Debated on putting background music in this video but thought it was important to compare the audio of the two games as well. Destiny 2 has almost no ambient sounds in most scenes (little to no sounds of wind, water trickling, trees rustling, footsteps, etc.) and lacks a lot of on screen effects like visible wind gusts and particle effects.
D1 Bungie devs got some skill when it comes to environment art. The Moon in D1 is so atmospheric and mysterious, I love that place. Edit: and btw I think you made the right call on the music, it would be too hard to hear the ambient sounds if you had it
I've never played D1 being PC only gamer and after putting thousands of hour's into D2.. seeing this is very sad, with this comparison video it's truely shocking that you can actually see how the modern game developers attitude and mentality has shifted towards being less focused on the artistry in the medium and more on the business side of things What a beautiful looking piece of art being discarded and left to be forgotten by it's creator's.. but hey it's just a videogame right Bungie ?
It’s an important point, I’d compare the sound and music too. The visuals I agree are better in D1 but maybe even more so with sounds. D1 just had more depth, worse storytelling but it felt much more polished. D2 in comparison feels more rushed. ‘The worlds’ are effectively the campaign so ditching out on so much details like sound and visuals feels disappointing even if there is a better story to chew on.
I have to say destiny 1 was the first game I ever saw where parts of the levels looked exactly like the concept art. I like the way the first game had kind of a painted look, and it’s a shame we lost that and got a slightly more generic look for d2
I find it funny that so many people will blindly say D1 art style was only the way it was because of hardware limitations as a way to defend D2. I’d be a millionaire if I had a dollar for every time someone said the fogs and grays were only used to hide bad textures. Just compare the view of the Hellmouth pit from D1 to D2. In D1 you see this awesome looking pit of Hive magic. In D2 it’s just some green fog. That’s not even mentioning debris and other details lazily ignored when porting to D2. How can anyone make this argument?
@@alter6243 Yeah thats very true, bungie have been lacking in the detail department. But playing DSC and VOW, bungie have stepped up their game a little, those raids have some amazing detail in them but I'm merely listing 2 raids which is only a percentage of the game itself, I don't want to defend this game, just thought I'd mention something.
@HorrorPleb I do think they're stepping apart a little. Savathuns throneworld is an amazing skybox (my opinion) and the new dungeon and how you can look out on the Mars surface for miles. If they have a good sky box and details for lightfall, I'd say both d1 and LATER STAGE d2 had great detailing. Early d2 was definitely not and lacked when expoting the d1 world's for sure
@@Horrorpleb I totally agree. Can’t forget to mention the Argos boss fight room right? Destiny 2 has some really awesome detail in the right areas. I just think they are too scared to innovate as even the Lightfall location is very similar in design and coloring to the arcology on Titan. Bungie has gotten comfortable with a few color schemes and seem scared to branch out. Bungie has amazing world designers and it would be criminal to let them be complacent.
@@alter6243They’re not wrong. When you have limited resources, you have to get creative with making the art look appealing to the eye. Destiny 1 blended photorealistic backdrops with stylized foreground subjects. Destiny 2 can get as visually creative as Bungie wants with hypothetically little to no limits. Look at how beautiful Y1 was. However, combined with entering budget mode after splitting ties with Actvision, the dumd lockdowns, and senior development being reserved for other projects, Destiny 2 current year has taken on a “good enough” strategy. Yea, the maps are not simply ported. They’re rebuilt, textures upscaled/redone, scripting fixed, environments axed or added, but Bungie is not dedicating a full development cycle to rehashed content. If Bungie can reuse assets to help match the D2 art style for less effort. If they can save time and money, they will not hesitate. If it’s good enough, it ships. Plus, it’s been years. Talent comes and goes at game studios. Bungie is no exception.
A lot of these D1 areas feel like they were made with horror movies in mind, or rather, made to invoke a sense of ominous isolation and abandonment. They all convey the feeling: “You Don’t Belong Here” with their art and tone. The lighting ambient sounds and music only added to that and it’s sad that the team that worked on D1 is most likely not the same people who worked on D2 locations since, you can tell that ominous isolation is not present in any D2 locations.
yeah, things just felt "alien." but it was made by the same guys who worked on Halo when Bungie was the most loved in the biz, so they wanted to do something huge for the next game- even hiring paul mccartney (guy from the beatles) for composition of the base game. they just don't have that same drive as they used to, and the vibes are for the most part so much worse. forsaken was a different story- great music and visuals, but it still ran on the same engine- everything looked shiny and unpolished. this isn't that surprising- as good as rise of iron looked, it didn't look as good as TTK or the base game of Destiny, so D2 not looking as good isn't too surprising.
The Cosmodrome part had ambient music disabled for D2 November really didn’t put in any thought into accurately recreating even the stationary shots - with things like not decreasing FOV to 90, seemingly disabling ambient music in the Cosmodrome and not standing in the same spots. I agree that things like the sand mixing with snow in the cosmodrome or the Drednaught’s green lighting gave the locations so much more character, and I would love to agree with the whole video, but this is just nostalgia baiting, with no actual thought put into comparing the views in an objective manner. I really want to like this video, I really do, but it’s just disappointing how little thought was put into recreating the actual shots - while the editing is so good and well thought out.
