I got this for free back in November and i played this for quite a while.

The core gameplay is solid. You have a bunch of different weapons with different uses, and a few special abilities for some variation. The gunplay feels right and the abilities are fun to use. There's a decent amount of nice worldbuilding.

It's also by far the most beautiful game i've ever played. It looks like a mix of Half-life and Stalker. I remember how i amazed i was when you're leaving the city and you're navigating this beautiful landscape with music swelling. That's honestly the high point of the game, and that's sad.

The main problem is the same problem all MMOs suffer from - repetition. There are daily quests, only a handful of co-op missions, repeating co-op events and a rather limited amount of locations. And you have to "do" this content to unlock higher level gear to be able to do higher level missions.

I didn't even understand how utterly fucking stupid this item system is for the first 3-4 weeks. You have to wear higher level items to get items that are a higher level than those you're wearing. Any cool Exotic or otherwise great items you find will become useless quickly. And you can't upgrade them unless you buy an expansion that allows you to find "upgrade item". It really puzzled me how i was seemingly stuck at ilevel 259.

The game also has constant unskippable cutscenes. Travel between planets? Cutscene. Daily heroic mission? Cutscene. Want to help someone with a mission you already did? Cutscene you already sat through. The game also likes to waste your time by making you walk to people and click a bunch of times to do daily quests.

There are many other flaws as well. The map and waypoints are terrible. I got lost a few times because they don't indicate height. You also can't place your own waypoints. Scrapping items is incredibly tedious. Strike quests often encourage you to play non-cooperatively. You can get stuck because of bugs. You have to sit through the entire main quest again if you want to try a different class. Overpowered enemies will spawn and randomly kill you. Et cetera.

Destiny 2 does have some worthwhile stuff. I love the environments they made, even if they don't really use them well. The hidden sectors really are worth exploring. Some of the adventures are fun too. And there's some nice banter here and there. Nathan Fillion never disappoints.

I can't help but wonder what could have been. What if classes weren't so restrictive? What if subclasses were different skill trees instead? What if the game didn't have all these terrible MMO elements? What if the world wasn't so dead? This game could have been another Mass Effect, instead you get this mediocre nonsense designed to sell expansions and microtransactions.

In the latter half of 2020 my life changed fairly drastically. Me and my long-time girlfriend moved from a one-bedroom to a two-bedroom apartment that still feels nicer than we deserve to live in, and for the first time I could have a proper PC gaming setup. Prior to that, because I didn't have my own room and we had very limited space, I would play on either console or a gaming laptop with a controller. I just didn't have a good ergonomic setup for mouse and keyboard gaming. By December I had a new gaming PC with a GTX 3070 Founder's Edition and Ryzen 3800x, a 1440p ultrawide monitor, a new desk, a new mechanical keyboard, a new gaming mouse, a new chair, etc. I was all decked out to be PC gamer trash.

One of the first things me and my best friend did after I got my new rig was come back to Remnant: From the Ashes, which we adored and put like 70 hours into in late 2019 and early 2020, in order to play the two DLCs that had come out since then. I decided to switch from controller to mouse and keyboard for the triumphant return, since I had a proper setup for it now. That was my first taste of proper mouse and keyboard shooter gameplay and I was hooked so hard.

Fast-forward a couple weeks and we'd already done more or less everything there was to do in Remnant and while we already had plans to return next to Monster Hunter: World and kill Fatalis, I was not done with the new (to me) ecstasy of playing shooters on PC with mouse and keyboard at high framerates.

My friend, who is long-time Destiny trash and has been subtly trying to get me to play it for years says ya know, if you just want shooting that feels really good, Destiny has probably the best. And I finally relented and said why not.

