Is Destiny 2‘s Original The Red War Campaign Really Gone for Good? A Veteran Player‘s Perspective

As a dedicated Destiny 2 player and content creator since the beta, I get asked often by new lights and returning veterans alike – "Is that awesome original Destiny 2 campaign really gone?"

It‘s a fair question for those discovering Destiny for the first time or those coming back after time away. And the short, unfortunate answer is yes – that inaugural Destiny 2 campaign that came with the base game in 2017, widely known as The Red War, has been placed in Bungie‘s infamous Destiny Content Vault (DCV) and is no longer playable.

But as someone who grew up traversing the literal Red War battlefields fighting our erstwhile enemies like Dominus Ghaul and experiencing that original cinematic story filled with hero moments across stunning venues like the Jupiter shipyards or volcanic Io – vaulted content always leaves questions.

Could The Red War come back someday? Will Bungie ever actually restore these iconic campaign beats that were once core to the Destiny 2 experience?

As someone obsessed with Destiny‘s past, present and future – let‘s explore!

Is The Red War Campaign Really Gone for Good? Evaluating Bungie‘s Broken Promises Around Vaulted Content

The Red War campaign that ushered in Destiny 2 holds a special place for veteran players like myself. It raised dramatic stakes after Destiny 1 with my guardian losing their light and new villain Ghaul caging the Traveler in an impenetrable force shield above the Last City.

I have fond memories battling down the streets to reclaim my power and finally reaching that iconic ledge to gaze out and see… the ruined Tower crashing and smoking with nary a safe landing zone left in the invasion‘s aftermath.

Moments like this showed off Bungie‘s cinematic chops and made this a true watershed moment in franchise history from a narrative perspective.

Of course as most Destiny veterans know, good things rarely last in the world of the Vanguard. After years of expansions and seasonal beats ballooned Destiny 2‘s footprint to an unstable 165 GB, Bungie made the controversial decision to begin archiving – or "vaulting" as the community calls it – paid content spans like The Red War campaign alongside destinations to make room for continuing evolution.

And with the arrival of 2020‘s Beyond Light expansion, The Red War and all of Year 1 Destiny 2 content was suddenly ripped away from players‘ hard drives even if they had paid for access. Gone into the DCV ether with Bungie stating they hoped to one day cycle it back into the actively playable game.

As someone who replays classic Destiny 2 campaigns often and has built up communities around fan nostalgia – this hit hard. And in the years since, we have only seen MORE content vaulted – from destinations like Mars, Titan and Io to raids like Leviathan. Even the Forsaken campaign and Tangled Shore zone players purchased separately were recently sent to the Destiny scrapheap.

Bungie continues utilizing language around potentially restoring high demand classics from the DCV some day. But as a dedicated expert player, I am skeptical if we will ever see truly iconic beats like our first confrontation with Dominus Ghaul during the Red War‘s campaign restored outside limited time events.

The World Narrative Has Moved On and Business is Business

While players still clamor for The Red War and Lost Guardian origins return in some form, Bungie likely sees little incentive looking forward. The living world narrative around Savathun, Darkness and Strand has moved well beyond the Red Legion and Red War fallout beats. From a cost perspective, remastering aged content for the latest engine specs and sandbox balancing carries resource overhead that leaves little marketing value.

Harsh as it may sound, beyond novelty and nostalgia, business wise there likely isn‘t enough demand for Bungie‘s accountants to justify The Red War rising from the Content Vault like Atlantis any time soon.

The State of Destiny 2 Campaign Content Then and Now – What We‘ve Lost and What Remains

While the nostalgia lover in me continues holding out faint hope for experiencing iconic vaulted story moments again – the pragmatist knows players still have quality campaign content both old and new to enjoy. Let‘s break down what we‘ve lost campaign wise so far in the vaulting journey – as well as the major beats still left standing today as we look ahead to Destiny‘s future:

Vaulted Campaign & Story Content:

Remaining Playable Campaign & Story Content:

Reviewing vaulted Destiny 2 campaigns that are now out of players reach stings for longtime fans who were there as each landed – adding new worlds, lore and memorable moments. I have fond memories of the sweeping vistas of Mars during Warmind and currency crashing heists across the Tangled Shore when Forsaken arrived.

