Whether they intended it or not, when Bungie stated during the livestream that community was what bound Destiny together, they made relationship clear. Destiny is about playing with friends new and old. It could be a one off, with the new Guided Games or something more concrete with friends who have banded together again to face the encroaching darkness. If community is so important to Destiny 2 Weekly inventory, it was only understandable that this path would be traversed eventually. Relationship, is something most of us take part in everyday whether we like it or not. Even the Guardians in the Tower couldn’t escape the inevitable crouchers that would surround you or the dance parties. Oh, the dance parties. People can’t help but be drawn to each other, even if it means joining others only in digital spaces.
Destiny 2 has even managed to mess up its core gameplay. While the developers’ hearts were surely in the right place when they chose to streamline the gameplay in the name of accessibility and PvP balance, in practice most of their changes have done more harm than good. One can tell that PvP was the major focus, because the changes work quite well for it. No longer do players have to endure the frustration of shotgun metas and constantly getting mapped by sniper rifles. Reduced access to abilities and power/special weapons allows for slower engagements. They’ve opened the door for an improved Crucible experience. The problem is that these changes are downright awful for the rest of the game. As it stands, Destiny 2’s gameplay mechanics encourage the hoarding of abilities and ammo rather than their enjoyment.
[DeeJ] We pick up the adventure where it last left off. You are a Guardian of the last safe city, except it’s not so safe anymore. The entire might of the Cabal military descend upon you. Dominus Ghaul leads the Red Legion, the most dreaded fighting force in Cabal Empire to scatter the Guardians across the Solar System and capture the Traveler for himself. So, in the opening act, we lose everything that makes us a Guardian. Our power, our weapons, our armor, it’s all gone. Scattered into the wild, we’re going to find new subclasses, new power, new weapons and armor so that we can become more powerful, regroup the survivors, and launch an attack to reclaim that was rightfully ours.
We have all-new worlds to explore. Immediately after the opening act, your character is exiled into the European Dead Zone. It’s an Earth destination and the biggest map we’ve ever created by far. You will explore this destination and its lush forests. That’s really where you’ll start your new journey. You’ll journey to Titan, an oceanic moon. The entire moon is one big sea, but there are these human installations that were erected during the Golden Age. You’ll go to Io, which is one of Jupiter’s moons and is the last place the Traveler touched before the Collapse. It’s a place of magic and mysticism. Finally, you’ll go to Nessus, which is an unstable planetoid that has been completely transformed into a machine world by the Vex.
It’s a difficult thing to predict. I know that we’re going to constantly pay attention to how the community plays the game. We’re going to listen to the things they talk to us about. We’re going to take their suggestions and blend it with our vision for how the franchise can evolve and change. We’ll always give those who play Destiny new challenges to face, and we’re going to send them to new worlds. We’re always going to tell new stories and keep players guessing. We don’t want Destiny to become stagnant or predictable.
Well that didn’t take long. It’s only been about a month since Destiny 2 released and it’s already struggling to hold its players’ attention. Many are focusing on loot or the sheer lack of content as the cause, but the game’s real issues run a bit deeper. Having loot to grind for is all well and good, but it doesn’t amount to much when there’s not a whole lot one can actually do with it. The game’s economy has also undergone a very player-unfriendly change, one that encourages microtransactions and hoarding over fun and engagement. Even the moment-to-moment gameplay has suffered. What was once relatively fluid and fast-paced combat has become slow and laborious. As it stands, Destiny 2 meets the basic requirements necessary to be called a full and proper sequel rather than a glorified expansion, but falls into the category of unsatisfying sequel that “fixed” all of the wrong things.
AI has been improved to where enemies don’t just stand there waiting for players to off them. They will duck and weave and attempt to drive players out of cover. They aren’t as aggressive as, say, Uncharted or Halo, but it’s a noticeable step up from the original game.
[Jason Harris]: It’s really an amazing narrative opportunity to strip away the powers. It’s the tried and true, “is Superman really Superman without his powers,” scenario. If given the opportunity, we would have loved to do more missions without players having their Light, but that is not the case. I looked at it as nothing more than a great story opportunity.
