Destiny's Vault of Glass is a hell of a good time
Destiny Raids are among the toughest challenges co-operative shooters offer. Brenna fearlessly enters the Vault of Glass. Some minor spoilers ahead.
Destiny shipped with one raid, The Vault of Glass, which was locked up for a full week after launch.
Power gamers who hit the level requirement earlier than Bungie's deadline complained a bit about this, but I think it was sensible - even with the level requirement and the lack of matchmaking, it would have been far too easy for casual players to wander in, have their arses handed to them, and rage quit to a forum where they could air their grievances. That's pretty bad PR.
By giving the game's user base one week to settle in, Bungie ensured that a significant percentage of those making an assault on the Vault of Glass when it first opened were dedicated players - people who had stuck around after finishing the story content instead of hightailing it away complaining that they'd run out of things to do. These were people who had spent time figuring out the game's obscure endgame systems, putting together decent sets of gear (a much under-appreciated aspect of Destiny's post-20 levelling system) and learning how to play their classes at a master level through high level content like Heroic Strikes.
I wasn't one of these people. I had to go to Tokyo, something I never thought I'd be complaining about. (When I booked this trip, I didn't yet know I was going to fall head over heels in love with a shooter MMO. It did not seem likely. And yet here we are.)
My clan, POP POP POP, is largely composed of pretty serious gamers; in fact, the core founding group of ten or so almost all work in or around games media. We may not have the hundreds of hours to spare that the highly dedicated managed in launch week, but we were all past level 20 in that first seven days and we've been hunting and upgrading Legendary gear most assiduously.
So this Sunday we decided to crack the Vault. I put out a call for volunteers, and two of my fellow clan leaders and I formed a roster based on the most experienced and skilled players - plus me, because it was my idea, and I'm the boss.
Even with quite a large pool of serious players to choose from - we have 33 clan members, and another 30 or so in the Facebook group that started it all who are yet to figure out Bungie.net - it wasn't easy. You really need to be at least level 27 to be much use at the end of the raid, which is a big ask, and you need decent equipment. You also need to turn up when requested, and be able to stay for however many hours it takes, and guys - have you ever tried to organise any kind of event? Human beings are unreliable as heck. I can't imagine trying to do this with strangers suddenly vanishing because they realise they don't actually have however long it's taking.
We got a crew together eventually, though, and began our assault. Our fireteam was composed of four Warlocks, a Titan (my housemate) and a Hunter (me) - not through any planning, but because we wanted the highest-level players available. Everyone had been advised to bring whatever Void weapons they could - especially fusion rifles and heavy weapons. Not everybody was able to oblige.
Eight and a half hours later, I called it. We would not be beating the final boss that night. I insisted we break for bed, with the plan to resume on the following evening, hopefully to get it done before the weekly reset wiped our checkpoint progress.
What happened during that eight and a half hours - a working day, pretty much, during which we took only a few brief breaks - was a revelation, and one of the most intense and satisfying experiences I have ever had while gaming.
I cannot imagine heading into the Vault of Glass without foreknowledge. Read as many guides as you like before you go in, I say; it will help, but even knowing exactly what needs to be done, it'll take you a while to nail the execution. Those brave souls who went in blind and just bent Bungie's puzzles to their will are genuine heroes of gaming, and everyone who follows after owes them a debt of gratitude for their 14 hour slog.
Each step of the Raid is deliberately poorly explained. If you don't have a guide on hand, you need to figure out what's going on by a sort of reverse-engineering. (Oh, the scoreboard says eight Vex sacrificed themselves? And that's bad? Does that mean the Vex are getting to a thing that they're not supposed to get to? Oh, right, I see.)
The first task your fireteam will face is to open the door to the Vault. If you are under-levelled, underprepared or under-equipped in the courage department this alone will break you. You need to split into multiple teams, each of which must stand within a very narrow circle with little to no line of sight to their opposite numbers. This circle must be held against a relentless assault of Vex enemies, including some shielded foes; if too many Vex breach the circle, you'll wipe, and you need to hold it continuously, without interruption, to open the door. Without decent Void weapons it can be a nightmare, but if you're prepared, know what you're doing and know how to manage your ammo, reloading, and supers, it's a breeze.
