Destiny: Trials of Osiris Returns With No Radar
By Anthony Taormina 05 November 2016
Despite strong complaints from some members of the Destiny community, Trials of Osiris returns with no radar and no revives for the second weekend of Festival of the Lost.
Despite strong opposition from some vocal members of the Destiny community, Bungie has decided to stick to its plan for “Spooky” Trials of Osiris during the Festival of the Lost Halloween event. That means this weekend’s matches will yet again feature no radar and no revives, as well as a randomized spider shadow and shrieking noise throughout.
The Trials of Osiris map for this weekend is Anomaly, one of the lesser-used Crucible maps for Trials. Why exactly Anomaly doesn’t get as much love as other Destiny maps like Burning Shrine is unclear, and unfortunately those who enjoy it as a Trials of Osiris option have to also deal with the lack of a radar and revives, as well as random jump scares.
Interestingly enough, it’s the lack of radar and revives that has spurred a lot of discussion within the Destiny community. While some think that the changes add a fun new dynamic to Trials of Osiris, others feel it completely ruins the experience. Personally, it’s easy to see both sides of the coin, but having two weeks of something different is never bad, even if the experiment doesn’t work out in the end.
Without radar and revives, Trials of Osiris becomes less about giving one team an advantage. It’s much easier to win a 1v3 if the player knows that even just one kill can shift things in their favor. No longer is there the concern over the other two players camping the revive and essentially rendering the solo player’s efforts worthless.
On the flip side, Destiny doesn’t have enough audio cues to make no radar as viable as in other games. Without audible footsteps, there is an overabundance of opponents appearing out of nowhere, and with extremely strong shotguns there is really no way to react. Not to mention, plenty of teams can simply camp in corners and surprise players, which is never a fun way to play. Perhaps with an objective things would be different, but the Elimination mode doesn’t force any real movement or strategy.
No matter how players might feel about Trials of Osiris during Festival of the Lost it doesn’t appear as though Bungie is making any of these changes permanent. The feedback has certainly given the developers some things to chew on, but right now there are bigger lessons to be learned from FotL. We will see if any of those changes, like a move away from microtransactions, are present when Sparrow Racing League returns in December.
Destiny: Rise of Iron is out now for PS4 and Xbox One.
