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Destiny 2 Review Thread

D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Completely different?how?
That's hyperbole. Its the same gameplay.

Same gameplay as in you do more or less the same activities? Sure, but they play very differently. The actual feel of movement is dramatically different.

More importantly, though, the characters and world are very different and those are huge parts of what make a GTA game enjoyable.
 

phant0m

Member
Ugh this PC wait is agonizing. Especially when 2 of my friends got it on PS4 too (they're still getting it on PC though)
 
As someone who felt burnt by D1, I want to buy D2 but have a hard time justifying it. I played D1 at launch and sold it a week later as I felt it was not the game that was advertised. The gafers posts I have been reading seem to have played a lot of D1. Has anyone felt the same as me but bought D2 and r happy with it?
 

Raven77

Member
As someone who felt burnt by D1, I want to buy D2 but have a hard time justifying it. I played D1 at launch and sold it a week later as I felt it was not the game that was advertised. The gafers posts I have been reading seem to have played a lot of D1. Has anyone felt the same as me but bought D2 and r happy with it?


I'm also wondering this. I played Destiny for a while but only because my gaming group didn't have much else to play online together at that time. Overall the game felt half finished and overall just not that great. Poor enemy variety, some bland environments and not enough of them along with some maddening design choices.
 

MaGlock

Member
The story is leagues better and more content then D1 at launch. I felt betrayed by bungie in the first game. I like it so far haven't messed with PvP yet
 

sn00zer

Member
As someone who felt burnt by D1, I want to buy D2 but have a hard time justifying it. I played D1 at launch and sold it a week later as I felt it was not the game that was advertised. The gafers posts I have been reading seem to have played a lot of D1. Has anyone felt the same as me but bought D2 and r happy with it?
I played Destiny beta and ran through the campaign by myself a long time ago. I legitamately forgot i even played through the campaign once i played through with my dad entirely in coop because the coop experience was so much better/different than playing by myself.

If you havent played Destiny entriely in Coop you played an inferior version of the game. If you can go into d2 with a good friend or family member i wouod have a real hard time believing you woudnt have a good time.
 
This whole review in progress concept is just bizarre. Yesterday, it was 8.7, today an 8.2, what will it be next week?

I'm not criticizing the actual score itself, just the method of assigning scores while still in the progress of playing.

Score will go up after he plays the raid for the first time, then go down after he plays the raid 30 times!

5a0b8e9b6568ae3a07fcff92f4deb4a7555b3e3b_full.jpg
 
I was looking forward to this game having skipped the first one for various reasons, mainly for the lack of story.

But having watched the Giantbomb Quicklook, I wanted to ask: are the characters and dialog in D2 as cringey and jokey as the mission they played makes it seem, or is that confined mostly to missions where the Nathan Fillion Robot is a big part of them?

Thinking back to Halo, I know the grunts were goofy, the marines were funny in a "Marines from Aliens" kinda way, and 343 and Cortana had lighthearted moments. But for the most part the games had serious stories similar to Destiny (the last of earth being attacked by aliens, trying to survive, etc) and even the lighthearted characters could still be serious. But the mission in that Quicklook just felt tonally completely off from the universe it was in; the goofy lady ship AI, Nathan Fillion-bot, and other dialog just felt out of place.

If that's just a less common type of thing to happen in the game, I think I'll be fine with it, but it happend regularly, I'm not sure this game will gel with me too well.
 

TheBowen

Sat alone in a boggy marsh
I'm also wondering this. I played Destiny for a while but only because my gaming group didn't have much else to play online together at that time. Overall the game felt half finished and overall just not that great. Poor enemy variety, some bland environments and not enough of them along with some maddening design choices.

Me too. I enjoy borderlands 2 type loot games, but founds destinys story, mission design, enemy ai and variety, weapons and armour variety, the good raids being locked to teams of 3, and a long grind really boring

and this was with the taken king and the others. I really want to see if destiny 2 imrpoves on these issues but i just thhink that destiny is just not the game for me

Maybe ill wait for all the dlc to come out and play it then
 
I was looking forward to this game having skipped the first one for various reasons, mainly for the lack of story.

But having watched the Giantbomb Quicklook, I wanted to ask: are the characters and dialog in D2 as cringey and jokey as the mission they played makes it seem, or is that confined mostly to missions where the Nathan Fillion Robot is a big part of them?

