Destiny 2 succeeds where the original failed most: its story-driven campaign, which is good enough to combine with its finely tuned first-person shooter gameplay and gorgeous looks. You collect loot and upgrades through missions and activities with your fireteam.
The opening in Destiny 2
From the opening moments, Destiny 2 delivers Dominus Ghaul, an excellent antagonist whose ferocity deserves our fury by taking away everything built in Destiny and its expansions, including the Light of the Wardens. The campaign that follows is packed with brilliant cutscenes, giving the cast a chance to show great emotional range, and you can hear the sadness and determination in their voices. Zavala, played by Lance Reddick, is steadfast in his plan to attack Ghaul, while Ikora, or Gina Torres, seems desperate and about to give up. This context gives both new and returning players a sound reason to climb the light level-based ladder of power, be it for the first time or again. Fun missions in eye-catching environments await you, including the exciting penultimate mission.
The sound
Meanwhile, a soaring soundtrack supports vibrant missions before shifting gears to invoke an air of sadness. The sound design is impeccable overall, with rewarding splashes of glitter every time you open a chest, or a mute of ambient sounds when you aim the scope. Each adjustment is important so you can get the audio information you need instead of overwhelming yourself with everything at once.
The world of Destiny 2
To challenge you on your way back to the top, Bungie has created a wide range of opportunities. These include Public Events, PvP/Player vs. Player events in the Crucible, Roaming World Bosses, Treasure Chests, Lost Sectors, Adventure Side Quests, Patrols, Planet-Specific Challenges, Flashpoints, Vanguard Missions, Exotic Quests, Strikes, or Destiny's Dungeons, Nightfall or a more complex version of Strikes, the lengthy campaign and of course the Leviathan Raid, the largest and most complex dungeon.
A lot to do
There is so much to do, especially in the beginning, that it's almost overwhelming. You often find yourself distracted from the activity, like a roaming boss or a public event promising quick loot. This ensures that you never get bored. However, it is geared towards early guardians of the light stage. While all of these battles will help you reach level 265, you'll have to complete much more difficult challenges like Leviathan, Nightfall, and Trials of the Nine, the endgame, in order to reach the 350 max, the cap given in the menu tips.
The campaign
The campaign is captivating with its story. But after about 10 hours of construction, the last encounter fizzled out. Due to some awkward super ability limitations, you must rely on finding a safe spot and shooting the ultimate enemy until he dies. Luckily, the excellent quests and more elaborate strikes that followed the campaign come with greatly improved boss encounters and an extra dose of quality lore. After the campaign ends, you can still experience some new story events via additional quests in each of the four planetoid locations in Destiny 2. Not only do these complement the intriguing new characters you meet there, they do a good job of taking you to new locations you may have missed and fun encounters to play with a three-man fireteam. They also end with great rewards, like exotic quests and coveted legendary items, making them a great way to continue your ascent to maximum light.
The World Maps
The four world maps do a fantastic job of setting the tone. Whether it's the milky falls of Nessus or the overgrown European Dead Zone, each offers a colorful and unique palette to explore while acquiring your plentiful loot. In addition, there are also items scattered about each objective that provide snippets of lore about the location, as well as gear sets that you can acquire by spending tokens earned from the above activities in exchange for reputation with that objective's vendor exchange. Bungie wants to encourage everyone to take in all of this, but it goes a little too far by holding back the fast-moving Sparrow bikes for too long to force you to go through it the first time.
alertness
The first Destiny is a powerful first-person shooter built using expertise from Bungie's days developing the Halo series, but subtle details have made a huge difference in Destiny 2 when it comes to making combat more explosive from moment to moment and make it more exciting. For example, if you pop an enemy's shield with the right damage type, they'll hit their nearby allies with area damage, and hitting a Fallen with a headshot will reward you with a light show as their soul escapes from their body. Both are welcome bursts of affirmation, and Destiny 2 sprinkles these types of visual and gameplay rewards left and right.
collect items
While there aren't many different weapon types, the constant gear drops and game-changing exotic weapons and upgrades push your proficiency level higher and create that sense of growing strength and readiness to take on all challengers. Destiny 2 is full of game-changing items. Gear hunting does have some rocky parts, however, as Destiny 2 doesn't take the time to explain how its upgrade and infusion systems work. Mods can be a bit confusing at first because you have to absorb a lot of obscure rules. For example, if the mods are legendary, they add 5 attack power to your gear; However, if you don't have a mod attached, you can still infuse a rare weapon into a legendary weapon and see a light level increase. All in all, this is a bit confusing. But once you get comfortable with the math, it's a bit more understandable.
