For good or for ill, the original Destiny defined the idea of 'games as a service' for the console crowd. The original game grew and evolved, giving players a reason to keep playing and - perhaps more importantly - to keep spending money on the game they already owned.

Spinning off into Destiny 2 was a calculated move to both move the story forward and get the financial machinery moving again, but it definitely didn't go off without a hitch.

Slightly newer than before

The concept behind Destiny 2 is 'Destiny, but more.' Games-As-Service games exist in a cycle of continual development, but they always reach a point at which no more can be done within the existing framework.

Unfortunately, the resulting title wasn't exactly a huge leap forward.

Destiny 2 gave Bungie a chance to push out the boundaries of the Destiny universe and make some core changes to how the game itself worked. Unfortunately, the resulting title wasn't exactly a huge leap forward - it shook up the landscape to be sure, but it still feels an awful lot like something that could've been built on the bones of the first game.

Ridiculously pretty

Destiny 2 is a ridiculously pretty game. Whether you're playing it on PC or a console, you'll notice that the game looks spectacular. From the world, player characters, and to the enemy design, there was a lot of love and care that went into the arty design.

a lot of love and care that went into the arty design.

Yes, a lot of it is very clearly derived from the content in the first game, but that really makes Destiny 2 feel like it is part of a larger experience. The audio here is likewise excellent. The main score of the game is memorable, the incidental music almost always fits the tone of the game, and the sound effects are both great for immersion and incredibly useful when you are trying to track down an enemy location.

The presentation of Destiny 2 is something that works well.

A familiar loot shooter

Destiny 2 is very much a persistent loot shooter. You go out into the world to fight other players, take down enemy creatures, and make your way through instanced environments to see the story, of course, but you're mainly there to get better gear so you can do tougher versions of the same activities.

Destiny 2 knows what it wants to be.

If you've ever played an MMO, you'll get the gist behind how this game works in about five minutes. That's not an insult, though - Destiny 2 knows what it wants to be.

The focus might be on increasing character Power and getting better gear, but Destiny does have a number of different ways to get where you want to go. Players can take on Adventures, Strikes, PvP, or any of several other types of content to craft their own experiences.

Though Destiny 2 felt like it was content-light when it first released, it has grown into a full-featured game.

A more mature Destiny game

Destiny 2 is a game that rewards players who either chose to pick it up late in its life cycle or who stuck through the rocky release. Today's version of the game is a much more mature, much more fully-featured iteration of the game that feels like something special.

Though it might not stack up too favorably compared to the original game quite yet, it's come a long way. By the time Destiny 2 winds down, it may well be the better franchise entry.

TL/DR

Destiny 2 is an evolving game that allows players to grow in power as they take on a number of different combat activities.