Destiny

I assume that includes Powerful Gear as well...?

Also while I am hoping for an overhaul of the vendor system (at least something like they did later for Raid drops would be nice; the drops become more stacked in your favor to get the gear you don't have yet), I really, really hope they never re-introduce random roll weapons. Why yes, I love the idea of wasting hours and hours to finally get that cool gun I wanted, only for it to suck because it didn't have exactly the perks the meta revolves around.

So, the update news are out. Some interesting tweaks like finally making the key vendors (Shaxx, Banshee, Saladin) more interesting, more incentives to grind endgame content (Masterwork weapons that gain additional features on top of existing Legendaries, that have a higher drop rate in Raid and Trials), and new bolt-ons to faction armor (the screenshot of Saladin's new UI highlights that some of them require grinding instead of buying outright).

All in all, pretty cool. Couldn't we have that at launch?

Eh, honestly from a development standpoint it's often easier to release a game and then add stuff onto it once it's out than to delay it.

Much cheaper, each week delayed costs the company tens of millions of dollars.

Better to have an imperfect game and fix it later than delay it.

Okay, so we can upgrade our favorite weapons instead of them falling into uselessness. I'm on board.

Some nice changes. Though I'm on the guy with the long coat's side on this one, sorry.

The kicker being, they're apparently restoring the token collectors to what they were in the first game, so it's doubly puzzling.

Also, I just soloed a Heroic Fallen Walker event. Got Two blues and a token. That's a better reward than the announced pub event on Mercury!

So I was able to play a bit of Destiny 2's campaign during the open trial period, figured I'd give my two cents here.

First up... The campaign is waaaay too easy. It got boring mowing through the hordes of respawning enemies pretty quickly, that by the time I reach Zavala's planet, I was just trying to speed through the platforms. I think Bungie should've added in a difficulty modifier for the campaign, regardless if it's for Nightfalls or not.

Second: I have the same major complaint I had last time: Destiny really needs friends to play along with to be enjoyable. Alone, the experience already shows signs of becoming repetitive just several hours in. At least the random public events around the European Dead Zone were fun to experience.

I wasn't able to experience much of the European Dead Zone, largely due to the level cap topping off at 8, and most of the quests being restricted to the Red War. From what I've seen though, it certainly does look bigger and more lively than the Cosmodrome ever did.

So with that all in mind... I'm not gonna be grabbing Destiny 2 for awhile. I'll wait it out until one of the major expansions come out, pretty sure I'll be able to get both of them bundled or something for around $60 or less.

Redoing the campaign with whats her face at higher levels does make them harder by quite a bit.

Oh really? Fast-forward to 4:35 on the video below. I died four times (and then d/c'd on the fifth try, that one's been cut and cleverly concealed with camera switch) during a sequence that limits your ability to respawn and punts you back to a checkpoint if you die.

(yes, that's a Boondock Saints reference during the first attempt)

That bit killed me the first time too, and I know other people have struggled with it.

Ok, I can see where it might be difficult to survive there. Don't ever recall getting swarmed that badly at any point in the first Destiny, save for the prison of Elders and their various challenge arenas.

I wouldn't say Destiny 2's story mode is necessarily easier. It just has less Vex.

Until next Tuesday, that is.

Would you say it was less...

vexing?

YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAH

So I finished the main campaign. It was good and all, but it clearly really wanted to be a single player game. I think that maybe the entire Red War quest line should have been an extended tutorial, so you can't see other players or do side activities until you finish it. That would cut down on the major Gameplay and Story Segregation of everyone telling you you're the only Guardian with Light and the last hope of humanity when fifty other people are running around every zone.

I liked the gameplay, but it did get very samey, and the endless respawns made most fights just annoying instead of feeling like you were accomplishing anything. Maybe that's a problem the first game had, I have no idea.

Super minor nitpick, I really would have liked some sort of codex. The game spent a lot of time expecting you to just know everything, which is fine to keep expodumps down, but sometimes I want actual information. Not just on the enemies, but also locations and ships. I really like lore, so having this expansive world that they don't explain makes it feel a little shallow and artificial.

Not sure if I'm going to get the expansion right out of the gate. I have other stuff to do.

I do enjoy that campaign missions have checkpoints so you didn't have to start boss fights all over again.

There used to be the Grimoire on bungie.net, but they took it down. It's still available though. Try the wikis as well. Destiny does have some really great lore. Just a shame so little of it is in the actual game.

Also, if you disliked the lack of information in this game, you'd have hated the first one.

edited 3rd Dec '17 1:32:06 PM by artfulscruff

edited 4th Dec '17 10:10:56 AM by artfulscruff

Can't wait to see the new stuff in person. Even if it takes a little while. :P

I may not buy it immediately, though I've been playing Destiny 2 a lot more lately.

Full patch notes for the update.

There's a lot of them here but they all look real good to me.

Curse of Osiris has major issues

The infinite forest is not replayable. Enjoy it in the story missions because you can't go back

The PVP is broken because prometheus lense one shot kills but it's a trace rifle with cold hearts rate if fire. So you just drag it across the screen and every one dies. Unless you don't have it in which case fuck you...

You think this is a joke? its not, I really wish it was

How can they keep messing up like this :/

The two grenade and shoulder charge changes are horrible, air born shoulder-charging now does nothing but kill your momentum and cause you to instantly fall to the ground like a brick, it doesn't even go two feet.

This is not even an exaggeration at all, rember what an ammo less sword did in destiny 1? It does that now.

And the second grenade might as well not exist once you use it, because to put how bad it was nerfed into words, I went up and made tea after using it, and when I got back it was only 1/3rd charged......

The super bar now charges faster then the second grenade.

I mean I just, I really wanted to like this expansion, and destiny 2, season 2 had so much going for it..... but then these. :/

edited 6th Dec '17 3:45:47 AM by Imca