Developer: Bungie
Publisher: Activision
Release Date: September 06, 2017
ESRB: Teen / PEGI 16
MSRP: $59,99
Available Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Genre: First Person Shooter
My first few hours with Destiny 2 were magical. The game looks so damn good, all while being connected to other players roaming the open world alongside you. It’s quite the technological feat for an online game. After the first 3 hours it was a 9,5/10 for me. Then it dropped to a 9/10 and went back up again to a 9,5/10 during the endgame (Nightfall Strike / Raid).
There is a real story this time — something Destiny 1 didn’t have. You get a lot more cutscenes and the campaign missions are enjoyable with increasingly stronger enemies and bosses. They are easy enough to complete solo but obviously it’s faster with a fireteam of 3 players. The story took me around 10 hours to complete the first time, playing mostly solo and having to level up between missions. My second playthrough took only 6 hours (solo). The same time measurements apply to reaching level 20 – the highest character level. After beating the story it puts you to level 20 automatically. That’s freaking short to reach max level. Afterwards it’s all about increasing your power level. This is the same as light levels in Destiny 1 just with a different name. Each gear piece has a power value attached to it. Your power level is the average of all your equipped weapons and armor. Increasing light in Destiny 1 was very grindy and I’m VERY glad that this isn’t the case with Destiny 2. Everything you do has a chance to drop a higher power gear piece, even just killing normal enemies. I was going for all optional collectibles and that alone bumped up my power by 15 levels in a matter of 2 hours. It’s not grindy at all and I really like that. You also unlock new endgame missions after the story which keeps things interesting. Those endgame questlines were fantastic as they give exotic weapons in the end (exotic being the best/rarest type of gear). Finding exotics in Destiny 1 was also a grind. Now they drop left and right and are even fixed rewards from main missions. I like this new system so much better. Anything you do rewards you somehow. Until you reach the power cap of 265 that is. See, normal item drops and vendor rewards will cap out at power 265. After that the only reliable way to power up is by completing weekly milestones and playing the raid. The weekly tasks are for your clan, PVP, public events and the nightfall strike.
The raid and nightfall were by far my favorite activities in the game. The weekly nightfall is a higher level version of a normal strike but with a twist. Every few seconds a different elemental damage type is getting a damage boost. Weapons of other types will deal almost no damage during that time. So you constantly need to watch what damage type is active. Kinetic weapons work okay in any case.
The raid took my team 12 hours to beat the first time. Half of that time was spent on the endboss. He’s a tough one — communication and coordination between your team is key. There’s a ton going on all at once and your damage output needs to be insane, otherwise the fight gets even more difficult the longer it drags on. Basically, there are 4 main areas in the raid. Each has a different theme and hidden tasks that are not explained anywhere. You’ve gotta figure out for yourself what to do or follow a raid guide. The raid drops weren’t great for me but it was a fun experience different from the rest of the game. I would like to point out that the raid and nightfall have no matchmaking so you must find a group of players yourself. The nightfall is for 3 and the raid for 6 players. Finding a group is easy enough through clans or PS4 communities.
What currently holds the game back is the lack of endgame content. There’s really not much to do once you’ve done the raid. You could attempt the prestige nightfall for power level 300 but that’s it. I find it hard to enjoy Destiny 2 after having finished the raid. New things are still being added frequently at least. In the weeks following release we’ll get Trials of the Nine (PVP event) and factions. More things are coming out in the future, but right now there just isn’t enough to captivate me after having finished the raid.
My main critique point though is the reused content. We have the exact same enemies from the first game and the same character classes with mostly the same skills, same weapon types, same elemental damage types, and a few weapon designs are complete copy & paste.
Subclass abilities have been slightly changed and new ones added but they still play very much the same as before. The main difference is the change to super moves, they are stronger than before.
Why not throw in new alien races, new character classes, add some more weapon types etc.? Another complaint many people have and I agree with is that PVE activities (such as strikes) are for 3-player fire teams yet PVP is for 4 players. When switching between modes you always have to throw out/add another player to your team or else you’ll have a stranger in your PVP group.
The PVP in itself is still Destiny’s strong suit. Destiny 1’s PVP was already great and this one is even better. It’s a lot of fun with a team and the only thing I can see having long-term replay value. I even got exotic item drops from PVP so it’s well worth playing. You also earn XP from it and there’s a weekly “Call to Arms” which gives powerful gear.
