It has been a while, again I apologise for my inconsistency, as usual, a lot has happened. I've had major surgery and I've lost my job in the process... yay! But enough of that, onwards and upwards, at least this time off work has given me time to think, reflect and make some great decisions to steer me on the right track for my future career. Bleurgh! enough of that.

Now down to the nitty gritty and the main reason for this post. WARNING if you have not played the Destiny 2 Beta, or you don't want to know until full release, then look away now, because there may be some SPOILERS AHEAD.

The Destiny 2 Beta was released first for those who own a PS4, the Beta officially started for them on 18th July, the Xbox One from the 19th (for those of us who pre-ordered), this was a sort of closed Beta if you like. and then open to all consoles on 21st, with a Beta coming for PC players in August. I hate to be negative, but this is my first gripe. There is a lack of incentive to pre-order if you only get access to the Beta 2-3 days earlier, especially considering your progress is not transferred over, so it's not really getting ahead of anybody else, is it?

 My second gripe is that why do we have to wait until August for a PC Beta? It seems that PC gamers suffer the most, have to wait much longer, and a lot of Betas have been historically disappointing from what I've seen (No Man's Sky) for a prime example. It has been said a lot of it is due to the PC version being on a different platform (battle.net) and graphics need way more work, hence the extra few weeks we have to wait for a PC Beta. To be fair to Bungie it is their first foray into dabbling into the battle.net platform, so maybe we'll let them off a little.

Now, what can you actually do in the Beta? Well up until now it is very, very restricted when compared with the original Destiny Beta. At the moment you can do 4-5 things.

1. The first campaign Mission - Homecoming
2. The Inverted Spire Strike
3. New PvP mode - Countdown (This is basically search and destroy)
4. Control PvP on a new map available in the full game.
5. You could access the new social Space (The Farm) for a limited time on Sunday.

For those of you who remember the Destiny Beta all them moons ago, it is disappointing that there is not a lot to do in Destiny 2, considering there is meant to be a lot more content and a lot more to do in this game according to the devs. In Destiny 1 we were allowed to complete all of the Earth Missions for crying out loud (gripe number 3).

Dominus Ghaul - Red Legion

Let's talk about the first mission, Homecoming. This is certainly more gripping in comparison to the first mission in Destiny 1, there is an attack on the Tower by the 'Red Legion' and the tower is destroyed and is lost, it's no longer home, and no longer the last safest place on Earth. You have to battle your way through the invasion, taking out Cabal forces. You start the Beta as a mid-level character with mid-level gear (Level 20, 200 light), and it is recommended that you are 210 light to take on some of the bosses, and boy does that 10 light make a difference, especially when your guns and grenades feel like your throwing water balloons and golf balls, and not actually inflicting much damage at all. You wouldn't expect to go down on the first mission, but it's very easy to do if you don't watch your back because those enemies are tougher than you think. There has been an introduction into a mini-gun, and a grenade launcher, both of which are underpowered, hopefully, a change they make in the full release of the game. As you continue in the Homecoming mission and look to take back a little control of the Tower, you come across a Mother/control ship controlled by the Red Legion, and you must lower its defences so you can destroy it. Once you have battled your way through all the minions, and a few bosses you come to the last part of the level. Where you have to shoot out three turbines to disable the defence system.

On my first playthrough, this was absolutely impossible, there are four turbines constantly spinning and one hit and you're down, no ifs no buts that is it, get hit and it's game over (well not literally, but you get the gist). On the second and third playthroughs, though I managed to do it both times, without going down once, you don't understand the sense of achievement I feel right now. wow I wanted to kick the s**t out of him there and then, but he'll get his. He boots you over the edge of a cliff, and that's the end of the mission, I wanted more, I want to know how the story progresses, but I'll have to wait until 6th September grrrr. This is just a brief explanation of the mission, I've purposefully left out some awesome bits, so you'll have to see for yourself.

The Damn Turbines!

 Once you have managed to take down all of the turbines, it's cutscenes galore, the tower is imprisoned, and the light literally walks away from your guardian, and there's absolutely nothing you can do. You get to meet the leader of the Red Legion 'Dominus Ghaul'.

Moving over to the Inverted Spire Strike, there's not a lot really to say about this without giving the whole plot away. However, it is challenging and it is awesome. I wouldn't say it's the hardest Strike I've played, but I'd say it is probably on the same level as a Heroic Strike (in my opinion) bearing in mind I'm not the best gamer in the world ;) There are some really awkward cliffs you have to jump across, fire portals and other obstructions that get in your way.

