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Destiny 2 Beta: Thoughts

July 21, 2019

As someone that primarily spent their time in PvE during the original Destiny, I must admit the Strike we got to play for this Beta was rather impressive. It felt more like a mini-raid rather than the usual repetitive Destiny Strike. The boss was extremely creative as he changed weapons with each map change to keep players constantly engaged.

Onto the not-so-great parts of the Beta; these are areas that I need to see addressed or fixed before I can safely say that Destiny 2 is going to be worth that full-priced day one purchase. My biggest issue by far involves the PvP aspect of Destiny 2. Obviously, there are bound to be some odd balancing issues for guns, which I can understand as something that Bungie can sort out before release; but that isn’t the big problem with balance in PvP. Unfortunately, the big problem for PVP balancing lays in the fact that some Guardian types are simply far, far better than others in the Crucible.

The Hunter’s Gunslinger Sub-Class and the honestly overpowered Marksman’s Dodge ability that allows them to roll away in any direction whilst holding a stable hand. This gives them a massive advantage in close range fire fights that the new 4v4 multiplayer matches are built around. Simply put, there is a massive design flaw in this ability being used in a multiplayer match. No other class can match something this good, especially when combined with the dreaded Golden Gun super that returns from Destiny 1 with a vengeance. If you want to play PvP and do extremely well, you HAVE to play Gunslinger; which somewhat ruins the fun of it all.

The next problem is something that I am hoping can be fixed before the game releases, and it may be something that doesn’t bother everyone but as a loyal PvE solo player it bugs me just a little too much; loading screens after cutscenes mid-level. When you have a cut scene as gorgeous and intense as the mid-level one during ‘Homecoming’ as you fly toward Ghaul’s big scary ship whilst being pumped up to go kick some alien butt, it’s pretty annoying to be slammed into a full-stop black loading screen whilst you wait for the game to play catch up. You are then dropped back in after losing the hype that Bungie has so effectively built up. Like I said, it may not bother everyone but it’s just one thing that could really help the flow of a player’s experience during the story.

My final complaint is something that I have seen many fans mention when they talk about their disappointment so far – the new subclasses don’t feel like anything special or new, more like simple expansion pack upgrades of the skills we had in the original Destiny. For example, my main class throughout Destiny has always been the Titan, so I was pretty excited to play with the new super that made it look like I could be Captain America; but it’s almost completely useless compared to just holding down the bumpers to get the far more helpful bubble shield that was in Destiny 1 which hasn’t even been changed or adapted. It’s a complete carbon copy that is far more useful for the entire team during both PvE and PvP.

Overall, I do have concerns for Destiny 2 after playing the Beta. It feels like not enough is being shown to settle the worries of people that didn’t like the lack of content in the original game. I simply can’t shake the feeling that Destiny 2 started out as an expansion for the first game until someone high up realized they could do a sequel and get everyone to buy a full priced game all over again; only to pump us full of the already announced DLC packs all over again. On top of the concerns I have for the PvP balancing issues, I am worried that Destiny will end up like other MMOs with optimal classes or builds where choosing not to use the optimal build puts you at a major disadvantage.

Bungie needs to come out and publicly address the balance problems beyond “the Beta is an older build of the game.” They need to let us know if there is going to be a 3rd subclass for every Guardian; and we need to know if that subclass is going to be another re-tread or if we’re going to get something a bit more original.

Destiny 2 releases September 6th on PS4 and Xbox One followed by PC on October 24th. Stick with Culture of Gaming to see our review and more Destiny 2 content along the road ahead.

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