Well, it's been about a week and I figured I should put my thoughts down somewhere, so here goes:

It was like Bungie gave me every specific thing I asked for and then some: I asked for submachine guns and grenade launchers; and I got them. I wanted Void Titans to be more in-your-face than they were, and I got that; too. Vehicle combat, coherent storyline; all the things on the wish list.

Holy crap, the environments: A week on, having completed the campaign and tooled around to my heart's content for a few nights; and I have to say that I'm still awestruck and I don't see that stopping any time soon. Every area became my new favorite locale as I explored; and every time I revisit someplace, I wonder why I ever left. I definitely experience some lonely moments of exploration, which I'd hoped for. There is a certain serenity that I feel when out of combat and just taking in the sights. One thought that keeps recurring to me, though; is that the atmospheric lighting and effects in some places really ought to be used extensively in Crucible maps. Specifically the heavy rain in the first mission, and some of the shadow work done in the underground sections of Nessus, for example.

Story? Story: The narrative was solid. The stakes never quite got to where I hoped, but major kudos to Bungie for making me feel things. And with the exception of the curmudgeonly Awoken guy, all the new characters are welcome additions. Also I'm happy that star-killing superweapons are back in play.

I was pleasantly surprised at the nuance in Ghaul's character, but it seemed like there needed to be more time to develop him, or at least more of an explanation of how he simply "took" the Light; when the nature of the Light has been so much of a central mystery. I felt like either Hawthorne or Amanda should have died. Or Ikora, as others have said. The points about sacrifice made by the Speaker and Ikora didn't hit home like I expected them to. I feel if we had some ingame moment, even something as small as the encounter with Zavala during the first mission, but where the Speaker (or anyone else, for that matter) takes action that means their ultimate sacrifice; the lack of that character afterwards would have made the point more effectively. Not having a face on the Speaker in the end, or any relationship-building moments with him and the audience, really impacted my ability to feel anything at his death. Not hearing anything further from the Stranger or the Queen feels a bit off, as well. But I'm expecting those things will be resolved as DLC continues the story.

Patrol is where I want to live now: Really. Except for the actual Patrol missions themselves. Those are still the most boring part, still not chaining into something with more of a payoff. It seems like those efforts got turned into Adventures and Heroic Public Events, which I'm not complaining about in the slightest. There is always something to do, and always something to spend your time on while you're waiting for your near-term goals (like being present for a Public Event).

Other musings:

• 97% Of weapons are fun. Rarely do they feel like barely-differentiated copies of another weapon. Each weapon type feels useful in a couple specific instances, and fair-to-middling in most others. I especially like how different (and useful!) most hand cannons feel now.
  
• Combined Arms? We've got tanks now! Anyone? Bueller?
  
• It would be neat if something like Mythic Public Events existed, where 6+ Guardians are required for the takedown/completion of a Raid-difficulty task. Maybe something for Clans to tackle...
  

Anyways, that's all for now. Much love to Bungie for knocking it out of the park again. Destiny was a lot of fun, for a skeleton; but I'm really satisfied to see (and taste!) all the meat they've put on the bones with D2. See you all out there.

~m

I asked for submachine guns and grenade launchers; and I got them.
So you're the one I should to blame for my least favorite weapons in the game? Curse you.

I felt like either Hawthorne or Amanda should have died. Or Ikora, as others have said.
It strikes me as odd that all the characters you've listed are female... Why not Cayde-6 or Zavala?

I asked for submachine guns and grenade launchers; and I got them.
So you're the one I should to blame for my least favorite weapons in the game? Curse you.

Submachine guns are so fun. I love my MIDA Mini-Tool. It's become my go-to for burning through yellow bars.

Submachine guns are so fun. I love my MIDA Mini-Tool. It's become my go-to for burning through yellow bars.

Fair enough, I haven't been playing long enough to get one I like...maybe?

Fair enough, I haven't been playing long enough to get one I like...maybe?

Maybe. I really didn't like them for a while, but I had a blue one in the elemental slot for a pretty good stretch when I didn't get any higher level elemental drops, and I learned to love it.

