A series of new locations on Earth, Titan, Nessus and Io replace the locales from the Destiny 1 era, and are mostly huge improvements. The open areas may not necessarily be bigger but are filled to the brim with more geometry, exploration, and activities. Returning activities like Public Events have been revamped to offer more engaging encounters, and new activities like Adventures allow players to dig deeper into the lore of the world. New Faction Leaders populate each destination, but they feel lonely and out of place. Exploring the open areas still feels too empty as the player count has not been increased, nor are there any other NPCs to interact with. Faction Leaders are a great start, but it’s disappointing that there isn’t more to the open areas other than to mine Lost Sectors and Public Events, walk up to a flag to initiate an Adventure or kill infinitely respawning enemies.

Looking back at the original beta for vanilla Destiny, there was a tremendous amount to do and see, even some leveling involved. The Destiny 2 beta feels like Bungie is keeping their cards close to the chest because anything that could rock the boat might just tip it over. Destiny is successful, but it comes with a reputation, and scuffing up that reputation in anyway could make or break sales numbers once September rolls around. The beta gives enough of itself to put players at ease while also remaining the carrot and the stick. For a Destiny fan, it’s easy enough to digest; take everything learned from Destiny and apply that to this beta, it’s a guaranteed good time. For those who might be making their way back though, this might look more like a shooter than the online multiplayer game Bungie promised. While I can only speculate as to why the amount of content was significantly trimmed down, it’s probably for good reason or it’s just actually a beta.

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.

Destiny 2 astounds with its fantastic art direction, presenting worlds that are bigger and more detailed. 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.

Destiny 2 is what Destiny should have been, but it’s not what a sequel should have been. That isn’t to say it isn’t fun; in fact, the world of Destiny has never been more entertaining. Destiny 2 successfully adds plenty of quality of life improvements that make the game less of a grind. An in-game map, Faction Leaders and Public Event tracking make the game more rewarding. An actual campaign, a good amount of Strikes, the Crucible and a plethora of side activities ensure that Destiny 2 will remain in your console’s disc-drive for a long time. In other aspects, however, Destiny 2 feels more of an expansion than it does a sequel. The lack of new enemies is extremely disappointing, which means another few years of fighting enemies we’ve already fought for the past three. While the new worlds offer more spectacle and detail than anything in the Destiny 1 era, they still feel empty without NPCs or an increase in the player count. Then, of course, there are the microtransactions, which gate the franchise’s best customization option behind either a paywall or, if you don’t want to pay, excessive grinding for Bright Engrams. Still, Destiny 2 is fun. It may not be the huge sequel that initial leaks made it out to be, but it’s still more Destiny, and this time it’s far more refined and rewarding.

Shaders, ships and sparrows, which could all be obtained as rewards in the Destiny 1 era, are tied to Destiny 2’s microtransaction system. Sure, common and rare shaders can be found be exploring the different worlds, but the most desirable shaders are all locked behind microtransactions and are now single use. It’s cool that shaders can now be individually placed on each piece of armor or weapon, but turning them into one-time consumables tied to microtransactions is terrible. Swapping shaders in and out in Destiny 1 was a fun piece of customization, but Destiny 2 strips that away.

It’s surprisingly fun figuring out how to trigger the Heroic Public Events, and the rewards are well worth the effort. Whether you lose, win a basic Public Event, or triumph in a Heroic Public Event, Destiny 2 Bazaar 2 always makes sure to reward you.

There are a total of eight maps (nine if you’re playing on PS4), and five game modes. Supremacy, Clash, and Control are part of the Quickplay option, and new modes Countdown and Survival are part of Competitive. Unfortunately, there is no option to select the game mode you want once you select Quickplay or Competitive. If you really want to play Control, you have to hope that the game's matchmaking doesn't randomly throw you into Supremacy or Clash.