Losing both those standalone campaigns and the prior Curse of Osiris Mercury content certainly drains around 35 unique story missions from what Guardians can experience as part of the living Destiny 2 universe.

However, there IS still quality campaign content left…even if Beyond Light and Shadowkeep have grown somewhat long in the tooth at this point. And while bite-sized, the recent Witch Queen expansion brings fan favorite character Savathun center stage with renewed momentum.

Between the three, there are still around 23 story missions evolving Destiny‘s core narrative against threats like Xivu Arath. And we know more campaign content drops are coming soon with Lightfall in 2024. So the vaulting saga hasn‘t completely hollowed out available gameplay – yet.

Evaluating Ongoing Impacts of Destiny Content Vault (DCV) – Necessary Evil or Sign of Bigger Issues?

Destiny 2‘s Content Vault has been hotly debated since it debuted. And based on recent announcements, the DCV appears here to stay indefinitely as part of franchise life.

Bungie continues utilizing careful language about one day cycling high nostalgia content pieces back into the playable game. But evidence suggests that is more legal cover talk than indication of firm intent.

In practice thus far, we have only seen them unvault Cosmodrome as a free destination (not associated campaign content) and piecemeal efforts like bringing back the first Destiny 1 raid, Vault of Glass remastered.

Actual full campaigns and story arcs remain buried. Some players continue supporting DCV as a necessary pivot retaining Destiny 2‘s structural integrity into the future. Others see it as papering over flaws in Bungie leadership vision that continues costing players purchased content access.

Weighing the necessity of Destiny Content Vaulting

Here are what I view as the key pros and cons around continuing to leverage the Destiny Content Vault:

Pros:

• Alleviates ballooning tech debt and install footprint from yearly releases
• Allows cleaner pivots adapting to new hardware generations ahead
• Frees up resources for building new content vs maintaining aging pipelines
• Provides backend option to resurrect classics someday if viable

Cons:

• Removes paid content some players had come to enjoy
• Diminishes feeling of existing in a large, lived in open world
• Sets concerning precedent of removing player agency around access
• Breaks sacred trust of delivering on goods sold

Reviewing the above, I think reasonable minds can debate whether DCV remains a necessary pivot for Destiny specifically because this universe has evolved so much since 2017 launch. Had Activision remained involved, my guess is things may have either ended or pivoted to an outright Destiny 3 sequel altogether relatively soon.

In that perspective, flaws and all, DCV may remain the best worst option enabling Destiny 2‘s viability as an independent, evolving platform free of publisher resource constraints and demands.

Player Impacts – Does Losing Paid Content Ultimately Benefit or Restrict The Experience?

However, even accepting potential technical realities, the gaming philosopher in me does continue wrestling with DCV impacts on player experience – especially contrasting newer lights with veterans.

On one hand, FOMO around potentially losing access likely creates unconscious urgency nudging engagement with newer content. Whether that actually enriches long term experiences though feels debatable.

Personally, losing permanent access to foundational narrative arcs like Dominus Ghaul and his Red Legion in the Red War campaign does functionally transform the landscape of available lore for new players in less diverse ways. Nuance around Light versus Darkness now leans more monolithic given players can‘t experience forgotten viewpoints like Ghaul‘s motivations firsthand by actually playing older content.

On the other hand, for veterans especially, the focused nature of seasonal model and retained newer campaigns likely provides welcomed contrast keeping game progression feeling lively versus continually revisiting aging content.

There are merits around avoiding perpetual bloat and keeping player populations focused on newer challenges together. And nostalgia goggles can overly romanticize flaws in older content that may not hold up well if resurrected as is. So by this thinking, DCV in some ways enhances retained beats feeling more precious and narratively cohesive for those still playing.

Ultimately there are good counterarguments around Destiny Content Vault‘s purpose on both sides. Players, like myself, displeased with removing access to foundational stories that were once system sellers will likely never make total peace losing that agency over our gaming libraries and memories.