The shader system
Destiny 2's approach to the shader system, which allows you to customize the colors of your various gear and weapons, is also confusing and cumbersome. You are encouraged to wait since you are there before making any adjustments to your gear. Instead of a shader color being something reusable that you can unlock and then apply, they are now consumables that must be earned individually as loot or purchased through the Eververse Trading Company. This is at odds with Destiny 2's focus on striving to evolve your weapons and armor. You hold on to your shaders until you have enough to not bother me tinting a piece of gear, only to replace it when a better item turns up minutes later.
Bright engrams
Also available in Eververse are The Bright Engrams, Destiny 2's version of a premium loot box. You can include items such as cosmetically different ships, Sparrows, some of which have different stats, mods, weapon skins, exotic emotes, and more. It seems like a place where Bungie might have made a mistake in pushing you to spend real money to get more. So far, however, that doesn't seem to be the case. You'll get free Bright Engrams every time you fill up your experience bar after reaching character level 20, so you'll still feel like they're in abundance even if you decide not to spend any money. You can also disassemble Eververse items for dust, which allows you to purchase similar items from a rotating inventory.
character classes
The three character classes of Destiny 2 are Titan, Warlock, and Hunter. They have all been simplified compared to Destiny. Each of their subclass trees now only contain an upper or lower power path, with a few grenade, jump, and power options. That's enough for everyone to still have different abilities and playstyles that work well together in traditional tanks, support, and damage. Figuring out how to use subtle customizations and weapon pairs to get the most out of your chosen build is still a worthwhile puzzle. For example, as a Titan, you can build into an Arc Damage type subclass, which could then receive a boost from a Warlock that uses Arc Projectiles if you plan correctly. However, the Hunter's dodge seems underpowered in the early stages as the other classes' abilities have a clearer immediate benefit to the team. While the Titan starts with a shield that protects everyone and the Warlock has a heal or damage buff ability, the Hunter is left with a relatively weak dodge that reloads or charges their melee but does nothing for the team. Only when you unlock a specific pair of Exotic Boots can everyone's ammo be reloaded, and by means other than direct damage.
Common loot
It's unfortunate that while the first subclass, which allows you to specialize your character with a story event of appropriate difficulty, is well integrated into the leveling experience, others just drop like common loot. It was a missed opportunity to tell a story about regaining your powers, much like Destiny's The Taken King DLC gifted you with a new ability. Once you get through the world events to activate those random pickups, things get better and you embark on a more interesting quest to learn a bit of backstory from your Vanguard leader. These moments are nothing like their grandiose Destiny counterparts.
The one hit kill power weapons
The biggest change to the overall game balance is a smart adjustment to one-hit-kill power weapons. For the most part, they're a great thing. It's great to watch an upward sword swing that causes your enemy's embers to flicker in the distance. In the PvE or player-vs-environment areas, the light purple ammo packs that power these weapons are always available, allowing you to often crush your enemies in spectacular ways. On the other hand, in competitive game types, Power Ammo can only be acquired by one teammate at each spawn, so you'll need to make sure every use counts. This leads to more powerful moments and fewer cheap deaths.
Thankfully, the more conventional kinetic and energy weapons feel well balanced across the board, allowing you to choose from different archetypes for each weapon type. For example, Suros Auto Rifles have a higher rate of fire than Omolon weapons, but reduced range, stability, and handling stats. Veist Auto Rifles have the highest rate of fire and better reload speed, but again at the cost of range and stability. Each of the weapon types have these subtle differences that allow you to create charges that complement your character's armor stats or exotic abilities for the best possible efficiency.
