The inconsistency that is showcased in the raid make me question Bungie’s direction for all of their coop plans that ask for more than a single fireteam’s number of players.

Missions in Destiny are filled with cryptic narration that doesn’t necessarily explain the procedure to complete the current objective, but they attempt to give you context by throwing foreign terminology next to obvious direction. “The Fallen from the House of Winter is wanted by the Queen per a bounty. Let’s get them!” Here’s what I just heard: “the enemy something something clear everything out to win.” That’s typical tunnel-vision-esque focus.

To contrast, the raid is simply throwing you into mechanics that you may have used for another missions. I’ve heard this explained as the raid’s progression teaches players the mechanics that are needed in the final counter, but I’m not entirely sure that it’s obvious to a lot of players.

Of course, Bungie wants you to find five other players that you think are competent enough to figure everything out between yourselves. It’s the same rationale behind Nightfall strikes. I don’t buy that these moods should not have the matchmaking capability that the Strike playlists do.

Another example: when you find the first Relic, it’s not explained to the player that picks it up how to use it. To a player that is going into the run line, the only hints given are that it has some sort of extra ability is that it looks like a shield and that your Super gauge fills up way faster than normal while you’re holding the Relic.

For a game with such a tremendous budget and premier voice cast, how hard would it be to add in a few lines of direction? Even Dinklebot spouting an off-the-cuff analysis would have worked out just fine. “The cleansing aura’s power transformed into something. This relic looks like it could be powerful enough to bring down the Templar’s shields.”

The Vault of Glass feels disconnected from the rest of the game. I wish that either the rest of the game were modeled after the raid or that the raid was modeled after the rest of the game.

It won’t happen, but it’d be a nice thought. Bungie wants people to figure everything that isn’t part of a story mode mission out for themselves, and that’s fine if they ended up using the same designers or at least the same standards implemented with the rest of the game. I just wish they picked a direction and went with it.