Destiny 2: The Story So Far

It’s been less than a year since Destiny 2’s launch, with highs and lows, but mostly lows. Players may have fallen off Destiny 2 faster than a Sparrow racing its way through…oh wait (I miss Sparrow Racing). It’s this exact feeling, however, that Bungie is battering its player base with. For those who have come from Bolt Charge Destiny 2 and stuck around — through gritted teeth — and those who are newcomers to the IP, it’s been like climbing a vertical mountain that’s starting to invert itself on the way up. Slowly, Bungie has course corrected and it’s filling in much of the gaps that should have been filled in to begin with. When an entire weapon selection is useless for much of the first year, something might be wrong, especially because it leads to one of the worst grievances of all — not having fun.

Destiny 2 has even managed to mess up its core gameplay. While the developers’ hearts were surely in the right place when they chose to streamline the gameplay in the name of accessibility and PvP balance, in practice most of their changes have done more harm than good. One can tell that PvP was the major focus, because the changes work quite well for it. No longer do players have to endure the frustration of shotgun metas and constantly getting mapped by sniper rifles. Reduced access to abilities and power/special weapons allows for slower engagements. They’ve opened the door for an improved Crucible experience. The problem is that these changes are downright awful for the rest of the game. As it stands, Destiny 2’s gameplay mechanics encourage the hoarding of abilities and ammo rather than their enjoyment.

But anyway, the Inverted Spire is all about putting a stop to Protheon, the Modular Mind. To get to him, you’ll have to fight through hoards of Vex and Cabal who are also fighting each other. They take you down into a dig site, where the Cabal have been looking for Protheon. It’s pretty straight forward, but there are some cool set pieces, like the dig site itself, which has you dodging huge drills as you descend, and Protheon’s temple, which changes as the fight goes on.

Finally, we were able to sneak in a match of Countdown, a new multiplayer mode in Destiny 2. The mode is essentially Search & Destroy. One team is tasked with planting a bomb, and the other is tasked with defusing it. If an entire team is eliminated, however, the round ends. The first team to win six rounds is the victor. It’s a neat mode for those who like these types of multiplayer modes. For those who don’t like it, modes like Clash will return. Unlike Destiny, however, all multiplayer modes will only support eight players, down from twelve.

Destiny 2 looks substantially better than the original game. Models and textures are more detailed, the worlds are bigger and more varied and the cinematics are top notch CG. It’s shaping up to be a stunning package on PS4 and PC. While the PS4 build we played was running on PS4 Pro, it wasn’t easy to discern any upgrades due to the size of the screen we played on. PC players, on the other hand, are in for a real treat. On PC, we did notice that pop-in was far less severe and it was nice finally getting to play Destiny at 60 frames-per-second. Unfortunately, the console version still runs at 30 frames-per-second.

The final piece of DLC is more of an isolated incident on Earth, with a couple of overlaying issues after the fact. This takes the player to the Plaguelands, a sealed off area within the Cosmodrone that houses a familiar but new threat. You meet with Saladin Forge, the last remaining Iron Lord who seeks aid from the Guardians. For clarity, Iron Lords are essentially noble Guardians who have taken up the mantle to defend and rebuild civilization, protecting the walls of the Last City.

The strike displayed just how big of a leap the sequel is over its predecessor. The Inverted Spire is an exciting mission from beginning to end, showing off the design philosophy that will hopefully permeate the entire game. The maps were far more open, allowing us to approach the battles in certain ways. At one point, we had to cross a huge battlefield with Vex and Cabal battling in the craters. While there will be a lot of returning enemies, there will also be plenty of new ones. For example, the Cabal have War Beasts, doglike creatures that aren’t afraid to get in close and maul unsuspecting Guardians. Even the returning enemies have some neat new abilities. The Cabal Phalanx now has the ability to put down a bigger shield for a small amount of time, meaning you’ll have to jump over and walk around if you want to get them.

Speaking of space-magic, more lore has been filled in with the arrival of new ghost. Yes, not everyone wants to crawl to the internet to discovery the intricate workings of just what makes Destiny tick, but for lore-nerds like me, this is a dream come true. I will gladly take more lore, because for those who don’t know, Destiny has some crazy cool sci-fi/fantasy lore. When is space-magic a bad thing? It’s not. Any tad bit more of lore to leak out will be greedily consumed until the next one arrives. It might seem like a small thing, but all those NPCs aren’t just spotting nonsense, they are referencing things. It’s the same reason every item has a cryptic description. In fact, this might be the best time to get to know Destiny. Might as well see how it all came to be while waiting for Destiny 2, right? So, go read that lore. It’s crazy and out-there in the best of ways. Just know it’s heavy on the space-magic — a wizard did come from the moon, after all. If that doesn’t sum it up, I don’t know what does.