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Does Destiny 2 feels like a sequel or an expansion?

Falchion

Member
It feels like a continuation of the first one but the actual experience is much improved like a sequel should be.
 

OptimusLime

Member
Its closer to what the first one should have been, considering all the promises. We arent quite there yet.

But the much larger environments and more enemies on-screen at once is a well welcomed big upgrade, as is the better story and PvE in general.
 
Its a do-over.

Like Jim Sterling mentions in his Destiny 2 review, both Titanfall 2 and Destiny 2 are what their game debuts should have been. Sounds about right to me.
 

adversarial

Member
I feel like original FFXIV to A Realm Reborn was a more drastic and awesome change than D1 to D2. I wasn't a hardcore D1 player but this game feels the same to me. New planets to run around on, class customization is still jank, the leveling system seems extra dumbed down. Still enjoying it 20 hours in but not sure for how much longer. For some reason I had super distorted expectations for this, and it just seems like a re-skinned D1 with QOL changes that should have been implemented in the first game.
 

Kill3r7

Member
By modern standards it is a full fledged sequel. I really like the game so far. That said, by old school PC standards it is a proper expansion.
 

Apocryphon

Member
It feels like a sequel to me. I think they did just enough in terms of the visuals from a technical perspective and the art, story,and things like sound are way better than D1. It's a sequel as much as Gears of War 2 was a sequel. I don't think the campaign is as well executed as the Halo games but I accept that the Destiny campaign isn't the main draw for people buying it. I do not regret my purchase
 

Raonak

Banned
I find it interesting how both this and Splatoon 2 have struggled to shake off the label of not being a true sequel.

Sounds like they both fell into the trap of intentionally not making too many changes, because they would piss off loyal players... but at the same time not doing enough to appeal to new or lapsed players.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
Sounds like they both fell into the trap of intentionally not making too many changes, because they would piss off loyal players... but at the same time not doing enough to appeal to new or lapsed players.

I don't think that applies to Destiny 2 at all. The game is stuffed to the gills with things designed to appeal to new and lapsed players, largely by addressing the things that drove or kept players away.
 
Its a do-over.

Like Jim Sterling mentions in his Destiny 2 review, both Titanfall 2 and Destiny 2 are what their game debuts should have been. Sounds about right to me.

I call it a Mulligan, but yeah, basically this.

The fact that there are no new Fallen, Hive, or Vex enemies really feels like it doesn't quite reach a full sequel.
 

Danneee

Member
It's like I'm playing the exact same game so I'll answer expansion. Not that I don't like a decent loot shooter and this will hold me over until Mario and Xenoblade but it's not improved upon to the extent that Destiny 1.5 feels far off. As someone said, it's like one of those 90s-early 2000 expansions, when expansions added a lot of stuff but not enough to make it a sequel.
 

excowboy

Member
Its clearly a sequel. Anyone saying 'it doesn't have enough content' sounds kinda bananas to me - I've played for 10 hours so far and I haven't even finished the campaign, then there are strikes, the raid, adventures/lost sectors/patrol/public events/flashpoints (extra PvE missions/activities), multiplayer, and a bunch of classes/weapons/abilities with which to approach each of these.

I'm pretty sure I beat Halo 2 in 10 hours first time through though.
 

Vinc

Member
It doesnt really feel like a sequel because there's almost nothing to narratively pull from the original that would warrant a sequel. As for the mechanics, they're a refinement of the original. Graphics look refined as well. It's basically more of a replacement for the original game.
 

Raven117

Gold Member
Meh, by most peoples definitions of "sequel" in this thread, few games if any are ever actual "Sequels."

Its really a dumb question to even ask.

Is CoD a sequel? Is Wolfenstein? Is TitanFall? I mean come on....
 

JTripper

Member
Hard to see how it may just feel like an expansion to anyone who's spent more than a couple hours with it. Every part of it I've played so far is a necessary evolution of what came before, as a sequel should be.
 
Meh, by most peoples definitions of "sequel" in this thread, few games if any are ever actual "Sequels."

Its really a dumb question to even ask.

Is CoD a sequel? Is Wolfenstein? Is TitanFall? I mean come on....

Well. I mean there is a reason people have been bitching about yearly iterations of certain game franchises for over a decade now. Not to mention how much people hate the level of substance we get from certain DLC.
 
Seems (from searching about the game, but not actually playing) quite like Crackdown 2, something that started as an expansion but eventually grew up to be a sequel, but because of its roots, there's a plethora of reused content.
 
It has the content of 5 or 6 expansions.
For Destiny yes,
But look at what the genre Destiny likes to pretend it is.

Destiny after all the DLC doesn't remotely match the amount of content of FFXIV.
Destiny 2 doesn't have as much content as either FFXIV expansions, and those were like half the price.
 

