14 DAY TRIAL // 
For what it's worth, Bungie tried hard to further improve Destiny after the serious backlash the game got from many players disappointed by the lack of content. Even with all the DLCs Bungie consequently released, Destiny remains an unfulfilled promise that only the most dedicated fans continued to play until the launch of the sequel.
Destiny 2 is a much bigger game, which improves on all the gameplay features and mechanics of the original. More importantly, it does come with a meaningful story that drives solo players through all the game's content without turning the experience into an absolute borefest.
But did Destiny's gameplay changed that much from three years ago as to surprise veterans of the franchise? Well, yes, and no. Although Bungie took all the feedback received to make a better game, it didn't change the core mechanics, which makes sense if you want to keep that large player base you gathered since 2014.
After playing Destiny 2 for more than 40 hours, completing the story campaign, and the weekly strike, there's no doubt that Bungie pour quite a lot of content into the game without alienating or confusing fans of the franchise.
Disclaimer: Destiny 2 was reviewed using a final “retail” downloadable PlayStation 4 code provided by Activision.
Story
Now this is probably one of the controversial subjects about Destiny. It's also one of the reasons many players of the original game felt betrayed. After promising to offer a complex story in a continuously expansive universe, Bungie delivered a hollow first game that never reached expectations, not even three more DLCs.
Thankfully, this is the first “issue” that Bungie addressed, so Destiny 2 finally has a decent story (that's actually in the game, not on the game's website). More importantly, you don't need to have played the first Destiny in order to understand what's happening in the sequel.
The scenario is nothing complex: bad aliens attack humanity, and after an initial defeat heroes of our race overpower the antagonist. But, as the saying goes, devil is in the details, so here is a bit more about what's happening in Destiny 2 without spoiling it for you.
Humanity is living a Golden Age thanks to an extraterrestrial being that looks like a huge sphere called The Traveler. New technological discoveries, peace and prosperity for many years allowed humanity to finally reach for the stars and start colonizing other planets.
Unfortunately, The Traveler's benevolent intervention didn't go unnoticed and its archenemy, The Darkness sent its tendrils throughout the Universe to try and eradicate the light of the Traveler. In an effort to drive The Darkness out and protect the humanity, the Traveler makes the ultimate sacrifice.
When the Traveler sacrifices to beat the Darkness with its Light, it doesn't actually die, but spreads its power to the so-called “ghosts.” These are AIs (artificial intelligence) that have the power to revive “guardians,” especially chosen to protect humanity.
You are a guardian, and although the Darkness was defeated, the forces that were touched by its malefic presence continue to assault humanity, so it's your job to drive them away as far as possible.
Long story short, you're an immortal guardian who shoots aliens who want to do bad thing to people. Even though the scenario picks up from where the original game left off, you don't really need to know anything about Destiny's story to understand what's happening in the sequel.
The campaign stories have a “power” requirement that allows players to see whether they're ready for it and how hard it will be to complete it. The power level of a guardian is based on the gear it wears, so the better the gear, the higher the power level, and the easier it should be to complete a mission.
I believe it will take about 10-15 hours to finish the main campaign, but that highly depends on the number of “secondary” missions one chooses to complete to increase the power level of his/her guardian.
However, if you decide to play with friends, it will take less time to finish the story arc, or you'll be able to finish more side quests and make your guardian more powerful before you get to maximum level.
Naturally, the end of the story arc doesn't mean the end of the game. There are literally hundreds of side quests that tells smaller stories that fit into a bigger puzzle. Every time you go through these short adventures, you learn a bit more about each location you visit and the people that inhabit them, as well as how they were affected by the alien invasion.
If you're into discovering more lore about Destiny's universe the adventures and side quests that you take on will surely provide you with insights on the events that took place during and after the Legion's attack.
Gameplay
Destiny 2, just like the predecessor, is a first-person MMO shooter. If you've previously played the first installment in the series, the game will definitely not surprise you, as Bungie didn't change any core gamplay mechanics. As a player of the first game, I sensed some polishing and slight improvements to the mechanics. Weapons feel more or less stable, according to their stats, and classes have been simplified a lot allowing for more gameplay variety.
We're still treated with the same three classes: Titan, Hunter and Warlock. Each of the main classes have three sub-classes with their own skill trees that forces players to adopt a certain play style. Just like in the first game, you can switch between sub-classes on the go, although your powers will take some time to become available again.
There are three types of weapons in the game: kinetic, energy and power. More importantly, you aren't forced to use a rifle, a hand cannon and a sniper rifle as your main loadout any longer. You can now have a pistol in the first weapon slot, another pistol in the second slot and a sword in the third. You can even carry and use three rifles in your weapon slots: auto, scout and sniper.
I believe, it makes much more sense than the categories in the first game. Unfortunately, the upgrade and tweaking system for the weaponry isn't clearly explained in the game, so you'll have to experiment with it since it's different than what Bungie introduced in Destiny.
