Hands On: Destiny 2's Beta Is Familiar Fun on PS4

Destiny promised us a massive multiplayer experience brimming with mystery, adventure, and friends set upon the backdrop of our solar system. What we got was a drip fed experience limited by glass ceilings, turbulent development, and a backdrop of only a handful of planets that all felt worryingly similar. That's not to say Destiny's first endeavour was a failure -- we at Push Square Towers have comfortably clocked up hundreds of hours exploring the aforementioned planets -- it was just an endeavour with some deep rooted issues. This is something developer Bungie is well aware of and is clearly seeking redemption with Destiny 2, paying special attention to the inclusion of a full and cohesive story experience -- one of the most notorious complaints from the previous title. RIP Grimoire Cards. We got a chance to go hands on with Destiny 2's beta content just before its official closed launch, giving us a chance to see for ourselves just how Bungie is working on righting the wrongs of the original game.

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First up is The Crucible, Destiny's player-versus-player experience. The beta offers up two modes on two maps, Countdown played on Midtown and Control on Endless Vale, both displaying the new standard of 4v4. While Destiny fans will recognise the Control format, Countdown is something fresh. Small teams, delayed revives, and a search and destroy-esque style means these games are fast and hard -- they're high intensity but also over in a flash. Of the new material featured in the beta, we reckon this is the weakest offering, with many games ending way too soon, but this conversely highlights how functional the Crucible modes already were in the original foray. If it ain't broke, don't add another mode?

Control still plays great and the new loadout system helps mould your gear to your play style with far less limitations, while the additional class abilities go one step further, giving you an extra answer when you need it and another variable to consider during skirmishes.

Strikes are arguably the best aspects of Destiny, at least after the Raid material. They're experiences that allow Bungie to flex both its story telling and level design muscles at once, and that's no different in Destiny 2. The Inverted Spire strike that's available in the beta is full to the brim of platforming challenges, sprawling vistas, and new foes to gun down -- and it's all capped off with a fancy Vex bullet-sponge boss. It's a challenging strike but inherently no different to experiences found within the original. Ultras (baddies with yellow-coloured health bars) now have their health bars separated into chunks, which often highlight alternate phases but also shows one of the many small tweaks that have been made to improve the player experience; sinking entire rounds into bosses feels a little less futile now that your progress is split into small chunks rather than a seemingly endless bar. 

Another small tweak is that grenades apparently don't recharge half as fast as they used to, meaning you'll likely be relying on a medley of your abilities rather than spamming sticky bombs from behind cover. While it'll probably take some getting used to, gently encouraging players to access all that their class has to offer can't be a bad thing.

The third and final chunk of the closed beta material is the much-talked-about story content. Comprising of the opening segment of the game in which the Cabal attack the Tower and nick The Traveller, the beta's story content is a non-stop thrill ride of stunning environments, grand events, and nostalgia in an almost perfect mix. Popping one of the new (and definitely over-powered) Supers alongside Zavala or watching Ikora smack down a Cabal ship is downright fun for veterans but also undoubtedly cool for new faces, too. The story stuff concludes with your Guardian coming face-to-face with Destiny 2's big baddie who, now that the Darkness has essentially been shelved, takes on the hulking form of Ghual, leader of The Red Legion -- a powerful splinter faction of the Cabal. While the content is crisp and unrelenting, it's certainly not indicative of the long-term experience to be had in Destiny 2 at this point. However, if the rest of the constantly promised character-driven story stuff really is of the same calibre as the opening sequence, then Guardian's will be in for a real treat.

It's certainly far too soon to make lasting judgements on any aspect of Bungie's next big hitter, especially with the game-changing improvements like Guided Games and Clans still being unaccessible. However, what's on offer here looks, plays, and feels impressive, keeping up the notion that Bungie produces some of the tightest shooter experiences available. It's arguably all quite familiar territory, often appearing a bit like a Destiny 1.5 rather than a full-blown sequel, although we'd imagine the stuff that'll really push this out of it's predecessor's shadow is the apparently expansive story content and the long-term support, both in balancing PvP and a promised regular expansion schedule which will hopefully keep us coming back for more.

Will you be playing Destiny 2's beta? Are you looking forward to the full release this September? Feel free to get your hopes up in the comments section below.