To sum up all the playable activities:
- Story (consists of 16 missions)
- Side Quests (only a handful of them after the story)
- Public Events (they respawn every few minutes on the map and there are 8 types of them)
- Golden Chests (give you tokens to increase reputation with vendors)
- Weekly Chests (spawn on a different planet each week)
- Lost Sectors (they are mini-dungeons with a small boss and treasure chest at the end)
- Adventures (they are short side quests)
- Patrols (mini-quests)
- Strikes (meant for 3 players, they are like dungeons with a big boss at the end)
- Nightfall (a more difficult version of a strike that changes weekly)
- Raid (the ultimate challenge – a 6-player raid that requires good team play)
- Crucible (4 vs.4 PVP with different game modes)
- 4 playable maps (partial planets / moons)
- Challenges (these change daily for every planet, strikes and PVP)
- Weekly Milestones (4 types – clan, public events, nightfall, PVP)
Unfortunately, 4 maps isn’t a lot. The Nessus map was my favorite one and also the biggest. Earth has a fairly huge map too, but the other 2 are tiny in comparison. Don’t expect the biggest open world ever. Together they are maybe the size of Destiny 1 or a little bit bigger. What makes up for it is that the worlds look really vibrant and unique! Strikes are no longer accessed through the open world. All you have now is a strike playlist that randomly gives you a strike to play. You can no longer select what strike to play directly.
A rather important thing to do is handing tokens to vendors. Tokens are found from Golden Chests, from defeating high-value targets, public events, patrols, challenges and other tasks. Handing in enough tokens at a vendor will increase reputation with them which in turn gives a legendary gear piece from the vendor’s pool. This can be repeated over and over again to increase power level. It’s an essential feature that makes the game less grindy. The tokens are acquired from pretty much anything you do so you’ll naturally get enough over time.
After hitting the level cap you still continue to earn XP. Instead of reaching a new level, it will give you bright engrams. Those contain customization items (shaders, starships, emotes etc.). That’s quite fun and makes gaining XP useful past the level cap. It’s cool that you can customize your stuff. What’s not so cool is that shaders are one-use-only and will be destroyed after coloring a piece of gear with it.
During my 9 days playing the game I had minimal server issues. I was kicked once during the raid and had a server warning come up at the bottom of the screen during the first weekend. The day of release had no issues or kicks whatsoever. I’m impressed with the server stability given how many people jumped on the game day one. It can’t be easy to build a server infrastructure like this, kudos to Bungie for having a flawless launch!
Earning the platinum trophy takes roughly 50 hours. This includes leveling up all 3 character classes and unlocking their subclasses. The trophy list is very basic and consists of only 14 trophies. Perhaps that’s a good thing for an online game – because at least there are no glitched trophies.
Going forward Bungie is still adding more things to the game. I can’t wait to see what else they’ve got in store for us. So far it’s already the best first-person shooter of the year.
| Gameplay *Overall Enjoyment Factor, Fascination with Game World, Level Design, Variety, Playability, User-Friendliness (Ease of Use / Readability / Controls / in-game Tutorials / Menus) |
| 10/10 Nice mix of activites, it doesn’t get boring. Not as grindy as Destiny 1. Fun and challenging raid. |
| Story/Multiplayer *Quality of the Singleplayer Story, Cutscenes and/or Multiplayer Modes (whichever is available). If a game has no Story or no Multiplayer it won’t be rated (thus no negative effect on score). |
| 9/10 Story: 8/10 Multiplayer: 10/10 |
| Technical Aspects *Graphics, Texture Quality, Character Details, Lighting, Weather Effects, Animations, Loading Times, Number of Loading Screens, does it run smoothly |
| 10/10 Looks so damn good and runs well. Outstanding for an online-only game! |
| Value *Amount of Content, Production Quality, Replay Value, is there enough content to justify a purchase |
| 8.5/10 A bit light on endgame content, could’ve used more raids. Makes up for it with the Crucible. |
| Trophies/Achievements *Rates how much fun the Platinum / 1000 Gamerscore is to achieve: Are trophies fun to do? Do trophies restrict freedom of gameplay? Missable trophies? Multiple playthroughs required? Luck-based trophies? Pointless farming/grinding? Glitched Trophies? Are stats/trophies tracked correctly? |
| 8.5/10 Includes all the fun stuff and has you fully exploring the game. Not too easy, not too hard. However, replaying the game with all 3 classes is rather repetitive. |
| Extraordinary Score Increase or Deduction *Reserved for extraordinarily good or bad features that the other categories don’t cover (such as game-breaking bugs). This score is directly added/subtracted from the final score. |
| Nothing |
VERDICT:
Destiny 2 is a huge improvement from the first game and a very strong contender for Shooter of the Year! A fantastic game to add to your library.
FINAL SCORE:
9.2/10
Played on PS4 Pro. A free review copy was provided. Finished Story, Nightfall, Raid, Collectibles, tested every type of activity.
For more on how reviews are scored, check out the Review Policy.
Want to become a Destiny 2 Pro? Check out our Destiny 2 Wiki with info on all exotic gear, treasure chests and more.