The first Destiny game back in 2014 launched in a pretty
rough state. There wasn’t a ton of content, the leveling system was too
complicated, and overall Bungie made a lot of weird decisions that contributed
to the game not meeting many players’ expectations. Bungie learned a lot from
that and really took player feedback to heart and after the Taken King
expansion launched in 2015, Destiny was genuinely pretty darn great. Now, in
2017, a proper Destiny sequel has launched and I am pleased to say that the
steady improvements to the core foundation continue over to this new game to
create the best Destiny experience yet. Destiny 2 isn’t a wildly different
experience than Destiny 1, mind you, but it is far more polished and complete
feeling right from the start than the original game was at launch. The result
is a fantastic full-featured package that Destiny die-hards as well as series
skeptics and newcomers alike will have a great time with. See our full Destiny
2 review for all of the details.
Game Details
- Publisher: Activision
- Developer: Bungie
- ESRB Rating: “T” for Teen
- Genre: FPS
- Pros: Great gameplay; gorgeous visuals; amazing soundtrack; fantastic campaign missions; tons of content overall
- Cons: Microtransactions
- MSRP: $60
I want to start out by saying I am playing and reviewing
Destiny 2 as an almost exclusively solo player. I don’t really care for
deathmatch in the Crucible that much and only rarely played Strikes in Destiny
1 and never did a raid. I’m reviewing Destiny 2 from the perspective of someone
that will only really play solo or co-op during patrol. I know that there are a
lot of players like me out there who are probably curious about whether Destiny
2 is a viable game to play solo, so that is what this review will focus on. Spoilers:
Yes, it’s awesome even if you’re mostly playing solo. I can only assume it’s
even better if you participate in everything Destiny 2 has to offer, but as a
solo player I’m more than satisfied.
Taking place one year after the SIVA Crisis (from the final
Destiny 1 expansion Rise of Iron), Destiny 2 begins with the Red Legion faction
of the Cabal launching a full-scale attack on Earth in order to take control of
the Traveler. The Red Legion, led by Dominus Ghaul, is successful and manages
to capture the Traveler, take over the Last City, and sever the connection
between the Guardians and the Light. Without the Light, Guardians are not only
severely weakened but can’t be resurrected anymore, which leads to many
Guardians dying in battle. Your character manages to get their light back,
however, and the story then becomes a quest to reunite the Vanguard (the
leaders of the Guardians) in order to organize a counter-offensive against the
Red Legion. Oh, and there is a machine that will destroy the Sun that needs to
be taken out along the way as well.
While the story itself is sort of hit and miss, the campaign
missions in Destiny 2 are pretty spectacular overall and easily top almost
anything from Destiny 1 in terms of scale and just sheer cool factor. Destiny 1
kind of blew the Solar System’s wad by letting you go to Luna (Earth’s Moon),
Mars, and Venus, so visiting less famous places like Io (moon of Jupiter),
Titan (moon of Saturn), and the centaur planet (small minor planets in between
Jupiter and Neptune) Neesus feels like a bit of a step down, but they all still
have some beautiful and interesting sights to see. As I said, the scale of the
battles you’ll fight in can be really, really impressive and there are even
some Halo-style vehicle sections thrown in that add some nice variety to the
missions. I honestly can’t remember very much of the story missions in Destiny
1, but there are several very memorable moments in Destiny 2 that not only
stand out, but I actually want to re-visit.
The campaign takes about 8-10 hours to finish in Destiny 2,
but will likely take longer since you don’t necessarily have to just plough
through it all at once. You’ll almost certainly get distracted with the huge,
huge, huge amount of side missions and other content on offer. There are
“Adventure” missions that are structured like minor story missions that send
you out to complete specific tasks while also filling in story details. These
provide some welcome world building that was notoriously absent in Destiny 1.
You can also freely explore all of the areas, of course, and they are all
filled with hidden treasure chests to find, public events to participate in
with other players, and hidden Lost Sectors where you fight through caverns
full of enemies in order to unlock a loot chest full of rare goodies at the
end.
