Destiny: Rising, the upcoming mobile game, highlights just how great Destiny used to be

Destiny is a franchise that’s old enough to have lived through multiple eras. There were the early days of the original Destinationwhen the game was a true grindfest. And then there is the more modern Lot 2which has taken a lot of steps to be kind to players’ time while still allowing for a bit of loot to be chased. Lot: get up – the new mobile title from NetEase Games – feels like a return to the original Destination mood. Polygon got an early look at the game, and while it’s still in closed alpha status, Lot: get up shows why Destiny first got so many players hooked, and why Rising will struggle to reach that peak.

Just to get it out of the way, Lot: get up is a gacha game. Are Genshin impact Set in the Destiny universe. There’s a campaign, strikes, bounties, a pretty fun roguelite mode, and even a raid-adjacent activity. But most importantly, there are playable characters to root for.

Collecting and improving these characters, along with their weapons, takes a lot of time. And while the grind itself can be annoying, it reminds me of the original Destination used to approximate its grind, where a few, rare items increased your power so much that they could make or break your ability to join a group of other players and complete a heist.

Lot 2 is much more generous with its loot than the original game, and Bungie is constantly releasing incredible new weapons to grind for, each adding a fraction of a percentile point to your power. This makes the grind rewarding for sick people like me, but not necessarily for even slightly more casual players.

I like this modern version of Destiny that Bungie has been chasing for the past five or six years. As a long-time player and now a dad, it’s nice to log in with my friends, clear a few dungeons a week on our lunch break, and know that I’ll walk away with the items I want relatively quickly.

But there are two wolves in me when it comes to Destiny, and one of them misses how shitty it used to be. I miss feeling like I had a real head start when I went through the difficult process of getting Black Spindle in Destinationan exotic specimen only available once every few weeks through a timed mission. I even loved the desperate pursuit of Gjallarhorn, and the power I felt once I had it. The grind was bad to boot, but it forced me to consume the game at a breakneck pace – a time I still look back on fondly. And while it’s not the same, the gacha element is Rising takes me back to that time.

Destiny activities fit the gacha elements surprisingly well, and I had a lot of fun with them Lot: get up in my five or six hours of playtime. I enjoy working a little further through the story every day, and each attempt to choose a new character is as exciting as it was during my short love affair with Genshin impact.

But it’s the loot investment that makes it real feeling like Destiny, even if it takes a different form. Sure, when I play Rising I’m looking for great roles, but I’m also investing a ton of currency in weapons and characters to make them stronger and more powerful.

As far as finances go, I feel like I could reasonably play the release version (when it officially launches) of Rising without spending a cent. I have several rare characters after logging in for several days in a row, all without purchasing anything from the store. But since players won’t be able to access the store to see prices during the alpha, it’s hard to say exactly how expensive this is Rising could be in the future.

But it’s the basic ability to fight your way through the rut that will ultimately pull me away Lot: get up. It’s a game where the characters and weapons you invest in make a huge difference, and they can be incredibly rare. Where I can show up in Haven with a fully leveled Mythic character and have all the new players stop and go oooohlike the little aliens from Toy Story. The problem is that, unlike similar moments I’ve had in Destiny, no one will ever know if my character is decked out because I’ve played thousands of hours or because I pulled out my credit card.

When I get into an attack and the sickest new character pops out and blasts through a wave of Fallen, leaving me in the dust, that power doesn’t necessarily feel earned. It won’t feel like they’re as lucky as I am if I see a new exotic raid the first weekend. It will feel like that person is having more fun because they have deeper pockets. And for a loot game like Destiny, that’s a tough pill to swallow.

That doesn’t mean everything is pay-to-win Lot: get upnor that players won’t be able to demonstrate a high level of skill or earn incredible new tools through completely free play. But it creates an itch in my head that’s impossible to ignore.

Complete the Vow of the Disciple raid on the match difficulty setting Lot 2 is one of my favorite gaming memories and achievements. And I was lucky enough to drop Lubrae’s Ruin that first night, a legendary glaive that looks absolutely wild and is the same weapon used by the heist’s villain, Rhulk. As I was getting ready for bed the night we completed the raid, I stood in the Tower with the glaive on my back, and dozens of players I didn’t know came to watch it. It’s one of my favorite memories Lot 2. But that moment cannot exist without caveats Lot: get up. Because even if I never spend a dime, even if all those little Toy Story aliens show up to ogle my cool new character, I’ll always wonder how much faster I could have made it if I had just made some money.