I want to confess that when my hands got the game Destiny 2, I had no idea what it could eventually turn into. The more I studied the game, neobyatnoy it seemed to me. The impression was that this long adventure will never end. I gave more than 150 hours of his life, and, you know, it was some of the best moments I’ve ever experienced in a video game.
Game: Destiny 2
Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows
Genre: MMO First-person Shooter
Release date: 6 September 2017
Developer: Bungie
Publisher: Activision
Just say: today we will have not the usual review of the game, as my colleague Sergey gray decided to write it together. This format for us is still new and even somewhat experimental, but time will show whether it will our readers like it or not. Comments of Sergey in the text will be highlighted in a separate quotes to separate his thoughts from mine. We hope that you will be interested to hear impressions about the game Destiny 2 directly from the two journalists, not a single one, as is usually the case.
Hello, dear readers. Today I rest for a bit, right behind writing a review on the wonderful game of Destiny 2 to my colleague. And yet I’d like to throw in my two cents to this material in the form of small thoughts about the game in a free form. After all, this MMO-shooter we were with Vladimir in the cooperative. Here and below look like my comments are like this.
To start, as expected, I would like with the background. Bungie Studio known primarily for a series of exclusive Xbox shooter Halo. Although these guys had a hand and to other, equally important projects like the quest Myth. Over the Halo franchise they worked more than 10 years. And if the first game of the series was a “classic shooter” for a solo passage, with each new part of the multiplayer component prevailed over the single-player campaign more and more.
However, it is impossible to say that fans of the franchise didn’t like it. It got to the point that when you try to disconnect the online servers one of the first games of the Halo series fans deliberately went out of the game, thereby setting up a kind of virtual picket. True artists always have to move forward and perform all of its obligations to Microsoft, Studio, Bungie went to conquer new galaxy. This has helped them not only many years of experience working on Halo series, but also money publishers Activision, has signed with the company a long-term contract.
Because of this strong Union in 2014, was born the Destiny. Unpronounceable game MMOFPS. Destiny, from the perspective of the core-mechanics which is a first-person shooter, in places strongly reminiscent of what we used to see in the online role-playing games. It was made a strong emphasis on leveling, teamwork, long raids with incredibly powerful bosses, tons of weapons, clothing and accessories, you can transform the character of daily quests, PvP and PvE environments and a mountain of other Goodies. Of course, the game is not without minor bugs, which the developers promised to correct in the second part, emphasizing and multiplying the advantages of the original game.
And the first “school” that Bungie rushed to fix it, touched the story campaign. The thing is (and I find it very strange decision) that Bungie has created a very cool Sci-Fi world of the future with an interesting background, but his story was told through scattered players on the game messages. The story campaign in the original game of 2014 almost was not. And it’s doubly strange, given that any success achieved by the writers at Bungie, working on Halo series. The story and setting of Halo: Reach (last game of the series, from the pen of a Studio), according to critics, is still regarded as the best in the series. If not the best in this genre at all. And with all his years of experience and multi-million dollar budget Bungie Activision suddenly suggest us to read notes!
I would like to add that really — in the first part of the plot was practically nonexistent, and the single-player campaign was more of something rudimentary. Personally, I’m very upset because I can not live without a strong story. Of course, the focus of the game was originally focused on the online component and cooperative entertainment. And yet, many players are disappointed with this approach developers to implement a story component.
Destiny 2 the player meets a wonderful setting and an interesting plot complication. From the first seconds it becomes clear that Bungie didn’t lose a former grasp and the lack of plot in the first game was most likely a conscious decision for the sake of saving budget and redirect it to implement more relevant at the moment components. According to the story, at a certain moment of its development, mankind has finally began the colonization of Mars (whether involved in this event Elon Musk, the creators of the game, unfortunately, is not misleading). On the red planet, people have discovered a mysterious reasonable sphere of enormous size, which gave the name “the wanderer”. She was smuggled to Earth, where he gave people a new technology. Of course, in the universe, there were races, desired to have a Stranger at their disposal, which resulted in a large-scale war, during which the inhabitants of the Earth were on the verge of extinction. People are desperately defending the Pilgrim, were his chosen Guardians. Their sphere endowed with certain mystical “light” of bestowing immortality.
Successfully defended its independence, mankind has long existed in peace and harmony. From the depths of the Universe to the Earth came a new danger in the person of the race of the cabal with a commander named Goul. Just since the invasion of the army of Goul starts the plot of Destiny 2. Goul, unlike their predecessors, wants not just to capture the Traveler and his technology, but also to receive the Light, thereby gaining eternal life. Standard, in General, the motivation for the villain. By and large the problems of the plot of Destiny 2 only two. The first is unrealistic straightforwardness of the narrative without even a hint of unexpected turns. All will evolve and will end exactly as you imagine it. The second problem is not well-written characters. Among all the heroes there is only Cade, which turned out really vivid and memorable. He’s always cracking jokes and personal feelings reminiscent of a cross between marvel Dedpula and Rocket raccoon from “Guardians of the Galaxy”. Great sources of inspiration, if the developers really relied on these characters. The rest of the characters only do what they are pushing pretentious speech Yes, thoughtfully looking somewhere into the distance.
