Destiny 2

[Danimal]

I had no idea this was out today, I guess that is how far this has fallen in 2 years.

Is anyone playing this?

[TCrouch]

I played it a little bit last night, once I could finally get into the servers.

It's much prettier, and I forgot how perfectly the controls feel in Destiny. Being able to jump and make airborne headshots on a another jumping enemy never gets old, because the controls are so tight. The cinematics are much, much better, but...it's still Destiny. It won't change anybody's mind if they lost interest or had no interest in the first game.

[pk500]

Zero interest. Destiny was the most overrated, overhyped game of this generation, in my opinion.

Nothing spells fun like grinding through waves of hundreds of enemies just to clear a level. Here's Destiny, in a nutshell: Take cover. Spray a hailstorm of bullets at waves of mindless enemies. Watch them die. Rinse, wash and repeat about 10 times, killing more than 100 foes, to clear a level. Rinse, wash, repeat on a different map.

What joy.

Plus I'm no RPG fanatic, but I've played enough to know the supposed RPG-FPS hybrid in Destiny was foolish.

Too bad The Division didn't get the love that Destiny did. Post-Patch 1.5, The Division might be the perfect FPS-RPG hybrid, with emphasis on shooting.

[Danimal]

Not disagreeing with anything you said PK but Destiny is a better shooter than the Division from a game play mechniacs stand point. As Terry said it is a tight system and possibly the best available. Now the game play around the shooting mechanic I agree with you about.

[Aristo]

Yep. That's why Destiny just made me want to play Halo. I consider Destiny one of my worst purchases this gen.

[pk500]

Not disagreeing with anything you said PK but Destiny is a better shooter than the Division from a game play mechniacs stand point. As Terry said it is a tight system and possibly the best available. Now the game play around the shooting mechanic I agree with you about.

No question. Bungie games always have featured tight mechanics. But it gets a bit tedious when you're firing that gun 1,000 times -- no exaggeration -- to clear one level.

[pk500]

Yep. That's why Destiny just made me want to play Halo. I consider Destiny one of my worst purchases this gen.

Destiny was Bungie's attempt to combine Halo with RPG-lite traits. But there's one HUGE difference: At least Halo was fun.

[AcemanPR]

I was one of those lukewarm about Destiny. That game felt very hollow playing it and for being dubbed as a loot type RPG, it didn't do it very well. However, I enjoyed the PvP aspect of Destiny and put quite a few hours into it. One thing that Destiny should get high praise for is the gun play, best of any shooter I've played.

Well my son got into Destiny earlier this year and wanted Destiny 2 and I was willing to give the series another chance. Have put about an hour into the game and I certainly am much more impressed at the beginning of this game than I was with the original. The controls seem even better and tighter. Enemy AI seems more intelligent, and the visuals and environments look remarkably better and seem much more immersive. I've gotten to the farm (the main base area for this game to this point) so looking forward to finally getting into the meat of the game now that the introduction is done. Bungie promised a better loot system, that has yet to be determined.

If a developer can make a game that incorporates the gun play and control of Destiny, the loot system of The Division, and the openness and freedom of Wildlands, then I don't think we would have to buy another game of that genre ever again!

[AcemanPR]

Yep. That's why Destiny just made me want to play Halo. I consider Destiny one of my worst purchases this gen.

Destiny was Bungie's attempt to combine Halo with RPG-lite traits. But there's one HUGE difference: At least Halo was fun.

While playing Destiny 2 earlier today, a couple times I felt like this was very similar to Halo. Mostly because of the music, its very engrossing.

Will keep you up to date on my impressions as I continue to play this. Looking forward to getting in some co-op with my son and neighbor across the street (who put thousands of hours into the original)

[pk500]

Destiny is the Dallas Cowboys of video game franchises: You either REALLY love it or REALLY hate it.

For every person who blows a nut over Destiny, there's another person who would rather drag that swollen nut through molten razors than play it ever again.

[Danimal]

For every person who blows a nut over Destiny, there's another person who would rather drag that swollen nut through molten razors than play it ever again.

Umm no, I've never hated a game enough to be like this.

[Bakes]

Zero interest. Destiny was the most overrated, overhyped game of this generation, in my opinion.

Nothing spells fun like grinding through waves of hundreds of enemies just to clear a level. Here's Destiny, in a nutshell: Take cover. Spray a hailstorm of bullets at waves of mindless enemies. Watch them die. Rinse, wash and repeat about 10 times, killing more than 100 foes, to clear a level. Rinse, wash, repeat on a different map.

What joy.

Plus I'm no RPG fanatic, but I've played enough to know the supposed RPG-FPS hybrid in Destiny was foolish.

Too bad The Division didn't get the love that Destiny did. Post-Patch 1.5, The Division might be the perfect FPS-RPG hybrid, with emphasis on shooting.