@@emberthecatgirl8796 i actually did set the FOV to 85 in d2 for this video because d1 fov was 85. also i did not disable the ambient music at all. there simply was not music playing at any point while exploring d2's cosmodrome. i had the sound volumes at the same level for both games, and tried to recreate the scene as accurately as possible. pretty silly to just throw out wild accusations that i disabled audio and purposely tried to make d2 look bad. i think you doing that just proves that Destiny 2 truly does lack style and atmosphere if you think i bothered messing with settings lol
@@NovemberHotel I do admit, the ambient sounds are extremely quiet if any - and the same goes for the music. The sound design, at least in the revamped locations, is a downgrade compared to D1 (though original locations have some banger ambience). However, I double and triple checked the first Cosmodrome example and the FOV is different. I took a screenshot of the same spot you're standing, with the right-side hangar lined up, and my image cuts out in the middle of the second group of trees from the left when taken at 90 (not 85) FOV. I now realise that I have gone over the line between criticism and just being obnoxious and I want to apologise, but I am 100% certain that at least some images do not have the same FOV settings (which, again, I now see is a dumb hill to die on). Regardless, I can send you my screenshot as proof if you want me to, sorry for causing a scene.
What a difference, been playing D2 so long I forgot how great D1 looked and never would have thought the differences would be that obvious. They definitely dropped the ball on the lighting
After watching this video it really goes to show that D1 has immaculate ambience and the sky box is incredible. I never realized how much detail D2 is lacking and how much they covered up with muddy looking fog. I’m amazed at the floating particles and bugs flying around in D1 and see none of it in D2.
Exactly. It’s such a shame that I so often see and hear people who point this out be met with something along the lines of “that’s just nostalgia speaking” when it’s just not
I remember playing D1 for the first time. The rusty deserted cars. The colony ships in the distance. The echoing Fallen screams. I don't think any game will ever give me the same sense of wonderment. Skyrim came close, but not quite.
Skyrim felt way better about the way the world felt and it’s even better with mods allowed. I just don’t find rusty cars, ships in the distance, or echoes to be anything remotely impressive. Out of everything you could’ve said pointing out 3 generic things does nothing for a sense of wonderment.
@@irvinflores6284 So you took the 3 things I mentioned and made the entire Destiny franchise about those 3 things and only those 3 things? Might be through dumbest fucking thing I've ever heard.
@@irvinflores6284 But somehow you find random trees and plants thrown about, crappy looking aurora borealis in the distance, and dragon echoes to be more impressive? What a weird take….
The effects in the skybox were significantly more dreamlike in Destiny 1. It gives you the impression of a world that is far vaster than what you as a player are allowed to explore. But the things in the distance added to the character of the world. The scale and care put into the environment was a deliberate choice. There’s far less “care” in Destiny 2.. In Destiny 2 the environment isn’t telling a compelling story, it’s just the space in between the next thing you’re going to shoot at. The same lack of care is in the enemy design. You were fighting Cabal, Vex, Hive, and Fallen sure. But there was different colors, armor patterns, heraldry, it made the factions you fight look more vast. Now It’s just a homogenous mess of the same copy pasted enemies without the illusion of difference.
Very well said! The different subsections within the factions fleshed out the world building a tob, and it added unspoken context for the player whenever we'd come across these subfactions and engage them. Unlike now where it's the 6th year now, and I still can't fathom why we're fighting Red Legion. They should have nothing left.
The lack of distinctions in terms of factions in D2 always bugged me. Like how the Kell's Scourge, House of Devils and Pirate Fallen all just used the Purple Dusk appearance, how the Cabal enemies in Caiatl's legion are mostly just Red Legion units, and how Xivu Arath's Hive look are just the same ones we've been fighting since year 1. It gets really old, really fast. Not to mention the art design of the enemies in D2 is just a downgrade in general. I feel like Bungie knows this, and that's why newer factions use the old D1 models instead.
"It gives you the impression of a world that is far vaster than what you as a player are allowed to explore" Dude this hits hard, in d1 simply looking at the skybox made you think that something is out there, that there's probably some guardians fighting hive on earth or something, whilst d2 seems seperated i cant imagine that the planet im standing on is in the same galaxy as the others its more like just a game map with enemies on top of it. I was so hyped to see the cosmodrome in d2 thinking maybe it will have the same feel to it but it was just a disapointment.
I always hated that they removed the variety in the enemies even just through colour. Colour is so incredibly important and D1’s variety -something they didn’t have to do- made fighting each at least somewhat unique, especially if you read the lore. D2, while I understand the story reasons why at least the Fallen don’t have much variety anymore, still bothers me in this regard.
One thing that was so immersion breaking to me was in the beginning of the the witch queen, it’s implied that we tore through CAITALS cabal to get onto Savathun’s ship. Yet they use the red war models. WHY CANT THEY JUST CHANGE DAMN COLORS OF THE ARMOR IS IT TOO KUCH TO ASK?! I don’t get how they can throw such a crucial part of the environmental story telling to the side like that. Same with the fallen.
