A Whole New Destiny?

As most of you already know, the Destiny 2 PC beta went live on the 29th and 30th of August. The previous console beta met mixed reviews and criticism of weapons balance and the general feel of the game. Despite this, players were still hyped for the PC beta and Bungie did not disappoint.

One of the primary issues with the console beta was the rate at which character supers charged. For those unaware: a “super” is an ultimate ability given to each player class that can be activated to change the course of a match in your favor. Previously players could only obtain a super once per match. This created issues since most players obtained it towards the end of a match and the last three minutes of the game ceased to be a first person shooter so much as a frenzy of supers activated at the same time that rarely changed the course of battle. The new system bases charge rate off of player performance. This means that players receive supers at random intervals that have more of an impact on battle outcome. Consequently, if a player is having the game of his life they may recharge the super faster and demolish the opposing team. Other fixes included better optimization for PC players, weapon balancing, health regeneration timers and bug fixes.

Bungie seems to have gotten the story line and campaign right this time. Destiny 1 suffered from poor storytelling, boring and repetitive missions and sub-par acting. Legendary characters were all talk and no action. Destiny 2 counters this by involving characters in the story and action more so it no longer feels like the player is the only one fighting.

Destiny 2 offers several new game modes. “Trials” pits two teams of four against one other in a medium to small sized map with capture points. This better supports the premise of team based gaming and that the mode is not something you can play without team communication. Bungie has emphasized that playing alone or lack of team communication can cost you the match so coordination is key. “Raids” mode offers a different play style for those uninterested in PvP games. This PvE based game mode is played with three to four players that battle their way through enemy NPC’s to reach a final boss. Once the boss is killed, loot is dropped and the players can upgrade or change weapons and gear. Unlike Destiny 1, bosses are more interesting, challenging and promote teamwork, planning and tactics.

Whether you like or dislike the new changes, Bungie made vast modifications to the Destiny franchise. It’s hard to deny that they have definitely improved on the mistakes of the first game and as they receive player feedback I’m sure that Bungie will knock this game out of the park.

As always, we’d love to know what the community thinks! Feel free to post about it on our forums and discuss with your thoughts on the beta.

Until next time: keep safe and I’ll see you on the battlefield.

TRC_Aidan.