A
lmost immediately
after finishing the
story in Destiny 2, I
uninstalled it. I saw
the endgame unravel
before me – a seemingly endless list
of dull chores – and decided I’d had
my fill. I got a solid 25 hours out of
it, and that felt like enough.
Thing is, I play Destiny solo. I’ve
never done a raid and I probably
never will. To me it’s a singleplayer
FPS that I just happen to share with
other players. Taking part in those
cooperative world events is about as
social as the experience gets for me,
and that’s plenty.
But almost exactly a year later, I’m
back. The recent Forsaken expansion
was on sale, which now comes
bundled with previous expansions
Curse of Osiris and Warmind. And
feeling the urge to play a shooter, I
decided to dip back into Bungie’s
world of preposterous space wizards
and impossibly lavish skyboxes.
And, well, I really like Destiny 2. It
can get repetitive at times and the
story is often a mess of impenetrable
sci-fi jargon, but it’s such a fun, tight
shooter. Floating around as a
Warlock, firing lightning bolts and
hurling cluster grenades, is
immensely satisfying. Doubly so
because of the variety of weapons
and enemy types.
It is strange returning to a game
after a year. Everything that was once
muscle memory feels alien and
confusing. It took me a while to
remember what each of my
Warlock’s abilities did, and how to
deal with certain enemies. But
thankfully Destiny 2 isn’t that
complicated and I slipped back into
my old routines fairly quickly.
I completed Osiris (fine) and
Warmind (better), and now I’m about
to start Forsaken. It’s an interesting
way to play the game; thinking of it as
a solo shooter rather than a sort-of-“Preposterous space wizards and
impossibly lavish skyboxes”
MMO. I’m sure it’s a hell of a lot
more fun with a co-op fireteam, but
I’m glad Bungie considered solo
players and adjusted the difficulty.
I don’t care about the Crucible,
reputation rewards, exotic loot, or
any of the other stuff designed to
keep you playing. I’m here for the
enjoyable nonsense of the story, the
environments, and the PvE.LONE WOLF
The world is one of the main things
that keeps me playing. Bungie’s artists
are stupidly talented, presenting a
future vision of the solar system that
is dramatic, colourful, and enigmatic.
I love the moments when you
explore the ruins of the old world,
and the sheer scale of some of the
scenery you encounter is impressive.
Games like Destiny are carefully
designed to hook you in and keep you
flapping around on the line until the
next wave of content. But it’s totally
possible to resist this aspect of the
game and still have fun with it. When
I’m finished Forsaken, I’ll be
uninstalling it again.
The game will doubtless be
screaming at me to keep playing to
complete patrols, strikes and raids.
But I’ll leave satisfied that I enjoyed
20 more hours of quality shooting.ANDY KELLY
THIS MONTH
Reunited with his poor,
neglected Warlock.
ALSO PLAYED
Watch Dogs 2After a year away, I still love playing DESTINY 2 solo
I LOVE THE MOMENTS
WHEN YOU EXPLORE THE
RUINS OF THE OLD WORLDTHEGAMESWELOVERIGHT NOW
NOW PLAYING
What Mercury looked like
before the Vex.This giant robot might look
scary, but it’s a pushover.