Picked this up on Friday at the insistence/peer pressure of one of my friends. Absolute blast - it's like Borderlands, but as an MMO and with more subtle humor. I have been referring to it as 'Acrophobia Simulator 2017' - holy shit, the devs are in love with trying to make you fall to your death repeatedly. I never played the first one, so I feel kinda lost a bit on a few things - I'm at level 14, and I'm about out of ways to spend points on abilities. Am I right in assuming I get another subclass sometime soon or something? And is there some kind of way to make or alter weapons and armor? I figured out yesterday I could actually dismantle some of the crap in my embarrassingly overflowing inventory. Don't judge me.

All in all it's incredible though, and optimized beautifully - runs like a top on my 3-year-old machine with the 960 still under the hood, and my 960M laptop as well. I hadn't bought a full-price game since Witcher 3, and I consider it money well spent.

 

Yes you will get another subclass soon. There are mods for weapons/armor but they're mostly useless right now. They're useful for raising light level (once you get to light level 280 you can construct legendary mods that give a +5 bonus) but the effects are uninspiring. Hopefully this is something they address in a future patch.

Also to anyone/everyone, feel free to add me on PC: sumzup#1691 (mention DLP or something, hard to know otherwise)

 

So, general review of Destiny 2.

Take note all comments is coming from the fact I play the PC version, not console.

Also, inebriated.

The gameplay itself is quite fun. Most online multiplayer games have some sort of repetitiveness and Destiny 2 is no exception. The only difference is the repetitiveness (Public Events, Heroic unless you are nubsky/new to the game, 'Don't kill the fucking Taken Blight Portals you nubs its hard to force Heroic with you fuckers killing portals') is actually enjoyable. I don't mind running pubs with mates, unlike other games these repetitive PvE events are somewhat enjoyable. Easy and simple yes, but enjoyable. Merciless burn ftw.

So, the main thing for any game is whether or not the gameplay is fun. For me without a doubt Destiny 2 ticks that box with spades gameplay wise. However gameplay aside, for a online PC multiplayer game, let alone one that has been billed as a MMOFPS, it fails in so so many ways.

First off the multiplayer aspect. Unless you are battle.net friends with someone trying to group with random people is a pain in the arse. There is no in-game looking for group tools, zero, zilch. (Except the join on person/clan member if they have their settings as Open Group. Good luck trying to guess what they are actually doing, let alone if they actually want someone to group with them.) Add to that the fact you have to be battle.net friends with someone to group with them outside of randomly encountering someone in-game with their group settings as open?

Absolutely pathetic.

If you want to find a group you have to search third-party websites/discord. You could use the Destiny forums, but hardly anyone uses them for grouping. You're best bet is discord, it is easy to find a group there without a doubt but the fact you are using a website/program with zero affiliation to the game itself to find a group is a red mark in Bungies favour.

So, onto chat. What chat? A mmo with zero public/clan chat like D2 is shit. Bungie have recognized this and it will be introduced sometime soon, but the fact it is taking so long for such a basic feature of PC mmo gaming is ridiculous. Apparently Bungie contracted another company to get their PC port up to speed, outside of optimizing the graphics for PC gaming you have to wonder what this company actually did. I'm not sure because UI wise it is clearly a console port. Bungies main reason for not having chat in the game is the harassment that comes with online chat. I understand, I hardly read chat and rarely voice chat with strangers because everyone has such a huge fucking epeen, OMG SO BIG SENPAI, but still, this is a basic feature of PC gaming and I have missed it more often than not. In the crucible there has been many times I wished I could be in contact with the enemy team. Either to praise or bag the shit out of.

On the PvE end-game side I haven't touched it beyond nightfall if you count that as end-game. Raiding in this game doesn't seem that difficult from what I have read/veiwed. Bosses are more of a damage spunge than anything else. Such simple fights don't interest me, in fact I would probably get annoyed from grouping with people who have difficulty with said simple fights. I have raided alot on various mmos over the years, my tolerence has shortened for end-game PvE as I've grown older. If you can't learn merchanics I just don't have the time to spare for you, I got other stuff to do. It's not that I am elitist, just realistic. If you're not a mate of mine I don't want to waste hours for you to learn relatively simple fights (once you are experienced with games) if I don't know who the fuck you are.

So, on to my main gripe with this game... the netcode. It's some hybrid P2P shit I don't know the exact specifics of, but suffice to say it is not conducive to competitive pvp. The main thing I do in this game? Crucible (PvP for people who haven't played yet). The main thing I hate about this game? Crucible. P2P as a netcode is so outdated, for PC gaming at least. I haven't console gamed since Black Ops II but I assume P2P netcode is still a standard netcode for consoles, but for PC gaming it simply just doesn't do. Maybe I am spoilt for playing games like Battlefield and Overwatch (or any PC game in the 21st century), but unless you have a dedicated server I don't want to touch you with a 40-foot pole.

(Exception? Insert Destiny 2 here.)

Netcode expanded.... when I am hiding behind cover for a full second and then I die it is bullshit. I know it works the other way too, I shoot someone and run away or they go behind cover on my screen and a second later I get the kill. It quite simply is annoying sometimes. Crucible is very fun on a basic level, the movement and shooting of characters feel smooth, but randomly dieing or getting somewhat random kills where you think you must of missed but actually the kill has just been delayed is annoying.

So in conclusion I have no fucking idea where I was going with this post except noting some things from the PC version that annoyed me. I guess my main point is that this game is quite fun on a basic level but still has a lot of cosmetic stuff to make this game worthwhile in the long run. The most important thing is that this game is fun, but there are so so many basic things on the PC version this game needs to improve on to be successful in the long run on the PC outside of presales. Bungie has noted a few of these things I have posted about and will be implementing these things into the game over the coming months, however it will most likely be too little too late. Destiny 2 has already made a profit from initial sales alone, but it is already having issues retaining the current player base.

Bungie will be implementing a lot of updates/improvments for the PC over the coming months but will be too late to retain the player base. What I am looking forward to now is.... Destiny 3. I see Destiny 2 as a stepping stone for Bungie on the PC. It is learning what it needs to do, implementing features that will become a basic feature in the game.

Similar to SWTOR, when Destiny 2 finally becomes polished everyone will have pretty much finished playing it.

 

I'm playing this with 1 other guy but I'm feeling a bit limited in activities- if somebody wants to play with us drop me a line !