The most mysterious force anyone has ever discovered, the Vex are a machine race that are beyond ancient. They aren’t even from Destiny’s current universe. Crota, son of Hive God Oryx, accidentally unleashed the Vex into their universe by cutting a hole between dimensions. This unleashed the beings into their universe as they began to understand a method to move between worlds. They are incredibly intelligent and aggressive beings that have ruins within Venus dating back billions of years. They were first found by humans during the Golden Age, and ever since, have been nothing but a thorn in the side of every race.

Assassin’s Creed II, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Mass Effect 2 are some of the greatest sequels of all time, but why? Each of these games had a flawed predecessor that showed great promise, which the developers were able to take and refine into strengths. With Destiny 2, Bungie is looking to achieve something similar. After three years of growing pains throughout the Destiny 1 era, the developer is finally ready to look to the future with a numbered sequel. With an actual campaign, new worlds to explore and an update to the game’s progression systems, is Destiny 2 the sequel fans deserve or is the number at the end warrantless?

Destiny 2 looks substantially better than the original game. Models and textures are more detailed, the worlds are bigger and more varied and the cinematics are top notch CG. It’s shaping up to be a stunning package on PS4 and PC. While the PS4 build we played was running on PS4 Pro, it wasn’t easy to discern any upgrades due to the size of the screen we played on. PC players, on the other hand, are in for a real treat. On PC, we did notice that pop-in was far less severe and it was nice finally getting to play Destiny at 60 frames-per-second. Unfortunately, the console version still runs at 30 frames-per-second.

It was the third week which meant the Gauntlet room was up first; a room I hadn’t encountered yet. The mechanics were explained and I felt good with the ease at which this seemed like it could be done. The Gauntlet room only echoed what the world-firsters had stated; those seeking to guide others through the raid were going to have a hell of a time. A certain party member who also was a seeker wasn’t talking much throughout the two hours spent trying to get coordination down. They kept wandering off, not listening and generally being unhelpful. It ended with them dropping out of the fireteam never to return even with party invites thrown their way. It was time to call it quits. Defeated the third seeker and myself thanked the Clan that had been the guides for their time and parted ways.

[JH]: So, that’s kind of outside the scope of where we have our involvement. We’re super dedicated to story, and the high-level development decisions based on classes or specializations happen amongst other teams. We try our best to have a good narrative wrapper around that decision-making. Our involvement in the PvP is to develop a strong character in Lord Shaxx.

All activities in Destiny 2 can be played cooperatively, but the real test of a Fireteam’s comradery comes in Strikes, which Destiny 2 provides plenty of. There are five Strikes in Destiny 2 (six if you’re on PS4), and each is meticulously crafted to test a Fireteam. They’re far more exciting than the Strikes in vanilla Destiny and dole out some quality loot. Those looking for a challenge and some of the top-of-the-line loot will want to try the Nightfall, however, which is unlocked later in the game.

[JH]: We talk about everything, top-to-bottom, with all our creative partners. The first Destiny had a non-silent protagonist. In Destiny 2, we put an emphasis on the player’s story and we feel that, when it comes to the balance of how much should you talk vs an NPC, it should be more NPC. This isn’t Master Chief or Nathan Drake, this is supposed to be you. We don’t want to be presumptuous about the words we put in your mouth as you’re exploring. Ghost is there to help guide you through the story.

While not able to pull a fireteam together that initial first day, something I’ve managed to do with all other raids in the past, I was content to watch others attempt this beast of a raid. It was exciting to see the first fireteam complete it in just six hours and reassuring. Then talks began to crop up and not the good kind. Here were the best of the best saying that it would take everything in a fireteam's power to pull off this raid. And why? Apparently because it was the most demanding raid out of all Destiny raids. They aren’t wrong.

Most importantly, Homecoming is thematic for getting rid of the old and bringing Destiny 2focus said in a blog post the new. The Tower was a place of excitement and frustration in the first game. Players would have to continuously go back to The Tower constantly and eventually it became a chore. Walking through the destroyed halls you walked through thousands of times is poignant. We’re saying goodbye to The Tower.