Destiny 2

Destiny is a science-fiction first person shared world shooter that takes place in a post apocalyptic collapsed world where amazing alien technology brings to life Guardians filled with the power of the Light to fight off the hordes of Darkness and protect the last living city of humanity. The game was released on September 9th, 2014 and was met by the world with awe and wonder. After the success of the Alpha and the Beta releases of the game, which acted as temporary sneak peaks into what the game-play would be like and what the world would look like, the game hooked in over 4.6 million players [1] and from there the game made over $500 million within its first day [2]. Impressive numbers, to be sure. The game received high reviews averaging at around 8/10 or 4/5, the lowest I saw was a 6/10 by Game Spot [3]. As time went by the game progressed and the charm wore thin. Bungie released some game expansions for Destiny that were a mixture of good and bad including a fair amount of new content that some argued should have been included in the base game. As time went on folks were more or less okay with the game. It developed a solid fan-base of dedicated players who would grind away at the Raid's and destroy other Guardians in multiplayer game modes like the Iron Banner and the Trials of Osiris.

Fast forward past the destruction of Atheon, the second death of Crota, the defeating of Oryx and the decimation of Aksis and the brief period called Age of Triumph where you get to re-hash everything again and you arrive at Destiny 2.

Destiny 2 was released on September 6th, 2017 for folks in the US and will be released on October 24th, 2017 for folks on the PC through Blizzards application. Within it's first week Destiny 2 has already accrued over 1.2 million players [4], and that number is growing as faith in Bungie is quickly being restored.

NARRATIVE

The narrative in Destiny 2 picks up directly where Destiny 1 leaves off and does so in grand fashion. The story opens with the complete destruction of the social hub from Destiny 1, the only place in the game where you were totally safe, the place where you kept all your equipment and hard earned exotic gear, the place where you collected missions from your vanguard leaders and rewards from your faction representatives. All of it is destroyed by the hand of the Red Legion. Then Ghaul, the leader of the Red Legion, confronts your Guardian and just as he does so the Traveler is trapped behind a Cabal device and the Guardians are disconnected from their Light.

The story progresses and you get your Light back. You then go forward and destroy legions upon hordes upon troves upon throngs upon scores of bad guys. Then the game ends. I'm not going to spoil the ending, play the game. The story is very well written and the characters actually feel like they have a history that was previously absent in Destiny 1. Additionally the characters have a lot more to say, they bring up events that happened throughout Destiny 1 and they elude to events that have yet to pass (potential DLC content?).

With the addition of challenges and the new format for Public Events and the additional Adventures and Lost Sectors there is plenty of side story to explore and experience as the game goes on. There is absolutely no shortage of story and backstory to experience, it's quite impressive, especially in light of Destiny 1's lackluster and less than satisfying narrative.

GAMEPLAY

Bungie has always had solid game-play. Every game they have made has had fun and engaging gun-play from Halo: Combat Evolved all the way through to Destiny 2. They've again given us a fun world to explore full of enemies to kill. My first time dropping into a public play area there was a firefight happening between the Cabal and the Fallen. I intervened and destroyed everyone and gathered my loot. Just as I was about to walk away I was promptly destroyed in turn by the reinforcements. This continued for some time until I realized that I was too low a level and had to leave the zone to actually partake in my current mission.

Fighting bad guys is always something Bungie does right, and this time around they improved on every other element of game-play from the first game and even introduced a few new things while they were at it. New game-play elements include the Lost Sectors, Adventures, Challenges, and Meditations, these things take on elements of Destiny 1's bounties and patrols and offer higher rewards for it.

The Lost Sectors really feed into my desire for exploration, something that was seriously lacking in Destiny 1. You get to dive into the caves and little nooks and cranny's of every world and uncover hidden loot as well as powerful new enemies. These Lost Sectors litter each region and are a nice side activity to do while you're waiting on a buddy to wrap up a mission or finish applying new shader's.