When you really think d1 was so immersive I could explore for hours, I do any of that in d2 and it feels like a chore, in fact the game as a whole does
It's a little sad... You can actually see the art direction from D1 being practically scrapped and reused with the bare minimum effort this time... If D2 had the atmosphere‚ lighting and tone like D1 and with improved graphics? D2 would look downright gorgeous‚ but sadly it's somewhat fallen from grace as the Passion clearly wasn't the exact same as it was for D1
Passion is something the entire destiny team lacks now. Now it’s just a cog of generic content being churned out in generic environments. Even in this newest season Rasputin is still way cooler in d1 than d2
I mean that kinda adds up with how Bungie said that speed is the main priority now. D1 was made with love and actual care, D2 is made just as fast and as sloppily as they can get away with with and still profit. It's such a let down.
My friend keeps trying to defend the price hikes with expansions‚ the seasonal ranks and the sunsetting of old content. "It's a free-to-play game! You don't need to buy all the content to play." And yet if you don't own an expansion you can't play trials‚ visit europa‚ do most of the raids and dungeons‚ lose out on a huge arsenal of exotics and other gear and you're locked out of using the main app to make LFGs Destiny 2 isn't F2P‚ maybe back when it first became free and there were ways around playing this main activities‚ but now your literal handicapped hard if you don't open your wallet and sell out to bungie He even tries to defend sunsetting "Well if there is to much content then the game would take up more storage." I get that‚ but at most it would take 200 something Gbs which compared to other games is nothing
I feel that Destiny 1 had a more space western vibe that was mixed with some fantasy. It also felt pretty grounded with the color pallets they went with in the first game. Destiny 2 aims for a more colorful, sci-fi/fantasy vibe, which can come off as a little generic to me. I think D1’s art style is more timeless compared to D2’s. D2 isn’t ugly to me, but it lacks the originality D1 had imo. Love your vids btw!
It’s like they tried to copy d1 and only took it at face value Like rather than seeing a tree, with wind whistling through the leaves as it moves around and has different tones of colour, with a winding trunk; they just copy the concept of tree and leave it at that.
@@Dipsxi This. This is actually so fucking true. Destiny 1 is thematically a sci-fi set in space with quite a few dark fantasy elements. Destiny 2 is thematically a high fantasy set in space with quite a few sci-fi elements. Another thing is that a lot of people talk about how D2 has less of a sense of mystery contained in its art style. I think that was an intentional choice. In D1, both the studio and the players were still discovering this world for the first time. Now in D2, it’s more “known”, and the art conveys that.
I've been saying this for a while I could never put in words why I thought destiny 1 looked so much better and every time I would bring this up anywhere people would just say it's just nostalgia which is the lamest ass deflection of criticism
Yeah to everyone who says it's just nostalgia literally just show them this video. There is no way anyone in their right mind would say D2 looks better even after seeing this
The Cosmodrome’s always been my favorite location, but seeing how it looked when it returned in D2 was the biggest let down I can remember. I mean aside from the continuity errors, they didn’t even keep the day/night cycle ffs.
I agree. I love destiny but dropping the style for a more realistic look was a bad idea. I can see that they are trying to reverse that with newer looking locations and armor but it still pales in comparison to how D1 looked.
D1 abided for the rule of cool much more. Like as you can see, more saturated colors, vibrant skyboxes which almost looked painterly. Environments mostly set during golden hour. Everything looks better. D2 just goes for realism which looks lame as fuck
As a longtime consistent player since TTK, I’m always surprised that the majority of content creators seem to believe D2 dunks on D1 in every way. While D2 definitely has significant technological advancements and quality of life improvements, the soul of D1 seems to be something D2 keeps half-heartedly, but deliberately circling back to. There’s something about D1 that isn’t just nostalgia that Bungie is either ignorant of or they’re just slow-dripping it back into the game for appeal instead of building off of what D1 produced.
I’ll always love the game, but always wonder why it seems like multiple times Bungie either hasn’t been aware of what has made this game appealing or they have and have strung players along for various reasons instead of continuing to build on their fantastic previous work.
It really feels like two different studios made the games from time to time. Of course there are moments when this dissonance disappears, like in the opening of the last Witch Queen mission of that campaign, most of Europa, King’s Fall, and Seraph Shield, but Bungie really shot themselves in the foot by not making more Destiny 1 environments with Destiny 2 story telling.
Destiny 1 was made by the Bungie of old when they had their history of halo, now Bungie has none of them left and it somewhat shows, now I know what some of you are thinking “How does that correlate to what is going on then now”? If you played Halo then you remember the visuals and the atmosphere that gave Halo the mysterious and beautiful vibes, this was done with the team that moved to 343 or away from Bungie
@@Drunken_Moth Bungie wrongfully fired him and didn't wanna pay him for his work. Marty Sued bungie and won, and they had to pay him for his work. He'd been there since the original days of Halo so for Bungie to do that to him was pretty nasty.
