Having played Destiny and all its extensions, the suspense was great to play the first mission in the Destiny 2 – Beta.

Sean’s thoughts about Destiny 2 – Beta:

On the 6th of September 2017 Destiny 2 is coming out. We got a glimpse at it while playing the Destiny 2 – Beta version. I think that the new Destiny is going to have a bigger storyline than the last one. The new bad guys are the so called Red Legion, an elite group of the Cabal. They think, that the traveler should have come to their planet. Why? Because they think, that the Guardians are a «weak» species. They absorb the light of the traveler and take it away. The Red Legion is tougher than the normal Cabal. They also do a lot of damage. There are new super abilities the former Blade Dancer subclass now has an electrified bo (big stick) instead of knives. The new graphics are very crisp and detailed. The design of the new boss bad guy looks very similar to something out of Warhammer. There are still the same classes of guardians available: The Titan, the Warlock and last but not least the Hunter. In the beta version, you are not able to customize your guardian but I think you can do that in the final version.

The Father’s thoughts about Destiny 2 – Beta:

Honestly, it was a bit like Christmas coming early, but with more suspense. Not so much to get the hands on, but to be sure, to get the hands on. With things like beta tests, most of the time the servers go down. I still remember, when the last extension of Destiny came online, that Bungie couldn’t get things done, but not this time. Except for the rather tedious way to get your login code, things ran smoooothly.

There is one word, that often comes to mind when dealing with thing Destiny: Epic. The expectations that Bungie had to fulfill after Activision announced it as the «500 mio. $ game» were gigantic. I was under the impression, that everybody pretty much had their knives out, because of their high expectations. Sure, Destiny had a slow start, but one extension after the other things really improved. Personally, I have spent more time fooling around in Destiny than with any other game. I suck at PvP matches, but hey, that’s life. I love roaming around the different planets, collect the necessary materials to improve the weapons and armor. Going collaborative missions is another thing I like about Destiny and of course, its style, this odd mix of northern mythology meets science fiction. Epic.

Cayde-6 vs. Zavala

So here comes the chance to play the first mission of Destiny 2, finally the real deal. Not «just» an extension, but a whole new game. The trailers already looked promising with a touch of comic relief by Cayde-6. Humor always helps if it comes to grand storytelling. So amidst the pathos of Zavala, a little off-the-beat dialogue is welcome.

In the first mission that is playable in the beta release of Destiny 2 the Red Legion attacks Earth and pretty much destroys the tower. The Red Legion are souped up Cabal, meaner, tougher and with new weapons like flame throwers and similar annoying stuff. With a bit of routine, you will glide and battle through a very crispy version of the tower. The A.I. of the npc has improved. They will track your character down and hunt it. The first few boss fights live up to the name. And in the end, your ass will be kicked by Primus Ghaul, the new super bad guy.

Personally, I applaud that Bungie didn’t give into the common trend of adding more violence to the game like i.e. Titanfall 2 did. Like Halo the focus of the gameplay is not about gore, but action and skills. Destiny 2 has tweaked the capabilities of the guardians, embellished the supers and of course the weaponry. That is the way to go, improve the things, that already worked in the first game and add new facettes to the gameplay. The weapon classes are now kinetic, energy and power.

PvP and strike formats

Unfortunately, the first mission was over within a good 15–20 minutes, so the other formats were next. The new crucible variant is called Countdown: Players need to attack and defend objective game-type with Elimination rules. The first team to 6 round score limit wins the match. Well, himself didn’t last one round. Yep, sad but true.

From the pov of aesthetics the strike «Inverted Spire» added some aerial experiences and some precision jumping, which I find rather tedious. But the game is not about my personal tastes in gameplay. The Inverted Spire strike looked awesome.

September can’t come soon enough

The release of Destiny 2 is set for September 2. Well, I haven’t been looking forward to autumn coming like this before. The starting point of the story is very promising and fighting a souped up version of the Cabal will be great fun. I always love popping Phalanx’ heads. I am sure to improve on my PvP skills, but that’s really easy.