Reaction Shot: Destiny 2 Gameplay Reveal

Bungie has just finished their Destiny 2 "gameplay" reveal on Twitch, and they've managed to cram a lot of information into a one hour presentation.  Some of it is mildly interesting.  Some of it is earth-shattering.  Some of it is . . .problematic.

The New Old-Fashioned Way

Character classes in Destiny 2 will still be Hunters, Titans, and Warlocks.  That much has not changed.  What Bungie was strangely cagey about was the sub-classes, and whether the existing sub-classes will still be around or whether they've been mutated or cut completely.  They did show off what looks like evolutions of existing sub-classes.  The Warlock's Sunsinger appears to have changed into the Dawnblade, a sword swinging (and throwing) offensive class.  Those who've regularly carried the Bolt Caster exotic sword in Destiny should feel right at home with this particular sub-class.  The Titan Sentinel sub-class also looks like an evolution, this time from the Defender, but the clips shown suggest that the Defender's mechanics are still around but in a different sub-class.  The Sentinel has a smaller target shield which can be thrown at enemies, giving players the chance to live out their fantasies of Captain America and Tron in the same game.  The Hunter Arcstriker feels like an evolution of the Bladedancer, swapping out a knife for a staff, but far more acrobatic and not quite as "up close and personal" as that sub-class normally plays out.

Players will still have three weapon slots, but they appear to have been renamed into Kinetic, Energy, and Power.  It seems that the distinction between Kinetic and Energy (at least at the moment) is superficial, since the player can put weapons in each slot and simply swap between them.  This is distinctly different from the Primary/Special nomenclature and mechanics are existing at the moment.  There is a possibility (based solely on the HUD markings) that loading a weapon into the Energy slot gives it a energy damage modifier.  If that is the case, then players could theoretically be running around with Kinetic shotguns and Energy auto rifles, instead of having to hunt down specific Primary weapons that have energy damage attributes like Necrochasm.  The Power slot seems to replace Heavy weapons while keeping them functionally similar.  There's a mention that weapons like sniper rifles will be going into this slot, which may or may not be a good idea.  It does appear that they've added weapons such as grenade launchers and rotary cannon (miniguns) to the arsenal, so that at least is one obvious improvement.

The Map And The Territory

The presentation made some big announcements about the new playable areas in the game.  Players will get to explore the European Dead Zone (fans of the Crucible map "Widow's Court" will recognize this one), the asteroid Nessus, the Jovian moon of Io, and the Saturnine moon of Titan.  There was no mention of existing areas being kept around, so this might be the opening slate for this game.  Areas like The Reef and Felwinter Peak being cut, either temporarily or permanently, is potentially questionable.

If those areas and their related activities are gone, however, Bungie does appear to be making up for their loss with some interesting replacements.  Patrol activities and Public Events are still around, of course.  Joining those efforts are Adventures and Lost Sectors.  Adventures can come about from NPCs that the player runs into while exploring, getting quests (potentially whole quest chains) and accomplishing goals for that NPC.  Lost Sectors may be the most interesting development.  Described as dungeons for players, there will be a cache of items for the player to claim and a boss they will need to defeat in order to get the key.  It sounds almost like a solo player version of a Strike, which could be interesting for those who hate to group up with randoms.

People Who Need People

Probably the single biggest complaint about Destiny is how much of a tremendous hindrance it is to get groups together, either for a one-off run of a Nightfall strike or getting a regular raid group assembled.  Anybody who has tried putting together a clan for Destiny knows how much of a pain in the ass it is to work with Bungie's web site.  It appears that Bungie finally decided to listen only after their metrics showed half the player base had never run a raid or done something like Trials of Osiris.  Destiny 2 will correct this problem and open up matchmaking for all activities.  Additionally, clan creation and management tools will be built into the game, along with progression and rewards for clan members.  Central to this new functionality is the idea of "guided games."  For those clans that demonstrate open and welcoming behavior towards "n00bs," solo players can join them for an activity if a slot happens to be open.  In theory, if the clan and the solo player mesh well together, the solo player could be invited to join the clan.

In a related vein, the Crucible is undergoing some pretty drastic revisions.  While getting a new game mode called Countdown, teams are now being set and locked at 4v4 across all game modes.  How this will affect game modes like Rift, Clash, and Combined Arms (assuming they come over into the new game) has not been explained as of yet.

PC Love And Hate

PC gamers were, understandably, annoyed that Bungie didn't release Destiny on PC.  From its initial announcement, it has been understood that Destiny 2 would be available on PC, hopefully quelling any disquiet that market segment might feel.  However, it's possible that PC gamers may have an all new reason to be unhappy.  According to the announcement today, Destiny 2 will be exclusively released through Battle.net.  From a logistical standpoint, it's not necessarily a bad idea per se, since Blizzard is part of Activision and the infrastructure is already in place as a distribution platform.  Not every player enjoys Battle.net, however.  Indeed, if this is Activision's challenge to Steam and EA's Origin, it's one that the suits are probably going to be happier with than the player base.

We'll see how things go when Destiny 2's beta goes live over the summer.  There's a lot that's been left unsaid, and there's a long time between now and September 8.