Thinking back to Halo, I know the grunts were goofy, the marines were funny in a "Marines from Aliens" kinda way, and 343 and Cortana had lighthearted moments. But for the most part the games had serious stories similar to Destiny (the last of earth being attacked by aliens, trying to survive, etc) and even the lighthearted characters could still be serious. But the mission in that Quicklook just felt tonally completely off from the universe it was in; the goofy lady ship AI, Nathan Fillion-bot, and other dialog just felt out of place.

If that's just a less common type of thing to happen in the game, I think I'll be fine with it, but it happend regularly, I'm not sure this game will gel with me too well.

Jeff made the same observation of the first game. In the universe, the stakes are incredibly high and the coming enemy is about to wipe out mankind, but every character dances and has silly emotes. It's just a weird tonal inconsistency, almost like Bungie is afraid people will think they're taking their story too seriously or something.
 
As someone who felt burnt by D1, I want to buy D2 but have a hard time justifying it. I played D1 at launch and sold it a week later as I felt it was not the game that was advertised. The gafers posts I have been reading seem to have played a lot of D1. Has anyone felt the same as me but bought D2 and r happy with it?

I played 1 and was completely burnt by the time the raid released.
I bought 2 thinking the better of but figured the improvements were enough...
but I feel burned again.

Honestly it feels like other than some more cutscenes its a step down from the first.
 

Finaj

Member
Jeff made the same observation of the first game. In the universe, the stakes are incredibly high and the coming enemy is about to wipe out mankind, but every character dances and has silly emotes. It's just a weird tonal inconsistency, almost like Bungie is afraid people will think they're taking their story too seriously or something.

Even the commercials feel this way. Remember the Halo 3 or Halo: Reach commercials? There was a certain weight to them. Even in both games there was some lighthearted moments but the tone was consistent.

Then again, Joe Staten isn't with Bungie anymore so maybe that has something to do with it.
 

~Cross~

Member
Jeff made the same observation of the first game. In the universe, the stakes are incredibly high and the coming enemy is about to wipe out mankind, but every character dances and has silly emotes. It's just a weird tonal inconsistency, almost like Bungie is afraid people will think they're taking their story too seriously or something.

Every MMO or MMO like has this sort of stuff. You cant fully expect a game (or just about any media really) to be 100% serious 100% of the time, its mentally exhausting.
 
Every MMO or MMO like has this sort of stuff. You cant fully expect a game (or just about any media really) to be 100% serious 100% of the time, its mentally exhausting.

I'm aware, I've played several MMOs long before Destiny showed up.

No one is against jokes or silly easter eggs. It's about how and when the humor is used. The Halo comparison above is actually perfect. Destiny just tries way too hard to be "funny" that it actually works against the game in my opinion.

But I guess it's nitpicking at this point since no one actually cares about the story after the first week or so.
 
Every MMO or MMO like has this sort of stuff. You cant fully expect a game (or just about any media really) to be 100% serious 100% of the time, its mentally exhausting.

There are plenty of games which have emotes, but they are designed to only communicate as opposed to being gags/dances: Division, Dark Souls, Arma, BF1. You can even argue that For Honor emotes are plausible taunts for the setting.
 

eizarus

Banned
Jeff made the same observation of the first game. In the universe, the stakes are incredibly high and the coming enemy is about to wipe out mankind, but every character dances and has silly emotes. It's just a weird tonal inconsistency, almost like Bungie is afraid people will think they're taking their story too seriously or something.
NoFunAllowed.jpeg

I'm kidding but is it really an issue?
 

sn00zer

Member
Jeff made the same observation of the first game. In the universe, the stakes are incredibly high and the coming enemy is about to wipe out mankind, but every character dances and has silly emotes. It's just a weird tonal inconsistency, almost like Bungie is afraid people will think they're taking their story too seriously or something.
Naw I think its pretty clear the dance emotes are not 'canon' in the same way a player saying 'fuck yeah beat you, you dumb boss' when you finish a boss fight. Its basically a virtual hi five to share with other players divorced from the actual game universe.
 
The emotes are fine I think. The guardians are immortal. Might as well have a some fun while you're kicking ass and taking names.
 
Just from watching non spoiler reviews, 8.5 is solid. Raid will give it a boost.

My pros:

Graphics: This looks like a polished current gen game just by the first opening mission. So many breathtaking views, I'd imagine PS Pro and PC gamers are in for a treat.

Story, a few CS I did watch, bought a smile to my face. It feels like there's more at stake and not just vague "You vs generic villain" trope. The expansions I'll be looking forward too since one of them expands upon the Osirus character.

