Agreed (minor spoilers) (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Wednesday, September 06, 2017, 13:14 (2719 days ago) @ Korny

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).