Jumping in, the beta opens with a great start, showcasing the opening mission which immediately wraps up a story arc for old players and wipes the slate clean for new players. It’s a guaranteed win-win. Unless you’re a guardian, that is, then it’s a significant loss. For a mission showcase, this is an excellent example; this story mission had more feeling in it than all of my time spent with my guardian. Characters are interacting with you. Mysteries as to where other characters went are easy to spot in the environment and it all around creates a sense of awe. Where is Eris Morn? Her glowing green jar half buried in ruble where she once stood. Or the cleaning bot that maintains its programming, casually sweeping up the blood of dead Cabal while the Tower is literally on fire in every other regard. Seeing some of the most famous guardians in action, working with you. Entering a hallway and seeing the very people Guardians are supposedly protecting, scared, huddling together as their home is taken away. Destiny 2 wants to hit with impact, and it does.

The most significant aspect of Destiny 2’s campaign is that it has an actual campaign. After Destiny and Rise of Iron’s cookie-cutter missions, it’s nice to have something with more variety and substance than "bad guy over there, go kill it." That’s not saying Destiny 2’s campaign is anything deep. Characters jump in and out of the campaign quickly as the story moves you from world-to-world. While the quick pacing keeps things moving, it never slows down enough to create any connections between the player and the world. Worst yet is the player’s Guardian who, in Destiny 2, is relegated to a silent protagonist. Ghost ends up speaking the entire time for the player and comes off as annoying. The current set up with the Ghost quickly becomes grating, and even more annoying when other characters point out your silence. This was purposefully done so that players can become invested in their Guardian, but in execution comes off as cartoonish.

The dreaded public events from Destiny have gone from being the most boring things to do in the original game, to bring some of the most exciting activities in Destiny 2. Easier to find and participate in, players can now locate and fast travel to them via the in-game map. There’s no more need to use a third-party website anymore.

As for the Crucible, it seems to be an uneven blending of old and new, and like any good shooter, will probably need a few matches under its belt to see where it stands. I was grouped with teams that either know shooters or know Destiny the first few matches tackled. My team dominating match after match, while hapless players threw themselves at our Guardian-trained reflexes. It almost didn’t seem fair, probably because the other teams weren’t making use of their powers and treating the Crucible like any other shooter. Jumping in on day two, however, was completely different. Being on the receiving end of the stick was just not fun. My team wandering off to play "team deathmatch" instead of the actual objective. At this point, it’s confusing when other players don’t know mechanics. Most games use the same objective-based gameplay with personal slight variations, but to see my team run to the meat grinder, completely away from the very thing we were supposed to be protecting, was disheartening. I had to quit while I was ahead. Not because the other players were bad, they just didn’t seem to care.

Love it or hate it, Destiny is addicting. It has some of the best first person shooting mechanics available, and while the campaign structure is limited, its drive for loot is exciting. Unfortunately, if players ignore the Raids all together they will be left with an unfortunate experience that’s marred by a virtually non-existent plot. Regardless, Destiny 2 Void Hunter is a fun game to play with friends, having you dig through hours of dungeons and lengthy strikes. There’s a lot for Bungie to do (an actual story would be nice, more varied locations for missions and less repetitive mission tasks), but they have established something to build off of that will hopefully be expanded upon in future iterations.

Destiny 2 astounds with its fantastic art direction, presenting worlds that are bigger and more detailed, and it’s taken up a notch on PC. The European Dead Zone and Nessus, in particular, are meticulously crafted worlds filled with wild vegetation, towering trees, and flowing rivers. Effects, lighting, and animation work are also top-notch, helping to make the world of Destiny feel like a real place. The writing and voice acting is mostly okay. There are still some cheesy lines, but there’s nothing as wacky as, "that wizard came from the moon." While the majority of voice actors deliver fine performances, it’s Joy Osmanski’s Failsafe that ultimately steals the show. With excellent comedic timing, Osmanski delivers the best quips of the game and makes Nessus the most fun location to visit.