[spoiler]*A Wild Gringo has appeared*[/spoiler]
I want to say this before I continue with the post, I am a Destiny fanboy. It's true. I'm in a lore clan and I'm afraid to look at how much time I've pumped into this game. That being said I am the kind of fanboy who generally critiques the things he loves. I hate the Star Wars prequels, I think every Halo game past Halo 3 has been lowering in quality (save for Halo Wars 2) and every one of Destiny's in game campaigns except for TTK I have either hated or disliked. I am a large proponent of critiquing the things you adore in a constructive manner so that thing can get only better.
I look forward to Destiny 2 and I even preordered it (I sank thousands of hours into D2 and know I will for D2 as well, even if it is only at the same quality of vanilla D1 which I highly doubt). That being said I understand plenty of the criticisms leveled against it and I understand being cautious about it and all that. I have plenty of distain personally for some of the decisions made about Destiny 2, like only having 4v4 crucible with no ranking system or no more grimoire cards.
I am not here today to argue against the criticisms of Destiny 2, in fact I am here to help them. You see, people on the wonderful internet have this habit of complaining about stuff for the sole reason that others are complaining about it, an echo chamber of bitching if I may. Almost always these claims are poorly thought out, baseless, and/or self contradicting. People with any real authority don't listen to this because why should they? The issue is that people with serious opinions that are constructive and deserving of being heard are being drowned out in the echo chamber. This is almost certainly the case with Destiny 2. People who are actually upset by only 3 new subclasses being introduced in Destiny 2 (myself included) are probably not being heard because of all the other people saying "Bungie just copy/pasted Destiny 1. Destiny 2 is just DLC."
So with that huge intro that is larger than most posts out of the way, I shall begin (there is a Tl;dr at the bottom for those who don't need convincing that Destiny 2 isn't DLC or are too lazy to read the whole thing).
[u]A True Sequel[/u]
For the sake of my argument, I will describe a game considered to be an almost perfect sequel to an already beloved game. It is a game held in high regard as the perfect example of what a sequel should be; Halo 3. Halo 3 is considered to be a great sequel because it found a perfect balance between improving upon what already existed in Halo 2 and adding new features. This is a balance that is hard to find where some games feel like the same thing with a just more stuff and others don't even feel like their predecessor.
While I am using Halo 3 to compare to what a sequel is, it obviously isn't a 1 to 1 match to every good sequel, it is just a general framework. Here I will discuss everything Halo 3 changed or added to what Halo 2 did, and what it kept or improved upon from Halo 2. You don't need to have liked everything Halo 3 did to separate itself from Halo 2 that I list below. I am not saying they are good or bad, just different. There is some overlap. For example in Halo 3 there were new and old characters.
[i]Changed or Added[/i]
New PvP maps
New PvP modes
New Armor abilities
New versions of the same enemy types
New Weapons
New Vehicles
New Characters
New Locations
New Story
New Graphics
[i]Kept of Improved Upon[/i]
Same genre
Same combat
Same art/music style
Same enemy factions
Same weapons
Same vehicles
Same ui
Same characters
Same PvP modes
You see what I am getting at? These things are what made Halo 3 a sequel to Halo 2. A sequel is meant to change and add to its predecessor, but it is still meant to hold what made it's predecessor good in the first place.
Some people say that Destiny 2 is too similar to Destiny 1, but what are they expecting? A top down real time strategy game? Far Cry Blood Dragon was more different from Far Cry 3 than Far Cry 4 was, and yet it was DLC. Nobody calls Blood Dragon a sequel to Far Cry 3 because it changed [i]too much[/i].
I understand that some things in Destiny 2 may be too similar to D1, like the Subclasses. I understand that some things in Destiny 2 may be too different from D1, like the simplified subclass trees or no random rolls on weapons. Some changes made or things kept may not be enjoyable pr beneficial, but that does not keep Destiny 2 from being a sequel. I guess what I am trying to say is that calling it Destiny 1.5 is just stupid and baseless. And, as I said earlier, it detracts from those who actually try to criticize the game constructively.
Thanks for reading my long ass post (or the tl;dr below).
[spoiler]Tl; Dr
Destiny 2 is a full sequel so stop saying Destiny 1.5 and other shit like that or else the people who have meaningful things to say will never be heard.[/spoiler]
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Its Destiny 0.5