Gator86

Member
I'm on team sequel but one thing I wonder is how many copies they need to sell to be able to afford a enemy designer with more ambition than slow, giant version of common enemy with high damage melee dome and mortar ranged. It's been 3 fucking years. Please hire someone, literally anyone, capable of doing this.
 
I've changed my stance to sequel.

It's mainly the graphical updates (no matter how slight) and the actual cutscenes and story this ti,e.
 
I've changed my stance to sequel.

It's mainly the graphical updates (no matter how slight) and the actual cutscenes and story this ti,e.


I really don't get the people saying graphical upgrades either, lot of stuff looks so washed out compared to the first, lighting is terrible and especially the player characters can look terrible now.

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Is there enough endgame content to justify sequel status? Destiny 1 was atrocious in that respect until Activision got you to buy 3 expansions to make it feel like a complete game. Not throwing my money at them again.
 
Sequel definitely. Story is much better and worlds are huge you can now explore. It doesn't feel like I'm repeating the same content over and over, and by the time I get to that point, expansions with new content will be here.

It's Destiny "the way it should have been the first time"

Only thing really lacking is a next gen wow graphics upgrade. But, it's still really pretty with great art, just not as impressive after playing stuff like Horizon in 4K
 

Trickster

Member
A sequel that plays it very safe. There is too much content in the game to call it just an expansion. It has four brand new planets (returning planet with no area) to explore, large campaign, tons of new weapons, many quests, five new strikes, whole new set of maps, whole new raid and so on.

It's enough content to warrant a whole new game. It just seems ignorant to call it just an expansion.

How is it ignorant? It's quite easy to compare the content you listed to that of a WoW or FF14 expansion pack.
 

Matchew

Member
I'm going to say its an expansion. If it's a sequel it is by far the safest and by the numbers sequel ever. The story is way too short, and why in the world is there no one around doing public events? EDZ is huge, but the rest of the worlds are just as small as D1. I put 1000 hours into D1, and already burned out on D2 because its not that big of a difference.

@omnistalgic the latest WoW and FF14 expansions had more content than this.
 

cartesian

Member
As a casual Destiny player, D2 feels like an expansion pack to me. Yes, it has new environments, guns, missions, etc, but fundamentally to me it looks, feels and plays like the first game. There are no new enemy races, no fourth class, no radically different weapon types, no vehicle modes, few new game types, no major new PvE game modes, no new species, no major gameplay additions ala Halo 2, Halo 4, Halo 5, etc etc etc. Nothing that makes it feel strikingly distinct from the original game.

The fact that so many people rave about D2's "quality of life" improvements sums it up for me - it refreshes and replaces the original game, but it doesn't have that visceral feel of something brand new and fresh.

When people say this is the game that Destiny 1 was always meant to be, it sort of bums me out because the vision for Destiny 1 seemed to be far more ambitious than this - you can go to those mountains, you shape the world through your actions, you show off your rare loot to your friends, you meet new people as you explore, become legend, etc - but ultimately Destiny 2 just repeats the same discrete modes in the same format: missions, strikes, raid, crucible, etc. All are tweaked and improved but none of it feels new. Didn't I do all this stuff this in D1, Dark Below, House of Wolves, Taken King and Rise of Iron?

I like Destiny 2, I really do. It's fun. I seem awfully negative about it but that's just because I don't really think it's such a big deal from a more casual perspective. It doesn't awe me. The way I see it, it's a map screen, a new SMG, and some different coloured ruins to shoot the same set of aliens in. It's fun but you need to be a hardcore fan to care a great deal about a lot of these changes.
 
As a casual Destiny player, D2 feels like an expansion pack to me. Yes, it has new environments, guns, missions, etc, but fundamentally to me it looks, feels and plays like the first game. There are no new enemy races, no fourth class, no radically different weapon types, no vehicle modes, few new game types, no major new PvE game modes, no new species, no major gameplay additions ala Halo 2, Halo 4, Halo 5, etc.

Most of the things you mentioned don't exist in the Halo sequels either, in certain cases (like enemy races or weapon types or "fourth classes"), the Halo sequels are significantly worse.
 

Takuan

Member
It feels like a very good expansion.

Most of the things you mentioned don't exist in the Halo sequels either, in certain cases (like enemy races or weapon types or "fourth classes"), the Halo sequels are significantly worse.
Halo isn't a co-op loot game though.
 

cartesian

Member
Most of the things you mentioned don't exist in the Halo sequels either, in certain cases (like enemy races or weapon types or "fourth classes"), the Halo sequels are significantly worse.
I completely disagree. In my view, the changes from Halo 1 to Halo 2, and from Halo 3 to Halo 4, are so obvious and substantial that I honestly cannot imagine NeoGAF spending page after page figuring out whether Halo 2 feels like an expansion pack. The question would never arise.

