As someone with more than 1,500 hours across the Borderlands games and 150 hours in Remnant 2, you’d think I would have tried one of the biggest looter-shooters out there: Destiny 2. For one reason or another, it just hadn’t made its way into my gaming library.
That changed when I befriended Chris, who had a long history with Destiny and Destiny 2. It turned out that Bungie had recently added a system allowing new players to skip past the early stages and jump straight to the endgame. Before I knew it, I was downloading 114 GB of looter-shooter madness amidst promises that “it won’t be that bad.” I created a human Warlock and was able to quickly claim gear that got me to 1810 Power. I didn’t know what the numbers meant, but 1810 felt pretty high.
The good
The best part about Destiny 2 for me was the gunplay. Every gun feels incredibly satisfying to shoot. Whether it’s a close-range shotgun, a precise sniper rifle, or an explosive rocket launcher, every weapon looks unique and sounds great. There’s just something special about hearing the Arbalest’s signature hollow plink as you land a headshot.
I also liked the variety of skills at my disposal. I only have one character – a Warlock – but within that class, I can choose to specialize in an element of my choice. Even within the element, I can further customize my grenade, melee ability, and super ability. I haven’t done much build-crafting in Destiny 2, but the ability descriptions are easy to understand, and with some guidance from Chris, I was able to create a Solar Warlock that felt both comfortable and powerful.
All in all, it was surprisingly easy for me to just jump into Destiny 2 as a brand-new player and start having a great time.
The bad
One thing I didn’t expect from Destiny 2 was the prevalence of jumping puzzles. I expressed that I like sniper rifles, so Chris led me on a mission to go get one. We embarked on a quest to obtain the Whisper of the Worm. Much of the quest involves a series of convoluted jumping puzzles in a dark environment with little room for error. I’m not good at platforming to begin with, and I still hadn’t gotten a good sense of the Warlock’s floating jump ability. I admit feeling pretty frustrated by the end of that dungeon, and I’m not sure if the sniper was worth it.
I also found it difficult to navigate menus. I can look at some of my quests by pulling out my Ghost, but I need to look at my actual quests list in a different menu for a more in-depth view. There are also other objectives I need to accomplish in order to increase my Guardian Rank, but I can only view those from the Journey tab in my character menu. There were times when Chris had to guide me through the exact buttons to press to reach a certain menu.
A crash course in Destiny lore
One of the first things we did was play through the story campaigns. Going in, I didn’t know anything about Destiny 2’s lore. I still don’t. Chris did his best to fill me in on a decade’s worth of Destiny lore, but it was like trying to explain the history of Middle-earth to someone while watching the second Lord of the Rings movie.
This also meant that intense emotional beats just didn’t hit for me. I watched a cutscene where some kind of robot met his end at the hands of a mysterious dark stranger. I didn’t know who these characters were or why they were here, but I was clearly meant to feel sad. Chris had to rapidly fill me in on who Cayde-6 was and why his death was important.
Then, soon after I saw Cayde get murdered, I met Crow. Cayde’s murderer is on our side now, I guess? He became a Guardian? I didn’t know these characters well enough to feel anything but mild confusion. And now, just before The Final Shape expansion, we find out that Cayde is alive? Maybe?
Still, I was impressed by the quality of the cutscenes and how fun the campaigns were. We ran through the Lightfall campaign fairly quickly, with Chris hastily explaining who the Witness is, what’s going on with the Traveler, and what we were trying to accomplish. We defeated Calus on the fourth attempt, teabagged his corpse, and logged off for the night.
I still don’t know what the Veil is, why Calus was after it, or why we went to Neptune. I’m to understand much of the player base was just as confused when playing through Lightfall.
A full fireteam
It turns out that Destiny 2 co-op is best enjoyed in teams of three. To that end, Chris invited me to play with his longtime friend Kyle. I voiced some worry that my inexperience would be a detriment to the team, but Kyle assured me that it would be fine. Not just because he was kind and welcoming (he was!), but because he could just hard carry us through anything.
Kyle routinely got more kills than Chris and I combined. Chris insists there’s something wrong with how kills were counted. All I know is there were lots of explosions with Kyle at the center of them, surrounded by glowing green Threadlings.
Why didn’t I try this before?
I think Destiny 2’s biggest deterrent was just how much game there was. I saw my friends and family enjoying their Destiny 2 adventures, but it always felt too late for me to join. Of course, the feeling only grew worse over the years. Destiny 2 was released as a live service in 2017, so there’s now seven years’ worth of content to catch up on. Or four, if you don’t count the content that’s no longer accessible. What’s left is a patchwork of confusing narratives and a game that assumes you already know how to play.
I’m glad that Bungie added a way for new players to jump straight into the endgame, and I’m grateful to Chris for guiding me through the early stages. We’re now counting down the days to The Final Shape. Even as a relative newbie, I’m excited to see what Destiny 2 has in store for me.