Boy was he not wrong. Other than maybe Doom 2016/Doom Eternal I can't think of another shooter that just feels so good to play moment to moment. It's incredibly satisfying. That core gameplay along with an amazing art style and environmental design, holds up the entire rest of the game which is, at times, somewhat annoying. I obviously didn't experience all the content they removed from the game so I can't be mad about that like a lot of fans are. My annoyances are less to do with content (which is typical MMO grindy stuff and I'm fine with that and think the game generally does it well), and more to do with core design. For instance:

Why is everything a button hold? Dismantling, activating banners, going to orbit. Why do I have to waste so much time holding down buttons that could be a simple press, or at the very least a much shorter hold? I don't get it.

Why do I have to download a phone app to get bounties and access my vault without having to physically go to the tower? If you're okay with that quick access being an option, why isn't it part of the in-game menus? Is it cause the UI design across the board is cluttered, unintuitive trash and you're afraid to add more jenga blocks to a tower that's only still standing by the will of god?

Exotics and abilities just aren't as exciting as I want them to be, and it was a big shock coming from Remnant where amulets, rings, and boss weapons feel like completely different playstyles. I find myself constantly expecting the stated effect on an exotic to be more impactful to my gameplay experience than it actually is. It feels like they're afraid of players becoming too OP because PVP modes also exist (Gambit is one of the most fun PVP modes I've ever played btw), but the irony is that most of the PVE content is stupidly easy even if all you do is shoot at stuff with normal guns and never equip an exotic or put down a rift.

Wouldn't it make more sense to let exotics and abilities be completely game-changing for people's playstyles in PVE and nerf them in PVP to make them reasonable? That's what a lot of more traditional MMOs do. Your abilities in, say, City of Heroes, had a very different level of impact on other players in PVP spaces than they did on PVE mobs.

The amount of times I've equipped something that's SUPPOSED to regen my melee or grenade energy faster when I do X or Y and have to spend half an hour trying to decide if I can even really notice a difference is ridiculous. IT SHOULD BE IMMEDIATELY NOTICABLE. The cooldown on everything just feels too long, it's not fun, and fun should always be the number one concern. I'd be happier if they were less effective but came back faster if that's what it takes, because they add variety to your gameplay rather than just shooting shit for 45 seconds waiting for another option to present itself.

Why can't the game decide if it cares whether or not I care about its dumb lore? Cutscenes are skippable, but often much longer scenes of characters talking in-engine have to be sat through.

The shader system kinda sucks. It's not that hard to get legendary shards, but why design it this way to begin with. It feels like punishment for wanting to use shit I already own.

I guess my conclusion would be that it feels in some ways like a game designed by two different teams. One team designed the core gameplay and were best in class. They handed this firm foundation to a bunch of idiots who slapped together some of the worst menus I've ever seen and tweaked a bunch of stats and numbers until all the RPG shit surrounding the core shooting felt kind of limp and not as exciting as anybody wants it to be.

I did not like Destiny 2. Although my reasons are entirely personal, I just could not get into it. I never liked service model games to start with, and Destiny 2 is no exception.

From the start, I could not care less about the main story of the game. There is a whole universe of lore, story, events, memorable characters etc., but for some reason, I could not give a flying sh!t. I created my character, finished the tutorial and already felt pointless and bored. Normally I would “educate” the reader of my reviews with a quick recap of the story or main goal, but in this case, I just cared too less.

I played some missions and quests but nothing felt like it mattered. I go to the location, kill stuff, complete the mission, earn my rewards and felt hollow inside afterwards. The thought of repeating this process until I grew to a certain level pained me, and when reaching level ten or so, I was done.

Graphicly, I think Destiny 2 is boring. It is blend, stale and flat. The worst environment with these graphics is the Central Hub location. Weapons and animations look well and polished enough, but the color pallet is just boring.

Sound wise, I think this is one of the worst I have played. Sound effects and music is so generic and dull, and distant enemies do almost not make any sound or grunts at all.

The controls and menus were horrendous and really hard to figure out and understand for me, and the sleek, SQL database design of it did not appeal to me.

Loot was absolutely pointless in my opinion. You get the same weapon or armor twenty million times, but with a different rarity or color. The stats meant nothing to me and I had no freaking clue wat was good and wat was bad. The numbers showed me that an item was way better than the previous one, but when equipping it, I did not notice any difference.

