Destiny Surprises Fans with an Unexpected Trials Map
By Weston Albert 10 November 2016
Fans are tackling Destiny‘s weekly endgame PvP playlist, Trials of Osiris, in a slightly new way this week after being thrown into a rather unorthodox map for the mode.
How to describe Destiny‘s Trials of Osiris game mode? An intense, focused winners-take-all PvP playlist that weans out the weakest of Guardians. Lately, it has been dominated by shotguns, especially in the last two weeks of Spooky Trials. Fans have been crying out and complaining about the abundance of shotguns and constant close-quarters combat.
And it seems, as a reaction, Destiny‘s developer Bungie has flipped the switch to the other extreme. Trials of Osiris this week is on First Light, a huge moon map usually reserved for Destiny‘s vehicle-centric playlist Combined Arms.
Shotguns will do very little good here with the map’s long sightlines and huge field of play. Closing the gap will be hard for those who are used to the style of play in most of Destiny‘s maps, which are generally small and lend themselves to weapons like pulse rifles, hand cannons, and shotguns. First Light will likely be all about scout rifles and snipers.
First Light was the first map fans played on back in the Destiny Alpha and Beta. It was an example of Bungie’s history with Halo: big team battles with plenty of vehicle play. But with the launch of vanilla Destiny, fans never really took to the map or the vehicles. The Combined Arms playlist disappeared from the Director and First Light with it. The map has gone through periods of being completely taken out of the matchmaking options, to being put in with a lower chance of appearing, to being relegated to certain playlists.
This choice should dramatically change up fans’ normal loadouts. Hand cannons can no longer reach long distances and shotguns will only be effective for players who can lure their enemy into the map’s buildings, so staying hidden and sniping off the opposition will likely be the name of the game.
The change of pace seems to be a mixed bag of reactions with fans. Some are enjoying the map, its size, and presence of vehicles being a bit ridiculous in all the right ways:
Oh my gosh Trials on First Light is... hilarious! This is a blast! @_mantis_
— True Vanguard (@TheTrueVanguard) November 11, 2016
But others are feeling the slow pace and size tedious on this giant map, that at times can be big even for a 6v6 gametype:
@Bones_CR I appreciate that, but First light was removed from 6s for a reason. It's slow and tedious. The issue is compounded in trials.— Aaron Kent (@Raider_1987) November 11, 2016
It will be interesting to see if the number of players who are able to get to the Lighthouse changes at all, or how the map affects the skill gap between the best and more average players.
Iron Banner is also active in Destiny, and will run until reset on Tuesday.
Destiny: Rise of Iron is available now on Xbox One and PS4.
