GET READY TO EXPLORE IN DESTINY 2 GUARDIANS
Destiny was riddled with a slew of complaints from the community, we all know this. Then Bungie fixed some things and we have the game we all wanted, for the most part. Fast forward a few years laters: Destiny is still successful and Bungie announces Destiny 2. Everyone is a little more cautious the second time around. I have talked to many players, and they all, to some degree, said that they will wait to see how the initial game is received before dropping money on the new first person shooter.
I do not blame them for keeping their wallets safe in the beginning, however, there is something that Destiny 2 will improve on that has me super excited to get my hands on it. That is the new way Bungie will handle Patrols. Yes instead of dropping in, doing mundane side quests and public events, you will have lots of interesting things to do. Let’s dig in.
The first thing that you can do is something called Adventures. Adventures are these side quests that players can do to reveal tidbits of lore behind the destination they are in. These missions don’t seem to stray too far away from the original quests in Destiny, but I promise it gets better.
The next thing you can do are the public events themselves. The “re-imagined” public events seem to be new in the sense that they rely heavily on teamwork to complete. Now we seem to be trending in the “This looks the same” direction but there are more to these public events than at first glance. In IGN’s First video showcasing the new Patrol system Rob Engeln, Rituals and Programming Lead for Bungie, talks about what they wanted to do for public events and outlines some of the new Patrol things in Destiny 2.
I really enjoyed the Court of Oryx and running through those to get the sweet loot with random players. Now having that type of mission in the public events in every destination you travel to? That sounds really cool, and the addition of the heroic trigger to get even harder enemies and better loot is just icing on the cake. It really seems that they are giving the public events some meat to them. Making them more involved and fun.
(Looking for a cool gun for Destiny 2? Check out the Sunshot hand cannon. It’s great).
Next, we have something called Flashpoint. Flashpoint is a weekly event that takes place in a specific destination for Destiny players to complete. On the surface, these weekly events just seem like another public event, but there is more with these Flashpoint events. Each week you can buy treasure maps that lead you to the designated area that week letting uncover more loot. While you are running through these events for the weekly Flashpoint, you can also trigger bigger, hidden bosses. If eliminated, these bosses give you EVEN BETTER loot. It sounds as though you have lots of routes to acquire all the gear you want.
Now onto my favorite new thing about the new Patrols, Lost Sectors. Lost Sectors are areas within Destiny 2 that are tucked away and require players to search for an entrance. Once you find the entrance you then have to navigate your way, correctly I might add, to the lost zone. These areas house bosses you can take down, all to get that sweet loot. But the interesting part about Lost Sectors is that you have to find them, as they are scattered throughout all the different destinations. Once you find the area, marked with some kind of symbol, you then have to find the entrance that can require “some gameplay” to get to.
Having to kind of work for this, really excites me, because in Destiny I feel like they missed an opportunity with the exploration side of the game. This sounds like it could remedy that, and really make the player feel as though they are discovering and uncovering things in the game. Some of these lost areas seem to be quite large in scale and how intense the encounter can be. The idea of having lost areas that require you to find them, find your way to the area then fight your way through to a boss that holds that loot chest? I AM IN.
The last thing we have is World Quests. World Quests are larger Adventures style quests that reveal large bites of the story to the player. The cool thing about World Quests is that they “open up after the campaign”, giving you the incentive to go back. I wanted a reason to go back to the different places in Destiny, alas there was not too much there. But this seems like a good way, alongside the other new events, to revisit all the areas.
All in all these new additions to just the Patrol aspect of the game is very enticing. I have been a Destiny fan since the beginning, but I do understand the frustration with the first game. I feel as though different DLCs have vastly improved Destiny for the better. Seeing those changes and improvements carry over to Destiny 2, and seeing these new additions get me amped to play. I am very interested to see how Bungie shapes and sets up a new story for this game. But so far Destiny 2 looks like it’s going in the right direction.