If you genuinely believe that Destiny 2 plays and feels like a more dramatic change than those sequels did, then more power to you, but there's honestly no point in is continuing this discussion because we're disagreeing on the fundamental points.

In my opinion, it feels like an expansion coupled with a major patch. The biggest difference to me is the change of scenery. That's just how I feel.
 
After reading this thread I would hate to be a developer. The idea that Bungie should have brand new enemy races in each game for it to be deemed a sequel is insane to me. And then some of the posts saying the enemies from D1 are the exact same in D2 leave me baffled as well when you the Fallen for example with completely new move sets, new variants, a new look, and amazing combat animations like the skitter. Feels kinda like Destiny has some absurdly unrealistic expectations compared to other games.
 
Do you consider the following games to be expansions or sequels?
-Assassin's Creed 2
-Uncharted 3
-Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

Disregarding technical quality(Assassin's Creed 1) those were all considered solid games from the start,
While Destiny for many wasn't.

Those games don't set themselves up for expansions besides a $10-$15 MP packs

There is absolutely no reason Destiny 2 couldn't have just been 2 big Destiny 1 expansions(Rise of the Red Legion/Fall of the Guardians and Return of the Light )for example.
And thats even if you consider it that big.
 
I just can't take posts like this seriously.

It couldn't have been done as DLC due to the graphical and system changes alone.

Totally ridiculous to the point of me questioning whether you've actually even played the games.

Aside from the system

D2 does seem like an expansion? I mean if what we call are expansions are more missions and more stuff, then it's definitely an expansion? LIke...compare it to one of World of Warcrafts expansion. Those games have had system and graphic changes over time, but we don't call them full fledged sequels, they are what they are-expansions.

Except D2 locks you out of doing old content. It brings back old guns and weapons sure, but it's an expansion through and through. The question is, will they remove access to D2 when you play D3, or will they proceed to merge the game worlds? That's the thing I'm worried about.

I give them the benefit of the doubt because the PS3/360 compatibility locked them out of expanding on that even further, so I hope that with D2, all they released are full sized expansions to D2 in the future.

I doubt it, but you know.
 
I give them the benefit of the doubt because the PS3/360 compatibility locked them out of expanding on that even further, so I hope that with D2, all they released are full sized expansions to D2 in the future.
They could still have done exactly what FFXIV did with their latest expansion,
Just announce ahead of time they are no longer supporting PS3 going ahead and design with that in mind.

But thats almost another topic entirely.
 

Arkage

Banned
I really don't get the people saying graphical upgrades either, lot of stuff looks so washed out compared to the first, lighting is terrible and especially the player characters can look terrible now.

Really can't agree to this. I played the shit out of Destiny 1 and immediately noticed the improved lighting in Destiny 2. When it gets the HDR patched in it will be amazing.

As far as your character transfer from Destiny 1 into 2, yea that looks not so good. Maybe there's an issue with that process they didn't test out or spend much time on.

On topic: I agree the content is enough to call it a sequel, but the ambition for newness was fairly low. Rejiggering the guns around did next to nothing for me, other than I never really use fusion rifles anymore despite me using them a lot in the first game. The class improvements are good, but seem to rely too heavily upon the exotic armor perks Destiny 1 used. This game also really needed a new enemy type IMO. These enemies are old as hell, even with some of their few new moves.
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
Really can't agree to this. I played the shit out of Destiny 1 and immediately noticed the improved lighting in Destiny 2. When it gets the HDR patched in it will be amazing.

As far as your character transfer from Destiny 1 into 2, yea that looks not so good. Maybe there's an issue with that process they didn't test out or spend much time on.

The particles are actually better and there's more of it. Destiny had a slick color scheme and gave it a nice clean look to it. This game on the other hand has a layer on top of it where there's just more detail and more polygons. It looks good.
 

TheMan

Member
I was really really hoping for new classes, but we didnt' even get that. I'd say overall it feels like an expansion. There are a lot of QOL improvements, but all in all the gameplay feels almost exactly the same, especially since 90% of the enemies are exactly the same.
 
I was really really hoping for new classes, but we didnt' even get that. I'd say overall it feels like an expansion. There are a lot of QOL improvements, but all in all the gameplay feels almost exactly the same, especially since 90% of the enemies are exactly the same.

Enemies being the same doesn't bug me, as World of Warcraft reuses the skeleton rigs of enemies over and over again but in new ways.

But as far as being a good base, D2 has a potential of being that base. They can expand on it and keep adding content to it. Let's hope they choose to do that, and not lay a 'Destiny 3' that negates everything you ever did.
 
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