Destiny 2 has a certain “theme/skin/feel” that is the same as games like Anthem or Starfield (in hindsight). It is hard to explain, but revolves about the look of the inventory screens, stat screens, quest markers, etc. It is purely based on the menus and inventory management. For me, that was a problem, because Anthem was one of the worst games I ever played in terms of boredom.

The feeling of a freemium game in which you complete generic missions over and over and over again is just not for me. I constantly got the feeling that I could achieve nothing, unless I pulled out my wallet, although this is technically not the case.

Because the game is “Freemium”, you constantly get confronted with “deals”, “special offers”, “new store items”, and “best values” from the in game store. In the menu’s, at the start screen, at every interactable screen, it just felt like playing a online webstore in a browser. I understand it, because of its model, but I just don’t like microtransactions in games in general and, in hindsight, it is just better for me not to play this kind of games at all.

In conclusion, my own personal experience with Destiny 2 was very miserable. I hated every second of it and was bored out of my mind the second I even started the tutorial.

I personally would not recommend this game.

The game plays like your classic MMORPG, most quests are fodder with dialog you can snooze through. If this game has meaningful lore somewhere I guess it's behind some hidden scavenger hunt mechanic.

Movement is a special case, being able to move uniquely and awkwardly where sometimes you'll get all the height or distance you need and other times, nope.

The combat is where the game shines, shooting is as polished as any shooter should be, there's a nice variety of neat and useful weapons. Most enemies are pretty basic with some minor tricks so there's plenty requirement not to be careless, especially when you get to bossier enemies.

Abilities are like a joke, you have'em but 99% of the time you won't use them and if you even think about choosing one of the other ability sets you'll be "pleasantly" surprised to discover they're just as lackluster as the rest. Beyond emergency situations it feels like they shouldn't exist. (I can't even decide if that's a good or bad thing.)

Overall the game just feels cheap, the base game was really lacking to begin with, the majority of the content isn't worth going back to, the actual story feels too spread out between filler, and now that you're boosted ahead in gear-score they don't even want you acknowledging the beginning of the game. It has the true mark of a Korean-MMO, having no clear path so you are always wondering how they're going to ruin the content or progression for people next. Most often for new players.

I want to preface this review by letting you know that I am new to the Destiny series and not an MMO veteran.

Destiny 2 is Bungie's second installment to the Destiny franchise. The first Destiny game received tons of advertising - but on launch had lukewarm reviews. The DLC was a mixed bag with some of the DLC receiving negative reviews and others receiving rave reviews. So where does Destiny 2 fit in?

In Destiny 2 you play as a Guardian: a kind of mystical super soldier. As a Guardian, you have access to weapons, powerful grenades, some sort of mobility option, a spell and a super. These depend on which of the 3 classes you pick and of that class which subclass you pick. The progression of leveling your Guardian and acquiring these skills is pretty straightforward and intuitive. Sometimes it can feel as though the classes are not very unique as they all have access to the same weapons and have similar themes in their subclasses. Playing each subclass gives you different flavors for each of the classes but switching between classes doesn't feel worth the effort in most cases as loadouts seem to make a bigger impact on performance. I quickly reached the max level during the campaign. After doing so you receive cosmetic rewards upon level ups.

The campaign of Destiny 2 is exciting and short. It only makes a few missteps. There are a few areas that feel more like cutscenes that really drag down the tempo if you replay the campaign. In addition, there is no way to change the difficulty of the campaign - and it won't really be a challenge to anyone who has experience in FPS gameplay. The story itself is ok. The ending isn't everything it could be - but that is probably because of the promise of DLC. Gunplay and combat is a blast. It is everything you would expect from a Bungie game. However, some of the levels include platforming segments that can be really annoying depending on which mobility option you selected. I get the feeling that they wanted to break up the gunfighting with these challenges, but they segments are rarely fun.

