[spoiler]*A Wild Gringo has appeared*[/spoiler]
As I do with most posts like these, I want to give a little disclaimer. I am as biased as they come. I sunk hour upon hour into Destiny 1 and I have preordered the sequel. I have defended both of those decisions with an irrational fervency. I have also been waiting months for the "I told you so" to all of those people who say "it is just DLC" as if that were remotely possible both actually and hypothetically. If there is someone who wants Destiny 2 to succeed (both financially and critically) it is me. That being said I will be realistic. If these don't bother you, keep reading. If they do, I ask you to read as well and at least consider what I wrote.
That being said I am here to defend one point have being nulling over for a while now; it is impossible for Destiny 2 to fail (specifically critically). Here is why:
When Destiny 1 released it got lukewarm reactions. It was praised for it's glorious combat and beautiful art style but criticized for its underdeveloped rpg systems, awful story, and poor leveling systems, amongst other things. All that being said Destiny received generally 6-8 reviews, putting it into the "solidly good" category. To be honest people made out the game as worse than it actually was due to being overhyped. Destiny: The Collection received much more acclaim, landing between 7-9 putting it into the "great" category. This no doubt is due at least partially to the stunningly useful overhauls provided by TTK.
Now look at Destiny 2. What we know about it is, overall,promising. It retains the same fantastic gameplay, universe and art style while keeping the improvements made by TTK and subsequent expansions and continuing to improve by adding things like Flashpoints, Adventures, a Lore Tab, Lost Sectors, etc.
And of course there is the story. Even if it is a bad story (think Halo 5), it will at least be coherent, which is more that anyone could say about Destiny 1.
As you can see, it is extremely hard for Destiny 2 to do worse than the first game. Unless it has some gamebreaking glitches or has less content than the first game (which is pretty hard because the 4 patrols of Destiny 1 are categorically much smaller in both scales of content and size than those of Destiny 2, as one example). That immediately puts it into or above the "good range" without second thought.
And if the Story is good/great, there is plenty of replayable content, progression is meaningful, guided games works well, the characters have charm, I think Destiny 2 has an easy shot at the 8-10 range. But even if it isn't, there is essentially no way Destiny 2 could do worse than Destiny 1, meaning it will almost certainly be a great game, at the very least.
Thank you for reading. Am I a soulcrushingly incorrect fanboy who has it all wrong? Give your thoughts below.
[spoiler]Oh and I know that numerical rating systems are kind of stupid, but I really am referring to the general populous' opinion of the game, which I do not think you should really care about if you end up loving/hating the game.[/spoiler]
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Doomed..Maybe. Greatness...No. It's a good game, but will never be a GOAT, unless Bungie changes some core design flaws.