Team-Based Tactics
Another big change from Destiny is that Destiny 2's competitive experience relies more on team-based tactics and moves away from Destiny's one-man army style. The time to kill seems to be much longer as grenades and shoulder charges don't always kill in one hit, and this gives you the ability to retreat from an encounter when your shields are low, like in Halo. This usually works well, as many of the 11 PvP maps, or 12 if you count the PlayStation-exclusive maps, are fine for the new four-on-four teams, but some might be a bit too big. This makes it easy and even strategic to dodge the other team to the point of being forced to collide midway for a capture point should the game go into overtime. But this excess space in certain maps often causes competitive playlist matches to drag on without action for far too long.
Trials of Nine
Trials of the Nine is the new version of the Trials mode, which has been the lifeblood of PvP in Destiny for years, and includes two different modes that alternate every week. The first, Survival, pits you against another four-player team to see who can deplete the other side's life pool first, similar to a Battlefield match. In Countdown you must either defend an important area or attack and place a bomb in said area. Trials of the Nine opens every weekend and encourages you to participate for your chance at powerful engram rewards that lead to premium gear. It's still seven wins to get to the top of the ladder, which grants you a unique cosmetic aura, and you can easily reset your card with the press of a button. Consumables are no longer required. The developers have also given all players the opportunity to earn rewards by giving away tokens for participation, which can be redeemed after your first win. More rewards will continue to be unlocked until you finally use up your card.
game modes
With Destiny 2's various repeatable modes, you don't get to choose which ones you want to enjoy at any given time. To play a Strike or any of the PvP Crucible modes, you have to join a queue that leads into a random map or mode, which is frustrating when you have a specific experience in mind. There is no penalty for people who fold and try again when they find themselves in an unwanted match. At worst, this often leaves you and your team in half-empty multiplayer matches.
group cohesion
Another disadvantage of rotating between so many different types of activities is that it can be difficult to keep a group together. World activities, PvP, and Leviathan all have different group size requirements, meaning you'll often find yourself short of activities or forced to abandon a teammate when moving from four-player Crucible PvP to a team activity with three men in one fell swoop.
The clan system
The new clan system in Destiny 2 does a great job of giving people a reason to stick together. Now our crew of IGN friends and family have started to achieve team-based goals and proudly wear our IGN banners as you participate in every activity to level up. It's great to see the clan's overall progress increase, and because there's a large reward for your personal contribution and smaller rewards for general clan goals, it's worth your time to join one.
hardcore gamer
The Leviathan Raid and its little endgame cousin The Nightfall are Destiny 2's premiere PvE events, and so far they're both successful in their goal of making hardcore Destiny players come back. The combat-oriented Nightfall does this by forcing your three-man fireteam to formulate a plan before you go in so you can capitalize on the rotating set of modifiers you randomly pull. These can include additional objectives like jumping through rings, killing enemies, or finding a specific target to increase the time left on the countdown clock, and they add a new challenge to each run, especially if you're trying to complete some more difficult quests to complete at the same time. There is a lot of skill and strategy in The Nightfall, and that makes it highly replayable.
Guided games
To help anyone venturing into Destiny 2 without a team to experience this endgame content, Bungie has introduced a clever feature called Guided Games. It allows experienced teams to fit into a system that brings them a new player to teach them the basics. In addition to the nice loot drop at the end and an emblem recognizing your help to a new player, this is how you make new friends. Bungee's way of promoting positive community engagement is commendable.
But the biggest and worst PvE activity is Destiny 2's Leviathan Raid, which continues to live up to Bungie's high standards of new and varied puzzles and challenging boss fights that will require teams of six well-coordinated players to pull through. Leviathan blends Destiny Raid encounters with cutscenes featuring your fireteam of six Guardians.
Leviathan
Leviathan opens up like most, forcing your team into a gauntlet-like activity that requires you to plant flags in the ground to proceed. You then fight your way through three encounters before a boss. This time, however, the encounters are varied and add new combat possibilities, such as a room in which you are forced to rely on stealth and another in which you run a gauntlet with a bomb while your team shoots arrows, so you can keep going. Each experience forces your team into two groups, and each forces you to work toward a common goal after meeting the entry requirements. It's a clever approach that feels challenging.
