Now Playing: Destiny 2 (Bizarrely Enough)

As a general rule, I'm not into shooters. Even when I do play them, I tend to prefer the ones that are third-person and feature some pretty heavy RPG elements. But, I don't know, as I get older, I feel like I'm becoming more and more open to types of games that I wouldn't have given a second glance in the past. A pretty good example of this is the fact that I played through the Uncharted series last year and that's about as far from my preferred genre as possible. I found myself really enjoying those games and realized that maybe I'd been depriving myself of a lot of games in the mainstream that I might have really had a lot of fun with.

Destiny 2 is another one of those games that I assumed I just wouldn't get into at all. I'm not sure why I thought that would be the case since I like Borderlands just fine and although there are some pretty important differences between the two, they have some obvious similarities. They're both very much RPGs with a strong emphasis on gear and leveling up. Borderlands has more extensive skill trees, but I prefer Destiny 2's more serious atmosphere to the former's cartoonish wackiness.

I think what really sticks out to me about Destiny 2 is that although it's pretty fun to play with others, it works really well as a standalone experience too, and that's not something I always felt was true of Borderlands. The environments are expansive and fun to explore and there are a lot of areas with this level of verticality that I think is interesting. The pathways of Titan require some pretty serious jumping to traverse, for instance. I think I died more to mistimed jumps than actual aliens in that area.

I'm only around level 11 or so in the game so I definitely haven't experienced the full gamut of what it has to offer, but I'm really enjoying the feel of it and I have a desire to keep playing, which is what I've found so surprising. I've been in a mood recently where I want to briefly sample a lot of games, but Destiny just keeps dragging me back in. I'd like to stick it out to the level cap and see how I feel about it at that point. The weapons right now are visceral and satisfying, and even the melee combat seems very effective and usable, which doesn't seem to always be the case in shooters or first person games in general.

I think my thoughts on the game are pretty fragmented because I don't have a lot of context to draw on. I don't play a ton of MMOs and I play very few shooters so it's hard for me to have a vocabulary to describe this kind of game. As of right now, my views on it aren't super nuanced. It feels good and satisfying to play and is in fact pretty relaxing. I could see the game becoming more of a chore once grinding becomes a reality, but if that ever becomes the case, I won't feel bad about dropping it.