D2 now does not even look as good as D2 original. We had an engine switch in Beyond Light which totally screwed up the lighting in all existing areas. The engine change did enable them to put more enemies and effects on the screen though, so… The worst part is that the graphical change also made the readability of the game worse, especially in Crucible, everything is either too dark, or too bright, or washed out by particle effects.
They seem to rely more on dynamic lighting now, which cuts some of their work and eases the dev's lives, but also takes away part of the atmosphere, since most things relied on baked lighting and some texture work to make things more noticeable (can't think of a better word since I can't remember the english stand for "destacado"). There's also the lack of outlines o the polygons, something that makes the models less vivid and again, noticeable (because I can't remember what is "destacado" on english -_-).
Yep a lot of those moments of way too many sources of light(Altar of Flame is a massive offender) visual fx and other things causing a cluttered overload at the end of the day are kinda just cheapo shortcuts especially if there is that factor that the game is going to be across multiple platforms with varying considerations of hardware and tech settings involved. I think ultimately that's why D2 did a lot that it did design wise compared to the relatively more level playing field of D1. I also cannot stand Bungie's reliance of flashing bright light and noise in your face so frequently and it stings even worst when there are those moments when it's in extremely contrasted dark space, the hobgob snipes in Shattered Throne on top of the swirling greys of environmental fx is one of the most obnoxious things I can think of in the game. It seriously hurts my eyes
The moon is a big example of what a grand, detailed skybox can do for a landscape. The cliffs behind the hellmouth in D1 are radiant, crumbling, almost like they're alive and have a battle going on right then and there. Such a small detail makes the area feel so much bigger than just us. In contrast, D2 somehow feels so much smaller despite being the newer, bigger game. Everything in the game is exactly as shown. No depth, no wonder, it is a single, 4 segment patrol zone and nothing else. There's no one else out there, no other mysteries to make headcanon for. Just cold, dead cliffs. I guess this is what we're gonna get from a studio who believes in "not over delivering."
Destiny 1 is still impressive looking still to this day with it’s art style and atmosphere. It’s crazy how this game is 1 year from being a decade old. Every time I jump back in and see places like the Cosmodrome or Venus I’m still kind of wowed to this day. I think it’s aged very well especially for an online game which is very rare.
Destiny 2 just has a more hallow feel. I remember in D1 always feeling immersed in the area I was in but D2 just lacks that same feel. I guess if I had to sum it up, when playing destiny 1 I felt like I was in another world with so much to experience all the time. While playing Destiny 2 I feel like I’m just playing another game with a check list of things to get done.
so the world itself was looking at you in 1, some of the imagery here makes it seem like you see something alive but it's just the environment and placements made to fool you
I have to say that I miss the eerie ambience of D1 so much. The audio design was so good. The areas were always designed with the intention of feeling ominous and mysterious. I miss the sound of rustling grass, and small detailed sounds that really work to immerse the player in the environment.
in an odd way, many of the moon areas in D1 remind me of many parts in Bloodborne you feel the horror of the place you are in with such a beautiful and rich environment. with an artistic direction that just tops it up with a little nice wrap. D1 shows off its areas with an artistic depth that catches you into the world inside the game, despite being as fantasious as it gets. but despite that, every object in the places you visit have their purpose and fit just like a jigsaw piece D2 just feels like its made realistic to look cool and sellable to the audience, a product made to be consumed. because why bother with artistic choices? as long as it looks high quality it sells, as they said... "Its all about being quick"
Destiny 1 always gave me the kind've feeling I somewhat expect to feel from traveling in space, to distant worlds. The mystifying soundtrack of choirs, violins, and soft piano keys followed by those powerful loading screens of our ships jittering and shaking cameras while flying through light speed to distant planets. Destiny 2's soundtrack is "hero-ized" to sound more epic and grasping...At points where I'm not exactly sharing the feeling. And those passive loading screens of just drifting through light speed like we put the ship on cruise control is so...Bland. I can go on and on about how weapon designs fell off and nothing feels special anymore now that seasonal weapons all look unique and fancy while the nightfall weapons are all I actually want, with their simpler yet captivating designs like Shadow Price, or Grasp of Avarice's Matador 64 Shotgun.
The art direction did things D1 should have, and shouldn't have done. The only new world that's ever felt like it really captures the essence of a D1 destination is Europa, with the abandoned structures and arctic drifts accompanied by the contrasting underground labs of Clovis Bray. I can only really give credit to a handful of Exotics for looking and feeling like they used to. Wardcliff Coil, even though it was originally a D1 weapon, feels so unique to the rest of the weapons due to its design, and it's functions. Whereas new exotics race directly for DPS metas and best performance, original D1 Exotics were just...Unique, Exotic even.