Isn't that basically The Division - shooting 8 billion rounds into mindless bullet sponge enemies? I enjoyed the campaign but the end game I thought was pretty bad. The first Incursion was basically a one room horde mode with no mechanics at all. Maybe that has changed over the past couple of patches. I gave up on the game after a few months.

[greggsand]

I thought the first one was 'okay', but this has been much more fun right out of the gate.

[pk500]

Zero interest. Destiny was the most overrated, overhyped game of this generation, in my opinion.

Nothing spells fun like grinding through waves of hundreds of enemies just to clear a level. Here's Destiny, in a nutshell: Take cover. Spray a hailstorm of bullets at waves of mindless enemies. Watch them die. Rinse, wash and repeat about 10 times, killing more than 100 foes, to clear a level. Rinse, wash, repeat on a different map.

What joy.

Plus I'm no RPG fanatic, but I've played enough to know the supposed RPG-FPS hybrid in Destiny was foolish.

Too bad The Division didn't get the love that Destiny did. Post-Patch 1.5, The Division might be the perfect FPS-RPG hybrid, with emphasis on shooting.

Isn't that basically The Division - shooting 8 billion rounds into mindless bullet sponge enemies? I enjoyed the campaign but the end game I thought was pretty bad. The first Incursion was basically a one room horde mode with no mechanics at all. Maybe that has changed over the past couple of patches. I gave up on the game after a few months.

Not since the huge patch earlier this year. The developers all but rewrote the AI for The Division. Enemies flank much better, and I have sniper rifles that can cut down regular foes with two shots.

I disliked The Division before that massive patch. Now it's easily my favorite shooter of this generation and one of my favorites ever.

[TCrouch]

Consider me a cautious optimist at this point. Sorry in advance for yet another one of my long novels...

I'm one of the people who really liked Destiny early on (as any early post will likely show, yet I haven't gone back and read them), but the further you got, the more aimless and grind-y it became. Plus, story missions were so infrequent that it seemed like there were long periods of just dead time, where you were doing patrols without much direction, and just sort of wandering as if it were some sort of time-sink filler activity (which it was). I've never been a big "end-game gear chaser", so I sort of miss the point of the whole game, I know, but I generally like story missions and hitting max level, then doing something else.

That being said...

Destiny 2 has blown my mind so far. The story cutscenes are worlds better, and I can drop normal enemies quickly. The "tough" and "elite" guys where you have to get through shields are obviously tougher, but it really doesn't feel much different than The Division as far as time-to-kill goes. That is a big deal to me. Combine that with Bungie's flawless controls, and you have a scenario where you can waltz into a room, see 10 bad guys, and just rip off headshots and 1-hit-kills, even as you're jumping and flying around. It really makes you feel like Jedi-Gunfighter. Their subtle aim assist can be detected when an enemy starts moving (and your cursor follows them to a point without doing anything), but when you get into the middle of a shootout, the examination of the mechanics disappears, and it's just pure gunplay bliss.

On top of that, once you finally get to be able to co-op (I think the tutorial missions took me a good hour before I could), it seems that EVERYTHING is based on "power level", much like the light level in the last game (that they figured out later). It's just a gearscore. So, I may be mistaken, but you could be level 20 and play with a level 2 friend, and if you had some old crappy gear to equip, then you'd be scaling down to the buddy's area, and the enemies wouldn't be out of whack. Even The Division still gets this wrong. If you're with a friend that outlevels you by more than 2 or 3 levels, the enemies are so tough that you're relatively useless, and yet the enemies are tougher for your friend, making it more difficult than it should be.

From what I can tell in D2 (and I could be wrong here), everything is based around power level, or gear score. If that's the case, simply keeping old gear as you level up would allow you to play with ANYBODY, as long as the power levels are similar. Then again, you may not even need to do that, because in the opening free roam area, I was fighting alongside a level 20 (at like level 4) and we were doing similar amounts of damage. Maybe it's just a simple math calculation of enemy health, and what percentage of that your shots will do. If that's the case, then you might run into a scenario where you feel like you're never getting more powerful, but I haven't hit that yet, either.

But the biggest thing that I love is the sheer amount of sh*t to do. You can't go 10 feet without getting into a minor firefight with enemies, and between adventures (think of it as a chained set of side missions), lost sectors (hidden dungeons you go explore and find a big baddie in, kill him, and get loot), public events (which actually give you a timer now to know when they're coming), and random "strong" guys that I've run across, killed, and they dropped a loot chest...I haven't ever had a time like this in an MMO/co-op shooter where I walk 20 feet and always seem to be pulled in a different direction. There always seems to be a payoff at the end of whatever I chose to do, as well.

