Tutorial mission similar to beta minus extra turbine. Nice.
Aesthetics/music top-notch.
Playability was a tad "clunky" compared to D1, what with the sensitivity of movement and firing, but ok.
The campaign has too many clichéd tropes found too often in such media and was even short (roughly as short as the original D1) and the whole three-arc structure across four rocks and a scattered population and "superweapon-station" a poorly put-together main villain (stereotypical emo apprentice turned maniacal master) all on one single plan that didn't fail (infiltrate the "belly" and don't get the antenna array chopped off on the way out of the core). The whole "conquer systems and conscript more soldiers" and "destroy it for fun" aspects supposedly argued between the confidant and villain wasn't juggled well enough. It was actually a positive in that users actually got to meet and interact with "normal" people and the point of everyone only has one life was adequately conveyed, as well as how much of a big decision it is for the Guardian's allies to carry on regardless of their lost (semi-?) immortality, for the Guardian, however, it is somewhat conveyed early on after the inaugural mission at the old tower, but not so much afterwards and this user feels it could've been a longer time before regaining one's sensitivity to the For-"Light".
Nice to experience some vehicular combat with the scope of those tanks and reminds this user of early D1 "Combined Arms", but would've liked more from that, but taking to the air in air-ships.
Elemental differences don't seem that pronounced in D2 as they did in D1, a welcome mechanic at the end of the main storyline would be the final boss battle being for one to need to switch sub-classes and/or weapons mid-battle...screw it, make users take out the controller and put it in another port for kicks and giggles. There was some concern of female "MSs" added (gotta get dem quotas or else people will accuse the team of [insert favorite -ism here]) battling against a "all dem base belong to MUH" archetype this "woke"/pilled and skeptical/conspiratorial AnCap user had, what with the social- and genetic-engineering of popular culture and politics coupled with people in everyday society becoming increasingly fed agitprop and mobilized as a free army of poor people for those these people claim to be fighting against all advocating for a glass ceiling for themselves, ensuring continued dominance of the "party", but not as much as others and this user doesn't really want to derail this thread into such (hopefully civilized) discussion as this user feels it wasn't as pronounced as this user thought it would/could have been going into the installation and sometimes barely noticed it, which is a plus in their book. Each character having some sort of internal conflict was addressed which helped make them multi-dimensional. The W-class Vanguard leader comes around at the end when the character debuts on the new tower and begins eldergame and finally begins to open-up and trust, namely the user's Guardian, the H-class Vanguard leader is proven fallible and needs help getting out in the story and is grateful because of it, and the T-class Vanguard leader is also shown as vulnerable and grateful by story's end. The shipwright probably could've been a bit more beaten, even expanded on overall in this user's opinion. It's cool to be able to shade one's ride, ship, and armor now, that is a plus. The loot rolls/crates....alright. This user can see and understand (to the studio's credit) the "intent" for how loot works in D2 compared to D1 as the positives (*ducks from stuff being thrown at this user) are that it does mean people have to stick around and keep grinding longer and lends credence to replayability, which many programs do not do so well, they can be very one-and-done, and ensures veterans and newbs alike can get together and have to for some things sometimes somewhere was able to solo virtually everything. To their credit, public events are now TRACKABLE, THANK THE LIGHT! The mini-maps are expanded on and it's an actual upgrade from D1. A negative, however, is patrols are not easily findable. Patrol beacons BARELY can be found when adventuring around in areas; there doesn't seem much of a reason to do patrols in D2.
That's about it other than possibly adding in more vault space (can never have enough, learn from D1, there is a large hoarder population here) and an in-program chat system. Shards to upgrade weapons and armors have seemed to be hard to come by for those just finishing the main storyline, so exotics and such are useless to newbs. A major complaint was a smaller loot table than D1, in terms of gear. This user has accumulated roughly the same three or so titled pieces for each slot all story long, which happened in D1 but not as much.
TL;DR:
Pros:
Pretty; sounds good; mini-map expansion/trackable patrols; some semblance of character development regarding side characters; shaders for everything; adventures; vehicular combat; an attempt at adding to replayability; no leveling Ghosts' Light Levels; D1 stories largely canonical; added effects with transmits (anyone got anything else?)
Cons:
Lack of elemental mechanic/the mechanic meaning anything; lack of customizable sub-class ability webs (why just pick offensively- or defensively-minded pre-determined sets of abilities for each sub-class?); aforementioned attempt at adding to replayability backfiring completely; clichéd tropes in the story; short story; no aerial combat; patrols not being pronounced; small loot table for each item/piece; clunky/weighted "feel"; the removal of machine guns; lack of shards; the replacement of the primary, secondary, and heavy classifications of weapons, it's just weird; the removal of strength, discipline, and intellect bonuses; Speaker's face/fate??? Am sure there's more to come...and as a Titan masterclass...WHERE'S MUH BUBBLE!? (Bubble Club444lyf and that is just tw-one-sweet! \ooq) Haven't seen very many, if any, bubbles out there in the field at all.
Thanks.
Piece (of gear). Luv (of playing). And ANARCHY!!!
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There was concern the virus story from the last expansion of D1 would not be canonical in D2 due to the two teams not communicating with each other and that being in development at the same time as D2, but it was mentioned in one area of the story, this user thinks during a scan or conversation otherwise with the main Guardian's squire, so this user is optimistically assuming it is canon....where the Vanguard vendor leader of that expansion is, however, this user doesn't know. Not trying to come across as "another bashing thread" because this user really supports the effort after D1 and D2 being broken down and rebuilt before even launching and has planted this user's "flag" so-to-speak with the franchise for the forthcoming installments, but constructive criticism helps, so please keep that first part in mind when adding to this criticism of D2 in the comments. The F F 14: ARR team REALLY got some serious "street cred", as pointed out by another Guardian on here, when they saw the horrid product the original version was however many years ago, and rebuilt it from the ground up over three years and is one of the finer "theme-park" M M O's out there today (despite this user preferring a more S W G "sandbox" style). This user has had hope since the days of that latter M M O's hayday for a concept of an M M O F P S hybrid to emerge and be successful, but this user has yet to see such a thing and hopes yet, for at least one incarnation of this franchise to be what this user has been looking for, as if C O D and S W G merged together. /rant. Sidenote: This was WAY longer than it seems now. This user had to cut out a lot to meet the 10k word limit (shouldn't be such a limit, at least up it to 15k or virtually no limit).