Whatever one might think about Destiny 2‘s new Episode, Revenant, Bungie certainly delivered an interesting new narrative beat. There’s plenty of stuff to do beyond the compressed main “quest”, and the new Vesper’s Host dungeon is fun, too. If you’re not playing it solo, that is.
It would seem that Vesper’s Host suffers from at least some of the same problems that have been popping up in Bungie’s dungeons ever since Ghosts of the Deep launched. Notably, Bungie has once again chosen to turn the dungeon’s boss fights into grindy ordeals thanks to their massively inflated health pools. When you’ve got two more pals jumping around the place, this isn’t such a huge deal, but going at it solo is a wholly different beast. According to the community, Vesper’s Host isn’t going to be popular in this respect.
Vesper’s Host is fun with a full fireteam, but a punishing mess solo
Don’t get me wrong: there are plenty of reasons to play Vesper’s Host right now. The armor is pretty darn great, the guns are fancy and useful, and the featured Exotic is none other than the original Destiny‘s Ice Breaker! Attempting it solo may be a punishing ordeal, however, according to long-time players.
Vesper’s Host mechanics aren’t that much different from the kind of stuff you’d expect out of a Destiny 2 dungeon by now. In due time, it’s going to be entirely possible to get through the majority of the dungeon while chasing the revered solo flawless completion, but the final boss fight will be a trudge. That fight alone might take upwards of 30 minutes for a perfect completion, from what I’ve been seeing. Personally, I haven’t even reached that encounter solo yet, and my experience with it in a fireteam confirms what other members of the community have been saying.
The thing about the final boss fight in Vesper’s Host is that you cannot play it slow due to the wipe mechanic, and you cannot go at it quickly due to its difficulty. Most other final Dungeon encounters make it so you can grind the boss down over a longer period of time if it has plenty of health.
Alternatively, if there’s a hard wipe mechanic in place, the boss won’t have a massive health pool to begin with. Destiny 2’s Vesper’s Host takes both of these features and goes wild with them, ensuring that solo players, in particular, are punished for their efforts.
Obviously, Destiny 2‘s dungeons are designed first and foremost to be played in three-person fireteams. That’s all fine and all, and having Vesper’s Host balanced around a trio of players is perfectly fair. However, the fact remains that Bungie has certainly been pushing solo and solo flawless completions over the past few years, and I honestly can’t see the issue in dropping the health pool of the final boss fight down a tad.
Warlord’s Ruin was a solid showpiece after the mess that was Ghosts of the Deep, and I’m sorry to see Vesper’s Host going back down the tedium pipeline. Let’s see if Bungie reacts.
