Every Wednesday, staff writer Brad Bourque and content manager Hanif Jackson take on a different video game, streaming their victories and embarassing defeats on Facebook live. Not wanting to fall behind on current trends, the pair is taking on Destiny 2 during the closed beta, which began on Tuesday, July 18th.
There are a lot of changes to Destiny 2 from the last game, and not just in the sense of graphical updates and a new story line. There are wide-reaching balance changes to weapons, which will allow players to equip two primary weapons, instead of a primary and secondary, with shotguns and sniper rifles moving to the heavy weapon slot. In Destiny, shotguns dominated the Crucible scene while sniper rifles like Black Spindle kept the best players well equipped to defeat the hardest raid bosses. Ammo is now harder to come by for both, forcing players to make tough choices, and rely more heavily on primary weaponry like rifles and hand cannons.
The story is also a bigger part of the in-game experience this time around. There have always been brief cutscenes and cinematic events in the game, but the longer, more involved story pieces will take center stage during missions and firefights now. That’s a big change from the previous title’s grimoire cards, which provided lore information outside the game.
Patrol missions have also been beefed up, with new secrets to find, and a wider variety of tasks to complete. Add in the fact you don’t have to jump back to orbit to run missions anymore, and the game should feel a lot more seamless than it ever did before. During the beta, players have access to introduction mission, a multiplayer strike, and of course, the PvP Crucible, where they can try their hand at taking down other Guardians.
As always, you can join us here for the live stream and watch it above, or head over the Digital Trends Facebook page to catch the action. Let us know in the chat if you have any questions. We’ll be streaming from 4:00 PM PST to 4:30 or 5:00, with coverage from our TechPop event in New York afterward!