An early criticism of Destiny 2 when the game launched in September 2017 was about the new subclass trees with fans of the first game calling it an oversimplification of the original game's leveling options. It was one of many complaints leveled at the game early on which led to an overall accusation that Bungie made the game more for the casual player rather than for hardcore fans.

For the past two years, the feeling has not changed much about Destiny 2's subclass trees, which consist of four locked-in perks. While much of the game has become more complex over the past two years, nothing has been done regarding making the perk selection of the subclasses more robust. Unfortunately, any fans hoping that this fall's Shadowkeep would finally change that will still be left waiting.

According to Destiny franchise director Luke Smith, who spoke to Polygon, the criticism has been heard, but the developers decided to focus their efforts on the new Armor 2.0 system coming this fall instead of redesigning the subclasses:

“We talked a lot about the subclass trees. We have certainly heard feedback throughout Destiny 2’s life cycle about those things. Honestly, not doing anything this fall.”

This may also be a sign of the new reality of Destiny 2 after Bungie split from Activision and lost additional Activision studios contributing to the game. Bungie has already shown it has had to make some sacrifices by going fully independent, such as not fixing the problem with Lord of Wolves more quickly, in order to avoid making its developers experience crunch. More than ever, it appears that Bungie is being strategic into where exactly it puts work into the game.

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Considering this and the content Bungie will need to develop for Year 3, plus a future that is unknown to players at this point, it is entirely possible that the return of more subclass options will never make it into Destiny 2. If Bungie decides to release a full-fledged Destiny 3 after this next year, it could be possible that players will not see deeper subclass customization until the third game. The good news is that Bungie is leaning into the MMO and RPG side of Destiny, so it is likely that more customization options will return to the franchise eventually.

Destiny 2 is out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, with a Stadia version also in development.

Source: Polygon