We've beaten the campaign, bested the Leviathan Raid, and competed in the Trials of the Nine. Now it's time for the Verdict.
Destiny 2 succeeds where the original failed the most: its delivery of a story-driven campaign good enough to match its finely tuned first-person shooter gameplay and great looks. Gathering loot and upgrades through missions and activities with my Fireteam and then finally running the climactic Raid together was a blast. And every time I thought my friends and I were scraping the bottom of the content barrel, Destiny 2 teased us with more that was just a few Light levels away.
From the opening moments, Destiny 2 delivers Dominus Ghaul, an excellent antagonist whose cruelty earns our fury by taking away everything that had been built up in Destiny and its expansions, including our Guardians’ Light. The campaign that follows is filled with brilliant cutscenes that give the cast an opportunity to show great emotional range, and you can hear the sadness and determination in their voices. Zavala (played by Lance Reddick) is unwavering in his plan to assault Ghaul, while Ikora (Gina Torres) seems distraught and near the point of giving up. That context gives both new and returning players a sensible reason to climb the Light-level based power ladder, whether for the first time or all over again. It kept me moving forward through fun missions set in eye-catching environments, including the exhilarating penultimate mission.
Meanwhile, a soaring soundtrack backs pulse-pounding missions before shifting gears to evoke a tinge of sadness. The sound design is impeccable overall, with rewarding splashes of glimmer each time you open a chest or a silencing of the ambient noise when you aim down sights. Every adjustment is important, giving you the audio information you need instead of overwhelming you with everything at once.
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Bungie’s laid out a wide range of activities.
To challenge us on the way back to the top, Bungie’s laid out a wide range of avenues that include Public Events, PvP (player vs. player) in the Crucible, roaming world bosses, treasure chests, Lost Sectors, Adventure side-quests, patrols, planet-specific challenges, Flashpoints, Vanguard missions, Exotic Quests, Strikes (Destiny’s dungeons, basically), the Nightfall (a more elaborate take on Strikes), the lengthy campaign, and of course the Leviathan Raid (the biggest, most complex dungeon).
Especially early on, there’s so much to do it’s almost overwhelming. I found myself frequently getting distracted from the activity I embarked upon by something enticing, like a roaming boss or public event that promised some quick loot. It’s a good problem to have, in that I never felt bored, but keep in mind these all seem targeted toward early Light level Guardians. While all of these battles will help get you to level 265, climbing to the max of 350 (the cap indicated in menu tips) is going to require tackling much tougher challenges like Leviathan, Nightfall, and Trials of the Nine – the endgame, in other words.
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The final encounter fizzled out a bit.
The campaign was my first priority, since the story had hooked me so well. But, after around 10 hours of buildup, the final encounter fizzled out a bit. Due to some awkward super ability restrictions, I had to resort to finding a safe spot and shooting the ultimate enemy in the foot until he died. It seems as though the encounter was meant for projectile supers, but without any way of knowing that going in, I hadn’t yet earned one that could do effective damage. It was an especially odd problem to have because Bungie has in the past shown that its Destiny 2 designers know how to make Strikes and Raid bosses interesting from a mechanical perspective, making the boss portion of the ending a surprising disappointment in what was an otherwise fantastic run.
Thankfully, the excellent quests and more elaborate Strikes that followed the campaign come with much-improved boss encounters and an extra dose of quality lore. After the campaign ends you can still experience some new story events via additional Quests on each of the four planetoid locations in Destiny 2. These not only flesh out the intriguing new characters we’ve met there, but also do a good job of guiding you into new spots you may have missed and fun encounters built to be played with a three-person Fireteam. They also end with big rewards, like Exotic Quests and coveted Legendary items, making them a great way to continue your climb to max Light. I’m hoping that Bungie doubles down on these with even more quests, either daily or weekly, as some left me wanting more.
The four world maps do a fantastic job of setting the tone, too. Whether it’s the milky waterfalls of Nessus or the overgrown European Dead Zone, each offers a colorful and unique palette to explore as you acquire their plentiful loot. Adding to that, there are also items scattered throughout each destination offering snippets of lore about the location, and gear sets you can acquire by turning in tokens earned from the above activities in exchange for reputation at that destination’s vendor. Bungie understandably wants to encourage everyone to take all this in, but goes a little too far by withholding the fast-moving Sparrow bikes for too long in order to force you to walk through it the first time (unless you get lucky and get one in a drop or pay for one via Bright Engrams).
“Stay Alert Out There” - Cayde-6
The first Destiny is a strong first-person shooter built using expertise from Bungie’s days developing the Halo series, but subtle touches have made a big difference in Destiny 2 when it comes to making moment-to-moment combat more explosive and exciting. For example, popping an enemy’s shield with the right damage type causes it to hit its nearby allies with area-of-effect damage, and scoring a headshot on a Fallen treats you to a light show as its soul escapes its body; both are welcome bursts of validation, and Destiny 2 dishes out these types of visual and gameplay rewards left and right.
While there aren’t a ton of different weapon types (as you’d see in something like Borderlands 2), the constant gear drops and game-changing Exotic weapons and upgrades propel your power level higher, creating that feeling of growing strength and readiness to take on all challengers. When I equipped my Titan with the Actium War Rig Exotic chestpiece that automatically reloads a portion of the ammo in your assault rifle over time, it increased my damage output dramatically in a way that was more interesting than simply boosting the damage value on each bullet. Alternatively, The Rat King hand cannon grants you invisibility if you reload immediately after a kill. Destiny 2 is full of items like these, and earning them feels like an achievement because of how much they change your play.
The gear chase has some rocky parts, though, because Destiny 2 doesn’t take the time to explain how its upgrade and infusion systems work. Mods can be a bit confusing at first because you have to absorb a lot of obscure rules. For instance, if the mods are Legendary they’ll add 5 attack power to your gear; however, if they don’t have a mod attached you can still infuse a Rare weapon into a Legendary weapon and see a Light level increase. Sound confusing? That’s because it is! But once you get acquainted with the math it’s a little more comprehensible. If you don’t want to have the same frustration at wasted progress that I did, I recommend checking our Destiny 2 wiki guide for tips on how to do it efficiently.
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