Why you should consider playing Destiny 2

26 May 2017

One of the many alien environments of Destiny 2.

It’s fairly well known that I’m a massive Destiny tragic. A friend recently asked me if it was worth considering Destiny 2. They were originally interested in Destiny, but since it was console-only they were quickly turned off. However, things changed when it was announced that Destiny 2 was coming to PC.

They had several questions :

• Is the actual gameplay fun, or is it just about the gear grind?
• Do you need to be a hardcore raider to effectively play the game, or can you have a less intense casual experience and still get something from the game?
• How important is it to have friends to play with in order to enjoy it?

And this was my response:

Is the Gameplay fun?

The main reason why I like Destiny, and much like Halo before it, is that the gunplay is satisfying to me. Everything from how the gun pulls when you shoot to the sound to the enemy’s reactions is at it’s core why I continue to play this game three years after its release even though there’s been some severe content droughts. (which hopefully they don’t do this time around)

Added to this is all the different grenades and abilities that give you more options in how you tackle something.

I can’t really compare it to something like Borderlands, because the way the gunplay works in that game is completely different (and completely shithouse).

I mean sure, it’s macro-level gameplay is shoot>loot>shoot, but there’s just so much variety in the shooting from all the different weapons you can use that all have different sounds and effects and ways to use them that you can mix stuff up and have an entirely different experience because you made a few changes in your character’s setup.

That’s going to be a purely personal thing, and I hope they open the beta up to non-pre orderers so people like you can have a shot at it and see if that grabs you at all.

Is it for the Hardcore only?

Not really. I can’t do end-game content a lot, and I still have fun. I’ve gotten to max light (power level) without doing any of the current raids. There are end-game things to do with small groups or solo as well.

They’re making it even easier in Destiny 2 to do end-game content as well, as they’re adding a system called Guided Games where people in guilds without full groups can advertise as Looking for Members for a raid run and hopefully get them. Not entirely sure how it works, but they’ve said it will be a thing.

Do you need friends?

Well, that’s subjective. Some people will claim you absolutely need friends to make Destiny fun. I love playing with friends and it makes some of the slogging stuff more interesting. I’ve had half-an-hour long conversations with friends while skipping in circles around a building.

But, the majority of my Destiny time has been solo play. The game has no lack of content for the solo player to go through. There’s always something to fuck around with. That’s just me, though. You may or may not like playing that way but that’s something you can only tell after some time playing.

So, yeah. If you can get access to the beta, give it a shot.