Drills in the Inverted Spire

You make your way down to a drill site, and you have to avoid the drills again one tap and you're dead, I don't know how I managed it but I didn't die once, it was either a fluke or I managed to somehow get out of the map and avoid it altogether. Once you have passed that you come up against the final strike boss, this is a 3 or 4 stage boss, and he quite literally removes the floor from under your feet on several different occasions, he electrifies the water surrounding the area you're in, and turns the floor to lava, making it pretty much impossible to escape some form of damage,

Nuff said really, it's a tough, classic Strike which will have you gripped and frustrated, there seems to be much more of an element of fun in this game than in the previous one.

New PvP Mode - Countdown

Moving on over to the new competitive PvP mode - Countdown. This, unfortunately, is nothing new in my opinion. It is a game of search and destroy relabeled, you have to plant, and defuse bombs, if you kill all of your opposing team, and defuse any bomb you win the round, if you plant a bomb and it isn't defused, you win the round, that's my understanding of this anyway, I've played one match of it, and was immediately disappointed, if I'm wrong, feel free to correct me, these are just my opinions after all :)

Before I move on to my PvP experience in Control, I was one of the lucky ones to get access to one of the new social spaces - The Farm. This went live at 6pm GMT/BST on Sunday 23rd, and this lasted an hour only before we were all kicked out. There were obvious signs of a Cryparch, a Gunsmith, there was an Everese logo, so Microtransactions look to be returning in Destiny 2 (Please don't let this be a pay-to-play game), there were obvious signs of Sparrows returning in the game, as well as a dock could there be boats? Or could our sparrows be able to be used on water?

Social Space - The Farm (1)

Social Space - The Farm (2)

There is real football as well, with an actual scoring system, first to 3 wins. There are lots of other space for more vendors at the site, all in all, I have a funny feeling there may be more vendors there than in the tower, but I could be wrong, it's early days really. There were also a lot of the Farm that was inaccessible, there were doors that you couldn't get access to, a mysterious 'X' when it was dark would appear in a certain location, there were turbines and power lines, and campsites. There was an open gate also, but walk through it, and you'd be out of bounds, how frustrating, it's like dangling a £5 note in front of you that you can't have, keeps you guessing though. There is so much more to say about the Farm, but honestly, I think it's best that you just see for yourselves.

I anticipate a lot more to do in this Social Space though, we already know there will be chickens and football, maybe some other forms of interaction will be added, or a few other mini-games, the list is literally endless. It will definitely be interesting to see what they come up with, so watch this space. What would you like to see in the new social spaces? Do you know something we don't? Or do you want to share anything about your Beta experience so far? If you do, and if you have the time, let me know in the comments section below, it would be awesome to hear from you :)

Aaaand finally Control, good old Capture the Flag gameplay is back, and in my personal opinion, it is at its finest. I've left it until now to talk about the mechanics of the game, the new subclasses, the new load-outs and weapons because it's this part of the game I've played the most and I've spent countless hours working through everything. It was a big no no to me for the devs to change it from 6v6 to 4v4, I thought it was going to be so much harder, and it was basically going to be Trials of Osiris all over again (Never again will I attempt that, it's so freaking hard). BUT it's not, it's awesome and it might even be a little easier, having said that, that might just be because everyone is on an even playing field, there are no level advantages, and it's mano v mano, so the real test will be the full release. It might have been wise to allow a little progression within the Beta, would be interesting to see how this 4v4 is going to pan out when level advantages are enabled or better gear equipped. Could be a disaster in the making, could be the best thing since sliced bread. My hope though, is that it doesn't turn into Trials like gameplay because if it does, I'm not going to be able to compete at that level in PvP, I'm getting better, but Trials is just a whole different kettle of fish.

Dawn Blade - Warlock

The new subclasses are awesome, at least in the graphical sense, you get a shield you can bash people with or throw about just like Captain America (Titan's Sentinel) you get a flaming sword, again which you can throw at people (Warlock's Dawn Blade). And you get this kind of electric staff thing you can destroy people with (Hunter's Arcstrider). The classic ones are also available as well, such as Striker, Gunslinger and Voidwalker. There's no sign of any others just yet, but those may come in the full game release. They've reimagined the subclass loadout screen, rather than it being rows and rows and unlockable upgrades, it's a tree-like system, much easier on the eye. However, on first glance, it looks as if there's not a lot you can upgrade, it looks like you have far fewer upgrade options than you do in Destiny 1. That might be a good thing though, it took an awfully long time to fully upgrade your subclass in Destiny 1, regardless of skill, it was all about a number of hours you poured into the game. So I guess they've stripped it down, to make sure you play the game instead of worrying about upgrading your character. I'm hoping like in the Beta you get some already unlocked abilities, but I highly doubt it. You never know though.

