Destiny 2 Laptop and Desktop Benchmarks

For the original German review, see here.

The developer Bungie, famous for its Halo games, now offers a sequel to the popular online shooter from 2014. Similar to Destiny 1, the second part of the science-fiction saga comes blasting like a fireworks display in a Hollywood-style enactment. The utilized engine shows its strength particularly well in regard to the quality of the effects. After a couple of minutes, we were already psyched about the excellent fire and smoke effects that are accompanied by the beautifully realistic rain in outdoor scenes. We also like the visual display of the weaponry and character abilities. Reflections appear exaggerated from time to time.

In combination with some jazzy level building blocks, Destiny 2 keeps reminding us of Unreal Tournament or, generally, games based on the Unreal Engine. Textures are very presentable and don’t have to hide behind other ego shooters, although a higher level of details would have been nice. The game levels leave us with a good visual impression thanks to the scenic environment which is for example decorated with chunks of debris.

We didn’t observe too much of a reduction in details when lowering the graphics settings, hence the game is still very enjoyable at lowest settings. On maximum settings, we would describe the visuals as good to very good. Gameplay-wise, we are really fond of the precise and smooth controls, which are even a bit better than what can be seen in the alphas among the shooters, like Call of Duty and Battlefield, and it even gives some games by id Software (Doom, Rage, etc.) a hard time keeping up.

Thanks to the uncomplicated gameplay and despite the bombastic effects, Destiny 2 runs smoothly, given adequate hardware equipment. The excellent tutorial, which is storied by great video sequences, makes it easy even for beginners to quickly get into the game. In the short time that we've played Destiny 2, we found it very intriguing, as it is simply a straightforward game. However, this very characteristic opens the possibility to make it seem uninspiring or even dull as players move forward to later levels.

We do have to voice praise about the very clean and good-looking game menus that are truly adapted for a PC version. The ample graphics options are praiseworthy as well, and they are categorized into three tabs: video for screen mode, resolution, VSync, field of view, screen limits and brightness, and additional video for render resolution (we always use 100%), HDR mode, chromatic aberrations, and noise filter.

Most options, however, can be found in the advanced video category. Players can choose between several presets for setting the graphics quality, but they can also individually customize the 13 available adjustments, including anisotropic filter or anti-aliasing. Like our recently tested games ELEX and Middle-earth: Shadow of War, Destiny 2 only offers FXAA and SMAA for moderate smoothing effects and slight blurriness.