The action continues after a short cutscene (yes, there are cutscenes in missions now). We’ve boarded the Cabal capital ship and need to take down the shields. The level ended in the shield generator room where we were introduced to Destiny 2’s main antagonist, Ghaul. Large and menacing, Bungie claims that he’s a more complex villain than, say, Oryx, but he didn’t come across that way in the demo. Hopefully, we’ll see another side of him in the main game.
The most significant aspect of Destiny 2’s campaign is that it has an actual campaign. After Destiny and Rise of Iron’s cookie-cutter missions, it’s nice to have something with more variety and substance than “bad guy over there, go kill it.” That’s not saying Destiny 2’s campaign is anything deep. Characters jump in and out of the campaign quickly as the story moves you from world-to-world. While the quick pacing keeps things moving, it never slows down enough to create any connections between the player and the world. Worst yet is the player’s Guardian who, in Destiny 2, is relegated to a silent protagonist. Ghost ends up speaking the entire time for the player and comes off as annoying. The current set up with the Ghost quickly becomes grating, and even more annoying when other characters point out your silence. This was purposefully done so that players can become invested in their Guardian, but in execution comes off as cartoonish.
The strike displayed just how big Edge of Fate Expansion a leap the sequel is over its predecessor. The Inverted Spire is an exciting mission from beginning to end, showing off the design philosophy that will hopefully permeate the entire game. The maps were far more open, allowing us to approach the battles in certain ways. At one point, we had to cross a huge battlefield with Vex and Cabal battling in the craters. While there will be a lot of returning enemies, there will also be plenty of new ones. For example, the Cabal have War Beasts, doglike creatures that aren’t afraid to get in close and maul unsuspecting Guardians. Even the returning enemies have some neat new abilities. The Cabal Phalanx now has the ability to put down a bigger shield for a small amount of time, meaning you’ll have to jump over and walk around if you want to get them.
Most importantly, Homecoming is thematic for getting rid of the old and bringing in the new. The Tower was a place of excitement and frustration in the first game. Players would have to continuously go back to The Tower constantly and eventually it became a chore. Walking through the destroyed halls you walked through thousands of times is poignant. We’re saying goodbye to The Tower.
Assassin’s Creed II, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Mass Effect 2 are some of the greatest sequels of all time, but why? Each of these games had a flawed predecessor that showed great promise, which the developers were able to take and refine into strengths. With Destiny 2, Bungie is looking to achieve something similar. After three years of growing pains throughout the Destiny 1 era, the developer is finally ready to look to the future with a numbered sequel. With an actual campaign, new worlds to explore and an update to the game’s progression systems, is Destiny 2 the sequel fans deserve or is the number at the end warrantless?
Competitive multiplayer returns in the form of Crucible, which has gone through extensive tweaks. Gone are the 6v6 matches, replaced with 4v4 matches. While this is a curious choice, the player count works rather well in-game. All multiplayer maps have been designed with this number in mind and it’s easy to find firefights. Playing Crucible is also more rewarding with loot generously dropped and Crucible Reputation tokens after each match.
The European Dead Zone is a dramatic change from the Cosmodrome. While the Cosmodrome was mostly fields dotted with wrecked planes and boats, the EDZ is a quaint European village overtaken by a lush forest. With more verticality and unique architecture, the EDZ gives off a strong first impression.
Destiny 2 looks substantially better than the original game. Models and textures are more detailed, the worlds are bigger and more varied and the cinematics are top notch CG. It’s shaping up to be a stunning package on PS4 and PC. While the PS4 build we played was running on PS4 Pro, it wasn’t easy to discern any upgrades due to the size of the screen we played on. PC players, on the other hand, are in for a real treat. On PC, we did notice that pop-in was far less severe and it was nice finally getting to play Destiny at 60 frames-per-second. Unfortunately, the console version still runs at 30 frames-per-second.
The battlefield then led to the dig site, which shows just how cinematic Bungie intends all missions to be. Giant drills are circling around, and getting smacked by one of them automatically kills a Guardian. You have to navigate across a Cliffside while trying not to get hit by them, and dealing with the Cabal. With so many moving parts, The Inverted Spire is easily more cinematic than anything in the vanilla version of Destiny.
