{"id":2439,"date":"2017-09-27T17:24:35","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T22:24:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eagleeyemedia.org\/?p=2439"},"modified":"2017-11-13T15:30:22","modified_gmt":"2017-11-13T20:30:22","slug":"destiny-2-review-apology-accepted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eagleeyemedia.org\/?p=2439","title":{"rendered":"Destiny 2 Review: Apology Accepted"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hdWkpbPTpmE?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Between the pedigree of the studio and perceived change of allegiances from the home of their flagship franchise on Xbox consoles to Sony consoles, Bungie had probably set the bar high enough before pre-release footage and marketing was even factored in. September 9<sup>th<\/sup>, 2014, the next major Intellectual Property (IP) from Bungie, developer of the critically acclaimed <em>Halo<\/em> games, released. Titled <em>Destiny,<\/em>\u00a0it released\u00a0worldwide with expectations best illustrated by the tagline of the series to this day: Become Legend.<\/p>\n<p>It was spectacularly less than. Technically sound but rife with intrinsic issues Bungie would address over the next three years of their \u201910 Year Plan\u2019 for the franchise, <em>Destiny<\/em> was the game many loved but many, many more were left with a bad taste in their mouth from. Fast forward to September 5<sup>th<\/sup>, 2017 \u2013 the release of the official sequel, <em>Destiny 2<\/em>. I\u2019ve returned to the game with each expansion for one reason or another but this was the one occasion where I put my foot down \u2013 if <em>Destiny 2<\/em> wasn\u2019t good enough to stand on its own, I wasn\u2019t coming back. And so, I played \u2013 and if I had to leave you with two words from a less-than-pleased player of the original game that sums up my feelings of <em>Destiny 2<\/em> \u2013 Apology Accepted.<\/p>\n<p>Let me be more concrete. <em>Destiny 2<\/em> is first-and-foremost a First-Person Shooter (FPS) game concerned with grounding its gameplay in Role Playing Game (RPG) elements. As in <em>Destiny<\/em>, players are a Guardian, one champion of many of a moon-like entity sat just above the Earth\u2019s surface known as the Traveler. You, along with your fellow Guardians (be they players of in-game characters) have fought to protect the Traveler and the people of the Last City from a myriad of alien threats \u2013 the four-armed, scavengers called the Fallen; the Hive, necro-aliens infesting the Earth\u2019s moon;\u00a0machine-aliens named the Vex; and the imperialistic brutes of the Cabal. It is this fourth, last race that takes center stage in <em>Destiny 2<\/em> \u2013 within ten minutes the Cabal have successfully invaded the Last City and sealed away the Traveler, depriving you of your Light \u2013 the source of power\u00a0bestowed by the Traveler which grants you otherworldly abilities. Oh, and your immortality. That too.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2466\" style=\"width: 1164px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eagleeyemedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/101010.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2466\" data-attachment-id=\"2466\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/eagleeyemedia.org\/?attachment_id=2466\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eagleeyemedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/101010.jpg?fit=1154%2C649&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1154,649\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"The Red War has begun.\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;You, the Traveller and the Cabal assaulting the Last City.&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eagleeyemedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/101010.jpg?fit=584%2C329&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"wp-image-2466 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eagleeyemedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/101010.jpg?resize=584%2C328&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"584\" height=\"328\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eagleeyemedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/101010.jpg?w=1154&amp;ssl=1 1154w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eagleeyemedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/101010.jpg?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eagleeyemedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/101010.jpg?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eagleeyemedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/101010.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eagleeyemedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/101010.jpg?resize=500%2C281&amp;ssl=1 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2466\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">You, the Traveler and the Cabal assaulting the Last City.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The game\u2019s plot centers\u00a0around this premise \u2013 having been led via a vision to a shard of your god and regaining the power to fight back, you must retake the Last City, free the Traveler, defeat the Cabal\u2019s Red Legion and take down their leader, Ghaul. The game\u2019s campaign, taking place over roughly ten to fifteen hours, is extremely simple, devoid of depth and poorly paced, having you move very quickly in later portions of the game through planets which otherwise have a wealth of content to explore. Yet, despite such grievous issues, it is far more filling than the campaign of the original <em>Destiny<\/em>, in large part because despite all its flaws, <em>Destiny 2<\/em>\u00a0conveys\u00a0what\u2019s being done as opposed to its predecessor, where you\u2019re presented the things your character is doing. In particular the game&#8217;s lore on various locations, characters and events,\u00a0present in its predecessor almost\u00a0<em>only<\/em> through Grimoire Cards accessible via a companion app has now been corrected in the second game, with the lore being present as fleshed-out dialogue during missions (which changes depending on the race of your character and whether you&#8217;re a returning player) and scannable items in the in-game world. This is\u00a0much more accessible and personal, something that consistently grabs\u00a0the players attention as they stumble upon previously unknown information which might embellish a known topic, answer a lingering question or, as is often the case in the <em>Destiny<\/em> games\u2019 storytelling, pose entirely new ones.