I love my MIDA Mini-Tool

I almost don't want to ask for fear of spoiling it for myself, but... is that a real thing or just your pet name for something?

I have to say, they seem much more effective to me in D2 than in D1. Some of it might be due to an actual increase in killing power (which I think has happened, at least a little), and some of it is probably just due to them no longer sharing a slot with all the insta-kill weapons (it's hard for an up-close weapon to shine when a shotgun can also go in the same slot).

I love my MIDA Mini-Tool

I almost don't want to ask for fear of spoiling it for myself, but... is that a real thing or just your pet name for something?

Oh, it's real. Are you 250+ already? If so, go ahead and do the "Enhance" quest on EDZ. ;-)

I felt like either Hawthorne or Amanda should have died. Or Ikora, as others have said.
It strikes me as odd that all the characters you've listed are female... Why not Cayde-6 or Zavala?

Because they're all human. And mortal. Or Ikora was, for that brief period. Nothing at all to do with them being women.

~m

I felt like either Hawthorne or Amanda should have died. Or Ikora, as others have said.
It strikes me as odd that all the characters you've listed are female... Why not Cayde-6 or Zavala?

Because they're all human. And mortal. Or Ikora was, for that brief period. Nothing at all to do with them being women.

~m

Zavala was mortal as well…

Zavala was mortal as well…

Yes, and by that rationale, so was Cayde. But we didn't have any story beats where Zavala (or Cayde) pondered his mortality and voiced his reservations. Or rallied in spite of that to fight. So.

It's relevant for Ikora for that brief span in the story, because that was part of her character development. For Amanda and Hawthorne, the idea of only having one life and yet engaging in the conflict carries that weight. We have other mortals like our sniper buddy Captain Teatime; but he doesn't get major plot or cinematic time, so it's less relevant for his character. If he died, it wouldn't hold a fraction of the same impact.

~m

Well, it's been about a week and I figured I should put my thoughts down somewhere, so here goes:

It was like Bungie gave me every specific thing I asked for and then some: I asked for submachine guns and grenade launchers; and I got them. I wanted Void Titans to be more in-your-face than they were, and I got that; too. Vehicle combat, coherent storyline; all the things on the wish list.

D2 has definitely convinced me that Bungie was listening to the things the community was saying. The coherent storyline especially. There still ARE other missions going on, but they got separated into the "adventures," which is just about perfect way to do things, I think.

Other community-suggested improvements I appreciated:

Being able to start missions while in the patrol space. There's now not really a distinction between "patrol mode" and "going to the start of a mission." A simple idea, but the reality of it is such a joy in comparison to how things were. This, of course, was something the community was suggesting pretty much since the beginning.

Not getting booted out of the character/inventory screens constantly during loading. I don't know how vocal the community at large has been about this one, but I personally have been raging about it for years. I don't want to jinx anything by mentioning it, but so far I haven't gotten booted from character/inventory during loading (or at all, really).

[*]97% Of weapons are fun. Rarely do they feel like barely-differentiated copies of another weapon. Each weapon type feels useful in a couple specific instances, and fair-to-middling in most others. I especially like how different (and useful!) most hand cannons feel now.

I feel the same. It's actually been super hard to decide on which weapons to keep/use because there are very few that I outright hate. I don't care much for sniper rifles, but that's more a me problem than a Destiny problem.

[*]It would be neat if something like Mythic Public Events existed, where 6+ Guardians are required for the takedown/completion of a Raid-difficulty task. Maybe something for Clans to tackle...

Sounds great.

I hear talk of "heroic" public events, and I even completed one somehow, but I still don't really know how they differ from "normal" events.

Oh, it's real. Are you 250+ already? If so, go ahead and do the "Enhance" quest on EDZ. ;-)

Excellent. I'm a little behind the curve, I think, but I am above 250 for sure. I just got to a point last night where one quest per planet showed up (first time I had seen the blue icons), hopefully that's one of them.

[*]It would be neat if something like Mythic Public Events existed, where 6+ Guardians are required for the takedown/completion of a Raid-difficulty task. Maybe something for Clans to tackle...

Sounds great.

