Ah Destiny, just a shell of a game when you first came out in 2014, but you’ve grown into a popular franchise with your DLC’s and companion voice changes. Now you are reinventing yourself with a whole new sequel, but do you think it will be able to stand up on it’s own and feel like a full fledged game? Well, let’s take a look.

Destiny 2 has been out now for a few weeks and I’ve been playing since shortly after release.  I can safely say that it does feel like they have improved the game from the first one. For starters they actually gave the game a solid story that details the fall of the tower and the loss of the Light, which comes from essentially a magical mechanical ball known as the Traveler. The story doesn’t really have a super surprising plot line, as it is the standard enemy invades takes over and steals something important but it feels more hashed out than the first game’s “Hey go fight on some planets or  collect stuff from enemies or whatever.  I don’t really care just keep going till you get the best weapons and armor until the DLC that costs as much as the original game comes out and makes those weapons garbage”. Yep the first game left a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth at first, but once the complete edition released I went back and played the Taken King (despite how much fighting the Hive already annoyed me) as well as Rise of Iron, which I liked a little better than Taken King.  The complete edition made it feel like it was a full game. Now mind you I already knew they were gonna do something similar with Destiny 2 but the base game didn’t feel as bare as the first one.

One big thing that was done well in both Destiny and Destiny 2 is the overall design of the game.  For having four unique areas to visit each one feels like it was the main location they focused on. Seriously, all the maps look amazing and since they are open world it really makes them impressive. The character design and enemy design always look good.  Lastly anyone who has played Destiny knows the weapons look good, especially with the moving hammers and rotating revolver chambers that start to move even when you don’t fully fire a round.  The game just looks good all the time.

While it is always nice when a game looks good, it has to feel good and be fresh every time you pick it up.  The first game would get boring after a while due to repetition, and Destiny 2 while it has changed still has that ability since once you beat the 10 hour story you may be tired of killing aliens.  Afterward though you can of course fight in the Crucible until you want to do a Strike or Raid.  Then you can start a whole new character and do it all over again. This is a game of repetition however, it will feel good while you throw yourself into challenge after challenge, it feels as good to play as it looks. Every time you play it is an entertaining experience, not always fresh but it definitely has the ability to keep people playing especially if you are into loot hunting.

Speaking of loot, there is a metric ton of loot to find.  Some things you should know about the loot system.  It looks like they may have toned down the spawning of engrams, not a lot but you may not be getting the same level of engrams as in the first game. However it does seem to make up for it, they just let you trade in items like gun parts and region specific coins to get legendary weapons.  Exotics are also pretty easy to get now as well (I have like 4-6 already). Another way to get loot is through the Eververse which is a paid loot system but that is for primarily cosmetics.  A few weapon mods are thrown in but I haven’t seen anything that could be classified as game breaking.

There are some more new features as well.  There are now more enemy types in the game specifically for the Cabal faction.  The Taken are in the base game (insert sarcastic yay).  We have two social hubs in the base game, a better travel system, and competitive PvP for more of a challenge.

All in all I would say Destiny 2 is quite the improvement when you base it off of the original Destiny at launch. It looks good and feels good to play,  has a real story, and has more loot than the average person has time for. The game already has two expansions planned with the pack set at $30 so there will be more Destiny 2 coming. Whether those are small DLC’s like the first game or actual full size expansions we’ll have to wait and see.

Destiny 2 gets:

4 out of 5

What’s Legit:

+A Real Story

+Looks great

+Plays great

+Loads of loot

What’s Perpetrating:

-Can get repetitive

-DLC could get pricey again