Mods for your weapons now drop from engrams and so are the shaders. The latter are one-time use items, but more can be bought via micro-transactions. Still, by the time I finished the campaign story I was swamping in shaders, so I see no reason to buy any if I don't want to.
Basically, each weapon comes with traits that the player can choose to enable at no expense. However, if you want to upgrade a weapon and make it better, you'll have to dismantle another weapon of the same type with a higher light level. The same goes for armors. Also, you can only wear one exotic armor and have just one exotic weapon armed and ready to blast your opponents.
Naturally, each of the weapon types are more effective against certain enemies, but the good news is you can seamlessly switch between weapon slots. That will allow players to be prepared for just about anything that Bungie throws at them.
When it comes to gameplay, Bungie streamlined and made everything simpler and better. You'll have to grind quite a lot, but there's so much content in the form of activities that it's mostly fun rather than a chore.
Weekly Flashpoint and Nightfall strike, Leviathan raid, adventures, patrols, and side quests are just some of the activities that you'll be able to take on in Destiny 2. More importantly, most of these quests have mini-stories that reveal interesting details that add to the overall lore.
Another improvement that Bungie added is the so-called Guided Games. Although it's still in beta, it does work well enough to be made available to everyone at a larger scale. With Guided Games, a Clan (or guild) can open up a slot in their fireteam for a solo player and guide him/her through end content.
Solo players looking to join a Clan's fireteam is called a Seeker and needs Guided Game Ticket and the required power level for that particular strike. These tickets can be found in the mailbox, as Bungie sent them in-game to select players. Keep in mind that if you quit or disconnect during the activity, you'll receive a penalty and will not be able to join another guided game for a limited time.
As expected, the co-op experience is infinitely better than the solo play. Fortunately, Bungie has prepared for both types of players, as Destiny 2 can entertain guardians for hundreds of hours.
Graphics and audio
Those who've played the first game will feel right at home when playing Destiny 2, visually-speaking. Although Destiny 2 looks pretty much the same on all three consoles – PS4 Pro, PS4 and Xbox One – the former supports 4K resolutions. The console version of Destiny 2 is capped at 30fps, but the PC game should come with uncapped frames per second.
Graphics-wise, Destiny 2 looks very much like the predecessor, but there are some consistent improvements in the shadow department and weather effects. Destiny 2 looks and feels slightly better than the first game, which makes sense considering Bungie had 3 years to improve the engine.
The part where Destiny 2 is clearly a step up from the predecessor is sound. There's much more music in the background during missions and not just those that are part of the story campaign. There are times when the music sustains the game more than the graphics or story, but that's a good thing. More importantly, most of the music fits perfectly with “wow” moments in the game, something that's rarely seen in MMO games.
Multiplayer
The multiplayer aspect of Destiny 2 is more of the same if you've tried it in the original game. However, there are some changes and additions that makes it easier to understand and less chaotic. For starters, the Crucible can hold 4 vs. 4 matches, as opposed to 6 vs. 6 in the first game.
Multiplayer is split into Quick Play and Competitive, but both can be played by beginners, so don't be afraid to experiment. Naturally, the latter requires a bit more team-play, but you should be fine even if you don't play with your own fireteam.
For the time being, there are five multiplayer modes that players can experience: Clash (kill the enemy team to score points); Control (capture and hold key positions to score points); Supremacy (collect crests from fallen enemies to score points); Survivor (deplete the enemy team’s reserve of lives to win each round); Countdown (defend/detonate a bomb or eliminate the enemy team to win each round).
The weapon structure in the PvP matches has been redesigned to offer more balance. Although stats on your equipment and weapons do not count in PvP games, certain type of weapons are better suited for particular maps. Also, super-abilities recharge much slower in PvP than PvE, so you'll probably be able to use them once or twice per match.
In order to have fun and win PvP matches, the best tactic is to stick with your team. Even if neither of you are skilled in PvP, there's a chance you might overwhelm the enemy team with your firepower.
The Good
- Plenty of content to play after campaign story.
- Excellent co-op and competitive gameplay.
- There's an actual story in it, and a decent one.
- Clan system is a great tool to better approach end content.
- Improves on just about every aspect of gameplay from Destiny.
The Bad
- No new alien races to shoot.
- Still not recommended for solo players.
Conclusion
I believe Destiny 2 is what the first game should have been, so I'm expecting considerable more improvements in the next titles (or DLCs). A good story doubled by a huge amount of content seems to be the winning formula for Bungie's new Destiny game.
It's a good start that opens up huge possibilities for the Destiny universe. The game feels much more coherent story-wise, and the small tweaks and changes to the gameplay make it much better than Destiny 1.
Although Destiny 2 requires quite a lot of grinding, the whole process doesn't really feel like a chore since there are so many varied activities that you'll rarely do the same thing twice in a month (unless it's a weekly activity, or you really want to).
First and foremost, Destiny 2 does not frustrate players by placing parts of the end game under hard to achieve power level requirements. There's plenty of loot to gain and, more importantly, you're actually having fun while obtaining it.
