Destiny 2

I guess I have a long and weird relationship with Destiny — and interestingly, I’m writing this after just finishing to read the chapter on the making of Destiny in the excellent Blood, Sweat, and Pixels book. I remember being excited for it before it came out, and enjoying that first Alpha. Then the game came out and after playing through the “story,” I pretty much stopped — I wasn’t into the grind that was on offer. Then, a year later, I decided to get back into it, hearing that a lot of improvement had been made (following the release of the two DLC expansions) and got sucked in. In the end, it’s the game I’ve put in the most hours ever (not a crazy amount like a lot of dedicated Destiny players, but I’m pretty sure it’s the only game I’ve ever put in 100+ hours of playtime). But following the release of The Taken King, for which I was really excited, a couple of months after I think, I did grow tired of playing the same missions and strikes over-and-over again, and stopped playing. I came back when the Rise of Iron expansion came out, but it didn’t really grab me, and I barely played after finishing the new story missions. So here we are with Destiny 2, which I finally started playing a few days ago. The first thing I realized when I was playing it is just how much I still enjoy this gameplay — the action is fast and furious and the guns feel right. It’s also a sci-fi world I quite like — sure, the story in the first game wasn’t very well told, but it was still a world I found interesting, especially its aesthetics. I think I’m currently midway in the new campaign, and I am enjoying it. I do have a feeling that I won’t last very long once I get to the post-story part of the game. I’d love to be proven wrong, but I’ve heard from a few of my friends who are very dedicated Destiny players who have told me that they stopped playing because of issues with the handing out of loot. But for now, I’m having a blast playing, and the story this time is actually pretty easy to follow, and has some fun moments. I think if I was to bring up one thing I find a bit disappointing is that I would have liked to encounter new enemy races, instead of the same ol’ enemies we’ve  already faced a million times.