Although the premise is the same with the 3 weapons you can take into battle with you, the heavy weapon is now known as the Power Weapon, and Power Weapon ammo is available to collect from in-match games, unlike in Destiny 1 however only one person can collect this ammo at a time, and you don't automatically get this ammo if you happen to be standing by, that sucks. Having said that though the spawn delay for the heavy/power ammo is a lot less than in Destiny 1, and having played for some time, I've managed to get way more power/heavy ammo in Destiny 2 than I ever have been able to get a hold of in Destiny 1. this could just be a location type thing, it could be because there are far fewer players to challenge you, either way, I like it, and there are plenty more areas power ammo is available to be retrieved from, a nice change, especially for those of us who rarely have a chance to get their hands on some serious purple ammo drops. On the flip side, however, the amount of ammo that actually drops is poor, 4 ammo for a grenade launcher, 8 for a shotgun, hmmm... It's early days.
Aside from the slightly different ammo and guns you can have in the heavy weapon slot, you can now have a similar class of weapon in your primary and secondary weapon slots, so I've taken full advantage of this, and used Auto Rifles in both my slots, secondary ammo seems to be a lot easier to come by as well, you typically go into a match with a full magazine of primary (white) and secondary (green) ammo, a much more pleasurable experience.

It is also frustrating to me that the cooldown for your abilities take an absolute age, I've managed to play full games of Control without my super ability fully charging, I mean you should be able to use your super ability at least once in a Destiny match right? Take into consideration that there are two fewer players per team, which realistically means fewer kills overall, which in turn means a much longer wait time for your super ability. As mentioned previously, grenades and melee seem to do absolutely nothing against any enemy, whether this is in PvE or PvP, something which desperately needs to change. Aaaand the Titans ability to shoulder charge into an enemy whilst using the Striker subclass is no longer an instant kill, it takes down an enemies health by around 40-50%, making this ability pretty much defunct, it's a huge shame, I loved getting instant kills in Destiny 1 with this! Damn you Bungie. And it seems to take 2-4 melee attacks to fully kill an enemy as well, something which I hope is improved in the final release of the game. In fact, Bungie has already said they are making improvements to this, so hopefully, weapons, abilities and upgradeable abilities get an awesome buff they deserve, and a one were used to in the original Destiny. Here's to hoping.

Overall Destiny 2 seems to be so far a more immersive experience, the missions that I had the pleasure of playing are balanced with the right amount of challenge, graphics and theatrics. I hope the rest of the Destiny 2 missions are this good, and not just the same mundane locations with the same mechanics. The new subclasses although needing a few tweaks have the potential to be awesome, they need to be buffed in the right places though, I mean Destiny is not meant to be an easy game, but it's not meant to be so challenging that it can't be done (unless you're into Nightfall strikes that is) and if that's the case, then my hat goes off to you.

So to sum up everything that I've ranted on about for around a month, I thought I'd end this with a top 10 list of the awesome things I liked about Destiny, and 10 things I didn't like so much, I'm pretty confident that Bungie are already aware of most of the communities thoughts by now, so they are probably already making changes as we speak. Plus there's roughly another hour or two before the Bet ends, so I'm going to get in some last minute PvP, might even give Countdown another shot, you never know ;)

Top 10 Likes:

1. The Missions are much more gripping. 
2. A third ability such as a mini shield or a healing/damage Aurora.
3. The new subclasses and abilities have the potential to be awesome. 
4. The change from 6v6 to 4v4 in PvP is well developed. 
5. The ability to have the same class of weapon in Primary and Secondary slots is awesome. 
6. There's more opportunity for power/heavy ammo to be picked up. 
7. I love the addition of weapons such as miniguns and grenade launchers. 
8. Load times seem to have improved dramatically.
9. The Damn going into orbit is no more, now there's one snazzy 'Director' screen.
10. The new Social Space looks awesome, can't wait to see exactly what's what.