A few months ago, Bungie and Activision released their newest hit game, Destiny 2.

As anyone could have guessed, it has been quite a blockbuster game. Bungie has continued to show consistency in making well-acclaimed blockbuster games.

Destiny was released in 2014, and it seemed to reinvent the massively multiplayer online (MMO) genre as we know it. It was one of the first blockbuster MMO first person shooters (FPS). There have been other popular games in this very specific genre, but none with the popularity of Destiny.

Bungie, the creator of Destiny, has been in the game for a long time. They have placed themselves on the top time and time again and shown what they are capable of. Destiny has been a unique project for them in a lot of ways.

They are the original creators of the Halo games, some of the most popular games of all time, and the forefront of the first person shooter genre. Interestingly enough, working on the Halo titles wasn’t as great as you would imagine for the company because the title was owned by Microsoft.

This was frustrating for Bungie because they felt they were not adequately paid and were not given adequate artistic freedom over their games. They wanted to make a game of their own. So they left Halo, selling the license to Microsoft and using the money to fuel the Destiny train.

Activision, the video game publishing giant conglomerate, is their partner in developing and publishing the game. This time Bungie decided against making the same mistake and, instead of selling their souls to massive corporation, made it clear that Destiny is theirs and that they will not be owned either.

Destiny was an excellent game that had many flaws that included repetitiveness and pretty much any criticism that you could make about any MMO game. It lacked originality in the basic formula in many areas and didn’t have a very good story.

Destiny 2 has improved on many of these holes in the original game. The story feels drastically more significant and dire than that of the last game. In the last game, the earth was at risk of dying, but the stakes somehow didn’t seem that high. This was a failure on the part of the storytelling, which was haphazard and totally off.

Destiny 2 begins with [SPOILER ALERT] a space fleet invading earth and taking over the traveler, the sole protector of earth, and stripping all the guardians of their power. Your character is kicked to the ground from orbit before fumbling injured around the planet as you watch the space fleet take over earth.

That is some dark stuff in comparison to the original Destiny. In Destiny 2, we see a stark difference in the depth of the storytelling, which is much more characteristic of Bungie’s caliber. Destiny 2’s gameplay is nearly flawless and effortlessly smooth. The graphics are absolutely amazing and really show off the capability of our current consoles in a beautiful, slightly cartoonish rendering of its sci-fi world.

Destiny 2 seems to be as repetitive as its predecessor. Some of the missions are not so inventive and harken back to the grind of original Destiny, but this comes with the territory of making an MMO. MMOs are inherently repetitive by nature.

I, for one, don’t mind a grind and I think it is more of a preference than anything. So if you don’t want to grind, Destiny probably isn’t for you.

Another criticism of Destiny as well as the sequel is that they are very DLC-centric. There is a level cap and in order to advance in the game past that you must wait for new content. This also comes with the territory of MMOs.

They all are not games one really finishes, per say; more so, the player keeps playing until they grow tired of the game. So to refresh the gameplay and to aid market shares, the makers come out with add-ons that expand the game in significant ways.

Destiny 2 is a very good game but it is important to keep in mind that if you plan to play it with a strong continuity, you should see the purchasing of $20 and $40 expansions to the game in the coming years.

They will most likely follow the age old formula of coming out with two small expansions costing $20 in the first year, then at the end of year, a revamp expansion that will be much bigger and for $40.

One of the most off putting parts about Destiny 2 is that Bungie could have just expanded the original game rather than coming out with a sequel, but a new $60 game looked more enticing to their wallets.

Despite all of this, Destiny 2 is a very good game made by a very good and celebrated company. Overall, I would give Destiny 2 a solid 8/10. If you liked the first one you will most likely enjoy the second, but if you aren’t looking for a time-consuming game and aren’t willing to pay a pretty penny for it, Destiny 2 is probably not for you.