So the PC version came out last week and I might have played it a tiny bit too much over this weekend (managed to get my main from 7/64 to 20/204, and then level
another character from scratch to 20/204) but I've been having a ton of fun with it. Probably the best FPS I've played in years.
Not that it's flawless, of course. Bungie's shooters are traditionally floaty and slidey and this is no exception. Sliding off of ledges is shockingly easy and climbing anything is a chore. Fortunately, there's nowhere near the borderline egregious level of platforming from The Taken King. It also helps that, since this is a PC version, I have full range of motion at the start of jumps rather than having to slide my thumb over to hit X. It's also possible that they might have tightened it up again, but I still find the mechanic itself to be a bit wonky, especially the fact that you tend to literally bounce off of solid walls.
Yeah, it's weird.
There's also supposed to be a ledge grab mechanic, but I find it fickle at best. You do get a feel for the in-air movement in the game after a while, but it never feels as intuitive as, say, Quake 3 (which I consider to be the golden standard in FPS movement).
The new weapons layout caused me to raise an eyebrow at first, but I generally like it. Rather than having two slots with distinct weapon types, Bungie dedicated one slot to kinetic weapons (strong against unshielded enemies) and one to energy weapons (strong against shields) and made it so that all normal weapon types are available in each slot. So, yeah, now you can walk around with two hand cannons. Sweet.
Power weapons have also changed significantly. In the first Destiny there were only machineguns and rocket launchers. In Destiny 2, the range of power weapons has been expanded pretty dramatically. Several of the more situational weapons in Destiny have been reassigned to power weapons, such as sniper rifles, fusion rifles, and shotguns. In addition to that, other types have been added, such as grenade launchers. This makes those weapons feel far more balanced and worthwhile. Before, sniper rifles had to be balanced alongside scout rifles (and, honestly, having both felt somewhat redundant in many ways!). Now they have the freedom to make sniper rifles powerful weapons with limited ammo. Definitely a positive change.
Much of the original's extreme levels grindiness has been polished away. Subclasses can now be leveled fairly quickly, and the choices within each subclass have been stripped down to the essentials. I've played my hunter in the original game for a decent amount of time (I'd say at least 100 hours) and never fully unlocked a single subclass. I've played the second game for maybe 24 hours so far and can fully complete three subclasses, between the hunter and warlock, and that's without grinding out upgrade points (which involves doing actual scripted adventures, not playing through the same levels over and over again).
The story is presented far better, with the primary storyline being available in-game through cutscenes and voice acting rather than being trickled down to the player in grimoire cards. There are also some objects that you can find and scan in the world, as well as in items and such, that give you additional lore. It's nice to be able to actually get that information within the game rather than in their mobile app or on Reddit.
The microtransactions are a bit more heavy handed than I would have liked. They conveniently push you toward the Eververse vendor multiple times in order to give you level up rewards and such, and the fact that shaders are single-use is just...yuck. It's such a shame, as the shader system itself in Destiny 2 is much richer than the first (the first game only let you apply a shader to your entire armor set, this one lets you apply it to individual pieces of gear, including armor, your Ghost, your ship, and your sparrow).
Oh, speaking of sparrows. I miss having one in mid-game. ;_; You don't get it until you've beaten the campaign. Ugh.
So, anyone else here following their destiny?