Destiny 2 ~ First Impressions

Though I'm only part of the way into Destiny 2's story campaign I'm finding a detachment from the situation, and the characters presented in the extended lore. Instead of building upon the dire circumstances plaguing Earth, and it's citizens Bungie pushes things forward at breakneck speed not building enough upon side characters' relationships, but instead going way overboard with the guardian's role in the predicament. While everyone else from Earth's last safe haven struggle somewhat to get their sh*t together, and put up a fight your guardian, and ghost have a miraculous vision that leads them to a chunk of the Traveler which in turn restores their gifted powers. Ultimately making them the last hope for humanity. Between the immersion breaking missions, and the cutscenes that follow in which your guardian and ghost gain the starring role you'll find little emphasis on the emotional joint elements that should have been in place in such a tale. Everything in the story seems halfhearted, and forced to a point that it's more like an expansion to the first game than a true sequel. Your roles as the guardian hero (from what I've seen) include missions that require going from area to area to rebuild social gathering sites, and fixing safeguards as well as taking on outings that require you to fight supposedly formidable foes. The usual enemy suspects return seeming so out of place, and equally as forced as everything else that their existence is of little consequence to the proposed pivotal points of the new Destiny equation.

I can't help, but remember how epic, and promising the demo of the intro stage felt prior to the game's release. How Bungie swore the game would be more emotionally invested. That there would be more story elements applied. Fast forward to the release, and I'm sitting here wondering why it feels as if the hype was unwarranted. It feels very much that Bungie misled their fans with the hype, and once again dropped the ball. This time that dropped ball has manifested in some of the worst ways. Looking back at the new social hub that is the EDZ I see nothing in it as inspiring in design as the Tower was. The new social area seems smaller than I remember, and nowhere near as inviting. On top of that the methods of travel are made complicated via a new map with unnecessary steps that could have been skipped, and minimalized with a more familiar OG Destiny setup.

Furthermore, I find that the pre-order bonus DLC that was supposed to be available to gamers failed to actually download into the game, and it appears it won't be made available until 48 hours later. Either that, or after you've beaten the campaign, according to a fellow Twitter follower. This totally negates the purpose for having the "Kill Tracker Ghost" in the first place as it was meant to keep track of your kill stats as you played through the campaign. The more I think about it the more it seems Destiny 2 was rushed out ahead of schedule, and that it's another victim of the game industry's growing greed. I can't think of any other reason outside of that as to why Activision, and Bungie would also push to sell not one, but two future expansions months ahead of time upon launch.

With all this having been said I am only part of the way through with the story missions, but I feel with what I've witnessed that the game does warrant such a negative assessment. Unless things in the story pick up in huge tear jerking ways I don't see Destiny 2 living up to the hype it's foundation was built upon. I see the potential for a lot of disappointment, and future complaints from once forgiving fans who thought that maybe, just maybe this new experience would be the Destiny game they dreamed of experiencing.