Story Is in Everything
There’s a lot going on in Destiny 2’s open worlds. From public events that can change depending on what you do, to hidden treasure guarded by powerful foes. You can easily spend hours of your time simply searching every nook and crazy as well as shooting crazed aliens in the face. But there’s much more than just busy work this time around. While the first game tried to implement some story through its Grimoire (which was built up by killing enemies, collecting exotics, and finding Ghosts), Destiny 2 is going for a more direct approach, bringing the story right to the gameplay and letting players hear it happen as they embark on side missions.
Chief of these side missions are Adventures. These are self-contained bits of story that task players with completing various objectives within the open world. They’ll teach you things about the world itself, NPCs, history, and even expand on the main story being told in Destiny 2. They’re completely optional, and you do get a feel for the core narrative without them, but they definitely enrich the experience as a whole. There’s also lore on some gear that you can read in-game at any time (though preferably not while being shot at).
So, if you were rubbed the wrong way by having to use an app to get some lore the first time around, you’ll be pleased with how things work in Destiny 2’s various worlds.
Planets Have Their Own NPC Vendors
Devrim Kay is someone you’ll become acquainted with pretty early on in Destiny 2, and he’ll be your lifeline to gear and rewards while exploring the EDZ. He’s holed up in an old church, picking off Fallen and Cabal enemies from a sniper’s nest he’s made for himself, but he’s always down to give you some quests, take your tokens, and sell you improved gear.
It appears that this will be present on all planets and destinations in Destiny 2, and it’s a great addition. While you’ll still have to journey to the Farm (Destiny 2’s social space) for certain things, having a connection to the mission at large right there on a planet with you is invaluable and cuts down on unnecessary flying. Plus, ranking him up gives you Legendary gear, and who wouldn’t want that?
Public Events Can Be Insane
Those of you who have poured hours into Destiny can probably do all of the available public events in your sleep. There wasn’t much variety, and once you figured them out, they were extremely easy and not very rewarding. Bungie must’ve taken notice because they dialed things up quite a bit for Destiny 2.
Public Events are much more challenging this time around, though they’re still set for certain areas. Once you do an event in a specific location, you’ll know which one will be there every single time. However, they have a new mechanic that allows players to turn the event into a Heroic one, upping the difficulty but also increasing your chances of better gear. Each and every challenge has a secret trigger, whether it be destroying a certain enemy or blowing up a specific piece of equipment, that will cause the public event to change into a boss fight instead (those that are already boss fights just become more difficult). Upon completion, you’ll get a drop from the boss as well as your usual, promised loot chest.
Also, to make farming these instances a whole lot easier (so you can make the most of your time) you can see a live countdown by pulling up the director (map) from your Ghost. If you happen to expand out to that section of the map you may even be able to fast travel to a nearby point.
From our time with the game, though, doing these solo will be no small task, as they really throw enemy forces at you while forcing you to juggle objectives. They’re definitely built for larger groups, or highly skilled players, so it will be interesting to see what surefire strategies Destiny 2 Fireteams come up with.
Challenges and Flashpoints Give Ample Reason to Return to Planets
The original Destiny had bounties, but Destiny 2 does things a bit differently. Players will still have tasks that send them to each planet and moon’s surface in order to rake in a certain amount of kills or complete some activities, but they’ll no longer need to talk to some random robot to snatch them up.
While exploring the EDZ, I got to see challenges by simply bringing up my Ghost. These requested that I completed a Lost Sector in a specific area, took down a certain amount of enemies, and similar, small objectives. Upon completion, I earned some XP and a reward, not too shabby. Flashpoints, on the other hand, are a much bigger deal. They focus on a particular location, in this case, it was the EDZ, and ask players to complete Public Events in order to fill up a meter. Once you’ve done that, you earn a reward called Powerful Gear which helps you really boost your guardian in preparation for bigger challenges in the future.
I must admit, the mundane bounties of the first game felt like a chore to do. But now that the challenges involve the whole planet, and there are some for each, it felt more natural to go through them in Destiny 2.
Gold Chests Return!… Sort Of
What’s Destiny without some golden chests? If you raced through the first game, you may not have noticed or bothered to collect the five golden chests that were hidden on each planet. This is understandable since the gear found within was locked at the light level that a player should be around the time they reached that planet. Going to collect the blues and greens held within after the fact was sort of pointless unless you were going for a Moment of Triumph or just needed to collect absolutely everything.
In Destiny 2, they are found as treasure chests. Their general area is on your map and you can seek them out. The best part is that the gear you pull out is actually worth your time. From our time with Destiny 2, it seems to take a look at what you already own and matches that or provides a bit of an upgrade. Now you’ll have even more of a reason to search every nook and cranny of Destiny 2.
Rewards Are Aplenty
One thing that really jumped out at me during my time in the EDZ is how the rewards just kept rolling out. A lot of Destiny, especially in the first year, felt like a thankless chore. You did activities in the hopes that you would maybe get something, but more often than not it was gear that would drop your light level or some weird material. That’s not the case in Destiny 2.
You’ll earn a reward for pretty much everything you do, and it will constantly push you forward in terms of your overall power. Not everything is necessarily a piece of gear, though, but that’s okay. You may end up with Tokens, mods, engrams, or more, but all will contribute to you becoming a legendary guardian.
Exotic Engrams!
One thing that will probably cause a lot of Guardians to rejoice is that during my time with Destiny 2 I got a few Engrams to drop for my efforts. There were blues, some legendaries, and, to my complete surprise, Exotics. Yup, while just playing normally, I got an Exotic Engram to drop for me.
I didn’t have any weird consumables, nor was I playing an end game content. I was just exploring the EDZ. I should note that they’re extremely rare, though. You won’t see yellow Engrams filling your screen or anything like that, but the fact that they exist is more than enough reason to be excited for me.
The EDZ Feels More Fleshed Out Than Any Portion of Destiny 1
The biggest takeaway from my time running like a maniac through Destiny 2’s EDZ was that this single planet was very fleshed out. You had an NPC hanging out in a church keeping an eye out for threats, tons of side activities to dive into, and plenty of secret nooks and crannies to explore if you really wanted to. I never felt like I was on rails moving from objective A to objective B in the hopes that maybe I’ll find something worthwhile to equip my guardian with.
I was told a story, outside of the main Destiny 2 narrative. I fought bosses that weren’t part of missions. I helped other guardians triumph over seemingly insurmountable challenges as we triggered Heroic events. And, most importantly, I never grew tired of it (and let’s just say that I played for a while). There’re a lot of small touches to Earth in Destiny 2 where it all looks and feels familiar to those who are returning from the first game, yet when you dig deeper, experience those adventures, and take on the new wandering threats, it feels so much more substantial.
This is something that will undoubtedly ring true for other areas in the game. So fans hotly anticipating Destiny 2 have a lot to look forward to.
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