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Destiny 2 Beta -- How I Spent My Summer Vacation

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Destiny, the game some consider the record-holder for the 'World’s Longest Beta' is drawing to a close. With the September release of Destiny 2 approaching, Bungie offered players their first taste of this new and improved(?) take on Destiny with the Destiny 2 Open Beta -- a Beta for the game we have been beta testing for three years, if you will. As something of an ardent Destiny fan, I felt it was my civic duty to explore this Beta during the early access period this week to provide an assessment of whether you should consider downloading it during the open phase this weekend (it is a free opportunity to play a game you may or may not be interested in the long-term -- the answer is yes, go download the Destiny 2 Beta while you can.).
Note: this review is based on my experiences with the Destiny 2 Beta which is an unfinished product and may change before the final release. A review of the final product will inevitably follow its eventual release in the Fall.

I’ll be honest, prior to the Destiny 2 Beta, based on reactions from the reveal event and E3, I expected the game to feel essentially like another iteration of Destiny (hereby referred to as Destiny 1). I had even written up an entire paragraph discussing how the Destiny 2 Beta was different from the prior Bungie betas I had participated in due to how similar it felt to Destiny 1. There is no denying that the underlying structure of the game presented is similar to the game we have been playing for nearly three years. However, I was legitimately surprised at how different Destiny 2 still felt from Destiny 1 at times. The Destiny franchise (the weirdness of that statement aside) has always been defined by two (sometimes competing -- although that's a discussion I plan to avoid) elements, PvE and PvP. The Destiny 2 Beta offers players four activities -- the first mission in the Destiny 2 campaign, one PvE strike, and two PvP game modes.

Destiny 2 is still a first-person shooter where players take on the role of a guardian battling against forces threatening the survival of humanity. Players have access to three classes and two sub-classes per class. Depending on the class and sub-class, players have access to different jumps, grenades, melees, and super abilities. A new addition is a set of support abilities available to players based on their class. Destiny 2 appears to be more restrictive than Destiny 1, and the Beta does not offer the full range of abilities for each sub-class. One of the most noticeable changes are the significantly longer ability cool-downs. Players complained that abilities played too large a role in PvP in Destiny 1, and seemingly in response, Bungie has increased cool-downs across the board. Now, I will admit that the current cool-downs feel excessive. However, I also remember that the Destiny 1 Beta did not allow players to modify those cool-downs, a fact that I think most players have forgotten. Part of me is hopeful that the eventual release will allow players to reduce their cool-downs through gear choices, but I also acknowledge that there has been no indication of such a gameplay element at this point.

Players equip three weapons, essentially two primary weapons and a power weapon (a category which includes sniper rifles, rocket launchers, shotguns, etc) -- a significant change from Destiny 1’s weapon structure. This, and some of the aforementioned changes, have pushed the gameplay, especially in PvP, to rely more heavily on primary gunplay. Given our limited experience with PvE, it is hard to fully understand what effect this will have, but for PvP, this is a welcome change. It is worth noting, Bungie has acknowledged that power weapon ammo drop-rates in PvE are lower in this build than the final release, but we’ll have to see just how much more frequent it will be.

Upon starting the Destiny 2 Beta, players are thrust into the first campaign mission. Although the first mission is a limited vision of the campaign, at best, this initial mission does a great job of breaking players away from the image we have spent the past three years sculpting. Destiny 2 is supposed to tell the story of a world where superheroes lose the powers that define them. I don’t know how much is due to the time I have spent in the Destiny universe, but I definitely felt that Bungie spent twenty to thirty minutes crafting an image of a hero for players, and then successfully tearing it down in the last moments of the campaign mission. As someone overly invested in the Destiny universe, I am definitely interested in seeing where the story develops and I believe this brief experience will entice new gamers to delve into Destiny 2. All that said, there is a part of me that can’t help drawing similarities to Halo 2 and feeling that Bungie is revisiting some of the same lesson they learned back in 2004 (like being able to understand our enemies..).

The other PvE element players can partake in during the Destiny 2 Beta is one of the game’s new strikes -- a cooperative mission that tasks three players with progressing through a level and taking down a powerful boss. I've heard a lot of praise for the new strike and even heard it called the best strike yet, but personally, I felt it was just another strike. Yes, the boss has some new mechanics, but Bungie has been introducing and experimenting with new boss mechanics since 2015’s Taken King, so it was hard for me to feel too excited. Especially in repeated play-throughs, there was nothing about this strike that made me feel strikes are receiving a significant overhaul in Destiny 2, and I think that’s an unfortunate evaluation for the PvE crowd. That said, the major caveat is that the biggest PvE experience, Destiny 2’s new raid, was not featured or explored in any way, shape, or form. Raids have always been the high-bar for PvE activities in Destiny, and although this new strike was not exactly a major innovation, I still have faith in Bungie’s ability to produce captivating and challenging PvE content.

Personally, the most enticing element of Destiny has always been the PvP Crucible and the Destiny 2 Beta offers players two PvP game modes where I have spent the most time. The first is a new iteration of the familiar Control mode which tasks players with controlling territories while battling enemy forces. The second mode is essentially a familiar search and destroy mode -- one team attempts to plant a bomb, the other team must defend or disarm the bomb. Control is framed as a more casual playlist while Countdown is presented as the more competitive option. Bungie has said they are looking to provide players with a way to prove their PvP prowess and a more casual option in Destiny 2, but if their answer is to provide playlists which require coordination and teamwork versus playlists which allow players to more easily solo-queue into, I can’t help feeling Bungie has missed the point of demands for ranked playlists. Again, the Destiny 2 Beta is only a sampling of what is to come in Destiny 2, but I am definitely a little hesitant given what we have seen so far. All that said, PvP gameplay feels amazingly crisp and smooth. Guns feel sharp and powerful, abilities (when available) are activated seamlessly during battle, and combat has a great flow. I'm not the biggest fan of the two maps we currently have access to, but I imagine that might just be personal preference. Of course, if you have been playing Destiny 1 for the past few years, there are a number of things which will feel off. The aforementioned emphasis on primary gunfights, the lack of abilities, and the need for team-shooting are just a few of the changes that will take some time to get used to. I'm not saying these are bad things, just that they are different and will take some getting used to.

In my introduction I joked that Destiny 1 has been a three-year beta test for Destiny 2, but the reality is that I do no believe that in the least. Destiny 1 has undoubtedly taught Bungie a number of lessons, and Destiny 2 serves as a clean slate for them to start over in a number of significant ways (I have another rant about that, but I'll refrain..). I attempted (and didn’t really succeed..) to keep this review fairly short as it is for a beta, not a full game, and I tried to write it for players who have never played Destiny before. As I said in my introduction, I recommend everyone give the Destiny 2 Beta a shot this weekend. It is obviously not complete and will undoubtedly be tweaked over the next few months, but this Beta offers a fair sampling of the Destiny experience. The Destiny 2 Console Open Beta starts later today and runs till Sunday. I hope to see you there.

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