After completing the main campaign there is still plenty to do. Every week you will be assigned several quests that you can complete for rewards. There are also seasonal events that give you extra game modes to play for limited time rewards. Players who have friends can team up and take on 3 and 5 player challenges. These are where the real challenge in Destiny lies. Unfortunately, the 3 player challenges don't get interesting until they are timed. While this can make things exciting - it also makes them equal parts frustrating. Restarting the same mission over and over and playing the same 10 mins of gameplay is not a winning strategy. Overall, each game mode helps keep Destiny 2 interesting for a bit longer. Eventually, this ends as you will quickly feel as though the rewards a no longer worth it and the quests are too repetitive.

PVP is another game mode. There are both competitive and non-competitive options. It includes everything from domination to team deathmatch. Matches are played 4v4 and in the non-competitive modes all gear is set to be the same level - so the PVE work you did doesn't count. PVP is decent but it definitely won't be the focus for most players. Other games just seem to do it better and the gun and map diversity isn't that great. You just don't get the same level of depth as other FPS games on the market. It isn't bad - it just feels like an afterthought.

Overall, Destiny 2 is a pretty solid game that you'll have a bunch of fun with. It is definitely better with friends - but eventually, you are going to tire of it. Additional DLC hasn't done much to help this. With many players switching to Monster Hunter World Bungie is going to need to do something drastic to have any kind of player base.

I just ran through the PvE content in the Destiny 2 beta and, I must say, am pretty underwhelmed with the experience. Going in I was very excited for Destiny 2. I’ve put 100s of hours into Destiny 1 and was eager to see what Bungie could finally do with the franchise, unrestricted by legacy consoles and able to truly spread their wings in the sequel. But if what we were given in this beta is reflective of the finished game experience, it shows that they either learned nothing from the monotony that plagued the first game, or they just don’t care.

Within the first five minutes I was already bored as I slogged through the mindnumbingly wrote story mission “Homecoming”. This mission takes place at the Tower, the main social hub from D1, which is under siege by the Cabal. You run through some familiar areas taking down groups of familiar enemies but with new helmets that make them look like giant Guinea Pigs. They move and act largely the same, and so do you, even with the new subclass supers (I was playing Hunter). There is a bit more interaction with NPCs this time around but not much going on there either. They show up for a scripted quip and then disappear. There is one small section where a doorway opens up and takes you through what appears to be a Blade Runner market area with storefronts and neon signs, and for a brief fleeting moment, I felt like I was in a real lived-in space, but even that was short lived as the formula kicked back in when I reached a computer terminal and was prompted to push square to have my Ghost scan it. I let out an involuntary audible sigh of disappointment as this was the exact moment that I realized this wasn’t a new game at all.

And then there’s the strike mission, which quickly became obvious that the formula here was exactly the same as well. Run through areas, boring enemy encounters, press square to have your ghost scan a computer terminal, fight a large lumbering bullet sponge while handling adds. The map did open up in a couple areas which gives me hope for the patrol maps, assuming strikes are pulled from the patrol areas again, but as I went through the motions, I could already picture having to run this strike over and over. The novelty of a new strike doesn’t last long in Destiny, not without changing it up or adding some truly different or interesting encounters. Unfortunately there is nothing new or inspired here that would add to the replayability. Not to mention, giving us just one strike puts gamers, who were excited about playing this beta all week, in a position where they already find themselves re-running the same strike mission over and over. This repetition is exactly what soured so many people on the first game

Yes, there are small mechanic tweaks such as cool downs, subclasses, and weapon structuring, and overall the game feels solid and kinetic. Gunplay mechanics have always been strong in Destiny, and seems to still be the case.

I am still hopeful for the full game. The things I loved about D1 (exploring and patrolling open environments, random encounters and events, character progression, collecting and pining over weapons and gear, raids) were largely absent from the Beta so we’ll have to wait and see if they make improvements in these areas. And maybe it’s good that this beta was underwhelming. I think we can all benefit from lowering our expectations that Destiny 2 will be step forward deserving of the “2” in the title, when in reality, it’s just more Destiny.

