And yet, now with Trials of Osiris finally available to players to compete in each weekend, the mode has fallen under the weight of its own expectations. Top players and fans on the Destiny 2 subreddit have aired various grievances on the fan-favorite mode’s homecoming, ranging from issues that plague the game in general to Trials-specific problems. Many are wondering if the Trials of Osiris will ever be as good as the original competition from the first game.
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What Happened to Trials
Towards the end of Destiny’s life span (a month before Destiny 2’s release date), the Trials of Osiris saw its final weekend in the base game. As the highly anticipated sequel released, Trials of Osiris was eventually replaced with a similar event entitled Trials of the Nine. Trials of the Nine Though there was some interest in the mode early on, the competitive player base dropped off much faster in comparison to the original Trials. Trials of the Nine, according to game director Luke Smith, was designed not to discourage new players from taking part in endgame PvP content. Though at that point much of Destiny 2’s core issues at the time only made Trials of the Nine worse.
Many pointed to overpowered team-shotting across all of Destiny 2’s PvP modes, though Trials of the Nine accentuated the issue. There was also the issue of the mode having a rotating playlist between the Countdown and Survival modes, instead of the typical 3v3 Survival-like mode seen in Trials of Osiris. The biggest changes between Nine and Osiris were the facts that there was no level-advantages enabled in Trials of the Nine, nor were there any “Adept” weapons that were present in Trials of Osiris. Much of what made Trials of Osiris great didn’t transfer into the arguably watered-down version of the PvP activity.
Eventually Trials of the Nine, along with the presumably finished Trials of Osiris, was put on “hiatus” when the Forsaken expansion launched. Citing a low player count and dwindling interest, Bungie’s development team took the mode out entirely to re-work the endgame activity into “a fitting challenge for the hardcore warrior” in Destiny 2. From September 2018 onward, it was radio silence for Trials of any kind, up until the month or two before Season of the Worthy when there were leaks/rumors of Trials of Osiris returning. Though now that it’s here, fans may be having déjà vu after the first few weekends of the new Trials of Osiris.
The Hiatus’ Impact
For just about three years fans have wanted a proper endgame of any variety to return to Destiny 2. While things like Crucible Labs and Gambit were nice refreshers for multiplayer content, PvP still had some inconsistencies and problems that were turning away the game’s most hardcore fans. Now that the fan-favorite Trials of Osiris have returned, it seems these hardcore players that returned are finding themselves in the exact same situation as they did with Trials of the Nine. While several problems from Destiny 2 overall were solved in the three years since Trials of the Nine, many of the core issues present in both Trials and Destiny 2 altogether are killing hardcore players’ passions quickly.
Fans question what the point of the hiatus truly was, and rightfully so. Flawless rewards from Trials of Osiris in Destiny 2 just aren’t interesting enough for players to continue grinding for. There are no Adept weapon rewards for going Flawless in Trials anymore, meaning only higher-level pinnacle rewards using similar perk rolls from other pinnacle activities will come from the Lighthouse. Fundamentally the Trials of Osiris are no different compared to the Trials in the original Destiny, with very little changed in the three years in between.
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What Could Be Improved in Destiny 2’s Trials of Osiris
There is still potential for Trials of Osiris to be just as popular, or more popular, than its initial Destiny iteration. Trials in its current representation is simply not enough for the hardcore playerbase, and we could see a similar Trials of the Nine situation in the coming seasons. Obviously now, with Bungie’s ties to Activision severed and their development freedom expanded, the development team has been very receptive to feedback.
In the short-term there likely won’t be any significant changes, but overall we could see Trials of Osiris expanded into something greater. Bringing back something like Adept weapons/armor could boost interest in the mode overall, but a wider spread of changes would be hugely beneficial to Trials. The truth is Trials of Osiris in Destiny 2 is almost exactly the same as Destiny, and while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s not the renewed focus on PvP fans expected from Destiny 2’s continued development.
Destiny 2 is available now on PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
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