea was great in concept, but the grind involved for not only acquiring the armor, but leveling it up, was tedious.
The Reckoning was also added and proved to be the game's toughest challenge. At the time, several of the new subclasses like the warlock's Well of Radiance were "broken" and the encounters in the Reckoning were intentionally designed to be nigh impossible without exploiting these abilities. This turned off a lot of players, as the Reckoning was required for completing armor sets and progressing certain quests. The Reckoning's difficulty was eventually tuned, but the damage to the community had been done.
How To Improve Gambit
One of the bigger complaints from players is going against premade teams that are likely communicating with one another in voice chat and have played together before. This offers a synergy among the different "roles" in Gambit and makes them more effective, especially when playing against a group that was put together via the matchmaking system. A solo queue option could be added much like the one that was implemented in Trials of Osiris and Iron Banner. This would allow players a more even playing ground, as they would be paired against other solo players.
Like Strikes or Crucible in Destiny 2, the selection for maps in Gambit has been lackluster after the initial batch was released. Gambit hasn't seen a new map since the Joker's Wild season was released in June 2019. That's two and a half years of nothing new at the time of this writing. While a new map every season would be too much to ask, it's not unreasonable to ask for a new map or two annually. This alone would go a long way in keeping the mode feeling fresh.
Some matches of Gambit are a breeze and players will shred through enemies like tissue paper. Then the very next match will see those same enemies hitting like a freight train and shrugging off bullets. It's a very inconsistent system that can lead to a lot of aggravation. Setting enemies on both sides at the same amount of health and damage potential not only keeps the matches fair, but lowers overall player frustration.
Gambit has a unique problem with snowballing when the PvP aspect is introduced. Having a player at a higher light level constantly invading when the opposing team doesn't have their primeval up only makes the situation exponentially worse. Rather, once a team has their primeval summoned, they should no longer be able to invade until the opposing team also has their primeval summoned. This will give the other team a chance to catch up and keep matches from becoming a complete blowout.
With the release of any new exotic heavy weapon, the Gambit meta seems to swing immediately to favor it. In fact, it is the dominance of weapons like Sleeper Simulant in Gambit that invariably leads to them being nerfed by Bungie. Rather than let players carry in whatever weapon they like, Gambit should utilize a curated set of weapons. This can either be weapons that already exist and put into a fixed seasonal rotation, or a set that has been built from scratch just for Gambit. Either way, Bungie can adjust the meta without worrying about any buffs or nerfs impacting the weapons outside of Gambit.
Much like Strikes and Crucible, the rewards for Gambit are long overdue for an overhaul. This doesn't mean making the same set of armor with different shaders like Bungie recently attempted. There should be seasonal rewards to chase that are reset and refreshed each season. This will give players more incentive to continue the grind and seek out armor and weapons specifically tailored to Gambit. Bungie already had a system like this in place with the Gambit Prime sets.
These are merely suggestions, but ones that could go a long way in revitalizing the game mode. As it stands, Gambit is a stagnant "chore" that a very vocal part of the community doesn't enjoy playing. From a lack of support from Bungie, to the way PvP is implemented, there is good reason players are upset or disappointed with Gambit. Players can only hope that with enough time and pressure from the community that Bungie finally does something more with the mode.
Destiny 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.