My Ups and Downs of Destiny and Hopes of Destiny 2

Phew, three years? I’d say two-for-me years of Destiny and Destiny 2 is now on the horizon. And like any savvy internet disembodied writer, I too shall jump into the fray and shovel coal into the hype train. Where to begin? Why not the beginning? That would drag this article for too long. Let’s just skip to House of Wolves.

I remember my first encounter, starting up in the Cosmodrome with my Dinkle-bot (how I don’t miss those days). Playing (master race) warlock, I plunged through the content to Dark Below relatively quick. Although, playing on my brother’s PS4 didn’t give me the best representation of everything good and wrong at the time. I knew by the second night of playing, I was hooked and started going full Asian on it. Number crunching and figuring the fastest way to level up and climb that light ladder. Sure Dinkle-bot felt rather void of emotion, but the odd one liner here and there made the experience slightly better. Just slightly.

Wolves drop and my firm favourite side arm Vestian Dynasty proved as my faithful weapon when times got tough in the Prison of Elders. Sure I could’ve joined other people or looked for groups, but I wanted to play it alone. PvP at the time was a struggle depending on how you played it. I remember it being the time of roars of “Hadouken to the face!”, slamming enemies of the light and guardians alike in charge. Primary weapons never stayed with me for long and I’d always find something slightly better. Same goes for heavies, I don’t think any weapons stuck with me other than the Vestian Dynasty. But then I got my first exotic, the Last Word and Voidfang Vestments.

Forgot those loot caves, how about a loot cabin?

I never really got good per se with PvP or even PvE, always running in killing things dying and repeating it like Edge of Tomorrow style Tom Cruise - just less explosions. I was saved from the content drought between House of Wolves and Taken King thanks to A Levels. But once Taken King dropped, I managed to get more time on Destiny.

The story felt better, Dinkle-bot was gone and Nolan-ghost made everything seem like there was some weird shine on my rose tinted glasses (the proverbial kind). Unlocking storm caller felt so rewarding, sure the quests felt off, but it gave the game an extra bit of content that I yearned for. Sure there were haters of Destiny, but I never bought into it other than knowing this just feel right to play.

Balance changes didn’t really affect my play since I was always evolving my playstyle. Rise of Iron hits, now having an Xbox One to myself. A few of my mates also had it. I picked up the collection, and preceded to reclimb the light ladder. And boy, this was easier than I expected.

You say secrets, I say content locked behind a door.

Going from Lv1 to Lv40 felt like a breeze for three days of light play, given the weekend I was already light level 300 and finished the main campaign in Rise of Iron. Sure the experience felt more seamless, but the struggle wasn’t there. Hard missions were removed and a linear path of light level seemed to no longer exist. The Dawning hits and I’m skyrocketing my light light level to the 380 mark in a blitz with the racing helmet helm and exotics Abbadon and Nova Mortis. Once the new year hits, I get my first full experience of Iron Banner.

I remember trying it in House of Wolves or Taken King, boy were those some painful PvP days. The system back then made it so that everyone was on a relatively equal standing with staggered buffs to make it so that those that played on the weekend didn’t draw the short straw by increasing the rate. But now with the bounties being more lenient, achieving reputation level 5 supremacy made me realise two things. I’ve got to get better with my gunplay and that humans don’t understand the gamemode they play…

By the second Iron banner I had eclipsed my friend’s light level and had sunk less total time to reach it. It felt good, and even now at time of writing they both haven’t reach light level 400. But the PvP balance changes hit like a truck for me, whilst not a shotgun runner (especially after picking up a max stability auto firing Hopscotch Pilgrim) the shotgun changes made my gunplay skills rather inept.

Don't make exo-lent choices in battle do I?

 Icebreakers, No Land Beyond and side arms dominated the battlefield. Sure I learnt to deal with them with sticky grenades and being slower in combat with a shotgun. Remember kids, watch where you run, you never know what’s right around the corner. Storm callers got nerfed, whilst not making them unplayable it made them less PvP focused for me. Embrace the Void builds with nothing manacles whilst great PvE builds, made me realise I truly suck at PvP.

Taken incursions felt like a like an immature younger sibling copying the eldest to the House of Wolves dropping in and wrecking your face. Exotics never felt as game breaking as they did before. The Last Word living to its name, stopping the tanks of the Vex Minotaurs, emptying its chambers in a fan of deadly fire. Sure nothing in Destiny is perfect, or absolutely ground breaking. But then Destiny for me was never a grand escape, it was a culmination of science fiction and fantasy into a setting that scratched my itch. Sure it has had a lot of downs, but the ups I had with Destiny. Whilst not life changing, it’s been the glue that helped form friendships now that I’m at Uni and kept old friends in touch.

Am I expecting Destiny 2 to buck the trend of issues? Not by a long shot. Bungie is a studio that is made of humans, and anything made by humans is designed by default to be imperfect. Sure year 2 felt ropey, but year 3 feels too easy. Maybe a sweet spot is hit. But I’m excited for a game that plays like the best FPS out there with content that’ll keep me thinking beyond the game. I missed the progression of power, whilst frustrating, being in the fray led to moments of gameplay that’ll stick to me like that thrown fusion grenade. And if Cayde is to believed, there will be a ton of loot!