Destiny 2 Beta: PvP Review

In my First Impressions of the Destiny 2 Beta I wasn't able to try out the PvP (Player vs Player) mode or the Strike because of network issues. Luckily the network errors were solved and now I can finally do a follow up about the PvP part of Destiny

The Crucible

The PvP mode of Destiny is called the Crucible, it is where our characters called guardians go to hone their fighting skills. You battle against other guardians in different modes like Control (Domination) and Clash (Team Deathmatch).
In PvP you use the same weapons and abilities that you have in PvE (Story mode, Strikes and Raids). The end game of PvP is called Trials and is the hardest mode of PvP in Destiny. In Destiny 1 this mode was called Trials of Osiris but in Destiny 2 the name will most likely be changed to Trials of the Nine. Only 1% of the Destiny Players has successfully completed the Trials most likely this will not change in Destiny 2.

What has changed?

PvP was one of the most argued about game modes of Destiny 1. Trials especially has led to numerous changes that impacted the entire game. PvP is one of my favorite modes of Destiny beside the Raids. I spent many hours playing PvP in Destiny so I guess that you can call me an experienced player (not good just experienced).

For Destiny 2, Bungie has changed the entire PVP experience. The most noteworthy changes are:

• The lineup

No more 3vs3 and 6vs6 modes, like in esports the lineup has changed to 4 vs 4. This takes some time getting used to. Because of the difference in the number players, the "flow" of the game feels very different. Not worse but just different. With 6 vs 6, a match would often feel chaotic and with 3 vs 3 the matches were more tactical. The 4 vs 4 is something in between, a little faster than 3 vs 3 but not so chaotic as 6 vs 6. In my opinion this is not a bad change.

• TTK

TTK stands for time-to-kill. It is the time needed to kill an enemy with your weapon. In Destiny 2 the damage of the guns has been severely decreased, you will have to get more shots in to put an enemy down. In Destiny 1 I could three tap (2 body shots and one headshot) enemies with my favorite gun, the excotic hand cannon called The First Curse. But you can forget about being able to three tap anyone in Destiny 2. I haven't figured out yet how much more damage you have to do to get a kill but based on my plays so far, I guess it is almost 1.5 times as much, so you will have to land around 4 to 5 headshots for a kill.
The fact that you need a lot more shots to get a kill was the hardest part for me to get used to. I favored the slow firing high impact hand cannons in Destiny 1 and was used to getting 3 shots in for a kill. The fact that I have to keep shooting after the third shot is something my muscle memory is not yet used to. I still pause after the 3rd or 4th shot only to be surprised by the fact that I didn't get the kill.

• Abilities

In Destiny 1 tweaking your abilities was a rather complex affair. You really had to know what all the perks and skills did to balance your character and get the loadout that complements your play style. This was great for hardcore players but not so for casual players. In Destiny 2 adjusting your abilities has been made more newbie friendly. The abilities have also been nerfed (made less powerful), they charge much slower and do less damage.
This is also something I still have to get used to. In Destiny 1 I exclusively played with a Hunter, a character that is very depended on his abilities. I played a lot with the Gunslinger subclass, and always had 2 grenades (tripmines) and two throwing knives equipped, on top of that off I had maxed my settings so that I had a grenade and throwing knife available every 20 seconds or so. To make things even worse I used the abilities in a combo by first throwing the grenade and then killing the enemy off with my throwing knife.

Well, there will be no more of that abusing your abilities. Destiny 2 is all about gun play and not about spamming your abilities. I don't know exactly how long the charge for your grenade and melee is but certainly longer than 25 seconds. My guess is that it takes about a minute or maybe a few seconds longer to fully recharge. Also there is no doubling up on your grenades or melee, you get the one melee and grenade so you better not miss when you use them.
The only thing that charges relatively fast is you new special ability. In the case of the Hunter this is a dodge (The Titan has a shield and the Warlock a healing power).

The Supercharge has been hit the most. You will be lucky to get 1 fully charged Super in a match and even then the Supercharge will do a lot less damage than before.
It is very apparent that Bungie has made all these changes to force players to use their gun skills instead of spamming abilities, which was the norm in Destiny 1.

• The Weapons

Instead of a primary, special and Heavy Weapon you now have 2 primaries and a Power (Heavy) Weapon. The specials weapons with the exception of the side arm have been moved to the Power Weapon slot.
I actually like this change. Special weapons were abused in Destiny 1 and I like that I can combine my favorite weapon types and switch when needed. My favorite load out thus far is the Hand cannon and the scout Rifle combo. The scout rifle for long engagements and the Hand cannon for mid and close combat.

• Power Weapon drops

In every match there are ammunition drops for your Power weapon. But what has changed is that only 1 person can take the ammo as supposed to Destiny 1 where everyone in proximity of the drop got the ammo. This is also a good change, reducing the usage of Power Weapons (formerly known as Heavy Weapons).

Final Verdict

I am not gonna lie, it will take some getting used to the new Destiny 2 Crucible for former Destiny 1 players. The gameplay and flow of the matches is very different compared to Destiny 1. The new time-to-kill and adjustments to your abilities feel very weird and strange at first.
If you are a seasoned Destiny PvP player you will have to switch up your tactics and playstyle. But after a while you will get to grips with the new gameplay and you will be playing like pro again.
New players will have no problem jumping into PvP, because the Crucible has without a doubt become more newbie friendly in Destiny 2.

My takeaway is that the matches are more "fluid", the fact that there is more primary gun play is a big plus and playing PvP now feels more "fair".
Bungie took a big chance completely altering one of their most popular game modes. But my opinion is that the Crucible has changed for the best.

Here is some footage of me playing a Control Crucible match. Enjoy.

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