PVP at first having 4v4 I thought it wouldn't be as fun... dead. wrong. If anything it lessens the cheap shots from opposing teammates, everyone has to pull their weight. Also, getting a fire team of four if my clan comes back won't mean I get left in the dust haha.

PVE I'm SO glad they're much more to do. Maps are huge and from the looks of things, multi layered. Lots of exploration, even if you've seen it all, the world doesn't seem so... empty. Public Events have more meaning, and there's just so much to do if you're not an endgamer.

Cons:

Shaders being consumable and now utilized by paywall. This means I'll have to be ultra conservative on them, and resist using them on gear that will get replaced so soon. Had a feeling this is Activisions way of recovering more costs from the huge budget, and to just make more money. I suppose it's another reason to keep farming the zones.

Character Custom is the same as D1. As much as this irks me, most of the game we'll have helmets on... but I feel that they will expand on this via Eververse, Shaders are just the beginning.

Recycled enemy types. A given, we do get some new-ish moves for some and new enemy types but seeing the Taken in one of the early LP I was left going "uh?" Guess I was expecting more variations of the darkness, like mini versions of raid bosses running around the open world.

Still, I'm eventually going to dip into this soon.
 
As someone who felt burnt by D1, I want to buy D2 but have a hard time justifying it. I played D1 at launch and sold it a week later as I felt it was not the game that was advertised. The gafers posts I have been reading seem to have played a lot of D1. Has anyone felt the same as me but bought D2 and r happy with it?

I'm in the same boat, all the hype around the game makes me want to purchase it but then I remember that I played the first one and found that it had no story and reasoning. I'm fine with games with a ton of kill rooms, but they advertised this as an epic grand story and it was very lacking.

2 sounds like they've made leaps and bounds more story content but like someone in the thread said, every commercial I see has Nathan fillion's character making a mockery of everything. It works for games like borderlands but again, their promoting this as a grand epic story and all I've seen so far is humor.

My brother purchased it on Xbox live, when I go over my parents house I'll try to play it.
 

BiGBoSSMk23

A company being excited for their new game is a huge slap in the face to all the fans that liked their old games.
NoFunAllowed.jpeg

I'm kidding but is it really an issue?

It's an issue when the game is not as large in scope as an MMO.

It's evident in their lazy comedy writing. The exchanges between Ghost and Failsafe were so painful... I legit thought "this sounds like the cringe inducing banter you hear between cosplayers role-playing at an Expo."

It's fanfic-tier shit.

Nolan North has never sounded more grating aping C3PO's nerdy tone, to the point that missed Peter Dinklage's monotone velvety delivery.

Another problem I personally have with tone in Destiny is that it's a tightly focused linear story that makes no suggestions that you're part of a fireteam.

It constantly refers to you as "this (singular) Guardian I've heard so much of".

The point is, the story in this game is clearly an afterthought. It's just a backdrop for the loot-chasing grind, and a paper thin reason to be in these beautifully realized sci fi locales.

On another note, I really miss Marty O'Donnell.

I have the original Destiny theme on my PS4 now and that main score is so evocative of the sale and scope we never got...

Sigh...

Fuck.
 

norm9

Member
...Nathan fillion's character making a mockery of everything. It works for games like borderlands but again, their promoting this as a grand epic story and all I've seen so far is humor.

Yeah, in game he does his darnedest to make the serious story into a quippy Avengers movie. Luckily, buzzkill Zavala is there to grimdark it up.
 
As someone who felt burnt by D1, I want to buy D2 but have a hard time justifying it. I played D1 at launch and sold it a week later as I felt it was not the game that was advertised. The gafers posts I have been reading seem to have played a lot of D1. Has anyone felt the same as me but bought D2 and r happy with it?

It's the same game. The story is better but not great. They removed some bs like leveling up guns but it's still shooting aliens and grinding for gear so you can raid and raiding so you can do the hard raid. Then the dlc comes out and you do ot again. It's a well made game but it just feels stale to me.
 
Is there grinding in this game? I remember hearing alot about grinding regarding the first game. I don't do grinding.

The campaign is 8 hours or so. Then theres 4 pretty lengthy quest chains. After that theres 5-6 strikes (longer 3-player dungeons), 10 pvp 4v4 maps, and 1 6-player raid. The raid is mainly for people who grind to the max level, but I feel there's probably 20 hours worth of content before the game starts feeling grindy.
 

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
Is there grinding in this game? I remember hearing alot about grinding regarding the first game. I don't do grinding.

