Destiny 2 [PC] + Battle.net

Well, played it for a bit yesterday. Game is pretty decent. Graphics are not bad.

Gameplay (movement, shooting, powers, weapon variety, weapon modding, etc.), feel like a poor man's Warframe. I do like that there's an element of variety in wardrobe vanity in types of clothing. But I wonder how much control you'll have over how you look at higher levels. Also, the coloring/dye system is pretty weak compared to Warframe.

Haven't seen much of the story so far, but it looks like they put in some effort. The random Adventures are fun so far, but I don't know if their novelty will wear off over time. Other players dropping into the same "world exploration" instance is kind of nice. Number of players per instance seems to be very small, but it's still nice.

It doesn't appear they've changed much from the console version to accommodate KB/M players. IE - it's pretty easy so far. Constantly headshotting enemeies since they move pretty slowly.

Not a fan of a shotgun being an uber weapon or whatever they call that weapon slot.

It is nice that I rarely feel a need to ADS. Shooting from the hip is reasonably accurate and I've only used ADS for additional zoom so far. In many cases it's far easier to get headshots firing from the hip than using ADS.

Nice array of graphics options. I was happy to be able to immediately turn off motion blur and DoF. I was surprised to see an option to turn off chromatic aberration.

Levels take a REALLY long time to load on SSD compared to other games I have. But keep in mind I don't buy many AAA games anymore, so I'm comparing to games like Gears of War 4 (where it also has really long load times, but they are hidden by semi-interactive walking segments).

Overall a positive experience so far.

Regards,
SB

Yup per instance is only like 16 players max I think.

Yes the long load time is due to matchmaking. You also can trigger it in the open world by taking shortcuts using sparrow.

The majority of enemy are slow but there are some that's fast. Actually I can only remember 1, one type of fallen.

You you look at higher level is not too customizable. The coloring also annoying to do.

In console it also have pretty easy headshots but only for PVE (I think, as I have not touched PvP), due to the high amount of auto aim and bullet magnetism.

Scout rifle is the worst offender where it can headshots easily while hip fire or aiming down. It also allows headshots to be done even when you didn't aim on the head, as long as the first shot does aim at the head.
 
Thanks that explains some of it, but even the single player story instances take a LONG time to load.

Regards,
SB

Single story instance still do matchmaking, and the game also can't do background loading while playing video cutscene.

The former is probably due to the mix of public instance in single player mission, but I do not have any idea why the latter happens...
 
Single story instance still do matchmaking, and the game also can't do background loading while playing video cutscene.

Speaking of cutscenes. OMG, the 30 FPS cutscenes look absolutely horrible after 60 FPS gameplay. You go from a smooth nice presentation to a stutter 30 FPS presentation. Bleh. It's been annoying me everytime a cutscene starts up and my framerate immediately drops to 30 FPS.

Regards,
SB
 
Speaking of cutscenes. OMG, the 30 FPS cutscenes look absolutely horrible after 60 FPS gameplay. You go from a smooth nice presentation to a stutter 30 FPS presentation. Bleh. It's been annoying me everytime a cutscene starts up and my framerate immediately drops to 30 FPS.

Regards,
SB

The drop from 4k to 1080p also noticeable.

Heck, on PS4 according to other guardians, the game often goes under 30 fps in the raid
 
Well, played it for a bit yesterday. Game is pretty decent. Graphics are not bad.

Gameplay (movement, shooting, powers, weapon variety, weapon modding, etc.), feel like a poor man's Warframe. I do like that there's an element of variety in wardrobe vanity in types of clothing. But I wonder how much control you'll have over how you look at higher levels. Also, the coloring/dye system is pretty weak compared to Warframe.

Haven't seen much of the story so far, but it looks like they put in some effort. The random Adventures are fun so far, but I don't know if their novelty will wear off over time. Other players dropping into the same "world exploration" instance is kind of nice. Number of players per instance seems to be very small, but it's still nice.
I played it to ”finish” on PC, and have done some futzing about since.
I have to say, the map re-use for missions felt a bit cheap in a AAA game. The third time in a row I went out on the same damn platforms to perform a quest, fighting the same guys I had just cleared out, again, and falling into the sea because the level designer was an avid Mario fan - it got old.
In other places I thought the environments were great especially considering you were barely supposed to go there at all, and you just run past them once.
It would have made sense to allocate resources differently. Less on dancing ads, perhaps? ;-)

It doesn't appear they've changed much from the console version to accommodate KB/M players. IE - it's pretty easy so far. Constantly headshotting enemeies since they move pretty slowly.

Not a fan of a shotgun being an uber weapon or whatever they call that weapon slot.

