For the rest of this weekend, Bungie’s brand-new epic Destiny 2 is in open beta. I’ve been blasting, shooting and exploring the little bit of the galaxy shown in the test, gathering intel on what the guys that made Halo have in store for the fans. I never played the original Destiny , shooters never really caught my eye and I had grown out of MMOs. I know nothing of the franchise, outside of the time I watched a few friends play for a couple of hours. Being a total noob at Destiny 2 , how’d I like the demo, I mean beta?
Starting up the game, you play through the prologue tutorial, explaining how you go from a badass with awesome loot to a total nobody. The Cabal Red Legion comes to town, completely annihilating your planet and your connection to your old powers. Ghaul, the guy in charge of the Legion, might be one of the coolest looking villains I’ve seen in a video game in years. Compared to Ghaul, the entirety of Overwatch’s Talon looks like a bunch of weirdos playing dress-up at a masquerade ball .
I have no shame in admitting this, but I have extremely poor aim when it comes to playing shooters on consoles. On PC, I can at least pull out my League Of Legends mouse wielding skills to get a few headshots, but if I’m playing on my Xbox, aim is a lost cause. But Destiny 2 ’s aiming system is forgiving, where all you really have to do is point your pistol in a monster’s direction to kill them in a few seconds. It’s super gratifying, at least for a terrible shooter like me, to be able to play a shooter in PVE and PVP with relative “skill.”
Out of the three modes, I found PVE to be the most enjoyable. I’ve always loved mowing down enemies in FPS games, with DOOM’s single-player and Overwatch’s King’s Row Uprising being my absolute favorite. The Destiny 2 beta Inverted Spire paired me up with two other random players, who then had to carry my ass through a series of boss fights and obstacles. When I wasn’t getting lost in the underground dungeon or falling off cliffs into the ether, I was having an absolute blast.
The Strike dungeons made me feel nostalgic for my days exploring missions in City Of Heroes and DC Universe Online . Even though there was less spandex, the feeling of exploring a space with actual people and then fighting a boss as a team was still there. It’s been years since I played an MMO and Destiny 2 brought me back to those days. Even though I was the weak link in this interstellar daisy chain, I was still able to help out and attempt to hold my own.
When the three of us reached the bottom, there was a giant robotic boss waiting for us. Protheon Modular Mind’s assault was brutal, laying down a barrage of missiles and light lasers. Dodging them and the countless number of giant purple eyeballs and Diablo monsters with space armor that were also coming to the party proved impossible for me, I must have died at least two dozen times. Still, my teammates persevered and we managed to take down the boss.
In the end, I killed about 39 enemies while my comrades tallied over 100 apiece. Even though I had a ton of fun, I’m not sure if Destiny 2 is going to be for me. While revisiting an MMO felt nice, losing myself in a space opera of epic proportions just wouldn’t be good for my life. It’s hard to be social or get anything done when you could be raiding out in space. I guess I’ll have to see if things change when Destiny 2 officially launches in September.