The gear ladder is a large motivator for player retention and the action and progression kind of feeds into it. If you wish to merely experience the story and shoot some stuff for a weekend, you will be provided. Just keep in mind the story is familiar territory for this medium, and the grind is inherent beyond its conclusion for continued play as a gate for challenging future content.

May want to hold off for Wolfenstein or BF2 maybe if you care not for repeat content. But there is still quite a bit to see and do as a one-and-done purchase for some thrills until the next big holiday game pulls you away.
 
Same gameplay as in you do more or less the same activities? Sure, but they play very differently. The actual feel of movement is dramatically different.

More importantly, though, the characters and world are very different and those are huge parts of what make a GTA game enjoyable.
Like every other sequel than? Thats exactly my point.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Like every other sequel than? Thats exactly my point.

No...

Many sequels play extremely similarly to each other in both movement and control feel. Destiny 2 is a very good example of that. You could also say that about a lot of the Call of Duty games, for example.

Yes, GTA has always been about stealing cars and killing people, but the gameplay has felt very different across GTA III (and the others in that series), GTA IV, and GTA V.
 
Not everyone cares for the raids. I wonder about the percentages of D1 players that have even finished all the raids.

When they said less than half of players finished ONE raid at the D2 reveal, that blew my mind.

I never cared about the raids, and I only finshed Crota's End because you could 3-man it. And I still did more raiding than a majority of Destiny 1 players. That's absolutely insane.
 
UM. GTA got its reviews before online even launched, destroys your argument. Its the same GTA, more of the same...

I never said he cannot have an opinion, am I not allowed yp comment about his opinion on a forum or something? Chill man, relax tiger.

I just used GTA as an example...what about gears, uncharted, or any other highly rated sequel? GTA 4 even.

So you ignore the plethora of other, valid reasons in my post and nitpick the online portion? FYI, the online was reviewed after the fact by many outlets and received extremely high scores as well, but forget the online. I mentioned a ton of other reasons and you choose to gloss over it and further your [horrible] goalposts. GTA5 is not just "more of the same," and comparing it to Destiny is hilariously bad.

Revisionist history at its finest.there is nothing that allows this type of gameplay, with groups anywere else.destiny is pretty unique as it is.

There we go, was waiting for the obvious nonsensical post to come forth, given yoir fandom. Someone said he put 1800 hours into the first game and this game feels samey/he feels deja vu, you immediately come out his perfectly valid and entitled opinion and use GTA5 as an example of a critically acclaimed game that does the same thing as it's predecessors to shut down his opinion, people call you out because you're factually wrong, and your response is...

...that no other game is like Destiny because of it's type of gameplay with groups? 😂

What for that have to do with anything? That's literally irrelevant to the convo at hand, and proving that you're too obsessed with defending the game than anything else. Also, you might want to look up revisionist history, since you're using it in the wrong context.

Sorry dude, but calling GTAV 'more of the same' in trying to defend Destiny 2, you're missing the mark in every way. It's a hilariously bad example to pick.

I don't usually agree with Hoo-Doo, but yep, this. It's literally hilarious that it goes over your head how much of a bad example it is to use GTA.

How so?
You never even gave one legit reason why, and GTA 4 , 5 is just one if many examples.

Like every other sequel than? Thats exactly my point.

He doesn't have to. I gave you a TON of examples and you chose to purposefully ignore them. And holy shit, your comments about GTA, Uncharted, same gameplay, etc...so you're saying GTA5 is just like GTA 3 and 4 because you go around and steal cars and do missions? Because that's all I got from the asinine shit you're posting here. Moving dem goalposts; saying it's the same game just with more polish and content, getting proven wrong, then saying it's the same gameplay. Well durrrr, of course it is. You expect a genre change or something? GTA5 innovates on WAY more features than Destiny does. This isn't an opinion.

Also, water is a fully featured space now, where in every game before, you'd either die when entering the water, or could only swim on a 2D plane.

Animal AI

Character Special Ablilities

Customisable Weapons and cars

That's about what I can think of off the top of my head.

I forgot about the animal AI; it's very prevalent in their GTA5/RDR engine.

As someone who hated GTA V and think that GTA IV is amazing, this is absolutely wrong. They are completely different.

Yep, thank you.

Completely different?how?
That's hyperbole. Its the same gameplay.

Hyperbole is your original comment regarding GTA5 "exactly the same just with more polish and content." GTA may not be "completely" different, but the sequel is insanely more innovative and game/genre-defining than Destiny 2 is to D1.
 

dcelw540

Junior Member
So since this the review thread just give my thoughts.

