Yesterday, Bungie switched on the hype machine for its upcoming Destiny DLC, The House of Wolves, and did so in an unusual way. Rather than simply dropping one last trailer, they actually patched new content into the game itself as a way to lure players back into playing ahead of the launch of Wolves.
The in-game event is called "Queen's Wrath," and is a souped-up version of an old PvE event that was Bungie's (mostly failed) attempt to insert rotating story-ish content into the game. But unlike the old Queen's Wrath, the new one is probably the best thing that's been added into the game in a very long while. It possesses many of the qualities that make Destiny fun and engaging, and is the perfect lead-up to Wolves in many ways. Here's why.
It Encourages Teamwork With Strangers
I read a post the other day about how players miss Destiny's loot cave, a borderline exploit where players would sit outside a cave and pick off quickly-spawning enemies in order to farm for loot drops. It was cheap, and kind of lame, but there was something oddly satisfying about it, both in terms of the drops, but also the weird sense of community it created that was five or six strangers all shooting into a cave, simply understanding what needed to happen.
This version of Queen's Wrath, where players are tasked with killing Fallen bosses and clearing waves of enemies, has created a similar, but officially sanctioned situation where players are grouping together in public places to work together to kill things for riches. Even without headset chatter, that sense of common purpose is back.
It Makes a Useless Mode Useful
Patrol mode is one of the biggest missed opportunities in Destiny, in my opinion, a free roam mode that produces little else than one-note bounties and if you're lucky, a public event. The introduction of these Queen's Wrath bounties makes Patrol a sought-after mode of play for perhaps the first time ever. House of Wolves is also doing a lot to bolster the Crucible, and if these bounties stick around, there are a lot more viable options to acquire EXP and gear. It's not just Raid, Raid, Raid, Strikes, Strikes, Strikes anymore.
It's Rewarding
It only takes about 5-10 minutes to wait around for one of these events to spawn, and if there are others to help you, it can be completed relatively quickly. The rewards? They're pretty substantial, and already Queen's Wrath has turned into an incredibly lucrative farming opportunity. Each chest gives one guaranteed rare item, and also ammo syntheses and a hefty helping of planetary materials. It's also possible to get multiple rare engrams, legendary engrams, and House of Wolves treasure keys, which will unlock prizes in the Prison of Elders. In fact, given a glitch where you can race out of the area and come back to open the same chest multiple times (my record is four), it might actually be too rewarding, and I expect that exploit to be patched at some point in the near future. Honestly, it should be, given my inventory jammed full of engrams from only a few hours farming.
It's Mysterious
Watching the playerbase come together to unravel what exactly the new Queen's Wrath bounties were has been kind of magical. First, there were strategies on how to beat the high level enemies (before there were always clusters of five people hanging around to kill them), then players figured out that the event spawned a random chest somewhere in the area. Since then, players have worked together to compile an exact map in each location of where all the chests appear, and what exactly they can contain. And looming over all of this is the question of what happens when all six new bounties are completed in the lead-up to the launch of Wolves. It's a relatively simple activity, but an interesting one that has energized the playerbase.
It's Brilliant Marketing
This is one of the times where Destiny truly feels like a living world, and though technically Queen's Wrath is little more than promotion for $20 DLC dropping next week, it's a far more effective marketing strategy that simply spitting out new trailers and screenshots. Players are actually drawn back into playing the game and remembering why they may have liked it quite a bit before they ran out of stuff to do. It's a stroke of genius that has the potential to get veteran players amped and bring those who have departed back into the fold.
It's in moments like this when you can catch a glimpse of the true potential of Destiny as a communal, creative, changing world, even if it still has its shortcomings. I was excited for House of Wolves before, but between three livestream reveals and a game-changing patch, Bungie has really stepped up their promotional game in a way few other studios can match.
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