Destiny 2: Will it live up to the hype?

I've been a gamer my entire life, playing many games from a wide variety of genres like FPS, MMO/RPG, MOBA, etc. Currently one of my favorite games to play is one that has a lot of controversy surrounding it, and that's Destiny.

Half the community love the game, and half of it love to hate it. Personally I find it quite enjoyable ,and fun to play. Now, I haven't been playing since vanilla, I started with The Taken King, and also played Rise of Iron, so I can't personally attest to some of the complaints about vanilla Destiny like lack of story. What I will talk about is what I love(d) about Destiny, and why I am looking forward to Destiny 2 this fall.

When I first heard about Destiny I thought it was a cool concept. Combining First Person Shooter with MMO/RPG elements, two of my favorite genres in gaming. Now you might think that since these are two of my favorite genres that I was immediately hooked, well that wasn't necessarily the case. I was somewhat salty at Bungie for leaving Halo behind, since I was a huge Halo fan, and I was disappointed with what 343 had done with the series. Also I was playing World of Warcraft at the time so that was consuming my life. That's why I didn't get into Destiny until The Taken King, well along with the negative reviews when the game first launched.

I heard so many negative reviews about how Destiny released unfinished, and that it didn't really have a story line, so this was the ultimate reason why I didn't buy the game at launch. Then when the Taken King expansion released I saw many positive reviews about it, and how Bungie finally added some kind of story. There was more texture and lore to the game now. I was done letting WoW consume my life and was looking for the next great first person shooter. After hours of looking at gameplay videos, and reviews on YouTube, I decided that Destiny looked really cool, and more importantly looked like fun. I wanted to buy a PS4 anyway, so I decided to get the glacier white PS4 Destiny TTK bundle! With that purchase my journey into the universe of the traveler had begun.

As soon as I booted up my PS4, popped in Destiny, and began playing, I immediately knew that I had found a game that I would be able to play for a very long time. The gameplay mechanics, and gun play was tight and smooth. It felt very similar to how Halo played, at least for me, and thats one of the first things I loved about the game. Then as I started leveling, and began to do raids, strikes, and nightfalls I began to get some really epic loot. This is when I fell in love with the game even more. At it's core, Destiny is a First Person Shooter and you can definitely feel that while playing, however it gives you that exciting feeling that MMO/RPG's give you when you complete a raid and get epic loot. To me the raid mechanics of TTK were awesome. I love collaborating with a group of people to complete raids, strikes, etc. I've clocked in so many hours into Destiny since I first purchased TTK, and for me that tells me a lot. It tells me that I thoroughly enjoy playing the game, it's fun, and it makes me happy. I also met many awesome people along the way who I still play with today. Now even though I love Destiny, that doesn't mean that it doesn't have it's flaws.

For me Destiny lacked in PVP. Sure I had fun playing Trials, and I enjoyed it, but the balancing of PVP, use of supers and abilities, in my opinion wasn't that good. The gunplay was smooth, and felt great, just like in PVE, however weapon balancing was definitely an issue, as well as maps. There were some good maps, but to me I wasn't a big fan of many, but thats just how I felt. Not to mention that PVP consisted more of supers, and abilities rather than just raw gunplay and strategy. Another flaw was that even though Bungie added more of a story line with TTK, it still wasn't up to par with what I would expect from them. This is where Destiny 2 comes in.

The Destiny 2 beta started with the homecoming story mission, and let me tell you it was very good. I could immediately tell that Bungie was on the right path with the story so far. It had awesome cut scenes, great dialogue, amazing gameplay, and it really made you feel like you were immersed in the world. This was something that Destiny lacked, and it seems that Bungie will really address this issue in Destiny 2, which I'm extremely excited about. Let's move on to the strike. The strike was... well it's a strike. It pretty much felt like the same format, and gameplay as any other strike is D1, which isn't a bad thing. Then we have crucible, or PVP. To me it felt a lot more polished, balanced, and competitive. I love the 4v4 format, and the maps were great. Some of the weapons did feel a little overpowered, but to me nothing too crazy. Everyone had pretty much the same weapons anyway, so it was an even playing field. I definitely think that Bungie improved the PVP of the game, now if only they can add a ranking system or a ranked playlist. I love that they are making the game more open world, and adding outposts, and dungeons. This brings even more of an MMO/RPG feel to the game. Also adding guided games, or looking for group was a must! I was getting tired of using reddit, or the Destiny LFG website to find groups for Raids, Nightfalls, and Trials of Osiris.

Just because I loved the D2 beta, doesn't mean I don't have my gripes about it. A few things I feel need to be changed are the super recharge rate, which I think Bungie already addressed. The super just charged too slow, most of the time I would get it towards the last round of a crucible match. The arch strider hunter needs a revamp. I think they should give arch strider a better class ability than dodge. I love dodge, and they should keep it as an ability, just not the main class ability. It feels so underwhelming compared to Titan, and Warlock's class abilities. It also doesn't help the team out in anyway, and is pointless in PVE. Another thing that I am kind of upset about is that Bungie has not implemented dedicated servers.

Either way I had a ton of fun playing the D2 beta, and I look forward to playing the full game this fall. I can't wait for all the new loot, new raids, dungeons, nightfalls, etc. And I am hoping Bungie continues to improve the crucible. I think they'll be a lot of returning players, and new players as well. I think it will live up to the hype, especially as DLC content comes out. I know they're a lot of people complaining about the beta, and maybe even cancelled their pre-orders, but for me I had a lot of fun, and that's all that matters. I'll see you in September guardians!