If you couldn’t tell by all of the guides that have been going up recently, I’m a huge fan of Destiny 2. Its latest expansion, Destiny 2: Beyond Light, launched just yesterday — the same day as the Xbox Series X. I played through the campaign. I even reviewed it. Now I want to talk about the changes you should expect if you’re playing Beyond Light on Xbox Series X right now.
Of course, if you’d rather see than read, I’ve embedded some gameplay below. Please note — though Destiny 2 is rendering in 4K on my machine, the video is in 720p. In the future, these will come in at 1080p. I might’ve forgotten to change the resolution.
Even if we aren’t getting the 60 frames-per-second optimizations until December, I can’t imagine going back to playing Destiny 2 on an older Xbox. The loading times here are simply game changing. Want to fast travel between points on a destination? It’s insanely quick — usually just two or three seconds. Want to travel to a new planet? You’re shaving a good 30-40 seconds off of that trip (and if you’re making those trips a lot, they add up).
And yes, if you’re in the middle of a Crucible match and you get killed, you can open the menu and actually change weapons now. No more staring at your character waiting for your gear to show up.
There are other areas you can feel the performance difference in, too. The CPU in the Xbox One and Xbox One X really held Destiny 2 (and a lot of other games) back. On the Series X, the menus feel more responsive, and you don’t see those same frame rate drops in certain areas you might have before. I’m actually sad Titan is gone now, because the Hive Ritual Public Event in that space really pushed the last-gen Xboxes to their limits, reliably tanking the frame rate. I would’ve loved to see the Series X whip that activity into shape.
It seems clear that the Xbox Series X is handling everything Destiny 2 can throw at it with ease, which bodes well for December’s next-gen update. I’ve played the game on PC and have experienced the bliss that is 60 frames-per-second, but if you haven’t yet, you are in for a real treat. The higher frame rate makes Destiny 2 a lot more responsive and enjoyable. Coupled with the faster loading times and more consistent performance we’re already getting right now on the Xbox Series X, Destiny 2 is going to feel like a completely different game.