Even at the low levels where the story sees you brought low and conducting your operations from a humble abandoned farmstead you are made to feel like your rightful place is amongst the heavens, and when (surprising nobody) you reclaim it at the end of the story, it feels good to be home. The backstory is gubbins, but like the skyboxes of the planets you roam, presents a glorious illusion of depth- a starry tapestry encompassing you so thickly that you can’t see where the edges lie. Your foes are ancient and primordial- simply the natural darkness to your light. The names of weapons and armour pieces hark back to myths and legends that, whilst mostly superficial, succeed in lending you the feel of being part of a lineage of epic celestial heroes. Grandeur.Įverything is sleek, and gilt, and magnificent.
How does it carry this off whilst still maintaining it’s straight face (and slyly concealing the cold statistical machinery below)? Majesty. It’s a lore-heavy space fantasy epic that focuses a massive corona of glowing pseudo-religious magic bollocks into a laser point, through then lens of good old earthly gun-fetishism. Yes, partially because I spent a not-insignificant amount of time listening to it whilst the game servers were struggling, but also because it captures so well the atmosphere the game strives to achieve. When I think of Destiny 2, one of the first things that springs to mind is the main menu music. Something unique to Destiny that it’s taken me a few days to put my finger on, and that has come to me now whilst sitting here and waiting for the 80gb download to finish. Some of this is nostalgia for the cozy evenings spent playing it last year as the season turned cold, but there’s something else there too. Now the new Forsaken expanion’s bundling in the first two pieces of DLC for free, I’ve been feeling myself drawn back again. Whilst the shooting was fun still, the skinner box of constant incremental progress had ceased to tickle. I spent a month or so doing laps of the endgame content available to me, and dipped my toe again at Christmas for the seasonal festivities, but soon drifted away. I had a really good time for the 40-odd hours I spent with it, but when it came to shelling out for more via the DLC pass I just wasn’t feeling it. Not being one for console shooters, I didn’t come into Destiny 2 with the same expectations carried by fans of the original, and as such found myself rather enjoying the difficult followup act to the cult hit that many others dismissed.