Personally, I really liked the main antagonist of the game Goul and his entourage. The aliens races of the cabal are extremely unusual appearance, and the developers have done a serious work in order to properly animate their faces. While watching a scene inserts I sometimes have the impression that I look gorgeous CG cinematics from the recent remakes of the first games of the Halo series. Above them, by the way, worked Studio Blur Studios, owned by Director Tim Miller, who directed the film Deadpool. Coincidence? I don’t think!
Looks completely incomprehensible decision to make the main character mute, because in a pretty short-lived story campaign length is 8-10 hours would it to sound. Someone will say that in the game you can choose the gender of your character, and it imposes certain restrictions. And indeed the voice of the protagonist in the game, focused on online, not needed at all. But, excuse me, the world has seen Mass Effect, who somehow coped with a huge amount of spoken text coming from the lips of the main characters. Apparently, the developers at Bungie decided that something should be left for the third part. Anyway, staging the vast majority of scenes in the game is beyond praise. Epic. A large-scale. Beautiful. Everything is as it should be in a cosmic adventure.
The confrontation with the Goul will end sooner or later (and not without a hint of a sequel), and then comes the most important point: are you ready to adopt rules that will offer you game? After all, most of the time after passing the story Destiny 2 will be for you exclusively to online entertainment. Even in the campaign (which, incidentally, can be played with friends) you always will be surrounded by dozens of other players with whom you can unite to perform a number of tasks in open locations. At peace hub, you can safely communicate with their new friends and find partners to further explore the world.
In the gaming press about online gaming to say that their single-player component is just “warming up” before that happens. In the case of Destiny 2 the developers have built this idea into an absolute. Not only that, in the course of the story, you will discover a variety of activities, which will receive a logical development in the multiplayer, and full access to the widest range of possibilities will give you only level 20 and after completing the story campaign. However that approach will please everyone. In addition, sometimes the authors artificially drive the players in the frame. For example, access to some story quests need a certain level of character development. And very often, when you reach the scene the place you is not enough in-game experience. In such a straightforward way, you are forced to undergo numerous side-quests. Why was this done if side quests at early levels are not distinguished variety, and then without them to pass does not work, — for me remains a mystery.
Yeah. For me it is too big a mystery. When you are passionate about to the next story mission, breaking through hordes of enemies, defeat the boss, watch a chic movie scene and is ready to throw further, but the developers you pulls: wait, procacity first to level 15, performing these small tasks, and then find out what happened next with the main characters. This greatly breaks the pace of the game and sometimes genuinely frustrating.
However, all the above is very annoying in the game, because Destiny 2 is very efficiently implemented its core mechanics, namely, the firing of weapons. Guns in the game a few hundred, and I have yet to meet a single, to shoot from which would be interesting. Pistols, submachine guns, machine guns, shotguns, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, swords and all kinds of futuristic weapons. Each barrel is made with love, each gun feels great in the hands, they are all individual, so any player will definitely find something suitable. This cool physics shooting today can do only Machine Games and Bungie (developers of the last of the Wolfenstein). Bravo!
Well, even if they were not able with in-game weapons operate. Because Bungie were pioneers and popularizers of first-person shooters for video game consoles. Their Halo: Combat Evolved at the time, revolutionized and turned the genre on it’s head. No one could not think that with a gamepad in our hands, too, can be a good idea to hand out headshots. But Bungie has convinced everyone that with the right approach to the implementation of the physics of fire and that adequate control is possible.
Armed to the teeth (the weapon is divided into 3 classes: primary, secondary and heavy) and wear a character’s best armor (there is also all “standard”: arms, legs, torso and so on), you can go to conquer the vast online shooter. The choice you will have plenty of activities: the implementation of open events on several planets, the task of finding important objects, emptying caches, patrols, a mission to search and destroy important objectives. When you want teamwork, you are waiting for the raids (missions with a powerful boss and a reward at the end), dark attacks (a more complex version of the raids with special conditions), incredibly large-scale raids, battles in the Crucible (the local arena) with other players, where it has multiple game modes from classic deathmatch to capturing points.
For ultrahardcore provided the opportunity to try to overcome any mode alone. With the exception of the RAID to make it quite real. Well, if you this is not enough, you can try a “Test nine” — the competitive mode, where the most valuable prizes and access to new locations desperately fighting the most cohesive and talented team of 4 players. For a complete description of each mode would take me a lot of time, because each has its own nuances and requires a different approach. All this is necessary to study and enjoy yourself. To talk about tactics modes would be akin to a plot spoiler. Destiny 2 is good because it guarantees a sense of pioneering in all. I want to say a few words about RAID locations. It is huge and just stuffed to the eyeballs with secrets and riddles, for which the reward is appropriate. A RAID boss so far requires concerted action by all team members. So the urge to find five friends and try without any guides and tips to pass this difficult test.