It is nice that I rarely feel a need to ADS. Shooting from the hip is reasonably accurate and I've only used ADS for additional zoom so far. In many cases it's far easier to get headshots firing from the hip than using ADS.
Isn’t it always thus though for experienced players? And I kinda like shots going where I aim them, I would rather the opponents where quicker. Instead, it’s predominantly horde mode, with bigger hordes coupled with bullet sponges for the most difficult fights. (Salmon run for splatoon players.:))
The shooting feels good. It doesn’t manage to cover up the flat sameyness of what you actually do. You really have to be addicted to loot drops and shooting to stay with the game IMO.
Nice array of graphics options. I was happy to be able to immediately turn off motion blur and DoF. I was surprised to see an option to turn off chromatic aberration.
Yup, very appreciated. Turned all the photographic abberation stuff off from the get go.

Levels take a REALLY long time to load on SSD compared to other games I have. But keep in mind I don't buy many AAA games anymore, so I'm comparing to games like Gears of War 4 (where it also has really long load times, but they are hidden by semi-interactive walking segments).

Overall a positive experience so far.
Hard to tell how much the animations cause waiting on faster storage system. I run on SSD, and I concur - load times are strangely long.

This was my first foray into Destiny, I had to check what the fuss was all about. I still can’t really see why this is popular in a world that has other accessible shooters. I guess the loot drops? But they felt pretty bland OTOH.

So I’ve tried it, and I will probably revisit it to shoot some cannonfodder but I’m not really looking forward to it much. And if I delete it to make space on my tiny 512GB SSD, it may never get reinstalled.
 
The majority of enemy are slow but there are some that's fast. Actually I can only remember 1, one type of fallen.
There are the dogs and the thralls that rush you, and a couple more that are fast and occasionally move erratically. You have the feeling that the group, if large would be on top of you, but that doesn’t really happen so easily.
So yeah, it is shooting gallery more than being rushed typically, unless there are melee opponents or very many.
Which, if the shooting is good, is a perfectly pleasant experience!

I did what I typically do when I feel finished with a grind-til-your-teeth-fall-out game, I rolled another character class instead to see how it played. Well, throughout the campaign, exactly the same. Gameplay is nigh-on identical, no class specific quests, never mind areas, nothing other than a new set of clothes. I’m actually rather OK with that, but it reinforces the feeling of a game that is surprisingly thin on content. DLC anyone?

First person shooter meets Diablo. But apart from pure triggerpulling, it fails to satisfy. It doesn’t offer the expasive worlds and content of other MMOs, the scenarios play more akin to a corridor shooter, (married to an insta-death platformer). It doesn’t offer the uniqueness and variety of the loot as examplified by Diablo or the MMOs, nor anywhere near the variety in how you go about your business of killing baddies. Nor does it offer the specialization of classes that some hero shooters or team based shooters do. (Which I generally feel is a good thing in pvp though.)

”Thin” is the best word I find to describe it. Surprising given the resources at hand. But a game you can return to for some mindless killing, with the slow sense of progression that a loot grinder gives stacked on top. I can see the appeal of the general concept, but the questionmarks are many.
 
Last edited:
Destiny lost all character and personality going from D1 to D2. There is no style or panache or to be specific, no Hero moments to be had in Destiny 2 whereas Destiny 1 was all about having hero moments every 15 minutes. The thrill of saving the day, turning the tide, bringing about a turnaround in both PvE and PvP were the real draw of being a "legend" or guardian in D1, it is completely absent in D2. You, as a character, have nothing of note that you can do that makes you a Hero of the day.
 
played the PC version for three days and damn it is so much better than th eps4 version of the game ! I am so suprised to be honest.
Now I really want to move over to PC going forward, but turns out the the very armour set that I love on my Titan on th eps4 is a PS4 exclusive :-/ for untill next year end ! What a shitty situation .....and now I remember Hawkmoon, my very best wepaon of D1 was exclusive to playstation for forever ! HOly shit this is screwed up !
 
Yeah I've been playing this casually over the past few days at 4k60 (with the new nvidia driver) and it's incredibly fun so far and looks amazing. The texture work in this game is great.
 
More impressions after getting a chance to play it some more (couldn't play for the past 3 weeks).

The enemy AI is stupid. Like really stupid. What happened? Enemy AI in Halo: Reach was really impressive but Destiny 2 has some really dumb AI.

There's so many times you can just cheese the AI. Whether it is predictable movement patterns (there was one place where I just kept the aiming reticle at the same place and just headshot them as they jumped down off a ledge one after another) or borked pathing (jump to a platform where they developer didn't put any pathing nodes) which causes the enemy to stand around doing nothing.

That second one is especially annoying as you can see the zombie runner guys jumping onto some platforms. So logically they should be able to jump onto the platform I'm standing on. But they can't. So they just stand around with their thumbs up their butt.

Bosses are content to just stand back and let you shoot them with impunity. Sure you have to dodge into cover, but they almost never rush you and if by chance they do, you can just go to a place they can't path to.

I don't know what happened, but this is certainly not the AI and pathing I expected from a company that did the Halo series.

It's still a decently fun romp, but it's now on the level of a COD or Battlefield. Easily exploitable enemy AI. I expected so much more from the company that did Halo: Reach.

