The base version of Destiny 2 was recently given away for free because of an anniversary event. I had previously avoided the game due to, we’ll call them “errors in judgement”, about how progression and customisation was handled within the game. Now that I’ve played through the main quest I have Opinions so let’s get to it.
pow, pow, bang
Destiny 2 is made by Bungie and if Bungie knows one thing it’s how to make a tight shooter. Gunplay is great and the variations between guns feel unique and fresh when swapping between them. They’ve even made the melee feel better than in the original destiny, it really packs a punch now. That pun was intended and I have no remorse. My personal favourite of the weapons is the grenade launcher, lobbing all sorts of boom into the faces of enemies near and far.
Sequel? Reboot? Seekboot?
This game isn’t exactly a sequel but has too many references to be reboot. Destiny 2 sits in the awkward middle zone between a sequel and a reboot. Everything is shown to you as if it was the first time you encountered it. This is completely normal for introducing new players to the systems but from a lore standpoint feels disjointed from the previous game.
In Destiny, it always felt like you were starting the story halfway through and it was confusing because all this jargon was thrown at you. It was vaguely explained that there was the resurrection of a big bad that some previous characters killed but it always felt like that should have been part of the game not just dialogue. After re-killing the big bad, killing a dark god, stopping a civil war and annihilating an even bigger bad we ended with a fairly rich world lore for the next game to step off of, except it didn’t.
Destiny 2 acts like Destiny pretty much didn’t happen, almost all of the characters are there doing their thing with some fresh NPCs to fill out the roster but the only reference I’ve found so far to any of the incredible things that occurred in Destiny is a brief mention of Oryx. The enemies all make a return too with the addition of that unit type everyone always loves forever: exploding enemies.
You don’t need to play Destiny to understand Destiny 2 in fact, I actually recommend not playing Destiny at all and skipping right to 2 if you want to get into the franchise. All you will accomplish by playing through Destiny is a lot of sunk time with no way to carry it forward into Destiny 2.
My Game Their Story
Destiny 2’s story is adequate. I could make lots of little bugbears about corny lines or misplaced idioms, about how everyone wants to compete for memorable one-liners, and narrative tropes, but it’s not worth it. The story is easy to follow, has a clear beginning; middle; and end, and does engage with some character struggle and development. The real problem is that none of that applies to my character.
We are the doer, we are sent out to kill things and take territory and we succeed with aplomb. Nothing can stop us when we set our sites on a goal. We don’t make decisions we simply follow orders. While we are busy killing, taking, and living the ultimate power fantasy it is the NPC’s that get to enjoy all the story. All the character exploration and growth is done by the NPC’s, A titan who has to find the courage to lead, a warlock who must overcome her fear of death, a hunter who- well he actually doesn’t change that much at all. The cutscenes for the game actually highlight this focus, I can only remember two cutscenes where the player was the focus of what was going on.
I felt slightly baffled and a little disappointed by the time I reached the end of the main campaign. Sure I was going out and doing awesome things, but it felt like the game didn’t care, that it wasn’t about me. The original Destiny might have been way vaguer and confusing but while there was a world going on around you the game was focused on what you were doing. You were doing great things and the game’s focus helped reinforce that. By the end of Destiny 2, I felt like the story would have gone on fine with anybody filling my role or even no one at all.
TL:DR gib rating
Destiny 2 at this point is a good game. There’s lots of activities to keep you occupied, pvp, raids all those mmo-lite goodies, but is not a great a game. Bungie still has a ways to go in terms of player focus and story telling before I’d grant it that title. Sound team knocked it out of the park though. GG sound team.