It's not that it's entirely gone from the game, just that what *is* present in the game is entirely too vague. At best we get little teasers/snippits of information to pique our interest, but ultimately every lead is a red herring and that is just a major crime for a game with this much money and effort put behind it. I can't believe how defensive some people get too, rushing to Bungie's defense as if we're looking to tear them apart - we aren't (or at least I'm not). I don't hate Bungie, I'm disappointed in them because the potential for this game to deliver an epic story and experience is painfully obvious - it literally hurts me physically and emotionally to see the state that the game is in as opposed to what it should be both as a gamer and an artist. Just look at the Halo universe - sure Frankie's the one in charge of that and stayed behind with 343i, but he didn't create all that by himself and if you bother with the novels at all you'll find that the Halo expanded universe is actually one of the best Sci-Fi settings ever conceived. So why isn't Destiny? When I saw Destiny for the 1st time I immediately thought "Holy crap, this is Borderlands meets Mass Effect OMFG!!!" but that's not what we got, at least not yet. Hoping Bungie will deliver with the DLC but also do something in the mean time to spice things up because even the Iron Banner fell rather flat. There needs to be more real story content to pad the bare bones groundwork that was laid by the campaign, preferably starting with more detailed explanations of the factions and who our enemies are and why they have a beef with us. I'd also like to actually explore the rest of the tower and the city itself - thew view of it from the tower is gorgeous. Which reminds me of yet another burning question that there's been absolutely no hinting of whatsoever - why the hell is the last city on Earth in Russia of all places? I have a very hard time believing that North America & Asia both got completely overrun - nevermind that Canada (my home incidentally) not only has similar land mass to Russia, but far more natural resources and free space. And then there's the Prison of Elders... So yeah, lots of stuff hinted at in the game but very poorly explained (if at all) so Bungie has their work cut out for them.