So, despite my vociferous refusal to buy Destiny 2... my wife thought it would be a good birthday gift to me. I apparently really need to work on my communication... So now I have a copy of Destiny 2. I started playing last night, and as of the time of this post I'm Lvl 7 and 69 Light/Power (though I know that doesn't really mean shit until Lvl 20, I included it for accuracy). I'm still exploring the EDZ, and I admittedly have quite a long way to go before I can say my review is "complete". So this will be an "Ongoing" review as I explore the updated universe of the Destiny franchise, filtered through the lens of Destiny 2. But with around 3-4 hours of game play under my belt (and 30+ years of Gaming as a serious hobby before that), I can safely say that there are some noticeable things that I do/don't like about the game so far. Yeah... the Vampire actually has some things he likes about Destiny 2. Shocking, I know; especially considering how vitriolic I've been about the majority of the changes made from Destiny to Destiny 2. And I will frame that last statement with this next one: I am very much a fan of Destiny. I enjoyed Destiyn in Y1, Y2, and my discontent with the direction changes of the game began at the tail end of Y2 and proceeded after that with Y3 and the announced changes to Destiny 2. But with that in mind, since I am a fan of the franchise with very serious concerns about the direction of the franchise and design/management of the game, I feel that I'm able to be as objective as anyone can possibly be. My fandom is tempered by my concerns/discontent, and vice versa. So, here we go; and I'll start with the things I like about Destiny 2. [u]What I Like:[/u] - Obviously, the graphic fidelity. The game is beautiful. Gorgeous, sweeping vistas. Fine detail on the buildings, locations, etc. The game looks like a work of art. Well done. - The Gun Mechanics: Smooth like butter. Seriously, one of my favorite things about Destiny was the silky smooth gun play. That carried over exactly into D2, and it's about as close to mechanical perfection as you can get. - Auto Rifles: They feel... pretty much spot on. Don't tweak these, Bungie. They're good to go. - Scout Rifles: Overall, pretty good. The damage could use a slight increase, but other than that, Scout's feel more or less the same as in Destiny. - Hand Cannons and Pulse Rifles: haven't really tried them as I don't like either of these types of weapons, so no opinion on those two here. - Slight change to Enemy AI: Is decent. They're still as dumb as a ball of cotton, but a little bit better. I do enjoy that they dodge more. I fully expected that to frustrate me, and it might as time rolls on. But for right now, the increased dodging (of Fallen in particular) and the increased movement speed of the Fallen is pretty good. - Lost Sectors: I've actually found one and completed it in the EDZ. I like how well it scales to level. I wandered in and fully expected to get my ass handed to me. Such was not the case. Though with the level scaling, the challenge was "just right", and the loot was level-appropriate. In all, a pleasant surprise to find while exploring. - Loot Drops: While the RNG is just as frustrating as ever, it's mitigated a bit by the increased frequency that Loot drops total, and the increased number and spawn rate of Loot Chests out in the wild. That's all I have for now. This is an ongoing review, so as I find more things I like/enjoy about D2, I'll amend the list above. [u]What I Don't Like:[/u] - Losing all my Stuff from Destiny: While this has been beaten into the ground over the last year, it is my number one gripe about Destiny 2. I understand the "narrative" reasoning Bungie took for removing all our hard-earned Weapons/Armor, but it's a weak-ass narrative for doing it, and that very same narrative is undermined once you get to the Farm and see Tess Everess and the Eververse Trading Company, and Amanda Holliday and her fleet of ships. I mean, the Cabal surprised the Tower, stole the Traveler's Light from us, and obliterated all of our stuff; yet somehow Tess had the wherewithal to not only escape, but escape with all of her goddamn inventory intact!?!? How is it I lose all my stuff, yet she gets to keep hers? Did she have forewarning of the attack? Does Zavala and Ikora need to "interrogate" Tess for treason and Collusion with the Enemy since she apparently knew about the attack in enough time to not only escape, but escape with all of her items to sell? Just having Tess set up at the Farm with her full inventory and Holliday having Ships/Sparrows to sell defeats the whole narrative of "the cabal destroyed everything". This irks the shit out of me. there are at least five different better ways that we could have