Gambit is one of Destiny 2's core game modes. It was introduced with the Forsaken expansion in 2018, and players were quickly forced to accept that it would become an essential part of daily Destiny 2 life. Along with Strikes and Crucible, Gambit became an essential part of leveling up in Destiny 2, making it unavoidable for anyone looking to keep pace with the ever moving limits of the shooter-MMO-rpg cross. Being a fairly unique game mode - a hybrid of PvE and PvP content where players defeat waves of enemies as quickly as possible whilst avoiding intermittent "invasions" from the opposing teams players - the response was fairly positive at first.
Eventually, though, the cracks in the armor started to show, and nearly four years later, the Gambit game mode is basically dead in the water. In fact, most long time players and streamers spending less than 5% of their yearly Destiny 2 playtime in the Drifter's weird PvPvE mashup - stats courtesy of Bungie's "Your Destiny year in review email". With the stats being so low, gamers may be wondering what exactly is wrong with Gambit. The problems are numerous and slightly complicated, so it is worth taking a close look at the mode and its current issues.
Gambit's Repetitive Gameplay
At its best, Destiny 2 makes players feel like superheroes, constantly combining various powers with guns and intrinsic abilities to mow through hordes of enemies like hot knives going through butter. But at it's worst, it's a repetitive exercise where the exact same proven combinations are used time and time again, with almost no variation in terms of gameplay. Gambit brings out the worst in Destiny. It's a complicated thing, analyzing gameplay mechanics, but the gist of it is that every Gambit game is, pretty much, exactly the same. To that end, the same tactics work best in every game. Players almost never need to adapt to changing circumstances or encounters, with the exceptions being PvP-related.
Sure, when the opposing team invades the game in the middle of an intense firefight, players need to change tier strategy up ever so slightly. Usually, though, if an invader is particularly skilled at killing other players, there's not an awful lot that can be done about it. If invaders want to eliminate an entire Gambit team and set them back, then they will, regardless of other players' input. This comes back to the idea that it's very hard to change up a gameplay style in Gambit and still get results, meaning that the optimal - and only - way to play properly is by using the best tactics.
Things Die Too Quickly in Gambit
Although the enemies players fight in Gambit have adjusted health values to make the games a little less frantic, the fact is that things die way too quickly. Rushing through hordes of enemies as quickly as possible sounds great, and for about five games, it is. However, once the novelty has worn off, players start to zone out and stop paying attention to what they're doing, which adds to the monotony of the situation. Bungie's solution to this longstanding issue has been to add walls to the combat, such as having hobgoblins use invincibility shields as abilities to slow players down, regular mobs are not the issue. Instead, the problem is that Gambit's bosses are notoriously flimsy.
While in theory it sounds like fun to smash through a wave of bad guys before melting a boss as quickly as possible, in practice it leads to all kinds of issues. For starters, it feeds into the previous gripe with Gambit, in that if players are not using the optimal weapon and ability setup, they simply cannot keep up with the breakneck speed of the opposing team - who definitely will be using those setups. So what is supposed to feel like a race against time, fighting through Destiny 2's iconic enemies, ends up feeling like a lost cause if gamers make even the smallest mistake in their hyper-optimized slaying route. The fact that enemies die so quickly means that the skill ceiling is incredibly low, leading to a situation where players either perform at the absolute highest level at all times, or just accept that they're going to lose the game from the start.
Gambit Has Always Been The Same
Aside from small, almost meaningless changes, the Gambit game mode has pretty much remained exactly the same since it's launch - although some more significant changes will be coming in The Witch Queen expansion. Bungie has time and time again attempted to mess with the Gambit format to increase engagement, but while these changes seemed promising when announced, a short stint in the game mode regularly reveals that it's suffering from exactly the same issues. To reiterate, it isn't for a lack of trying - Bungie has repeatedly attempted in earnest to make positive changes, but without drastically messing with the core concept of the game mode, it is unclear whether it'll make any real difference.
Gambit has always been Destiny 2 players' least favorite game mode, through all the changes and improvements, and it's getting to the point now where it's hard to see how that could be changed. All these issues seem unavoidable at this point, and that is without highlighting team balancing issues or problematic seasonal mods.
Some of the problems will be addressed in The Witch Queen expansion, which, among other things, will add a Freelance playlist to Gambit, meaning that solo players will no longer have to go against full teams of four (losing almost before the game has even started). Truth be told though, this just seems like a Band-Aid over a deep wound, as the real issues Destiny 2 players have with the Gambit game mode are with the core concept.
Bungie wants players to race against another team every game, but the truth of the matter is that racing to be the first to destroy a wave of bad guys just isn't fun. It might seem entertaining, for a short while, but in a game like Destiny 2 that has so many moving parts and separate components to consider, something as simple as "just killing mobs" can be affected by thousands of factors every single season. Taking into account all of Destiny 2's insanely overpowered weapons and skills is almost impossible - especially when they themselves are changing on a regular basis. Maybe it's just one of those things players have to accept; Gambit is not exciting, and probably never will be.
Destiny 2: The Witch Queen releases on February 22 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
