The Destiny 2 Beta went live for those who have pre-ordered the game on Playstation 4 this week, and I have been playing loads of it since the unlock time. I think there are a lot of things to discuss about the Beta, such as the weapons you get given, the different systems we can make educated guesses about based on what we can see, secrets, Subclasses, and mission. However, I think the most important think we need to talk about first is how different Destiny 2 feels to play when compared to the original.
The first thing that hits you is just how much better Destiny 2 looks over the original. This is an obvious difference and one that many people aren’t talking about because it’s taken for granted. However, there is a massive difference in the way the game looks, and that plays into pretty much every other change in the game.
Everything is faster. This is first noticeable when you take control of your Guardian. Moving everything from the weapon your using to physically running around in missions and the Crucible. The faster movement makes everything feel better, and it’s not that the original game was even particularly slow it’s just that the increased speed gives you that feeling of extra power and control that totally changes the game. Hunters especially are granted additional dodge abilities that were previously only available through Exotic gear. Finally, the game now also features ledge-grabbing, enabling you to finally reach all of those places that were just out of reach, or that you just misjudged the distance for your jump on.
The new weapon slots make far more sense than the old ones. Instead of Primary, Secondary, and Heavy weapons we now have Kinetic, Energy, and Power, and they make a lot more sense believe me. Now you can pack two Hand Cannons, one with elemental damage and one without, one with massive range and one with very little. The beauty of the Power weapon slot is that it still holds the heavy hitting guns such as your Rocket Launcher and your Machine Gun, but now it also holds your Sniper Rifle. It might sound like the game is limiting the use of certain weapons, but when you’re playing it really doesn’t feel that way, instead it feels like you’re playing with a wider range of weapons.
Ships can be destroyed. In the Strike, The Inverted Spire, you can destroy a ship as it flies low over the planet Nessus, which is totally different to the original Destiny! In the first game you could shoot at ships and bring down their weapons yes but you couldn’t destroy them at all.
A lot of players are saying that more changes have been made to cater to the PVP crowd, altering how the game plays to optimise Crucible matches. This isn’t the case, but the changes are way more prevalent in PVP because of how compact the Destiny 2 experience is in the Crucible. The smaller maps and intense combat enhance the changes and make everything feel much better, far better than in the original Destiny.
