DestinY 2
All Light on the night
released OUT NOW! Reviewed on Ps4
Also on Xbox One, PC (24 October) Publisher activision
Your Guardian may not be happy with the changes to Destiny 2, as you begin the game effectively reset. That means zero Light level and loot. Dominus Ghaul is to blame, a posh alien rhino in a Gundam suit who steals your Light and powers before pledging to blow up the sun.
Destiny 2 comprises four key parts: a planet-hopping campaign; Strike missions; time-intense Raids for larger teams; and 4v4 competitive mode the Crucible. These parts take place in Earth’s European Dead Zone, with its forlorn town squares and forgotten highways; the milky lakes and chalky monoliths of Nessus; the spectacular glare of Jupiter; and ocean-dominated moon Titan.
How you earn new weapons and gear is up to you. You might choose to plunder dungeon-like Lost Sectors, for instance. Just make sure you’re levelled up – one underground EDZ Cabal den contains a grenade-launching Centurion who insta-kills us at least 20 times. Thankfully, respawning doesn’t reset progress so we whittle down his health until he drops a shiny helmet.
Like the first Destiny, this is a game about the raw joy of shooting aliens until numbers spill out like they’re mathematical piñatas. In one marble cavern we target the glowing white bellies of hostile Vex robots with slow and steady blasts of a hand cannon. Ka-chunk. In another we switch to a sub-machine gun and mow down charging swarms of crusty Hive.
Light sits at the centre of Destiny 2. Every firearm and gear piece comes with an associated Light level counting towards an overall total. While it makes optimising your Guardian easy, it also reduces your sense of ownership. We love our Warlock’s golden angel wings, but the difference in Light pushes us to substitute them for cotton overalls.
Once you’ve rinsed the campaign, the shooter gives way to an MMO grind. Destiny 2 loses some of its drive and direction by this point, but reach it and you’ll already have 20 hours of entertainment under your belt. And that’s even without the Crucible, where loot earned continues to the main game and Light is disabled to make for an even playing field.
Destiny 2 is meant to last years. Will it pull you back after you’ve hit the level cap? No one can say yet. But the campaign entertains, classes are a blast and the settings are spectacular. Deep, addictive and truly entertaining. Ben Griffin
What would be on Ghaul’s iPod? Bungie reckon, “Music that would make him feel superior… maybe he’s really into Rush.”
This is a game about the raw joy of shooting aliens