Bungi single-handedly changed the landscape for first-person shooters in the console market with their first title Halo. They built their foundation on Halo and kept refining their skills within the shooter genre. When they released Destiny back in 2014, the game was praised for its exquisite shooting mechanics and merging of another big genre of gaming, massive multiplayer online (MMO.) However, was criticized for a lackluster single player story and having to do a massive amount of repetition just to get good items in the game. Destiny 2 released on Sept. 2 on PS4 and Xbox One, and Oct. 24 for the PC, is a great improvement from their first Destiny game.

Destiny 2 has fixed a lot from its predecessor. Let’s start with the biggest changes. Destiny 2 now offers a solid campaign. With characters now having personality, a proper antagonist, and a sensible reason for all the shooting. While the campaign isn’t going to blow anyone away, it’s good enough to have a player want to play through it all. The biggest and by far the best change comes from an important change. A less of a grind for powerful gear. (Grinding is lingo for when players have to do a repetitive task an extreme amount of times.)

Destiny 2 acts like a role-playing game. You create a character and play the game to get stronger guns and armor. The stronger your gear is, the stronger you character becomes. The whole point of getting stronger is so that when you’re done with the main campaign, you can participate in end-game content. The original Destiny was notorious for the massive amount of grinding one had to do just to acquire higher level gear. While you will be playing a lot to get stronger gear, you won’t be putting a massive amount of hours in a single task just to get one thing. You’ll put in a massive amount of time to get much more new stronger equipment.

This changes the dynamic of the game drastically. Because you will no longer feel like you’re stuck at the same level, like the original Destiny. The player always feels like they are progressing in Destiny 2. Even if someone plays for an hour.

Aside from these major improvements, Bungie has fixed many small things as well. They have included a better map system that lets you know where and when everything is happening. The pacing of character progression has improved. Finally the end game content has gotten much better from the original Destiny. When you are done with the main campaign, you have plenty of things to do to achieve a higher level. You’ll never truly have nothing to do.

The major fallback I found is that while the end game content kept me busy, there wasn’t really any reason to achieve such a high level. Yes it is fun and you may want to put the hours in to reach the cap. But as of right now, there is only one activity in the game that allows you to take advantage of being at the cap level. Even then, the second issue pops up. Destiny 2 for all that it is worth, is most fun when played with friends.

You can go solo into the game and have a blast. However, playing with friends has major bonuses. You need other people to beat the hardest activity in the game. You need friends to go into an extreme competitive multiplayer mode. Finally you need friends to achieve the best thing, to cut down the grind time. Bottom line, you’re going to need friends.

Aside from those two complaints, Destiny 2 is good fun. A much better game than the original Destiny. Destiny 2 is a game in which fans and new fans will love. That is because developer Bungie listens to their fans. They hit all the right marks by listening.

Final Verdict: 8/10