I hear talk of "heroic" public events, and I even completed one somehow, but I still don't really know how they differ from "normal" events.

So each normal Public Event has a "secret" task to complete which extends it into a Heroic Public event. For the Fallen Glimmer drill, there's a piece of equipment you have to destroy. When the glimmer drill starts, look around for a "collector", for lack of a better term. It will take damage. Destroy this collector at each of the locations the Drill spawns at BEFORE the crew is killed. You'll end up with an additional task of protecting a big ol' pile of glimmer from the Fallen before it's transmatted out.

On Titan, there's the Fallen Walker Public Event. For that you have to stun the walker, and his neck will open up like usual. But he will drop three of those power cores. Load those into the machines projecting fields around the Scorch Cannons, until you've unlocked both caches. Then a second Walker will drop. Kill both, and win.

There's also a Taken public event in the EDZ where you have to step into these blight bubbles and then back out, and pour DPS on the main objective (a larger blight mass), and that triggers it, I believe.

And there's a Hive Public Event...on Titan, I think? I'm fuzzy on that one. I think there are two spell circles on the floor you and other Guardians have to stand in as you kill Hive, and then a big Hive baddie is spawned. I'm sure there are more but I can't recall having run into them. Point is, there's an additional step you have to complete, and then it will announce your Public Event is now Heroic.

~m

Being able to start missions while in the patrol space. There's now not really a distinction between "patrol mode" and "going to the start of a mission." A simple idea, but the reality of it is such a joy in comparison to how things were. This, of course, was something the community was suggesting pretty much since the beginning.

Heh - this didn't happen on last-gen consoles not because Bungie hadn't thought about it... but purely for memory reasons. I remember talking to a dev about the start of the Crota raid - he was so disappointed that they couldn't figure out a way to even SIMULATE actual players on the other side of the Hellmouth while you waited for the opening bridge to form. He felt it was jarring and non-immersive... but memory constraints kept them from doing anything about it.

This gen can handle it, so it's in. :)

It's the blue one on EDZ.

Tip: Save any blue scout rifles you come across. You'll thank me later.

It's Pocket Infinity again, isn't it?

I just love how I can be in a mission, somebody else can be in an adventure, and a public event is happening all in the same space. Then we all help out each other. I lime how I can recognize what another person is doing by what boss spawns in the area.

I guess that happened in Destiny 1 as well, but the only place it really stood out to me was the VoG starting area. Now it feels like that almost everywhere.

Yeah. I had that happen big time the other day. There was a big Vex adventure on Nessus where the Vex were spawning everywhere and spawning strange little structures everywhere and everyone else saw all this happening and moved in to help me out! It was pretty awesome!

Certainly there's still some "private" mission areas, but its neat how much stuff can take place in the public patrol zones.

I seem to remember him talking/pushing a lot for the goal of meeting people out in the wild and having brief adventures that flowed in and out of the spaces in the world. It was really rare for anything substantive to happen in D1 and often, it felt like the payoff wasn't worth the sacrifice that it required. Do you want an engaging space with enemies that move fluidly and are thoughtfully placed? Too bad, that costs too many resources, but you can shoot at these 5 guys who spawn exactly the same way with a rando. I had fun and definitely had some encounters with other guardians that justified the shared world, but I kept feeling like patrol spaces might have been better if they were locked to a fireteam rather than networked.

I think with D2, the payoff is finally there. Not only in patrol spaces, but the mission in the streets uses other guardians well too. There is emergent gameplay as people pull different activities together and chaos ensues. I think this is what Jones wanted and dreamed of, but the tech just wasn't there at the time. I have no regrets about my time spent with D1, but D2 just feels like a more realized vision.

I think this is what Jones wanted and dreamed of, but the tech just wasn't there at the time. I have no regrets about my time spent with D1, but D2 just feels like a more realized vision.

^This is a great summary of D2 vs. D1^

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I guess I just felt that all the Vanguard were struggling with their mortality in their own ways even if it wasn't explicitly stated. Even Tyra Karn discusses it.

I never thought about it, but are almost all the non-guardian NPCs female? I mean, whatever xur is... is the gunsmith a guardian? *doesn't know lore like at all*