Review: Destiny 2 (PC)

Placing all the powerful weapons in the same category has good potential for PvP, but it’s also a functional misstep in terms of PvE Weapon Guide. Power weapon ammo drops more often in Destiny 2 than heavy weapon ammo in Destiny 1, but still not nearly as often as kinetic or energy weapon ammo. So right away there’s less incentive to use that ammo for any weapon other than a rocket or grenade launcher. Why waste that relatively rare and precious ammo on a sniper rifle when it could instead be spent on something much more powerful? It’s the same issue with abilities in that they’re all restricted by ridiculously-slow cooldowns. Instead of enjoying the ability to toss a grenade into a group of minor enemies, dodge around the battlefield at one’s leisure or even pop a super to take on a mid-boss, the game encourages players to bank them instead. To use one’s abilities in any situation other than the most desperate is to see them go to waste. Nobody wants to be caught staring at a cool-down meter when they’re stuck in a tight spot. These can at least be adjusted a bit with mods, but who wants to waste their mods on anything other than top-tier armor? The net result is gameplay that’s gone from fast-paced, fluid and fun, to something slow, limited and dull with no incentive whatsoever to make use of the game’s most enjoyable weapons and powers. If the developers truly felt that these changes were necessary to achieve a more fun and balanced Crucible, then perhaps it would have been better to just separate the Crucible from the rest of the game.

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.

Destiny’s sequel still has a stunning lack of features, of new things to do in and with its content. Where’s the variety of Crucible modes? Where are the custom lobbies? Where is Horde mode and strike scoring? What about customizable difficulty and gameplay modifiers? Why don’t we have any in-game systems we can use to challenge ourselves and our friends? If incentive is necessary, why not offer emblems for running strikes, story missions or even raids with certain modifiers turned on? How about a system to share or feature custom-made challenges and offer a small sum of Silver for popularity? Additional raids, strikes and explorable spaces are nice, but they don’t solve the problem. Features, things to do with that content, do solve the problem and Destiny 2 currently doesn’t even offer as many as its predecessor.

With 2018 in full swing, a solid first quarter down and plenty of games to keep anyone happy, Destiny 2 is likely not on the mind. Bungie has been straightening Destiny 2 out, though, and it finds itself on almost the exact same path that its predecessor took. This isn’t a bad path, but it leaves a a bland taste in the mouth. It’s medicine that can be swallowed with maybe some slight discomfort from past experiences. Destiny 2 will continue to course correct, and those improvements do help the game, but do they help it enough? That’s up for the player to decide, because making things work that should have been working all along isn’t a reason to come back.

The competitive multiplayer experience in Destiny 2 has probably been the thing to see the most change from the first game, or at least the most noticeable. It seems like Bungie is taking cues from both highly competitive shooters of today like Overwatch, while also harkening back to their old series, Halo. In terms of new, the first things you’ll notice are the user interface changes and the four versus four setup. The UI shows new details, most notably the ability to see what subclasses both friendly and enemy players are using, if they are alive or not, and whether or not they have their super ready. This information is helpful. To my own detriment, I don’t usually adapt how I play first person shooters, but this small inclusion has made me think differently about how I was playing; how aggressive I was deciding to be, where I was going to go next. It’s a small but useful things. The 4v4 change doesn’t affect things too drastically, although sometimes when a big fight breaks out, it does seem even more hectic than the first game. Where Destiny 2 hearkens back to Halo is in the fact that there’s a noticeable difference when it comes to TTK, or time to kill. It’s a good deal higher, which means it’s going to take longer to get an enemy down.