Gambit Vs Gambit Prime – Which One Should Stay In Destiny 2?

In Luke Smith’s very candid first piece about the last year of Destiny 2 he said that a decision needed to be made: do we get rid of Gambit, or Gambit Prime?

The reason Smith said that we need to decide between these two game modes and choose what he called, the Highlander of Gambit modes, is because there’s too much content in Destiny 2 right now. He went on to add that with Reckoning, the activity that extends the Gambit Prime experience, Bungie broke many of their own rules about how game encounters work, and that wasn’t something they ever want to do again. Smith said that with this year’s Annual Pass there was a lot of pressure to create new content, but with Season of the Drifter they created a sort of hole where there’s too much content and not enough Guardians playing.

We’re going to outline the best and worst bits of both Gambit modes, and give you our choice at the end.

Gambit Mode Pros And Cons

Gambit is a fun game mode that also feels fair. While playing through three rounds can feel like a chore, it also gives each team of Guardians a fair chance at winning. I’ve made a comeback after losing the initial round many times, and I always love the feeling of making it to the third round with that added pressure, but I understand that a lot of Guardians don’t.

Gambit is a great game mode because it introduced PVPVE, players fighting the environment, and each other. The invasion mechanic is amazing, empowering both teams to mess up their enemies while giving themselves an advantage. However, in this base game mode, the number of invasions gets a little tiresome, particularly when your team has summoned the Primeval and the enemy hasn’t. Your enemy team can keep jumping through the portal to put you off over and over again until they’ve summoned their Primeval. I’ve invaded just to avoid being killed sometimes, even in the crucial final stage of the round.

To be honest, ever since the Season of the Drifter, I haven’t paid too much attention to Gambit Prime. I keep coming back to Gambit, and I think I’ll always prefer this base mode just because it’s what I know. The maps are brilliant and varied enough that each match feels just a little different. There’s no need to role armour sets because everyone just gets stuck in and plays, and really that’s what it’s about.

Gambit Prime Pros And Cons

Gambit Prime is the ultimate form of Gambit, pitting teams against one another in a single, long-form match. I prefer these matches because they feel epic, and the mechanics of the Primeval fight at the end are varying enough that it keeps things interesting through the whole match.

However, there’s only one map at the moment, and that’s really boring. I also don’t enjoy how easy it is for invaders to locate you and destroy an entire team on the map. Bungie could easily offset this by adding more maps to Gambit Prime, but that will only happen if it’s chosen by the community as the Highlander Gambit mode. Honestly what might work better is keeping the original Gambit mode, and using this as a timed event mode once a season to spice things up.

Gambit Prime introduces roles, and those aren’t really something that I feel was needed for Gambit. Yes, some Guardians are better and staying away and killing enemies, while others prefer scooping up Motes, but really everyone dips in and out of every role. The armour sets feel redundant to me, and that makes Reckoning redundant in my eyes as well.

Reckoning Pros And Cons (Extension of Gambit Prime)

The Reckoning is a tough game mode that I deeply dislike. when it launched it was really hard, even for those at the required Power Level, and that was just the first tier. Following tiers are increasingly difficult, and by Bungie’s own standards they cheat Guardians in a number of ways that no other aspect of Destiny 1 or 2 do.

The mechanic for earning Gambit role-specific gear is a good system for earning loot. It’s akin to the Chalice and the Menagerie, allowing Guardians to aim for a specific type of gear. However, the armour itself is useless, in my eyes, because, as I’ve said twice now, no one really adheres to the roles.

Verdict

For us, Gambit’s base game mode is the ultimate form that should stay in Destiny 2. The only way we’d choose Gambit Prime is if the Reckoning was removed, and role based armour was replaced with different rewards. But since Reckoning and Gambit Prime are so intrinsically linked, we think they should just go.

However, we do believe that there’s a place for Gambit Prime. In a similar way to Trials of Osiris, when it existed, Gambit Prime should occur once a week, from Friday to Tuesday. Guardians who take part will use the unique reward system in Gambit Prime and Reckoning to earn powerful gear and weapons that aren’t just specific to Gambit game modes.

This way Gambit Prime and Reckoning would become endgame activities, something that only those who are at their peak in Destiny 2, and want a true challenge in the endgame, will play. I think Bungie could have a lot of fun changing the themes of the game modes, introducing new storylines with the Drifter, and ultimately award gear and weapons that are styled after The Nine. We say this because of the Drifter’s affiliation with this group, and the fact that Reckoning is pretty closely related to them too.

Let us know what you think in the comments. Should it be Gambit, or Gambit Prime that stays moving forward in year 3 of Destiny 2?

Image Source: Forbes