@@protobust262 honestly that statement is wrong outside a handful of destiny 1 exotics like pocket infinity. Destiny 1 is no stranger to having exotics that are just legendaries with higher stats. Looking at you Boolean Gemini. Even gjallarhorn is more unique in d2. What d2 lacks is the rarity (for good or bad) over these exotics. But to say they’re worse in d2 is objectively wrong
@@dawsongranger4940 Well, I never meant to word them as "worse than". I mean to say, that the goal of what an exotic is has changed. The community loves exotics that deal extraordinary amounts of damage, the issue comes from Bungie's response to that. Early D2 Exotics took advantage of the expanse D2 saw in its capabilities, the fresh coat of paint for the series meant they can increase the weird and quirky characteristics of how an exotic weapon functions. It's later on when the exotics evolved into absolute necessities, and that's not exotics in general; That's specifically a handful. Izanagi's, Lament, Eyes, and Sleeper are all figurehead DPS Meta Exotics that no matter what endgame activity you do, at least one person in your fireteam will expect you to have. Instead of expanding the role of exotics, they narrowed them into choices between what is "fun" and what is "required", but almost never both at the same time. Now it is a little too late to go back now, the meta is constantly changing, and the ship to raise the value of other exotics is already sailing as Lightfall draws closer. But the definition of what an exotic is just doesn't feel as it should. I'm not with the impression that I'm using some powerful weapon with a compelling history or background, like I was back in Destiny 1. I guess that's just more of a personal perception, though; A bias. And I agree with your statement that exotics are way too easy to acquire. I genuinely miss getting exotic engrams, and the hype involved with getting the new weapon of the expansion, or an armour piece I'd never had before. It feels all but sort've pointless to have exotic engrams in the game now that we're given a new weapon every season, and new armour can only be acquired through legendary lost sectors. Really, the only reason I can think of having them around is just to re-roll older exotics for better stats.
@@protobust262 I’ve said this in another reply, but I actually feel that it’s extra-warranted here. I think the main reason you feel that Europa is the most d1-esque location in d2 (and I think I agree with you) is that I think d2, thematically and artistically, tends to focus a lot more heavily on high fantasy with sci-fi sprinkled in, while the first game is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi with dark fantasy sprinkled in, if that makes any sense.
The biggest issue with the Cosmodrome is the lack of snow makes everything darker and blander. The moon looked so good with all the lightning effects in D1. In D2 I feel in the helmouth is a lil better but doesn't make up for it (the missions that you fight near the pyramid tho look incredible)
@@JISHBOSIN Yup. It was there in D1 but I guess Bungie didn’t feel like bringing it over. The Cosmodrome’s my favorite location and they did it so dirty
D1 definitely had a more vibrantl look. That's what made me fall in love with it in the first place. I loved farming for materials for hours on end at the different patrol areas because of how beautiful they looked. I hardly go on patrol anymore in D2
More vibrant because these areas were active in activity at thee time. Time had passed since the events of these content locations. We guardians have stabilized the threats there. The hive ship/needles glowing for example? It's death coz it's not longer active there. I like that content is changing with the story.
Another good one to point out is looking down from Felwinters peak. In Destiny 1, you can actually see all around and spot a possible settlement! What's down there? Was that possibly the place where Drifter had his bar? We don't know! It was a mystery. In d2, (in one little side mission) the peak is completely fogged out below the pinnacle of the mountain, and you can't see anything.
Wait really? I know you can see the Cosmodrome if you look out off of side of Felwinter Peak with the old vaults from D1, but I’ve never noticed any little settlement
I haven't played d1 but it looks so nice with those warmer, smoother tones. Texture fidelity can only get you so far, lighting makes the scene. I think it could have something to do with d1 being on console and so it went for more of a cinematic vibe? Idk
A lot of the changes are likely optimizations to achieve 60fps. The Bungie boys went into D1 knowing it would be capped at 30 so you can get away with additional lighting tricks and shadows. But that was 8 years ago now and there's very little excuse with more powerful hardware available today. D2 on PC still needs a lot of help so I imagine that's holding them back as well.
@@StephenZelenak So, you're saying back on XBOX 360, which is when Destiny came out, they could "get away" with making the game look unbelievably detailed to the last pixel, but with much more advanced technology, doubling the fps stops them from doing anything?
Yeah I 💬 the focus was on getting as much detail out of the engine as possible while holding a locked 30 fps, with the downgrade in details shown in the sequel and the fact that it went multiplatform, Bungie wanted to cast a wider net and make the game as accessable as possible on all systems low to high end going forward by scaling everything down I'm a PC only gamer BTW and it sucks that I could never experience D1, as a D2 player with more then 4k hour's put into it this truely feels like missing out
D1 Cosmodrome will never fail to absolutely awe me. It reminds me so much of a snowy January/February evening where winter is at its most desolate, barren state, but the setting sun showers everything across the fields and forest in beautiful shades of orange, yellow, and red. The ambient roars from the Fallen with the wind would add so much mystery, danger, and depth to the environment. I spend hours in the Cosmodrome, just as many as I spent outside on those snowy evenings. You should check out the tunnel in the Summoning Pits! After defeating Phogoth, I'd always become entranced by the immensity of the cavernous tunnel. It looks good in D2, but still loses that mystery from D1 due to how sharp and crisp everything looks.
I never really noticed the visual changes until now. But yeah, Destiny 1 is mostly better. For instance, in your VoG clip, Destiny 2 is missing the somewhat sepia toned filter, the door’s lighting is orange instead of white which leads to bad contrast, and the gun model isn’t (for the most part) getting affected by the lighting of the scene, it’s just… bland.
