On the heels of Microsoft’s in-depth look at Halo: Infinite, it must be said: not taking into account Infinite, Bungie has surpassed their former franchise. Modern Halo is nowhere near as good as the current build of Destiny 2, which has surpassed modern Halo. It’s not necessarily fair to compare Destiny 2 to much older Halo games, which are 20-years-old, but Destiny 2 has superior lore, cinematics, story, gameplay, and multiplayer than Halo. Hopefully Halo: Infinite will be able to evolve a bit under 343 industries, but we aren’t holding our breath. Destiny 2 is not only addicting but a lot of fun and has almost infinite replay value, something that cannot be said with regards to the Halo franchise. Halo 5 was a disaster. Halo 4 was simply okay. Taking the fanboy goggles off, it becomes apparent that Destiny 2 is better than Halo, especially now that Bungie is out from under Activision’s thumb.
The lore in Halo may be interesting, but the lore in Destiny is not only fantastic, but ever-expanding. The latest expansion, Beyond the Light, showed this. It has evolved over time. This is something that Halo has not been able to do very well. The battle between the light and the darkness within was a central theme in the expansion’s campaign, and executed to perfection. The cinematics and bosses were also some of the best I’ve ever seen in gaming. Halo pales in comparison to this. They may improve and have the ability to evolve in Halo: Infinite, but it’s hard when Bungie is putting everything they learned from Halo into what they have learned from years of development on Destiny. They have perfected the formula. 343 Industries did not create Halo and their main entry in the franchise was a mess (Halo 5.) They actually don’t have a ton of experience when it comes to Halo, to be honest, and the game isn’t ever-evolving like Destiny.
Destiny also has an excellent customization and synthesis system that has been perfected over time. Halo lacks this. Though understandably they are two different types of games, this is irrelevant. Series’ evolve or die. It’s time for Halo to join 2020. It doesn’t have to be an MMO-like shooter, but it does need to become more basic than it is. It may be heralded as Xbox’s flagship title, which I personally think is a mistake (Gears of War is superior), but even a game like Gears 5 had to evolve and add some open-world elements and RPG elements to stay relevant. And that was the best entry in the series. Halo doesn’t make many changes game-to-game, while Destiny 2 does within the game on a consistent basis. Infinite may prove this wrong, but unless they make more than a huge graphical upgrade, the game will continue to lag behind Bungie, their former developer’s, projects.
Destiny not only has a variety of classes that are completely customizable but weapons and gear that are customizable as well as weapon infusion in order to create more powerful weapons. Aside from the campaign, there are also multiple opportunities for PvE (Player versus Environment) play, unlike Halo. The multiplayer is diverse composing of PvE, PvP (Player versus Player), and some of the most unique PvP multiplayer modes in all of gaming. Halo has a number of different modes, but they feel lacking. They’re too generic. It may be fun for the average gamer, but it’s not innovative enough to be called an elite game. Destiny 2 is in that category, though it took a while to get there.
Destiny 2 had somewhat a rough start. Being under Activision’s thumb was very harmful to Bungie’s Destiny experience. They finally took back the reigns though, and the results are better than ever. If Halo is going to keep up, it’s going to have to evolve drastically from a gameplay perspective (in addition to a lore aspect and a multiplayer aspect), and that may, and probably will not happen. This is unfortunate because Halo has so much potential. If Bungie were still developing Halo, it would be one of the most innovative franchises on the market and truly be worthy of the “flagship title” of the Xbox. It’s unfortunate that it doesn’t, and Bungie’s successive project is far superior in almost every fashion.