It doesn't waste my time. That is absolutely the biggest sin of most game designers. Creating some sort of artificial time sink just to keep you playing, but D2 seems to revel in just letting me feel like a Space Doc Holliday, dropping enemies by the dozen and zipping around from point A to point B getting better loot.

So after a few days, count me among the group that is blown away. I haven't had a shooter have THIS big of an impact on me before. Wildlands was the closest, but it was due to the sheer size of the world. The gameplay was completely different, and that's fine--such different games. In Wildlands you're driving/flying a lot, and the gunfights are over in seconds. In D2, you're running from fight to fight, and the fights take a little longer (but similar to Division), but the respawn areas and timers are such that you're never lacking something to do.

Absolutely love it, love it, LOVE IT so far. Can't wait to play more.

[Aristo]

Yep. That's why Destiny just made me want to play Halo. I consider Destiny one of my worst purchases this gen.

Destiny was Bungie's attempt to combine Halo with RPG-lite traits. But there's one HUGE difference: At least Halo was fun.

[Diablo25]

Consider me a cautious optimist at this point. Sorry in advance for yet another one of my long novels...

I'm one of the people who really liked Destiny early on (as any early post will likely show, yet I haven't gone back and read them), but the further you got, the more aimless and grind-y it became. Plus, story missions were so infrequent that it seemed like there were long periods of just dead time, where you were doing patrols without much direction, and just sort of wandering as if it were some sort of time-sink filler activity (which it was). I've never been a big "end-game gear chaser", so I sort of miss the point of the whole game, I know, but I generally like story missions and hitting max level, then doing something else.

That being said...

Destiny 2 has blown my mind so far. The story cutscenes are worlds better, and I can drop normal enemies quickly. The "tough" and "elite" guys where you have to get through shields are obviously tougher, but it really doesn't feel much different than The Division as far as time-to-kill goes. That is a big deal to me. Combine that with Bungie's flawless controls, and you have a scenario where you can waltz into a room, see 10 bad guys, and just rip off headshots and 1-hit-kills, even as you're jumping and flying around. It really makes you feel like Jedi-Gunfighter. Their subtle aim assist can be detected when an enemy starts moving (and your cursor follows them to a point without doing anything), but when you get into the middle of a shootout, the examination of the mechanics disappears, and it's just pure gunplay bliss.

On top of that, once you finally get to be able to co-op (I think the tutorial missions took me a good hour before I could), it seems that EVERYTHING is based on "power level", much like the light level in the last game (that they figured out later). It's just a gearscore. So, I may be mistaken, but you could be level 20 and play with a level 2 friend, and if you had some old crappy gear to equip, then you'd be scaling down to the buddy's area, and the enemies wouldn't be out of whack. Even The Division still gets this wrong. If you're with a friend that outlevels you by more than 2 or 3 levels, the enemies are so tough that you're relatively useless, and yet the enemies are tougher for your friend, making it more difficult than it should be.

From what I can tell in D2 (and I could be wrong here), everything is based around power level, or gear score. If that's the case, simply keeping old gear as you level up would allow you to play with ANYBODY, as long as the power levels are similar. Then again, you may not even need to do that, because in the opening free roam area, I was fighting alongside a level 20 (at like level 4) and we were doing similar amounts of damage. Maybe it's just a simple math calculation of enemy health, and what percentage of that your shots will do. If that's the case, then you might run into a scenario where you feel like you're never getting more powerful, but I haven't hit that yet, either.

But the biggest thing that I love is the sheer amount of sh*t to do. You can't go 10 feet without getting into a minor firefight with enemies, and between adventures (think of it as a chained set of side missions), lost sectors (hidden dungeons you go explore and find a big baddie in, kill him, and get loot), public events (which actually give you a timer now to know when they're coming), and random "strong" guys that I've run across, killed, and they dropped a loot chest...I haven't ever had a time like this in an MMO/co-op shooter where I walk 20 feet and always seem to be pulled in a different direction. There always seems to be a payoff at the end of whatever I chose to do, as well.

It doesn't waste my time. That is absolutely the biggest sin of most game designers. Creating some sort of artificial time sink just to keep you playing, but D2 seems to revel in just letting me feel like a Space Doc Holliday, dropping enemies by the dozen and zipping around from point A to point B getting better loot.

So after a few days, count me among the group that is blown away. I haven't had a shooter have THIS big of an impact on me before. Wildlands was the closest, but it was due to the sheer size of the world. The gameplay was completely different, and that's fine--such different games. In Wildlands you're driving/flying a lot, and the gunfights are over in seconds. In D2, you're running from fight to fight, and the fights take a little longer (but similar to Division), but the respawn areas and timers are such that you're never lacking something to do.

Absolutely love it, love it, LOVE IT so far. Can't wait to play more.

Good to hear. I might pick it up when the price drops...Black Friday or something.