A raid and a castle
The architecture on display is a castle covered in ornate gold patterns and mysterious machinery, leaving you wondering who built it and why you were invited. You'll learn some of these answers upon completion, and this lore reward adds to my sense of accomplishment. Unlike Destiny's previous raids, there are also some interesting revelations about the story here. Upon completion, you are encouraged to return to find the treasure chests you were given the key for as you clear each stage, and there are additional secret chests to unlock in the areas below the main arena. If you don't want to return, you still have tokens that you can exchange for a chance at powerful legendary weapons and a unique armor set for each class. It's visually massive when you have to climb to the tops of an incredible building and still have to explore the works below.
Bugs
A few bugs are making life difficult at the moment, forcing the raid teams to restart several times. Developer Bungie says they are working to fix this issue. Also in the category of known issues awaiting fixes at this time are crashes affecting PlayStation 4 Pro users playing in 4K.
The gameplay
With all this content, Destiny 2 has 30 to 40 hours of great gameplay ahead of the raid. However, as you approach max light level, there are few activities that someone who loves leveling up to become raid ready can participate in. More adventures lack an additional incentive, like a reward for completing all of them on a specific objective, or a powerful engram for completing a specific set that tells an interesting story. It's unfortunate that most progression is tied to public events as they give a huge experience drain for each heroic event completed and so spawn frequently. Even the weekly Flashpoints consist simply of completing public events on a specific planet.
The Leviathan Raid
That means once you're ready for the Leviathan Raid, you can jump in and tackle its many challenges for loot. Upon completion, quests such as the Destroyer of Worlds series will advance, allowing you to take part in a particularly challenging Strike mission.
The content roadmap
Bungie has promised that Destiny 2 will continue to evolve with a content roadmap that already includes Trials of the Nine and Faction Rally on. Bungie also offers Raid and Iron Prestige difficulties, eAnother popular PvP mode for competitive players.
Destiny 2 on PC
Destiny 2 on PC looks stunning on PC. This tempts you to stop and admire the surroundings. In Graphically, playing on the PC is noticeably nicer than on the PlayStation 4. Small details like the sparkling textures on the ceiling of the Pyramidion Strike or the additional lighting effects for explosions and skyboxes are dramatically better here. Dhe biggest flaw for the PC version is the lack of a general chat window where you can talk freely to anyone and everyone in the zone, as you would expect in virtually any major multiplayer game. Without this, you'll be spared from spammers and intentionally annoying people, but at the same time it's unnecessarily difficult to interact with players you encounter who aren't already on your friends list. You can send a message to random players on your Fireteam, but you must also press Enter on your keyboard to see the message. This added communication barrier gives the console version of Destiny a powerful advantage: the ability to easily make new friends in the Tower or in the open world before heading out on a mission.
Controllers and Restrictions
Overall, PC is the best platform to play Destiny 2 on. Options like button remapping, intuitive controller support including separate tuning for controller vs. keyboard and mouse making each feel like a competent option, and a panel of view sliders allow you to craft an experience that's just how you want it .
There are concerns that controller aim assist could be used by cheaters to gain an advantage in PvP by tricking Destiny 2 into thinking they're using a gamepad when they're actually using a mouse, but that's a real one problem. Time will tell if this becomes widespread, but in the meantime Bungie seems committed to keeping the PC cheater-free to the point where this may be a detriment. Bungie has implemented a strict ban on what you can do while you play due to fears of cheats. The official site warns that third-party applications such as Discord, OBS Game Capture can be used with limitations and anything that overlays gameplay, other than Nvidia Shadowplay or AMD ReLive, could potentially cause problems. However, these limitations have not affected my gaming experience so far. Discord can be found in background objects keep it open and chat freely is possible. When using OBS, difficulties arise when trying to take screenshots, but with the streaming software disabled everything worked.
Conclusion
Destiny 2 packs a punch thanks to its excellent co-op shooter gameplay and strong storytelling in the campaign. The game offers the same kind of highly social gameplay and rewarding loot-driven progression that made the first installment addictive. The main concerns right now are a few bugs and the lack of event options. Shooter fans should definitely not miss the game.