Finished the campaign (impressions, no spoilers)

I won't say anything with regards to plot or gameplay specifics, but I just wanted to jump in real quick and say how much I loved the campaign. Fantastic in its own right, and a huge step above anything that from D1 or the expansions IMO. Lots of diversity in terms of gameplay set pieces, environments, and objectives. Without giving anything away, they do some stuff with some of the missions that feels like it should have been there all along.
Felt like the perfect overall length for me, too (about 9-10 hours). I didn't "power through", but split my time between story missions and patrol activities. I haven't done any strikes or PvP yet, and I still have plenty more to do on patrol. Most importantly, the game feels vibrant and full of stuff to do in a way that D1 never quite managed.
Oh, and it might be tied for my favourite Bungie soundtrack. I put it right up there with ODST. The music is absolutely spectacular.

Story wise, it is definitely a huge step above D1. I still struggled to care much about it, but that's largely because I have such a firmly planted dislike for all of Destiny's characters. But that's not so much the fault of D2, and to the game's credit, they use the characters far better than they've been used previously.

All in all, I really love it. Can't wait to get some co-op action happening :)

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Get geared up so we can fight our way back to the Lighthouse! (assuming thats where were going)

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The music. man, I think I have to agree with you, the last time I remember feeling the music in a game was probably ODST. They did an awesome job using it to connect you to your character and the experience. I only managed to get in about 2 and half hours last night but I feel like it is a massive improvement over D1 already. Though a lot of the facial expressions and movement seem a little silly - but that's the closest thing I have to a complaint so far.

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That music right after the beta mission? Mein Gott! That some of the most beautiful music in a bungie game, and that's saying something.

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That music right after the beta mission? Mein Gott! That some of the most beautiful music in a bungie game, and that's saying something.

That moment stands out in my memory for sure. Beautifully evocative. I mean this as absolutely no disrespect to Marty (I'm a huge Marty fanboy, after all), but that was the exact moment when I realized I didn't need to worry about his absence from this game.

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That music right after the beta mission? Mein Gott! That some of the most beautiful music in a bungie game, and that's saying something.

That moment stands out in my memory for sure. Beautifully evocative. I mean this as absolutely no disrespect to Marty (I'm a huge Marty fanboy, after all), but that was the exact moment when I realized I didn't need to worry about his absence from this game.

I had a completely different feeling regarding it. I felt that sequence (not just the music, but everything, gameplay, music, voice acting, everything up until you reached the farm) was over the top. Like they were trying too hard to make me have the feels. I felt that Marty would have done a better job, but then again, maybe not, perhaps it wasn't the music that caused me to feel this way.

I have not finished the story yet, but it has improved for me since arriving at the farm.

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I was too busy thinking "this is what was supposed to be in Reach between LNoS and NA" and it gave me warm feelings in my heart.

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That moment stands out in my memory for sure. Beautifully evocative. I mean this as absolutely no disrespect to Marty (I'm a huge Marty fanboy, after all), but that was the exact moment when I realized I didn't need to worry about his absence from this game.

I felt the opposite. The composition was fine, but the music direction in that part of the game struck me as questionable. Take the big moments in isolation and they're phenomenal, but grandiose and aggressive stuff sometimes kept playing for far too long or where it wasn't merited. The music started getting kind of annoying.

Thankfully, things seem to be improving farther on.

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There's a moment when a cabal ship flies over and other music starts playing with the level music. I don't know if that music is supposed to overlap or not. It just sounded weird to me.

The music is nice in that area, but feels out of place during combat sections. I feel like they could have faded it in and out when you got into combat.

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The music is nice in that area, but feels out of place during combat sections. I feel like they could have faded it in and out when you got into combat.

This is the kind of stuff I worry about with Marty being gone. That and the decision to change the mix in multiplayer so you hear your enemies as louder than your teammates.

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The music is nice in that area, but feels out of place during combat sections. I feel like they could have faded it in and out when you got into combat.

This is the kind of stuff I worry about with Marty being gone. That and the decision to change the mix in multiplayer so you hear your enemies as louder than your teammates.

That's something Bungie learned from Respawn (either directly or indirectly) and I'm a huge fan of it, when balanced just right. I haven't played PvP since the Beta, so I can't speak to the final mix in Destiny 2, but they hit a great sweet spot in the Titanfall games. It isn't overtly noticeable, but when you hear enemy gunfire you can usually tell that it is enemy gunfire. It's a subtle little thing that helps with situational awareness.

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That moment stands out in my memory for sure. Beautifully evocative. I mean this as absolutely no disrespect to Marty (I'm a huge Marty fanboy, after all), but that was the exact moment when I realized I didn't need to worry about his absence from this game.

I felt the opposite. The composition was fine, but the music direction in that part of the game struck me as questionable. Take the big moments in isolation and they're phenomenal, but grandiose and aggressive stuff sometimes kept playing for far too long or where it wasn't merited. The music started getting kind of annoying.

Same thought here. I definitely felt what the music was pushing me to feel, but only for the first minute or so. The loop is so short and repetitive that all I was thinking about by the time was able to leave the zone was how irritating the music was.

Thankfully, things seem to be improving farther on.