carried our stuff forward, and used Infusion to keep it relevant. - SMG's: Really, there's no point to these. They're a waste of file space. They suck balls. - Running everywhere until level 20: I know you want us to explore and take our time, Bungie. But this is a new game. I'm going to explore every nook and cranny anyway, I don't need to be forced to run for five minutes one way, kill said enemy, then run five minutes back just because you think I need to take the scenic route. Just let me have my Sparrow, I'll still fully explore and take my time. New areas to explore often does that for people, but arbitrarily forcing the issue just grates on the nerves. - Shaders: Again, beaten into the ground; but, really, Bungie!? All through Destiny, I never once heard anyone bitch that Shaders were OP and could be used too often. Luke's weak explanation that he wants to use Shaders as a way to make us want to grind out activities is a horrible excuse for making Shaders one time consumables. Just revert it back to the way it was in Destiny, and you'll quite literally cure the ire over this change over night. - Customization of Classes: Less customization? Leveling up a sub-Class is mind-numbing boring now. There's no choice or different builds. Just... blandness. - Super Ability Efficacy: Really, Supers could use a significant damage boost across the board. Seriously, they feel weak as hell. - Ability Recharge/Super Recharge: I like that Kills recharges the Super faster (kills had no effect in the Beta), but across the board, Abilities of all types need a significant increase of their Recharge Rates. They're so slow right now as to be nigh useless. [b]Edit =[/b] After several more days of playing, Supers and Abilities are still near useless due entirely to their pathetic recharge rate. I've found some Armor Mods that relieve this a bit, but the change is so negligible as to be almost unnoticeable. This is truly a horrific design decision. It's a Space Magic Scifi Shooter, Bungie. But with the infrequency that I can use my Space Magic, it boils all combat down to which of my two Primary Weapons am I going to spend a half-hour plinking down the Boss with... and that makes combat tediously slow and goddamn boring... - PvP: I despise PvP in pretty much every game, so I don't play it. Because of this, I haven't even tried the PvP in D2, so I won't even comment on it other than that it has zero temptation for me to try it. - the Story: From what I've seen so far, it's "Meh". Hasn't roped me in. I find the Libertarian Explorer chick who led me to The Farm to be more annoying than anything. I'd love to be able to mute her. The Story does nothing to make me care for her plight. Gaul is likewise "Meh". He's a sociopathic conqueror... as if that hasn't been done before. This doesn't really have me on the edge of my seat... We'll see how it unfolds though. [b]Edit =[/b] Played more of the Story. It's not nearly as epic IMO as people are painting it to be. Is it better than D1? Sure, but that's only because we now have a linear, contiguous story. Other than that, it's like the writers were having a contest to see who could pack in the most burned out cliche's in the shortest amount of time. While I enjoy seeing some of these NPC's personalities, none of them make my heart bleed for them, and they could disappear like vapor in the wind tomorrow, and I doubt I'd notice. - Grenade damage: Needs a damage increase as well. For as rarely as I get them, if you aren't going to increase their recharge rate, they should at least hit much harder than they do. - Loss of Locations from Destiny: I know that the Cosmodrome and the Tower were lost to us, and quite possibly we were kicked off of Mars. But Venus? Earth's Moon? The Dreadnought? Those should have been included and available as open-world areas to explore/defend in Destiny 2. As it stands; every single bit of ground we made in D1, we lost [i]ALL OF IT!?!?[/i] I not only find that increasingly difficult to believe, but that kinda angers me as well. These should have been left in the game to explore in D2, Bungie. This is a nasty design/management choice that doesn't sit well with me. That's all I have right now. As I said, I'm only a maximum of four hours in. There's still plenty to do, see, and experience. We'll also see if anything listed above switches lists or not. So, let me know what you think. Is there anything specific I should go out of my way to look for or look out for? I don't care about Spoilers at all. I'm an adult, and what constitutes a "spoiler" doesn't affect my enjoyment in the least little bit. But as I said, as I explore more, I'll add to both lists more. All the way until I can feel comfortable that I've made as good a review as I can.