I suggest you read this (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Thursday, September 17, 2015, 17:27 (3176 days ago) @ Xenos

It is a new game. Full stop.

Maybe it's my time away from the game, but this is absurd to me. It's the same old stuff, just a little different/better/worse.

How is this remotely the case? That's like saying Halo 2 is "the same old stuff" as Halo 1. We have boatloads of new content... but more importantly, the new content is substantially better than the old content. Bungie has learned valuable lessons and applied them across the board. Storytelling, mission design, weapon design, enemy behavior... it's all better.

To me it is very clearly a sequel, except it fits on top of the original game rather than replacing it.

I completely agree with you, but I will say: if someone didn't like the core shooter gameplay, or the fact that it's an RPG in addition to a shooter, this won't save it for them.

Absolutely. But to your point, if someone didn't like the core gameplay of Halo 1, they probably wouldn't like Halo 2 either. Yet Halo 2 is still clearly a "new game". That is the kind of comparison I was trying to make... TDB and HoW were mostly "more of the same", while TTK feels like a substantial step forward :)