‘Destiny 2’ review - Guardians rejoice in their misery

Guardians reunite to stop a devastating attack on Earth’s Last City in the massive, role-playing, first-person shooting juggernaut Destiny 2 (Activision and Bungie, rated Teen, reviewed on Xbox One, $59.99).

This sequel’s story picks up one year after the end of a devastating war between nanotech-mutated insectoid aliens called the Fallen and humans.

Earth’s protectors, called the Guardians, must now take on the destructive might of the Cabal Empire’s Red Legion and its military emperor Dominus Ghaul.

Ghaul instructed his minions to attach a mining device to the moon-sized sphere hovering above Earth nicknamed the Traveler, and extract its Light, a special form of power used by the Guardians.

With the Light extinguished by the Red Legion, it reduces the proud warriors to near ruin and they must regroup in a nearby Farm (the new community headquarters) in substandard conditions to mount an offensive and take back the planet.

Well, that’s a whole lot of drama to give a player as he either creates a new Guardian with the available classes of Hunter, Titan or Warlock, or restores his old avatar from the first game.

Good news is my blue-skinned Titan (an Awoken humanoid with spikey hair) was loaded up for action until that Red Legion and Ghaul sucked all of his Light away.

Although now wearing the most meager of damaged armor, using the lowest form of weaponry and working with a damaged Ghost (a floating, cubed-shaped, drone-like companion and tech assistant), the warrior’s goal is to restore his former might and take down the Red Legion.

Using role-playing type resource management and collecting loot to build his level and power base, a player travels to planets with a battered starfighter and works through dozens of missions that often involve battling factions such as the Fallen, Hive, Vex and Cabal who have taken advantage of Ghaul’s treachery.

Combat remains king, delivered with simple and intuitive game mechanics (an observer picked up the controls quickly and exclaimed “oh, its like ’Halo’ “), and a player’s adrenaline will run high often as he engages in waves of firefights that are gleefully overwhelming.

Besides access to elaborate weapons such as rocket launchers, proton pistols, sniper rifles and grenade varieties (I loved my Lionheart autorifle with a Mark 10 glass scope) and the ability to disintegrate an enemy with a single punch, “Destiny 2” boasts new sub classes.

They offer a variety of additional powers that are acquired by finding coveted Traveler shards.

The most impressive has my Titan wielding a shield that a gladiator might use, with the ability to throw it and attack multiple enemies. It works when I activate an all-too-fleeting Super Power that never restores fast enough for me.

That Sentinel subclass also offers an on-demand plasma shield planted in front of the Guardian to allow health to restore and automatic weapon reloading when crouched behind it. The shield even allows him to stand and shoot over it.

Players will eventually explore and battle in four new worlds: the European Dead Zone (with a forest, bombed-out town and tunnels); Saturn’s moon Titan (set on platforms in a rolling ocean); Jupiter moon Io (yellowish green tinted landscapes peppered with geysers and large canyons); and the unstable minor planet Nessus (caverns, lush canyons and sheer cliffs).

The story finds Guardians interacting with new characters on each planet such as Farm leader Suraya Hawthorne or sniper extraordinaire, Devrim Kaye. They are willing to help supply the warriors with gifts for accomplishments or weapons and armor for purchase using the game’s ever-accumulating currency, glimmer.

For some specifics, as I write the review, I’m about 10 hours into the action, with my Guardian at level 15 (and pushing to attain the coveted level 20 to unlock greater goodies such a hoverbike), and I have power in the 150 range.

I level up by completing campaign and adventure missions and killing the bad guys. A player will increase his power base by finding or buying higher-rated weapons (three available to carry) and upgrading pieces of armor (helmet, gloves, chest, boots, belt).

That leads to the game’s major distraction, numbers.

The constant focus on attaining a higher level as well as power often caused me to forget about some of the amazing interactive environments I take for granted on every planet.

I should not be spending that much time looking at my character screen and tweaking equipment numbers when I have an amazing galaxy to exist in.

The Dark Forest in the European Dead Zone was especially impressive with a blue-swampy like terrain, sort of Destiny’s Dagobah; or any place overtaken by the Hive was loaded with gushy, gooey and undulating organic growths that will remind player’s of H.R. Giger’s designs in “Alien.”

It’s worth noting “Destiny 2’s” massive cinematic universe allows for many types of encounters to keep the player in that constant state of action.

Just a sample of the fun might include:

• A sub mission required my Titan to roam deep into a booby-trapped tunnel, fight off waves of the Fallen and use my buddy Ghost to secure explosives. I then set up a trap for the Red Legion on the side of a hill, sat perched on a rock, and then by using a power sniper rifle, I picked off any enemies that got by the explosives.

• Spontaneous erupting, timed public events continue in the game and have online players working together to fight off invaders. I actually broke into a sweat as I dove into stopping a pair of large walkers from landing on a platform with help from five other Guardians.

The Hive’s Thrall (eyeless skeletal-like monsters) who awoken to the noise were attacking in frenetic packs as well as streams of the Fallen’s foot soldiers cloaking, hooded Marauders. New to this year game are Heroic level events that extend the public battle objectives.

• Break up a fight between the Fallen and the Hive meant I had to fight three floating conjurers, then two and then a super strong conjurer all the while handling the Thrall, fire-bombing Acolytes and power sword-wielding Knights.

An effective strategy for killing the conjurers required that I jump high in the air near them and toss a sticky grenade on their force fields, which left them vulnerable to my powerful but severely, limited sniper bullets. I died multiple times and had to start over at check points but eventually succeeded.

Additionally, other than the public events, multiplayer options include cooperative Strikes (three-player missions), Raids (six-player missions) and the competitive Crucible (4 versus 4 battles).

Success with these events leads to much more powerful armor and weapons as well as leveling up quicker.

Suffice it to report, “Destiny 2” is a game that will demand dozens of hours to appreciate. It follows a familiarity from its predecessor but often expands upon its best parts.

Now, toss in the upcoming downloadable expansion packs (the first, “Curse of Osiris” arrives this winter and takes place on Mercury) and a gamer immersed in his Guardian mythology may take residence in the Destiny universe.

Note: “Destiny 2” requires a stable and constant Internet connection for all of the multiplayer options as well as simply tackling the game.

That could be a problem for some. I want to again admonish Comcast, my provider, for its pathetic broadband service that had me lose a connection for two consecutive nights right in the middle of nearly completing a couple of really arduous missions.

Once my Internet came back, I had to start all over again, but I luckily did not lose all of the loot I had gained. Stating the obvious here but paying high dollar for substandard service is not right.