D1 Script

Intro:
I played Destiny 1 for the first time in 2019 - 5 years after its original release, and 2 after its final update - and this video will be my experience with the game. I am an avid destiny player and have over 700 hours in Destiny 2. This summer I decided to go back and play the game that started it all and compare the two games. I can already tell you that no game is definitively better than the other but if you want a better experience and are new to the franchise, your money is better spent on the 2nd game as it had a much more active player base and there is a lot more a solo player can accomplish.

This video will be split up into 3 parts: My initial thoughts and background info, Raiding, and What is it like to play Destiny 1 for the first time in 2019 solo.
Starters Destiny 1 and Destiny 2 are very different games in terms of gameplay, weapon usage and worldbuilding.


Initial thoughts:
Destiny 1 does not have ledge grabbing, normal class abilities, and many forms of auto reloading. This alone makes the game very different as the current strat for almost every Destiny 2 activity is to sit in an auto reloading well and bombard the enemy with your grenade launchers.

This does not mean Destiny 1 does not have a meta either but without the auto reloading that you see in Destiny 2 there is a little freedom to your character builds. Although having a Galahorn is a must have for most of the activities.

Both game mechanics are still fun as Destiny 1 has much stronger class customization with its greater emphasis on cool skill trees and armour designs, while destiny 2 has a more rigid class customization but more class abilities and ways to use those class abilities that synergize much stronger than destiny 1.

The character I choose to do the campaign with is a hunter so most of my impressions will be based on playing hunter but my friends showed me what it was like to play warlock and titan. The coolest super in Destiny 1 has to be the warlock self rez as that makes Warlocks the class that can negate raid mechanics and make almost everything easier. Titans are the warlocks of Destiny 1. They are the class that provides the weapon damage buff and are overall almost essential to get through a raid, strike, or even story mission easier.

The background is me doing a strike story missions with my friends. I did most of the story alone so I could get a better understand but in order to do the raids as fast as possible I used a level 40 character boost and had my friends carry me through high level strikes for power. This may not represent everyone's experience with the game as not everyone has friends that have extensively played Destiny 1 and are willing to help their buddy get powerful enough to tackle the raid; however, I do hope that this video will still provide you with a good understanding of the differences between the games and what a more solo experience may feel like.

To conclude my initial thoughts I can say that after beating the Vanilla, and first two expansions campaigns the Destiny 1 story is much cooler than Destiny 2 story. Your character actually talks which I really like and makes the game much more interesting and your character feel much more powerful. I believe that Warlock is the best starter character as the self rez will negate wipe zones and give the player a much easier and fun experience with the game, not that the campaign is very challenging but doing strikes and other activities solo may not be as easy You will probably be doing this activites solo because not many people are playing and the self rez will make the experience much better.

Raids:
I have attempted all the Destiny 1 raids, and beat them all except Kings Fall where my low power really hindered my ability to complete it. I was even able to beat Wrath of the machine on normal mode after getting carried through more strikes. Due to my low power I had to beat the raids on hard mode rather than 390 but the only differences between hard and 390 are the light requirements and loot drops as far as I can tell the mechanics stay the same.

Out of all the raids my favorite has to be Vault of Glass, Wrath of the Machine, Kings fall, and then Crota’s End. This does not mean that the raids lower on the list are bad, it's just the way that I enjoyed them the most.

Vault had really cool mechanics such as sneaking around a maze and killing the raid boss with infinite supers. The only other encounter with sneaking around is Dogs in Levithan but the Gorgon Maze is no much more interesting and intense. There are secret chests that are just waiting to be discovered and vex that have such interesting designs. Atheon was really cool because I did not feel weak due to my lack of weapons as I did on some of the other raids which is probably why it was my favorite raid.

Wrath also had super interesting mechanics and I liked boarding the ship, fixing it, and then seeing it fall off a cliff. Also Siva in general look really cool and are super cool in concept.

Kings Fall is amazing in how long it is and how awesome the parkour sections are. Some of the encounters are very underwhelming, like totems, but others were some of the most intense in all of Destiny. Im looking at you Oryx.

Finally we had Crota’s End. Its last on my list because it didn’t really feel like a raid, I know that most people call it a strike but the mechanics are raid level complicated but not raid level difficult. The only semi hard part is the bridge section where my team was struggling to cheese it due to forgetting how. We were also forced to cheese it due to not having enough people.

Overall raids in Destiny 1 are easier than the Destiny 2 raids. In destiny 2 the revive system exists for a purpose because you really need all 6 people up to perform the raid at the highest level. In destiny 1 if your dead then you stay dead (unless your a Warlock) so the raids are made in a way where you really don’t need all 6 people to do them. In fact we rarely had more than 4 people for most of the raids and they were still not that bad.

Comparing the D1 and D2 raids in which are more fun is mostly personal preference, but I like the clutch moments you can have in D1 more than the preciseness you need in D2 so overall the D1 raids are more fun.

What it is like to play solo:

The solo experience in D1 is serviceable, but nothing to really warrant buying the game just for playing. The story missions are great the first time around and strikes are far far more rewarding due to skeleton keys and strike specific loot; however, there isn’t much to do besides strikes, story missions, and crucible. The solo Crota’s End raid is a fun challenge that I will want to try it in the future. The Crucible is a hit or miss due the matches sometimes taking forever to get into and other times being as fast as D2. A small piece of advice is that sidearms are very strong in D1 crucible.

Overall the solo experience is serviceable but just like Destiny 2, the real fun is the friend game and the challenges you overcome in the game as a group. I highly recommend if anyone has not done any of the D1 raids to reach out to reddit or other LFG places to try to find a group and take on the challenge. Destiny is a looter shooter and the best part about getting the cool loot is getting it from cool activities that Bungie put their best into.