I feel like with most of the patrol planets they had the sun quite low which was casting a really nice golden light and harsh shadows in D1, but D2 seems to be lit in a much more bland less dramatic way.
@@KrakkenXXX agreed. it feels so static. Either super bright or super dark. Minimal transitions between the two. Few localized lighting areas really feel like they are projecting light. (The lantern in Kings Fall is prime comparison. It’s gorgeous compared to most anything D2 has to offer)
@@mon-taffitan yea actually you’re right it’s both too bright and too dark. The amount of times I’m in a spot where it’s bright and makes 0 sense to be and has no light source???
I have exactly the same feelings. I play D1 and D2 very often, but I've always been bitten by the fact that I liked the graphics in D1 much more. Why bungie decided to make the changes remains a mystery to me.
D1 was absolutely more immersive! The depth of the experience, a combination of the visuals and sound just made it feel way more like an open world, more of an adventure. This really helped the replay ability of things like strikes, something that lacks in D2 big time
So weird dude I was just playing D1 last night for a little bit before bed. Man…that game just reminds me of waking up from a dream and having a certain feeling that you can’t quite place. It was realistic but it was also..abstract? Or… ethereal all at the same time. If that makes any sense. The Tower’s ambience for D1 is the absolute best and I was overcome with emotions when Tranquility was playing in the background while getting an emblem from Eva. D2 has some great things like class abilities and mantle lol but damn does it lack* emotion. You can really tell it was rushed.
But you really also have to consider the soundtrack. Marty did an outstanding job. His tunes gave the world more weight, which enhanced the whole experience. D1 definitely had the cooler lighting
D1 felt, looked, and sounded like a world that just came from an apocalypse. D2 feels, looks, and sounds too clean. Like the collapse was just an inconvenience.
I liked the armor and enemy design better in D1. The Fallen looked more like pirates with their armor, Canal looked like giant space turtles, and both Vex and Hive were a lot taller.
This is the main reason I don't play D2. I fell in love with D1s artstyle always have. I feel like D2's drastic change with the artstyle really killed the game for me
Just from this video this tells me that D1 everything was tailored so you can see the details but in D2 it's just a copy and paste without all the hard work that was in the first one
Honestly even the worlds sound so different d1 sounds so much more Immersive hearing the waterfalls in the cosmodrome really makes you realise what’s missing
In my opinion, the artstyle in D2 is not bad. Destiny 1 just had way more visible effort put into location design, lighting, particle effects and little details, like bugs getting close to your face sometimes, lamps highlighting set in smart places, day night cycles, hive props in particular having lots of carved details and horrifying sceneries and THAT BEAUTIFUL SKYBOX... All in all I like the shadows in D2 but texture and shader quality don't come close. Normally you can't just solve everything with shadows, but they did an impressive job in D2 with it. It flows more fluently...
Also consider, as this game is live, evolving and we guardians took down those threats long ago, what we get is a changed atmosphere and I applaud that. Keeping up with live events, and not just a copy paste of the past.
I think they screwed up something with beyond light lighting update because after that vanilla locations started to look eyemelting ugly, shadows are just pitch black and colors went from colorful and vibrant to the tastleless toxic. Those D1 locations i dont even think was made by just porting it, maybe they ported meshes and overall structure of zones but they used already made d2 textures thats the reason why cosmodrome just looks so ugly and different, even can clearly see they used EDZ textures and assets when making it
I think one of the biggest differences is improper use, or absolute lack of fog that gives that sort of fake volumetric feel to scene lighting in D1. I am sure in D1 that fogginess and softness has been used to cover for LOD pop in like in many games, and they greatly toned it down in D2 since game didn't have to come out on PS3/360, but with that they also affected the mood of the game.
10:29 , honestly... this is an improvement at least, the lighting is gorgeous. But it is not conducive with the walk out into the light and safety feeling that was from Destiny (I.E. the dark tunnel with a light at the end, this is just a UE5 demo looking setting in D2. 5:50 But I absolutely love this, that building looks amazing still. 11:11 also looks very nice ignoring the narrative it was originally used for. The Cosmodrome in D2 was a token area, so there's no excuse about that still. The opening to King's Fall in Destiny felt like they encapsulated the feeling "You are not welcome here.", and then Destiny 2. Edit; ............................... Thinking about all of this Destiny the Original being better, just makes me tired/sad about modern quality control, goodness saying modern feels so terribly overdone at this point.
One thing I was dissapointed about with D2's release and to this day is how the enemies hardly interact with each other in the patrol spaces. In D1, when "the enemy moves against each other" appeared, you knew havoc was right around the corner but in D2, when the same message appears, there is hardly any combat between the enemies and the event does not last nearly as long as it did in D1.
@@emberthecatgirl8796 What i'm saying is that there is a lot more to do in patrol spaces in D1 that where far more exhilirating than what is currently in D2. Yes, there are activities in the patrol zones in D2 but they are not nearly as upscaled as D1's patrol spaces. The only thing I will give D2 patrol zones over D1 patrol zones is the implementation of the Lost Sectors, but even then, I think the Lost Sectors are nowhere near the potential that they could be at.