Regards,
SB
 
Well. playing non stop ever since I got it for PC , this game shines at 60 fps and after opening up the FOV completely. Cant go back to ps4 now.
Game is super fun, hoping it gets the Destiny 1 style gear and guns again cos its all super fun to me except that there is no really awesome goal to it all. Also, strikes, my favourite activity from all 3 years of D1 has no existenc ehere. I guess public events have taken over everything PvE. Hoping for more balance there going forward.
I was feeling "done" on th eps4 but oh boy the PC versions superb implementation and tweaked guns has made me smitten again :love:
 
More impressions after getting a chance to play it some more (couldn't play for the past 3 weeks).

The enemy AI is stupid. Like really stupid. What happened? Enemy AI in Halo: Reach was really impressive but Destiny 2 has some really dumb AI.

There's so many times you can just cheese the AI. Whether it is predictable movement patterns (there was one place where I just kept the aiming reticle at the same place and just headshot them as they jumped down off a ledge one after another) or borked pathing (jump to a platform where they developer didn't put any pathing nodes) which causes the enemy to stand around doing nothing.

That second one is especially annoying as you can see the zombie runner guys jumping onto some platforms. So logically they should be able to jump onto the platform I'm standing on. But they can't. So they just stand around with their thumbs up their butt.

Bosses are content to just stand back and let you shoot them with impunity. Sure you have to dodge into cover, but they almost never rush you and if by chance they do, you can just go to a place they can't path to.

I don't know what happened, but this is certainly not the AI and pathing I expected from a company that did the Halo series.

It's still a decently fun romp, but it's now on the level of a COD or Battlefield. Easily exploitable enemy AI. I expected so much more from the company that did Halo: Reach.

Regards,
SB

I was thinking the same thing actually, big drop in AI pathing and unpredictability in comparison to the Halo series. Made me appreciate Halo even more :)

But I am still having fun with the game, and it is drop dead gorgeous at 4k and runs great.
 
The AI does feel dumbed down in D2 no doubt, not just compared to Halo but even when compared to D1 it is less aggressive. One can easily find fallen or hive just standing without reaction in D2......I am guessing its all to make it less challenging and more open to casuals as compared to D1 which was about challenge. Making the game easier is a theme one can see in every aspect going from D1 to 2.
 
Getting a chance to play some more and starting to use the vault to share items between characters. OMG. The inventory system in this game REALLY sucks. There are absolutely no useful sorting options in the vault. Why can't I sort by something as basic as weapon type? Seriously? There's no sort option for weapon type? OK, how about a sort option for level requirement? Oh don't have that either? Grrrrrr.

OK, how about if you just let me sort things myself and put them in the inventory pages I want? Oh wait, you can't even do that? WTF?

And the vault can hold 200 items? With no useable or useful sort options? Who the heck thought that was a good idea? My god, Bungie has deteriorated so much after leaving Microsoft. It's like they left MS and lost all their good developers or something. Ugh.

Regards,
SB
 
Getting a chance to play some more and starting to use the vault to share items between characters. OMG. The inventory system in this game REALLY sucks. There are absolutely no useful sorting options in the vault. Why can't I sort by something as basic as weapon type? Seriously? There's no sort option for weapon type? OK, how about a sort option for level requirement? Oh don't have that either? Grrrrrr.

OK, how about if you just let me sort things myself and put them in the inventory pages I want? Oh wait, you can't even do that? WTF?

And the vault can hold 200 items? With no useable or useful sort options? Who the heck thought that was a good idea? My god, Bungie has deteriorated so much after leaving Microsoft. It's like they left MS and lost all their good developers or something. Ugh.

Regards,
SB

That's why people use the 3rd party apps. DIM and Ishtar commander are good
 
The AI does feel dumbed down in D2 no doubt, not just compared to Halo but even when compared to D1 it is less aggressive. One can easily find fallen or hive just standing without reaction in D2......I am guessing its all to make it less challenging and more open to casuals as compared to D1 which was about challenge. Making the game easier is a theme one can see in every aspect going from D1 to 2.

In D2, normal enemy are dumbed down. Special enemy still as smart as D1. Still not as smart as halo tho
 
Getting a chance to play some more and starting to use the vault to share items between characters. OMG. The inventory system in this game REALLY sucks. There are absolutely no useful sorting options in the vault. Why can't I sort by something as basic as weapon type? Seriously? There's no sort option for weapon type? OK, how about a sort option for level requirement? Oh don't have that either? Grrrrrr.

OK, how about if you just let me sort things myself and put them in the inventory pages I want? Oh wait, you can't even do that? WTF?

And the vault can hold 200 items? With no useable or useful sort options? Who the heck thought that was a good idea? My god, Bungie has deteriorated so much after leaving Microsoft. It's like they left MS and lost all their good developers or something. Ugh.

Regards,
SB
It seems dumbing down was a constant theme of the D2 project for them. We had atleast basic sorting of gear and weapons in D1 . Even that is gone in D2 -_- go figure !


Sent from my SM-N920G using Tapatalk
 
Back
Top