Destiny 2 Review

"Better Adventure"

Campaign

Destiny is a series of potential, I definitely had some issues with the first entry and since the launch I haven't touched that game. I also stated I wouldn't play the sequel unless the game was sent to me, and here we go. Destiny 2 picks up after the events of the many expansion packs with the Guardians becoming complacent with their new position in the solar system.

Things then take a dark turn as the Last City is attacked, the light is taken for like 20 minutes and the Traveler is taken hostage by a new threat. You then have to work alone or with a crew to venture forth across new planets and worlds to take out this fresh enemy. This is where the larger world feeling of the game comes in as while it's a linear story, the planets are not.

You can run into others completing publics events, grab friends for smaller missions or just continue the story. There are plenty of activities to do on these planets and things to complete. The narrative itself was just alright, I didn't find it to be very interesting or complex with it mostly just being a loose goal that kept us going through it.

The characters that live within the world were decent, but it would have been nice to see more interactions with them during missions. The new social hub of the farm was interesting, felt livelier than the tower and it was a nice change of pace. It was also great to see the soccer get expanded into almost a full match, for those that do want a little side activity to kill time.

Multiplayer

Bungie has actually provided a solid and competitive space with their Destiny 2 multiplayer. There's a fine selection of game types present and some well designed maps. These are all streamlined into a single playlist for quick action and a solid game type grab bag. Aside from the key multiplayer there are some more competitive options and it really has something for everyone.

The game feels decently balanced and the objective options were well setup. Their take on Search and Destroy is particularly great, feeling natural to the gameplay. I did however find that the rocket seemed like an odd weapon for some to pull out randomly and just like it, the sword was too powerful. Another mention would be for the abilities that felt over powered and took away from some of the competitive nature that the game was presenting.

There are other more cooperative areas within the game as well with this being Strikes and Raids. The Strikes are a cooperative focused mission where players work together against the AI and a large boss in order to work towards special rewards, they act like mini stories that are more like a grind. The Raids are basically like Strikes, but with some puzzle solving thrown in and typically much longer experiences.

Gameplay

Destiny 2 is most certainly a well designed game in terms of gameplay, the controls work well and everything feels natural during combat. The guns are well balanced and the array of combative particle effects are a delight. There are a few classes present of which you level through and battle with. They're basically the same thing aside from some special abilities, but different enough that it shows during combat. Each is also equipped with a subclass and minor skill selections.

The worlds you explore are absolutely stunning and the visuals here are top notch.They truly do stun with their great levels of depth and post-destructive designs. I loved the various areas you could explore, yet still found the original game's planets to be more fascinating to me.

The Titan planet was probably the best out of all you visit aside from the European Dead Zone which was gorgeous. The enemies aren't too different from the first game and most don't battle in the most intelligent of ways. It's mostly just grind based combat as they soak bullets before perishing.

The Conclusion

Destiny 2 is a solid game, it's definitely an improvement over the original and provides a lot more activities right off the start. Those that played the original faithfully will find the experience mostly unaltered while returning players will appreciate the various improvements made over the original at launch.

The campaign could have still used a more compelling narrative or at least made the loss of light a bigger deal. It just doesn't seem like they care too much about building any sort of emotional story and just want you to blast through it so you can get into the other parts of the game.

The Strike missions are basically the same as the first game, but I felt the Raid here was a solid new task for a larger group to work through. The competitive side of multiplayer was once again well designed and felt intense enough to keep my interest.

The new planets were interesting, but it feels like there was less here than before or even that the original game's planets were more intriguing. Destiny 2 is definitely an improvement featuring a larger more beautiful world though it still does have some problems.

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Destiny 2 Review on Xbox One X
Review Code Provided by Microsoft

Rating Overall: 8.0