They seem to have gotten a better updated lighting technology for Destiny 2 and then they just didnt use it, they just have a default for everything without actually adding life to the environments. Its like the difference between cooked food with garnishes and raw food that was cooked just until it was safe to eat. The biggest difference im seeing is Destiny 1 did a better job having dark/light contrasts to make environments really pop while Destiny 2 has better surface reflections/etc, but it feels like a black and white photograph. It also has less color. Destiny 1 felt artistically cinematic, destiny 2 feels blandly photographic.
It's been so long since I've fired up D1. I can't believe how much better it looked over D2. So much more mood, detail and atmosphere. Great video BTW. Eye opener. Wonder if they would ever patch D2 to improve these things, or is that too big a job to do now?
I could be totally wrong here. But I recall it being mentioned that because of a change in engine, it was not possible to simply copy and paste the assets from D1 straight to D2. This meant that while they had an obvious reference point to speed up the development process, the locations still had to be remade from scratch. Given that D1 had a much longer development time than what they had to remake the locations for D2, this could explain the lack of detail and lighting. That being said, I am really not a fan of how muted the colours are in D2 when compared to D1. I even loaded into a Crucible match yesterday and couldn't help but notice the shot of the 6 Guardians lining up before the match looked dull and lifeless. It wasn't even that they were using nuetrally coloured shaders. They were primarily red, blue and green shaders but they still looked so muted and boring. I really appreciate how smooth D2 runs on my PS5 and locations like The Dreaming City are beautiful, but seeing locations side-by-side like this really brings the contrast to light. It's the difference between game development then when compared to now. The rate that content is being produced at is beyond impressive but it has its costs. I have nearly 3000 hours combined between D1 and D2. I love the franchise, but I'm getting to the point where I log in, do the weekly story in under an hour and then leave until next Tuesday. I'll stick around until the end of the Light and Dark Saga. I really want to see how it all ends, but playing Destiny for hours every week just for fun is a thing of the past now. I don't do the core activities and having to explore anywhere for a quest has me resorting to guide to get it out of the way as quickly as possible. Maybe I've gotten old and can't keep up with the grind anymore. But I feel the end coming alright.
Nah bruv i always had a feeling that d2 felt like something was missing and now i know what , d1 had alot more detail and depth you can clearly see it , i remember looking at all the beautiful areas and artstyle in d1 but in d2 it doesnt feel like that anymore and i could never point out why , now that i saw this video i finally know what it is. Bungie yall been lacking.
I definitely think that the moon and the dreadnaught were very noticeable. I thought that the cosmodrome looked better in several places but suffered in a mid range area (namely the pipes). I think the absence of the ship also really brings down the area as well as the overuse of fog. Venus though in a lot of ways I think is an improvement, especially when you take into account what the weather on Venus is actually supposed to be like.
The way i see it is that these areas were once vibrant and more active by enemy threats etc, and after we came in to contain jt, over time as these events passed long ago, they have become dormant, and this an art direction that i applaud because after so many seasons, stuff has passed and changed and kept up with the live story. The dreadnaught is a good example as we took down that threat, whats left is now deserted. Etc. Although I was hoping, just like Calus ship became derelict, was hoping the dreadnaught also became derelict with the egregoire darkness. But as it shows, it hasnt been active or retaken by the darkness in a long time. Look as he didn't compare calus ship in the video. That came back and active again so has vibrant new offerings.
Honestly I think it's just a matter of then not taking the art direction into account when porting the areas from 1 into 2. Same thing happened with total war warhammer where they put all the areas from each game into the sequels but the lighting engine would absolutely fuck up the atmosphere, whereas the areas actually built for it would look stellar. Savathun's throne world and the dreaming city are easily some of my favourite areas in the series and actually take advantage of the game's engine they were built for.
D2 just feels sterile in some areas, it’s most noticeable when looking at the difference in particle effects. D1 had more life to it’s world, audio included too. Subtle differences between the 2 make such a huge difference.
Sadly, I'd say lightfall will be presented in the "D2" way rather than the D1 way. If it was done in the D1 method, it would probably be one of the most beautiful areas ever. My wife isn't a gamer at all but she was watching this video with me and when she saw the before and after on the cosmodrome, she was like, "Oh, my word!" Either they have had to scale back due to the size of the game or they are starting to give less and less effort toward the game. I wish someone could get an answer from Bungie on this. Really is sad. Maybe just me but even the hands and the gun in the video don't look as good in D2. Also, the waterfall comparison was just a travesty. A game should be progressing forward in all areas over time, not regressing.
As a artist/concept artist, Destiny 1 has way more atmosphere and a stronger art direction. Also the sky-boxes in D1 are jaw dropping, something Bungie was renown for. D2 has its moments, but it feels dead in comparison.