So far I just finished titan planet. I've played around 6ish hours and so far I'm underwhelmed. I played destiny 1 and thought it was okay and lacking and this feels excalty the same. The enemies are lacking, barely any new types and it's very much a lackluster story so far. I guess the lore for this universe isn't interesting me which buns me out. Just find it messy and this coming from someone who loves sci-fi with a passion. The first level was really well done but the rest has been hit or miss. It's better then the first so far but it's not doing much in terms of breaking new ground. I think that's my general feeling. I look at all the people who are loving this and all I see is grinding killing same enemies to get to the next check point. I don't know if it's the endgame that's when the game really picks up or what. I just want to understand what's making people say this is miles better then destiny 1. Also titan is god awful doesn't help the terrible jumping in this game. It's so far a 6-7 for me.
 

benzopil

Member
Destructoid -- 7.5

Destiny 2 commits a lot of the same sins as its father, but it succeeded in doing something the original never did -- make roaming around the open world fun and rewarding. It still has a lot of room to evolve with expansions and major updates, but the future is looking brighter than it once was.
 

pronk420

Member
I was looking forward to this game having skipped the first one for various reasons, mainly for the lack of story.

But having watched the Giantbomb Quicklook, I wanted to ask: are the characters and dialog in D2 as cringey and jokey as the mission they played makes it seem, or is that confined mostly to missions where the Nathan Fillion Robot is a big part of them?

That stupid robot is in the intro mission but then I haven’t seen them since thank god. I guess they return later on. So far apart from the intro there hasn’t been any of that awful cringe ‘joking’ dialogue.

Not sure if they become a bigger part of the game later on though.. I seriously nearly didn’t buy the game because of them, it isn’t even slightly funny and feels like a really lazy attempt at humour.
 

eizarus

Banned
It's an issue when the game is not as large in scope as an MMO.

It's evident in their lazy comedy writing. The exchanges between Ghost and Failsafe were so painful... I legit thought "this sounds like the cringe inducing banter you hear between cosplayers role-playing at an Expo."

It's fanfic-tier shit.

Nolan North has never sounded more grating aping C3PO's nerdy tone, to the point that missed Peter Dinklage's monotone velvety delivery.

Another problem I personally have with tone in Destiny is that it's a tightly focused linear story that makes no suggestions that you're part of a fireteam.

It constantly refers to you as "this (singular) Guardian I've heard so much of".

The point is, the story in this game is clearly an afterthought. It's just a backdrop for the loot-chasing grind, and a paper thin reason to be in these beautifully realized sci fi locales.

On another note, I really miss Marty O'Donnell.

I have the original Destiny theme on my PS4 now and that main score is so evocative of the sale and scope we never got...

Sigh...

Fuck.
Meh. I have to disagree with every point you said except the one about being the famous Guardian. You know, opinions and all that.
 

Hoo-doo

Banned
Review before the Raid is out and with a "Destiny 1.5" headline.

Nice try, Destructoid.

It's a touch premature, but the raid isn't going to drastically alter the game.
And as posted before, more than half of the D1 playerbase never touched the raids at all.
 
Almost everyone has been calling it destiny 1.5 including Jason Mr destiny himself. All it means is it's more of what fans like.

To be fair, most people on the internet has been using Destiny 1.5 as an insult or a tiring overused meme.

Then again, people on the internet are just how they are ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 

GlamFM

Banned
I mean, if they don't want reviewers to do their job before the raid hits, why release the game without one?

The raid is in there. It´s not being patched in or something. It unlocks a week after the base game so people can get ready for it.
 
Reviewers have no obligation to sit around and wait for updates before posting their reviews. If Bungie doesnt like that people are reviewing the game right now then they should have launched with the raid, or built a game that doesnt rely so heavily on a single end game dungeon.
 

GlamFM

Banned
Reviewers have no obligation to sit around and wait for updates before posting their reviews. If Bungie doesnt like that people are reviewing the game right now then they should have launched with the raid, or built a game that doesnt rely so heavily on a single end game dungeon.

I don´t think that Bungie cares.

Destiny 1 taught them that there is no correlation between success and reviews.

I still think Destructoid should have waited just like everybody else instead of running into the "first!" trap.

They are literally the only review with a score (from a bigger publication) out there.
 

GlamFM

Banned
If reviewers actually wait for these things, this delay is a really clever way of protecting the hype from potential bad reviews.

It's the next step from Early Access Edition and day 1 reviews.

So.... in your conspiracy theory Destructioid is the knight in shining armor?
 
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