In Destiny 2, I am a Hunter. My armor is matte black and bright white, representing Dead Orbit, and my cape, imbued with a shader I have only encountered once, is drenched in the iridescence of oil. The main weapon I use in missions is an extremely accurate and stable rifle which I bore from a cypher on Mercury. This rifle shines with the hard light of its birthplace, and a mythically toned poem referencing twins and quantum entanglement is etched to its surface, left over from the cypher.

I mainly play Crucible: Elimination. My armor is specialized to maximize my overall speed and agility, and with Mobility maximized I am weaker in the other areas. I play with a beauty of a shotgun, one with high Impact, good range, and a solid rate of fire. It will one-shot any player, and it has the Vorpal trait which gives it the utility to shut down opponents in Super. So, my play style is to become a blur. Collide with my opponent at a velocity which allows me to turn and face them before they turn and face me. That is all it takes as velocity and target acquisition work in tandem.

The skirmishes between skilled and agile players takes exchanges to 360 degrees, as a top-down ambush is countered vertically by a magnetic melee from below. Now, within the second that you and your opponent are falling, both of your brains work to calculate an instantaneous solution, translating the blur of audiovisual data into the haptic response of the thumbs and index finger.

Flawless split-second feedback between two strangers a couple hundred kilometers away from eachother, calculated effortlessly by some server in Seattle. The physicality of the holograms in Destiny 2 is so often awe inducing, and demonstrates a lot about the stability of quantum systems and distanceless interactions. Watching a Witch boss move, roar, float, and metamorphose in form and color really makes me respect her as a legitimate being, a holographic insect with her own unique pre-coded passion. I find that the player is given the perspective of a hornet in a foreign hive, with the agency to choose what kind of conflict or maze to partake in.

It is annoying that the surface of Destiny's story features humanized and quirky characters, because there is truly rich and exotic culture within this game. This is mainly represented by the fashion, with competing forms of haute couture introduced seasonally. A particular style of gun or armor will phase in and out of popularity, eclipsed by the next trend, allowing one to hold onto something personally special as it accumulates rarity with time.

Destiny 2 introduces a creative array of science fiction mythos. I find that the writing style in the literature content to be subpar, however, the ideas presented by Destiny's ecosystem have deep potential for expansion. One of the main characters, Eris Morn is akin to a Yuuzhan Vong Shaper, a post-human hybrid who glows with the dark exotica of radioactive foliage, black coral, and fragile brown cloth. Another character, representing The Black Armory faction, is Adelaide Meyrin, a French robot with "tattooed" porcelain fitted to her exoskeleton.

Dead Orbit and The IX are very interesting factions. There will come a time when a faction of humanity will lose faith in dyson-sphering Sol and deem themselves self-sustainable enough to venture into deep space. If a faction like that survives multiple generations, they will likely turn to black-hole worship to fill the utter existential void.

Destiny started out as a desolate husk whose shell was way too big for its body. Now, as they churn out downloadable content at the relentless pace of rent increases of major North American coastal cities, Bungie has found that they do not posses the server capacity to handle the breadth of the entire game. As bank economists wipe the blood from their noses and pitch ideas for the next distraction to delay the inevitable socialist full-body orgasm, Bungie has been hard at work faithfully swallowing digital planets with accretion disks one at a time until their servers are nice and cleaned up. Meanwhile, during the purge, the players were gifted the Europa planet to play on, further balancing the Yin and Yang of capitalist greed and pure art.

Currently, the public hivemind has gone with the pitch of some shit called "non-fungible token" as currency, the memetic anomaly known as COVID-19 is wearing off, and the bureaucrats are trying to roll with some shit called the Metaverse. Let us see what happens next. ...Almost there Elon Musk and c... just please stop fucking around with expensive memes and let us get going with the microchip implants and IOTA...