The game promotes a comfortable and pleasant picture. When it rains, the wind rustles the trees on distant planets, or you rush through the battlefield on your hoverbayke with the screen you literally are bombarded by a stream of special effects. The game did not brake and looks great on the aged PlayStation 4, and a PRO version soon, promise a large-scale addition that will significantly improve the already beautiful picture. Of course, in the game you can try to find mutnenkoy texture or poorly-drawn model of a tree in the far corner of the map, but why? Overall it looks like a solid top five and in the future will become only more beautiful.
The game actually looks very impressive. The artists of Bungie this time did complete the program and have created a truly impressive alien worlds full of amazingly beautiful locations, which you can admire in free from fights time. Just above I’ve already talked about the wonderful animation of the characters. Add to this the fact that NPCs now look significantly more attractive in terms of elaboration of small parts.
Unfortunately, the technical realization of Destiny 2 in such a positive way to speak out will not work. No, the game doesn’t “crash” every 5 minutes, and the network code and all works like a clock. And yet several times for more than 150 hours of simulated game with no apparent reason firmly hung up my console. She also started to fly when I was running a Destiny 2 after the withdrawal of the console from sleep mode. Of course, all this will correct the upcoming patches, and the frequency of the crashes and lockups were very low. But not say it I just can’t, because of similar problems faced my friends.
And that’s where everything is just fine, because it is in terms of musical accompaniment. From the first seconds you encapsulates elegant soundtrack: atmospheric orchestral motifs from the main menu will accompany you on every adventure. Music is always “on”, it never gets old, and in all the songs feel the hard work of composers and musicians, had a hand in its writing. In music there is something “Halo-wcss”. Epic, beautiful and at the same time… very warm.
You’re right, colleague. Music is really a lot of Halo, because the music said the composer Michael Salvatori. This talented man wrote the soundtrack to games such as Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2 and Halo 3 (together with my friend Martin O’donnell), and in part to Halo 3: ODST. He was responsible for the OST and for the first Destiny, which was released in 2014. But, for me, his music in the sequel is sounding significantly better. He seriously has grown artistically over the past three years.
The music is really good, what can be said about the Russian voice acting. It is not bad and sometimes even good. But the original English voice is just gorgeous. The same of the above-mentioned Cade loses a good third of his charisma in the Russian dubbing. It’s a shame that domestic localizers a few of you came close to winning in this regard. Especially given the fact that the whole game is translated well enough. Almost no flaws in the translation of complex sentences and the description of the items, which is extremely important for games in the MMO genre. However, there is the text one little problem. And, surprisingly, it is not only in Russian but in the English version. Description two consecutive story missions mixed up. And the thing is that they send us to different planets. Thus, trying to figure out what to do next, the player risks losing a lot of time.
Yeah. I successfully caught in this trap. The game offered me to go to a certain planet, which has not yet been unlocked in the game. And no matter how hard I tried to understand how to unlock it, and didn’t have a good way to get out of this situation. 10 minutes, my colleague said something stupid to the screen and did not understand: whether skis do not go, whether the developers have made a mistake. In the end, it turned out that the quest description does contain such and action adventure should unfold in a completely different world.
Pros:
- A unique online project that can permanently captivate the player.
- A huge amount of content plus a massive DLC on the horizon.
- Without a doubt, the perfect physics and shooting mechanics.
- Outstanding in terms of beauty and technology graphics.
- It is a fascinating story campaign.
- The music perfectly complements the atmosphere of the space adventure
- A fun game you can get as one, and in the company of friends.
- More than ten different game modes for every taste.
Cons:
- Predictable plot, no unexpected twists.
- Sometimes the game forces the player to swing, distracting from the plot.
- Extremely rare, but very unpleasant technical flaws.
- Fans of solo adventures, the game may not like.
Overall, the Studio Bungie has tried their best and released a game that promised his fans. The game, which has done extensive work on the bugs of the original 2014, and the dignity of the original were removed to a qualitatively new level. Destiny 2 has become bigger, better, prettier and more thoughtful predecessor. It is still a unique shooter that has absorbed many years of experience working on the Halo series and all the best practices in the field of modern MMO. If not for some shortcomings, the game could be higher. But even with them, Destiny 2 is the best multiplayer shooter that exists on the market today. The game is worth 9.5 points out of 10 with the hope that Destiny will lose 3 small spoon of tar in a barrel of delicious online honey.
A review of the game Destiny 2: the biggest shooter gets even better
Vladimir Kuznetsov