When you reach the current level cap of 20 even more content
opens up. New missions become available, you can start trading in faction
reputation (that you earn by doing missions on each planet) for new gear, and a
ton of other stuff. This is all on top of the content outlined in the above
paragraph, plus patrol missions, challenges (this game’s version of bounties)
and much more. This isn’t even considering three-player strikes or six-player
raid missions. Destiny 1’s biggest problem, for me at least, was that I ran out
of content sooner than I would have liked. Destiny 2 solves this by giving you
a ton of varied stuff to do long after you beat the story. In fact, a lot of
the content isn’t even available until after you beat the story, so it’s going
to take a long, long, long time to see everything Destiny 2 has to offer.
That’s awesome for mainly solo (and co-op in patrol) players like me.
A lot of the content, such as access to patrol missions,
strikes, or even the use of the sparrow vehicles, is gated behind level
requirements, but I don’t think this is a bad thing. Some call it a “grind” to
unlock them, but I think that’s crazy talk. Grinding, to me, implies playing
the same content over and over, which you absolutely don’t have to do in
Destiny 2. There is so much content available that there is no reason
whatsoever to have to re-play anything. You just find something new to do and
level up naturally. Anyone who is complaining about grinding is just looking
for an excuse to complain about something.
The core gameplay in Destiny 2 is some of the most
impeccably great first-person-shooting the genre has to offer. The game just
feels incredibly good to play and the wide variety of weapon types and
abilities that each class and subclass has access to means there are a ton of
ways to play. Bungie are FPS masters and that continues with Destiny 2. I also
have to give props for how good the movement and occasional platforming feels
in Destiny 2 as well. You have a sort of booster-assisted double jump and can
briefly fly and float around and it feels really precise and quite good. A lot
of the time platforming in first-person is awkward or even objectively bad, but
the movement in Destiny 2 feels great.
My only real complaint with Destiny 2 is in its use of
microtransactions. With real money you can buy new sparrows, ships, weapon and
armor mods, and custom armor shaders. Now, normally cosmetic items don’t bother
me much as microtransactions, but they are implemented in a somewhat
questionable way in Destiny 2. Armor shaders – to change the color of a piece
of armor – are now one time use consumable items that can only be applied to
one piece of armor. In other words, to have a full set of armor the same color
you have to use multiple shader items. Granted, the game does give you a lot of
shaders for free (especially after you reach level 20), but the coolest ones
have to be purchased and it all feels really slimy and gross. The premium
weapon and armor mods are more problematic as they aren’t just cosmetic and can
actually give you a competitive advantage, though admittedly somewhat minor at
this point, by boosting stats and offering other benefits. Gross. Just, gross.
On a much more positive note, the presentation in Destiny 2
is absolutely spectacular. No longer hamstrung by also having to appear on
last-gen hardware, Destiny 2 was made with Xbox One, PS4, and gaming PCs in
mind and it looks absolutely gorgeous. Right from the start of the campaign the
game shows off new visuals and special effects that wouldn’t have been possible
in Destiny 1 and it is incredibly good looking. Pair the great visuals with
dozens of enemies fighting on a massive battlefield, and the framerate never
budging an inch, and Destiny 2 is all the more impressive. Equally as stunning
is the incredible soundtrack. The music is just pitch perfect and matches every
scene and planet and mood and battle absolutely perfectly.
I fully expected to like Destiny 2 – I spent a good 200+
hours with Destiny 1, after all – but I didn’t expect it to be this much
better. With a better campaign, improved presentation, and greatly increased
amount of content, Destiny 2 is simply outstanding. It plays so good and has so
much to do that there is little question that you’re getting your money’s worth
this time around. It is a great multiplayer game, great co-op game, and, yes, a
great solo game if that’s how you want to play. Destiny 2 has far surpassed my
expectations and is a game I can see myself playing for quite a while, which
makes it very, very easy to recommend. Buy it.
Disclosure: A review code was provided by the publisher, Activision.
