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Thoughts on: Destiny 2 Beta

July 17, 2019

[:en]As the Destiny 2 Beta draws to a close, it’s time to reflect on what Bungie has shown us this time around, and open a discussion about the potential future of this supposed ten-year franchise. Before we get stuck into this, I feel it is important for it to be known that I personally am torn on the original Destiny; the vanilla experience was essentially good gunplay dragged down by a mediocre story and a serious lack of content, but the final version with the extra £60 of content became a solid gaming experience that succeeds in many areas. My immediate impression of Destiny 2 is reflective of how I felt when I first jumped into The Taken King DLC: this is Destiny done better, but still completely the same. There are just a few new shiny parts thrown in to make it feel fresh.

Let us start with the positive parts of the Beta. First, the gameplay is tight and refined. Bungie had the formula down from Destiny, and now they made sure each weapon feels unique enough to ensure players can use weapons catered to their playstyle. The second part that caught my attention in the Beta was the campaign mission ‘Homecoming’; there’s actually a sense of story! With authentic character interaction! It’s clear that Bungie listened to the masses screaming in their face and actually included a story in the game instead of on an external website. We were introduced to what I hope is only one of the big bad guys, Ghaul, who I can safely say is one intimidating alien that I can’t wait to go raiding against to show him who he is really messing with. As someone that primarily spent their time in PvE during the original Destiny, I have to admit that the Strike that we got to play for this Beta was rather impressive. It felt more like a mini-raid rather than the usual repetitive Destiny Strike with a boss that was extremely creative as he changed weapons with each map change to keep players constantly paying attention.

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 work to 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, specifically the Hunter Gunslinger Sub-Class and the honestly overpowered Marksmans Dodge ability that allows them to roll away in any direction whilst holding a stable hand, giving 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 does bug me just a little too much; loading screens after cutscenes mid-level. Now, hear me out, 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 then just be slammed into a full-stop black loading screen whilst you wait for the game to play catch up, and then dropped back in after losing that 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 that don’t feel that original. 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, not even slightly 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, but someone high up realized they could do a sequel and get everyone to buy a full priced game all over again, only to then 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 all the other MMOs that have optimal classes/builds that if you don’t use what everyone else uses you will find yourself at a serious disadvantage. But there is light for Destiny 2, Bungie needs to come out and publicly address the balance problems with more than “The Beta is an older build of the game”, as well as letting us know if there is going to be a 3rd subclass for every Guardian and if it 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.[:de]

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