Adventures are another new activity that are similar to patrols in that they occur during your free exploration the region, but differ from them because they actually have relevant narratives tied to them that not only progress characters but also increase the backstory to the areas you're in.

Challenges are activity based achievements that progress your experience in overall level and can get you gear from the vanguard when completed. If you're a part of a Clan beating challenges gives you extra Clan XP.

Meditations are replays of story missions that allow you to simply replay a series of missions and give you the opportunity for extra loot.

Those are just some of the things you can do in Destiny 2 that I've experienced, each region hosts multiples of these activities. And what is great is that those are just what I've done in the first week, there are more things to come, like the Raid being released on Wednesday, September 13th and the Trials of the Nine. Needless to say, there is no shortage of things to do, and each of them offer you powerful gear and loot to exploit against your enemies.

Additionally to these new events there are old events too that return with some flair. Patrols come back with some more variety. Public Events return with traceable locations and a new Heroic Event tier. Strikes return with plenty of powerful bosses to wage war against with your fireteam and the Nightfall Strikes are back with the new Guided Games feature (yet to be implemented).

VISUALS

The game looks gorgeous, as gorgeous as it can in fact. The lighting is far superior to Destiny 1 and the texture resolution is higher in countless assets. Not only that, but the asset density has increased substantially. There is just more things on screen at one time. More detailed meshes with higher resolution textures and mountains of foliage littering the landscapes make the game stand out as one of the more beautiful games to come out on this generation of console. Add in the wonderful lighting and the myriad of awesome particle effects and you've got yourself a mighty fine looking game. All of this, of course, is enhanced even further on the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X. And all of this is again enhanced even further if you're among the gamer's who owns a high end PC that can run this game at true 4K resolution and at 60 fps.

Destiny 2 shines brighter than Destiny 1 in every way, this is in part due to Bungie's ability to push their engine to its limits. They are no longer making their game optimized to be playable on last generation consoles, in fact that ended with Taken King. This means that folks on last generation consoles missed out on the Rise of Iron expansion and were unable to partake in the Age of Triumph. This is unfortunate to some regards, but inevitable. The support for last generation consoles is all but gone, and Bungie was one of the few devs willing to try to extend their support to that portion of their player base. This of course meant that their game had to be held back in some regards, mainly with visuals. This becomes amazingly apparent with Destiny 2 as the game runs on the same engine but looks worlds better.

CONCLUSIONS

Destiny 2 is the game that everyone wanted Destiny 1 to be. Bungie made all the right moves with making the same fun and action packed gameplay available in a world full of history and depth inhabited by characters that actually mean something and have something to offer. There is tons of activities to partake in, tons of ways to make your mark in the world, and no shortage of content in this sci-fi shared world shooter. Bungie has really stepped up to the plate and owned up to their missteps in Destiny 1 and done all of the right things to fix it.

9/10

SOURCES

[1] Ivan, Tom. “Destiny Beta Attracted 4.6 Million Players - CVG Australia.” ComputerAndVideoGamescom Multiformat RSS, 30 July 2014, 11:34 PM, web.archive.org/web/20140910200119/http://www.computerandvideogames.com/472771/destiny-beta-attracted-46-million-players/.

[2] Ohlheiser, Abby. “Activision’s Destiny Ships $500 Million in One Day.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 11 Sept. 2014, www.washingtonpost.com/news/technology/wp/2014/09/11/activisions-destiny-ships-500-million-in-one-day/?utm_term=.d2a031e029cf.

[3] VanOrd, Kevin. “Destiny Review.” GameSpot, 9 Sept. 2014, www.gamespot.com/reviews/destiny-review/1900-6415863/.

[4] Good, Owen S. “Destiny 2 Racks up 1.2 Million Players Online.” Polygon, Polygon, 10 Sept. 2017, www.polygon.com/2017/9/10/16283336/destiny-2-concurrent-players-million.

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