[Impressions] Destiny 2: Warmind

Throughout this article keep in mind my impressions are written in the perspective of a solo casual PVE player, that is, someone that plays solo and only goes as far as playing in matchmade strikes or a couple of crucible matches to test the waters.

Destiny 2 Warmind is the second expansion to the game and comes at a critical time to the game. After a disappointing first expansion in December, since then Bungie has been working on the game with quality of life updates. For someone like me that hasn’t touched the game since that first expansion, right now the game feels way faster, dynamic and, most importantly, my character feels strong.

Putting the rest of the content to the side, the gameplay truly feels as good as it should have always been from the start. Once again, using your super abilities is more frequent and when you do have the option to use them you feel much more superior than whatever stands in your way. Exotics are the other major point to the improved gameplay. If before exotics were just another tier of weapons that were slightly harder to obtain, with a small number of standouts like Merciless and the Wardcliff Coil, now there’s a lot more options that actually make you think twice why you don’t have an exotic weapon equipped. The likes of Sunshot and Graviton Lance are now superb and make gameplay feel fun and, as it should, provide those sought power fantasies. Seriously, try killing a horde of Thralls with Sunshot and not feel good as you watch them all explode!

Moving on to the actual content, let’s start with the story. While playing through the story remains engaging thanks to both Destiny 2's solid gunplay and overall gameplay, the story is, okay, I guess. It introduces a pretty cool new character, Anna Bray, and the focus on Rasputin is welcomed, but because of its short two to three hours of runtime it leaves a lot to be desired. The main antagonist is not fleshed out at all and even other rather important enemies are thrown to the side. What especially grinds my gears is that for such a powerful being that we are facing, it goes down fairly easily, kind of as a convenience to bring closure to the campaign.

Once the story ends you're back to the gameplay loop of acquiring power. Thankfully, in the aftermath of completing the campaign you still have a sense of freshness and eagerness to explore the new destination, Mars, and learn about the new mechanics and items. For me, this truly was a standout for the expansion because it almost felt like the Dreadnaught from Destiny: The Taken King. There are plenty of collectables scattered around the map, that, along with some questlines, lead to new (exotic) weapons and gear. But it is not just collectables, there is actually that feeling of “oh what is this here” and you feel curious to learn more about that, so you keep playing in hopes of finding out what that was and how it can help kill more aliens.

Still on the topic of gameplay, and specifically Mars, there’s also the addition of the Valkyrie Protocol and Escalation Protocol. The first is a javelin weapon that simply destroys everything in your way. The catch though is that it has limited ammunition and can only be found during Escalation Protocol. This is a public event that can be activated at any moment from pretty much anywhere on the map and is intended to be an endgame aspect. The more waves you clear, the stronger the enemies will be. Thankfully, because this is a public event-ish activity, anyone in your area can join in. Though be warned this is pretty challenging and the difficulty ramps up quickly.

Unfortunately, for me as a solo player, I will eventually hit a wall of content where I can't complete activities either because I need to be part of a fireteam or because I'm not strong enough due to the fact I can't obtain gear without completing group activities. On top of it, because of the game as a service model, segmenting quests in weekly caps feels bad because it requires me to log back into the game week after week, when I want and actually can play the game right now. Maybe I am pampered at the moment because I've been playing only single players lately, but to have to wait for content to unlock doesn't suit well with me.

Overall, playing Destiny 2 right now feels really good. The gunplay and gameplay in general feel pretty much as good as it did back in Destiny 1, with exotics feeling unique and worthy of being part of your inventory. However, content-wise while it has content to last for a bit, a lot of time seems like it’s padding for the context of a game as a service rather than actual content for a video game. Ultimately, if I had to sum it in a single phrase, it feels like Destiny 2 is still trying to catch up to the legacy of the first game instead of using these first two expansions to improve and expand the base game. At least gameplay-wise it seems like the game is finally in a good place.

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