But we are also still here enjoying Destiny‘s daily escape and evolution while many left behind games can‘t sustain engagement years later. So DCV arguably remains a strategic, if highly controversial, contributor enabling Destiny 2‘s rare persistent universe viability. Bungie seems committed to learning as they go while still having missed opportunities to implement DCV in less disruptive ways for all.

Destiny 2 Campaign Content Speculation – What Will Actually Return From the Vault Eventually?

While players have lost permanent access to treasured campaign content so far, Bungie‘s recent messaging indicates they have pivoted plans, intending to retain all current and future paid expansions in players‘ libraries indefinitely as we look ahead.

If true, theoretically no more full campaign stories would join the likes of Forsaken and The Red War lore relics locked away in the Destiny Content Vault from this point onward.

Bungie reaffirmed this stance just recently during their August 2022 Showcase event while unveiling 2023‘s Lightfall expansion details. Per their statements, only seasonal content will persist rotating in and out of the DCV moving forward.

That should quell fears of seeing epic showpieces like The Witch Queen or any other expansion stories meet Red War‘s fate down the road. At least according to what is promised.

And based on what we‘ve seen since Destiny 2 first launched, Bungie generally keeps campaign content intact once it makes it fully into release regardless of reception. Curse of Osiris seemed doomed to disappear at one point given scathing reviews. But its bespoke Mercury destination content persisted years later even seeing slight freshening up before its DCV sentence finally came down.

So I‘d expect existing epic campaign packs like Forsaken and Shadowkeep are likely safe from danger outside extreme circumstances forcing change.

If DCV by nature remains transient with only seasonal content moving through enough to sustain techincal goals, players actually could reasonably expect to one day see key coral pieces restored for special events or moments down the road.

Vault of Glass‘s triumphant full time return gives hope that raids and dungeons could escape exile permanently even if original narrative context remains lost. Who knows – maybe for the 5 or 10 year anniversary Bungie might bring back a memorial Red War mission to tease prisoners of the vault escaping!

But in terms of actual confidence around predicting whether we ever directly play The Red War campaign‘s missions start to finish again – I wouldn‘t hold breath until light turns dark.

Bungie is nothing if not masters at narrative sleight of hand misdirecting what comes next. The only real certainty is new unpredictable twists lie ahead on the epic journey of Destiny 2 continuously redefining its own limits.

In Conclusion – The Red War Destiny 2 Campaign Remains Lost with Only Its Memory to Guide Us

While questions persist on whether foundational arcs like Destiny 2‘s iconic inaugural Red War campaign could ever return from their DCV exile – current reality remains clear. That beloved origin story content showcasing Guardians‘ sacrifice and triumph over Ghaul‘s occupation stays locked away as light fades from memory into legend leaving only remnants of the past.

Bungie executed vaulting as a necessary pivot likely saving franchise viability as Destiny 2 grew unsustainable in size and technical constraints. But for those who were there bearing first witness to epic showdowns aboard Dominus Ghaul‘s stolen command carrier now broken across the rings of Jupiter – the hollowed out starting experience feels less bold with our history fading from active reality.

I hold out thin hope one day to reunite with lost memories and originally purchased experiences. But Destiny‘s future leans toward the age of Strand, not the legend of past lights rekindled. Our tireless free-roaming quest to reclaim stolen power echoing late into starlit nights endures now only in dreams and wishes rather than accessible bits and playable bytes.

Yet while the insisting present moves on, the honored past persists bonded inseparably through nostalgia‘s gravity if not active gameplay. And Destiny 2 continues evolving against threats new and familiar proving our Guardian‘s journeys maintain meaning carrying hard fought memory forward even if the Red War itself slumbers beyond reach.

Eyes up, veterans. Whether our first stumbling steps retaking the Last City play out today in simulation or only imaginations reconstructed best we can without archives access – we arose and fought the good fight once as young wolves raging against loss. With luck, Destiny 2 continues proving itself worthy heir to that imperfect but still glorious legacy.

The Red War campaign may be gone. But its enduring spirit remains through the inspiration it instilled within us all those years ago…