I remember there being one other spot (on Titan, maybe?) where I remember thinking, "Man, I wish they had done whatever they needed to do to keep Marty around." The music through the whole game is great in soundtrack form, but there are places where it just doesn't seem to fit the game I'm playing. Marty just had a knack for making the music fit so perfectly to the moment and blend so seamlessly when moving from one encounter to the next that you almost didn't even notice the music unless you noticed it pulling on your emotions first.

-Disciple

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That can't be good that you finished the entire single player story before the game technically even released...

Guess you'll be ready for the Raid though, huh? lol.

I'm guessing the missions are replayable?

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That can't be good that you finished the entire single player story before the game technically even released...

Not sure I follow?

The game came out at midnight, I played until about 11am with a break in the middle to wake my daughter up and take her to school :)

Guess you'll be ready for the Raid though, huh? lol.

I have no idea lol. Hopefully.

I'm guessing the missions are replayable?

I'm sure they are, but I haven't actually checked since completing the campaign. I do know that during my initial playthrough, Story mission icons would disappear from the map once they'd been completed. So if there is a way to replay them before completing the campaign, then I missed it.

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That can't be good that you finished the entire single player story before the game technically even released...

Not sure I follow?

The game came out at midnight, I played until about 11am with a break in the middle to wake my daughter up and take her to school :)

Guess you'll be ready for the Raid though, huh? lol.

I have no idea lol. Hopefully.

I'm guessing the missions are replayable?

I'm sure they are, but I haven't actually checked since completing the campaign. I do know that during my initial playthrough, Story mission icons would disappear from the map once they'd been completed. So if there is a way to replay them before completing the campaign, then I missed it.

Supposedly Ikora will let you "meditate" to replay story missions for tokens and gear that she can sell you.

Which is a cool mechanic that hopefully leads up to some way to replay campaign missions in an interesting way... More skull combos or a weekly "Legendary" mission would make me really happy.

Actually, I love kind of hard solo content, and the campaign is the only thing really designed for solo play, so this would make me REALLY happy.

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That can't be good that you finished the entire single player story before the game technically even released...

Not sure I follow?

The game came out at midnight, I played until about 11am with a break in the middle to wake my daughter up and take her to school :)

Guess you'll be ready for the Raid though, huh? lol.

I have no idea lol. Hopefully.

I'm guessing the missions are replayable?

I'm sure they are, but I haven't actually checked since completing the campaign. I do know that during my initial playthrough, Story mission icons would disappear from the map once they'd been completed. So if there is a way to replay them before completing the campaign, then I missed it.

Supposedly Ikora will let you "meditate" to replay story missions for tokens and gear that she can sell you.

Yes, I unlocked that just before coming to work this morning.

Which is a cool mechanic that hopefully leads up to some way to replay campaign missions in an interesting way... More skull combos or a weekly "Legendary" mission would make me really happy.

Actually, I love kind of hard solo content, and the campaign is the only thing really designed for solo play, so this would make me REALLY happy.

I feel the same way. I feel like in D1, there was so little content at launch that replaying Story missions was thrust upon us just to give us something to do other than running strikes. This time around, there seems to be no shortage of stuff to do once you finish the campaign, so replaying story missions can be treated as a more "niche" and possibly more hardcore activity, which I'm all for.

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I feel the same way. I feel like in D1, there was so little content at launch that replaying Story missions was thrust upon us just to give us something to do other than running strikes. This time around, there seems to be no shortage of stuff to do once you finish the campaign, so replaying story missions can be treated as a more "niche" and possibly more hardcore activity, which I'm all for.

I found myself thinking about game design more than anything else, and I was surprised at how often I was saying to myself "Oh that's a good touch". A shortcut back to the opening when you dive deep into enemy territory? Good touch (Skyrim devs would be proud). Swarms of weak enemies to vent our rage out on as we slowly pick ourselves back up? Good touch. More enemies if we stick around an area longer than we need to? Good touch. Plenty of optional enemies to shoot at as an elevator takes us up? Good touch.
It's things like that that make me want to replay story missions (especially if they come with extra challenges). Rewards are icing, but I see myself enjoying the cake on its own.

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I feel the same way. I feel like in D1, there was so little content at launch that replaying Story missions was thrust upon us just to give us something to do other than running strikes. This time around, there seems to be no shortage of stuff to do once you finish the campaign, so replaying story missions can be treated as a more "niche" and possibly more hardcore activity, which I'm all for.

I found myself thinking about game design more than anything else, and I was surprised at how often I was saying to myself "Oh that's a good touch". A shortcut back to the opening when you dive deep into enemy territory? Good touch (Skyrim devs would be proud). Swarms of weak enemies to vent our rage out on as we slowly pick ourselves back up? Good touch. More enemies if we stick around an area longer than we need to? Good touch. Plenty of optional enemies to shoot at as an elevator takes us up? Good touch.
It's things like that that make me want to replay story missions (especially if they come with extra challenges). Rewards are icing, but I see myself enjoying the cake on its own.

It reminds me a bit of Horizon Zero Dawn, in that regard. The game is full of the sort of smart little touches that don't happen when you rush something together. It feels like they really had time to build the missions, then iterate and iterate and iterate on them. Also like Horizon Zero Dawn, there are plenty of cool moments that don't get repeated over and over and over. Like you said, it helps make me want to replay the story missions, because so many of them have unique moments or sequences (as opposed to D1, where it kinda felt like playing slightly remixed versions of the same 3 or 4 missions over and over).

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Finished the campaign (impressions, no spoilers) (Destiny)

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