‘Destiny 2’ video game review
By Greg Waldock, Staff Writer
3.5/5
Destiny 2 is everything the original Destiny needed to be at launch. The first Destiny was bold and beautiful, but was nearly unplayable due to bugs, a bizarre company policy on communication, and less content than a bag of chips. Its sequel builds on its successes and avoids the failures that nearly killed the franchise, resulting in a thrilling game that, despite a lack of content, manages to be full of personality and fun.
Bungie has been nothing if not incredibly daring with the Destiny series, even if it doesn’t always pay off. The original was an incredible game with a rich, weird lore, a lot of high-concept science fiction ideas, and a very interesting approach to fusing MMO mechanics with a fast-paced combat system. The sequel continues most of this, keeping the good of the first but with the addition of the past three years of experience for Bungie. It’s cleaner and more refined, and much less of a well-polished skeleton than the first. Unfortunately, Destiny 2 still doesn’t have a lot of content once the campaign is over.
Destiny 1 was unbelievably barebones at launch. The plot was short and largely nonsensical, and the postgame content was unrewarding and repetitive. It grew exponentially better with each new piece of downloadable content (DLC), creating a diverse game with a ton of activities. Destiny 2 feels like Destiny 1 did at launch, rather than a continuation of the amazing stories that happened over the past three years. It’s still barebones. It’s still obviously in need of hotfixes and add-ons and DLC to feel like a full game. It’s much less of a buggy unbalanced mess, but it’s very obviously incomplete. It’s disappointing to have to pay another $40 to $60 and wait several years for all the DLC.
This time around, though, things are looking more optimistic for the franchise. It’s no longer split between two very different console generations—which was a colossal impairment to Destiny 1. It’s already looking better organized, with more community communication and free events. The plot is coherent and damn fun, and the main antagonist is a fascinating guy to fight against. The weapon designs are sleeker, the abilities are flashier, and the banter between Cayde-6, Zavala, and Ikora is back and better than ever. The art direction is ridiculously good and Bungie took full use of the new console generation, making heavily forested environments that mesh nicely with the artificial sci-fi designs.
If you enjoyed Destiny 1 after the horrendous launch and many hiccups, you’ll immediately fall in love with Destiny 2. It’s a continuation of everything you loved in the first and promises to be another incredible journey when the rest of the DLC is released. Destiny 2 shows how far Bungie has come since their Halo days and demonstrates their drive to keep innovating and refining their strange little series.
