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The campaign mission was the “Homecoming” mission from the gameplay reveal. It's the first mission of Destiny 2 and kicks things into action with a giant explosion. The Cabal’s Red Legion has launched a strike on the Last City in an attempt to steal the Traveler. Homecoming is the perfect opening mission for Destiny 2, illustrating just how much is changing between the new game and the old. There are epic moments, like helping Zavalla hold back waves of Cabal infantry, interactions with NPCs and actual set piece moments taking place.
(Image: https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blte410e3b15535c144/blt91b5cf4ffce8e257/64dbac587eee3d8176ae4899/tfs-destination-img1-1920x1080.jpg)Destiny 2 is headed in the right direction. Perhaps it's too little too late or maybe it could pull a healthy player base back in. For now, Destiny 2 is trying its best and is showing signs of quality of life for its future. Today it’s no surprise when buying a new game to be hit immediately by a patch, because what game makes it out of the door ever without having to go through a few updates and patches once it’s out the gate? Usually a major update will hit games freshly released within the first month followed by the steady stream of content and improvements. All of this is commonplace in the video game world and yet we as the audience still find time to get mad that games aren’t the perfect embodiment of what was envisioned. Developers do have a responsibility to be open with their audience and it does become a let down when certain things promised are nowhere to be seen or the game is more broken than let on. So let the saga of Destiny as it continues through the ages be a lesson, one that we are seeing more and more frequently – Anthem is on the horizon, after all. But it's our responsibility as players and developers to keep the dialogue going to get the best experience possible from all sides. Good luck out there, Guardian.
The other ill feeling aside from Destiny 2’s launch is knowing we're following a path already taken that doesn't seem totally trustworthy. In fact, it's the same merry-go-round many have already been talking about. We've been here before, we've seen it. Yes, Destiny 2 will drop some Taken King sized expansion and it probably will fix a lot, but it just doesn't feel like enough or that Bungie or Activision are trying. Give us guardians something fresh, show us something shiny and new; not a lackluster experience that continually rides on the coat-tails (hardly any to begin with) of the previous title. The gimmick can work for anyone experiencing Destiny for the first time, but it's not going to work for the players that have been with Destiny since the beginning and the newcomers will pick up on that. When creating a space to play in together, it's creating a social dialogue, which happens inside the game and out.
Destiny nailed its gameplay mechanics perfectly out of the gate and those carry beautifully into Destiny 2. Aiming and shooting feel fantastic, Solar Grenade Launcher while platforming has been tightened up with Guardians now able to clamber over ledges. Jumping is still a little floaty, but the clambering should help players avoid some unnecessary deaths.
At the time of this writing, Guided Games is still in beta for Leviathan and with good reason, which will be discussed in a moment. The third week due to everyone having a life outside of video games, even fewer people could make it which meant it wasn’t happening with the group that we had been trying to attempt Leviathan with. Of my own volition I was determined to complete this dang raid. I turned back to Destinylfg.net and what I found was a pattern seen in Destiny’s community all gaming communities for far too long — elitism. Before reading any further, go to Destinylfg.net right now and put the search to the Leviathan Raid either LFG or LFM…OK done? Did something stand out? Was it that most people searching said something along the lines of “LFG must be 305 PL quick run must know what to do” This will be the most common thing seen on this website: elitists looking for other elitists to run with and the challenge of Leviathan doesn’t help in the slightest. This not only deterred me, a Destiny vet, but probably deters many new guardians as well. Why even try the raid if those who want to run it only want the best of the best? While I know Sherpas exist (people who will take the time to run new folks through the raid) — I’ve even run in a few Sherpa groups myself — they are few and far between. Only eleven percent of Destiny 2 players have completed Leviathan and I don’t see that number climbing much faster, but only time will tell. When Destiny 2 launched around fifty percent of players in the first Destiny had completed some sort of raid content, which was after a three-year period with the game. Where does this leave Leviathan then? Not looking good and it doesn’t speak well to PvE endgame content for the future of Destiny 2.
Curse of Osiris’ plot can be beaten in two hours and is filled with so much repetition and so little exposition. Osiris, who is the character this DLC is about, only shows up in the flesh for a minute at the very end. The main villain is just an ominous robot who shows up and then is defeated through a quick-time event. To understand how lazy this story is, look no further than the ‘Deep Storage’ mission, which is just a re-purposed ‘Pyramidion’ strike. The campaign does hold one bright spot; Sagira, Osiris’ ghost. Voiced by Morena Baccarn (Firefly, Gotham), Sagira briefly becomes your companion during a large portion of the campaign and is a real delight. Charming and well-written, it’s disappointing when she does finally leave. Nolan North’s performance as Ghost has declined in quality over the years, and it would have been great if players got the option to choose who they wanted as their companion.