Destiny 2: The 5 Reasons It'll Be Bigger Than Destiny

Now that we're into August, Destiny 2 is right around the corner – at least for people planning to play on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. There are a lot of expectations heading into the release of Destiny 2, and while we got a taste of the game during the open beta, there's still a lot that's unknown about it. Even with that in mind, there are plenty of reasons to believe that Destiny 2 will be much bigger than the original Destiny, and what follows are five of them.

When Bungie started work on the original Destiny, it had just wrapped up a decade on the Halo series. There are some similarities between Halo and Destiny, but with Destiny, Bungie tried to pack more into a single title than it ever did with any games in the Halo series. As a result, there were some growing pains along the way, and at times, it felt that Bungie's ambitions exceeded its capabilities.

Entering into development for Destiny 2, Bungie has now been around the block before. It knows what worked and what didn't in regards to the original Destiny, and because of that, it can roll out Destiny 2 with a laser focus on improving its strongest aspects and fixing its weakest ones. Bungie could very well hit its stride with Destiny 2, and that will be an exciting thing to see.

Activision and Bungie have both stated in the past that they don't think DLC was delivered quickly enough for the original Destiny. Normally, players would scoff at such a notion, but in a multiplayer game like Destiny, which incorporates MMO elements, that's actually a big concern.

Bungie clearly intended Destiny to be a game that's played for years, which means that it needs to deliver a steady stream of content to keep gamers interested. Activision feels that it wasn't able to deliver extra content fast enough with the original Destiny, and to help solve that problem in Destiny 2, developers Vicarious Visions and High Moon Studios will be helping Bungie out. Bringing on two extra studios should help keep the stream of post-launch content flowing well.

In the same earnings call where Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg touched on what it's doing to ensure consistent post-launch content, he also said that feedback on the game has been great so far. "We received almost universally positive feedback from both the press and the fans alike," he said. This is likely referring to the game's open beta, which took place at the end of last month.

That, of course, is encouraging. While feedback for the original Destiny was decent, it wasn't excellent. The original Destiny holds only a 76 out of 100 on Metacritic, meaning there's plenty of room to improve. Though the reaction to a curated beta test isn't the same as the reaction to the finished retail release, hearing Hirshberg gloat about the positive nature of that feedback is encouraging.

Given the fact that Destiny attempted to borrow and merge the best aspects of both MMOs and first-person shooters, it confused a lot of people when we learned that it wouldn't be coming to PC. It seemed like such a good fit! After all, many of the world's most popular MMOs live exclusively on PC, and if you're looking to pick up a first-person shooter, there's no better platform than PC to play it on.

The fact that the original Destiny didn't get a PC release disappointed a lot of people, but that's all in the past. Destiny 2 will be on PC, and though the PC version will be arriving a little late to the party, the fact that it's coming to the platform at all will help vastly increase the player base for the series.

Gamers who settle in and play a specific game for years and years tend to care about lore. It's strange, then, that Destiny kind of forced lore into the back seat, delivering it mostly through Grimoire cards that only be viewed on a PC or through a companion app. That, obviously, isn't very engaging or immersive.

The good news is Bungie has already confirmed that Destiny 2 won't use those Grimoire cards. Instead, we can likely expect a much larger focus on story and lore within the game itself. That's very encouraging for people who are interested in the Destiny universe for more reasons beyond its loot-based gameplay.

Considering the game isn't even out yet, there's always the potential for Bungie to blow it entirely and deliver a dud of a sequel. That's always a risk, but so far, what we've seen and heard about Destiny 2 has been very encouraging. Don't be surprised to see Destiny 2 finally deliver on the promises Bungie made about the series all those years ago.

What do you think? Are you encouraged by what you've seen of Destiny 2 so far? Head down to the comments section and let us know if you think Destiny 2 will sink or soar!