Now unfortunately I feel like I have to make a distinction right away. People have a bad habit of aligning themselves on one of two sides and usually fill in their own words to other people’s statements. When I say Destiny 2 is “back on my radar,” I mean that it is now up in the air if I purchase the title or not. So I’m not on the Destiny is great boat nor am I on the Destiny 2 sucks side. Although the first one was pretty balls. The beta was a means to see if Bungie knew how to correct the misgivings of old, regardless of length. If they nailed it, then my purchase of the second game would move into a maybe (upon further information) and not the definite category. After all the first game’s beta hid the lack of plot pretty well.
Ok, let me quickly catch some newer viewers up to speed in case they weren’t aware of my previous works here at Pure PlayStation and my reasons for disliking Bungie’s “Destiny.” For a short while I was an official PlayStation Blogger and it was awesome. During that time I actually visited Bungie Studios up in Seattle on a trip to PAX Prime. The developers lauded their next original IP to us and promised all kinds of things for Destiny. They even showed amazing gameplay and action set pieces that never made it into the full game.
Needless to say, I was more excited for the eventual release than Chris Harding is whenever his child goes down easy for a nap. Fast forward to a few weeks after launch and I am pissed. Not only was the story utter crap, but the level designs were bland and repetitive, daily goals were quite annoying, and nothing good came out of Destiny except for a few raids. Also, good job Activision and Co. on making the disappointment last ten years. Plus, I was lied too (and to my face no less) which didn’t make my relationship with the game any better.
I swore off Destiny and just like Battlefront the following year, I hoped a sequel would actually make a proper experience for the franchise. Enter the Destiny 2 beta that occurred over the weekend. Rest assured my loathing was still kicking around, but I was open to Bungie fixing their boneheaded mistakes. Right off the bat I was thrown into a massive, Cabal attack on the Tower that was shown in the trailers. Buildings were ruined, fires were everywhere, and believable panic rang through my headset. Also, the first two levels actually conveyed a sense of world building and some pretty awesome moments. I mean epic standoffs, powerful Warlocks jumping on flying ships, and the Traveler being made obsolete gave me some minor goosebumps. The world building was definitely there.
So we can put a tentative check mark on an actual coherent story. What about the level designs? Well, I’m happy to say not every objective involved deploying a ghost and defending it from waves of enemies. Like seriously Bungie, why did you think overplaying that to death was a good idea? The available strike mission with three players actually breathed life into the gameplay. There were no annoying hallways to run down nor repetitively designed maps. In fact, the entire mission changed environments multiple times and offered some great views. Just to name a few: making your way around a giant excavator, platforming across floating stones, fighting a boss that removes the floor from your feet, and just the tiered structure of the environment. You truly could fight high or low depending on your playstyle. That’s another check mark for actually designing a meaningful level that befits the in-game universe.
The Crucible for the most part remained the same. Sure power weapon ammo was now on walls and a few Supers were changed, but the majority of everything remained the same. Not that it matters too much to me. The PvP mostly took a backseat to Destiny’s other social aspects at the time I played. Not to say I wasn’t good mind you. I could make the Titan’s bubble shield into an offensive nightmare. It’s just that this franchise originally advertised itself like an MMORPG. So questing with friends far and wide across a makeshift universe was my priority.
That’s exactly what I’m hoping Destiny 2 brings to the table. The beta seemingly addressed all the major issues I had with the first title and, like I said, this second helping is now on my radar. Sadly, a beta only represents a small portion of an unfinished game so my hopes aren’t given up yet. I learned my lesson the first time around and here’s hoping Bungie did as well.
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