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s always been a solid delivery for the\u00a0<em>Destiny<\/em>\u00a0series is the gameplay itself. Players choose from one of three classes \u2013 the headstrong Titan, the cunning Hunter or the empowered Warlock. From there, you have access to three subclasses, which change the class&#8217; primary element (Void, Solar or Arc) and shake up the gameplay through a unique super move and\u00a0various perks or changes to the core concept. While players may find one play style to their liking above all others, each class and subclass feels distinct and rewarding to play. As this game is primarily a shooter, you\u2019ll use many, many guns \u2013 mostly of varying types separated into Kinetic, Energy (which are\u00a0the same type of guns as Kinetic Weapons but with an elemental modifier) and Power (separate in type and application \u2013 big weapons for big threats) Weapons. Finding a load-out you like and sticking to it is\u00a0difficult because of the game\u2019s system of progression, wherein the average strength of all equipped gear will decide the power of gear acquired later. Without proper foresight and planning, you can easily lock yourself into a high-powered gun or armor piece of the wrong type, which delays progression in the game until you happen to get the things you need and work your way back up again.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s worth noting however is that even in these instances where you\u2019re artificially given a hurdle to climb, there\u2019s such a wealth of content to undertake whether by type or place that you\u2019ll likely never burn out on anything as you play. Within any of the four planets that serve as the games&#8217; settings, you have your main campaign missions chronicling the Red War, supplementary Adventures and post-game Quests &#8211; additionally, there are Public Events which appear at set intervals within the game world as freeform goals to complete, Regional Chests to find and collect and Lost Sectors to explore and clear. In addition, there&#8217;s Player Versus Player (PVP) game modes, Strike missions\u00a0(undertaken by a team of three players), the weekly Nightfall Strike (one of the Strikes within the game set on a timer, with modifiers to gain back\u00a0time and change\u00a0gameplay) and the six player Raid, a multi-stage trial\u00a0requiring geared, capable players to complete various complex tasks to progress. The sheer enormity of ways to progress in the game means that at any stage of play, you&#8217;re acquiring valuable loot for your adventures such as the highly sought after Exotics, weapons and armor with unique perks that can drastically alter styles of play. Such a large amount of content &#8211; none of which feels overly repetitive or specifically there as padding &#8211; means that no two players will gear the same and should you ever get bored with how you&#8217;re playing the game, you can change things up and still feel as rewarded there as you were before.<\/p>\n<p>As a long-time player of the series, having seem the ups and downs of the <em>Destiny<\/em> series, <em>Destiny 2<\/em> represents a fresh start and the best foot forward for the franchise. It\u2019s not perfect but it isn\u2019t built on fundamentally broken components like its predecessor was, and as it grows and develops in the coming years, <em>Destiny 2<\/em> will remain a heartfelt apology to fans of the series and an example of how Bungie has learned from the experience and wishes to move forward \u2013 with purpose and clarity. And, well, you know my thoughts on that already. If there were ever a time to say this, it\u2019s now, at such a crucial time for the series:<\/p>\n<p>Become Legend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Between the pedigree of the studio and perceived change of allegiances from the home of their flagship franchise on Xbox consoles to Sony consoles, Bungie had probably set the bar high enough before pre-release footage and marketing was even factored &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/eagleeyemedia.org\/?p=2439\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[210,143],"tags":[274],"class_list":["post-2439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts","category-artsplus","tag-games"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3odG9-Dl","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2421,"url":"https:\/\/eagleeyemedia.org\/?p=2421","url_meta":{"origin":2439,"position":0},"title":"Destiny 2 Begins First Wave of Releases","author":"Aaron Caraway","date":"September 20, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The highly anticipated sequel to the Action Shooter series released on September 9th, 2014 and helmed by original Halo developer Bungie Studios, Destiny 2 has released worldwide (September 6th) to PS4 and Xbox One consoles and will release on PC October 24th. Continuing\u00a0a three-year long series set in a not-so-distant\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Arts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Arts","link":"https:\/\/eagleeyemedia.org\/?cat=210"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eagleeyemedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/download-300x93.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2192,"url":"https:\/\/eagleeyemedia.org\/?p=2192","url_meta":{"origin":2439,"position":1},"title":"Ratchet &amp; Clank: Kicking Asteroid on a PS4 Near You","author":"Aaron Caraway","date":"April 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Aaron Caraway April 12th, 2016 saw the release of\u00a0Ratchet & Clank on PS4, part of a now 14-year old video game franchise held exclusively on Playstation consoles. 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