Next: discovering a whole new game of working together as a team.
Our fireteam had read that even opening the door was likely to destroy us, so we were kind of astonished when it only took us a couple of very quick tries. "Wait, what?" we asked each other. "Is it over? Did we succeed?"
"I don't know. I've never successfully completed this bit," one guy said.
"I think we did it. The door's open," I said.
High fives all round. On reflection, it wasn't that hard; knowing what to do, and knowing how to do it, as well as being prepared to react to problems and adjust our teams to cover weaknesses, was all it took.
Without that flexibility, trust in each other, and decent preparation though, we would have been smashed. We could not have done it if anybody had stuck their ego in the way of taking direction, or tried to hog kills, or otherwise exhibited the kind of behaviour unfortunately so often exhibited in randomly match-made multiplayer.
Our group dynamic served us well throughout the rest of the raid. I don't want to give a blow-by-blow account of what we faced; how we struggled; the time I somehow forgot how to jump for minutes on end; the solutions we employed; the loot we got and the loot some of us did not get (I muted my mic and literally screamed in rage). It went for eight and a half hours. Who has time to read that?
I keep saying eight and a half hours like a broken Furby because it is astonishing to me. I’ve sat down and played marathon games session before, of that long and much longer, but never with the same group of people for the entire time and never with such a constant state of intense concentration, challenge, and entertainment.
We had time to play it, though, and that's what got me. When one of our number left, we subbed someone in within a few minutes, and somehow this didn't alert us to the passage of time. When I called it, everyone was shocked by how much time had passed. Next time we do it, it won't take us anywhere near as long; I hear some crews have it down to 45 minutes now. But for this first try, we committed eight and a half hours.
I keep saying eight and a half hours like a broken Furby because it is astonishing to me. I've sat down and played marathon games session before, of that long and much longer, but never with the (mostly) same group of people for the entire time (if you had asked me "Brenna, do you know five people who will give you an entire day of their time?" I would have said no) and never with such a constant state of intense concentration, challenge, and entertainment.
I am hooked. Destiny's raid are amazing. Let me tell you about just one incident, from the final encounter.
By the end of the raid we had four level 28s and two level 27s, of which I was one. The gap between those levels is huge. Even with a pretty decent weapon and precision shots, I was doing bugger all damage to enemies. Meanwhile, they could one shot me. I was a liability. My fellow level 27 died significantly less times, but was also struggling to make a contribution.
"Guys, I don't think this is working," I said sadly. "I don't think I'm helping at all. I'm dragging us down. Maybe you should get someone else in, and I'll come back when I'm level 28."
The others rushed to reassure me I could do it, and we talked through the problem. In the end, we decided to swap me from my current role of minion management, which I'd volunteered for because it is significantly less difficult and stressful than the other team's, to a more active one.
In this second role, I did much better. I had the right kind of equipment to meet the challenges we were facing, and thanks to a clever tactic devised by my clanmates, my being underpowered didn't matter - but my skills, especially my excellent sense of direction and practised sharpshooting, did. I was instantly much happier, and the minion control team started doing a much better job of clearing a path for us.
As I mentioned, we didn't take down the final boss - but we figured out how to do it, and we will, given the time and practice.
I got a message from a fellow clan member. “Will have questions tomorrow,” he wrote. “It has occurred to me that I am taking Destiny too casually.”
By the end of that eight and a half hours, my fireteam was among the best-oiled machines I have seen in gaming. We learned to communicate, and to work with each other's strengths and weaknesses. We could laugh at our failures, and we were very proud of our successes.
One of my teammates livestreamed our attempt on Twitch, and part way through I got a message from a fellow clan member, who hadn't been able to make it but managed to tune in for a little while.
"Will have questions tomorrow," he wrote. "It has occurred to me that I am taking Destiny too casually."
Yeah, man. This is not a game for content locusts and the half-hearted. The best thing about Destiny, for me, is the whole other game that starts once you finish the story missions, hit the level cap, and look around thinking "what now?"
If that question leads you into Destiny's Vault of Glass - and I don't think it should necessarily - then you'll find something unlike any other shooter before it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.