So us d1 vets got a better first light view experience than the destiny 2 first lights. Thinking about it now. The only time I want to go hud-less is the dreaming city. Used to do it a lot back in d1. Bungie used to be proud of those sky boxes. You had the rise of iron mission where the ending was just looking out into the distance from where you was first rezed. Those were the days.
Destiny 1 will always be better than D2 just because it was made by (and unfortunately cause the seperation) the core Bungie team that worked on Halo and had the Expertise of making kick-ass games
When they said bringing back old patrol spaces from D1 meant they had to start from scratch, I knew a lot of detail would’ve been lost just to get the space out efficiently. Because the new areas are great, especially savathuuns world, and next is Neptune.
Never realized just how quiet Destiny 2’s world is. The Dreadnaught most of all - its a massive ship teeming with thousands of Hive and Taken, but it just feels so empty.
It's a shame isn't it? After playing pretty obsessively since D1 up until around Forsaken I'd fallen off for a while. More recently been catching up and first impressions when I reached The Witch Queen was that it somehow didn't match up to the mood/atmosphere we were presented with in The Taken King. That isn't to say it's a bad looking game but guess I'm not alone in observing how things don't seem to have as much depth as before.
I think most of the changes were made for the sake of Game Performance. Things like Particle effects, Lighting, and Draw distances needed to be streamlined so that older gen consoles could play as well. Take into account that the game has Way better Textures and a ton more Particle lighting from Combat effects and it allowed them to do more Game play wise. Like, just having missions with twice as many enemies alone could crash an Xbox 360. To anyone reading this who still game's on a Console, you simply HAVE to upgrade to PC nowadays... It's completely worth it...
I agree I thought Destiny 1 was so immersive, the worlds were gorgeous I always got lost in the worlds and spent time in patrol just looking at things They seemed expertly crafted and detailed where I’d get completely immersed into the world
I'm getting a kick out of how much of an opp you are towards modern Bungie lmao. It's good to have an oldhead to point out the obvious. Keep it up! Love the videos.
Destiny 1 always felt like an escape from the world.... and it effortlessly sucked me in. Destiny 2 felt like a drag and a blemish to the first game so I stopped playing it altogether. They're just squeezing what was already there to get every last dime. They'll do it till it runs dry. I'm not saying d2 sucks, but I never got close to the 160 days I had on D1 or whatever it was. Maybe sweet baby is to blame? Activison? Idk.
I’ve always thought this as well. There is something more real looking to Destiny 1. The way the fallen look is so much better in Destiny 1. I remember when I first saw the hive run at me and I distinctly remember seeing the thralls face while it ran at me which brought back similar feelings of mystery and atmosphere that the flood had as well but felt like a new interpretation that had the potential to be better than the flood. Something about Destiny 2s simplicity in its design almost keeps me from looking at thing up close or in detail. I feel like Destiny 1s art style was so good it made you think about what you were seeing. Destiny 2 feels like it was designed to always be just bland enough to stop you from taking a closer look because it’s interesting and stop you from taking a closer look because it’s bland.
I immediately noticed the graphics were lowered considerably in D2, when speaking to vendors. They look very weird in D2. The cinematic scenes are still great though.
I’ve said to my friends before that I easily fell in love with Destiny 1 for its art style. Armour, weapons, environments and all the sound effects including it’s amazing soundtrack. If I hadn’t played Destiny 1 then I highly doubt I’d be able to get into Destiny 2 as a new player. Funny how the gameplay and systems are better than ever but the look of everything pulls most of my opinion.
I’ll never understand why Destiny 2 took such a drastic turn in it’s art style, armor design, and atmosphere/lighting. It’s not the D1 nostalgia, it’s just superior.
That’s crazy to see! But the visuals is just the surface of the problem. The ambient sounds are everything. So many game are lacking good ambient sound effects. The ambient sounds in those examples took me to a COMPLETELY different place.
Its hands down D1. Sure it comes down to personal preference, since d2 is not ugly. BUT. D1 was all about this post apocalyptic, science fantasy space epic. The huge handmade skyboxes, the contrast of colours and materials, the environmental storytelling both in the playable area and outside. Like Take the cosmodrome. Its a brilliant juxtoposition thematically and visually. Its literally a mass grave. 1000s of people died infront of the wall, and within it. dead bodies, rusted planes and facilities everywhere. Its cold. its a lost place. But the huge skybox with the layered clouds, godrays, and the sound design, as well as the materials and colours everywhere, create a breathtaking world to look at. Its ltierally the most beautiful and aweinspireing mass grave YOU WANT to spend time in. D2 has nothing like that. No mattepaining/cloud cards skyboxes. no godrays, no contrast in colours and materials, nowhere near as much environmental storytelling in its playable area as well as the skyboxes and backgrounds. Sure the Dreaming City is to be excluded, but thats ONE location. ONE. I guess you can take the EDZ but even the EDZ is a joke. D1 is an epic science fantasy space opera. D2 is what every F2P mmo becomes: a confused jumbled mess of artstyles and directions all driven by microtransactions.
7:29 Damn... thats one hell of a change.... You can see a major difference, the details, the atmosphere, D2 makes the cosmodrome look like a dead zone whereas D1 makes the place look more vibrant in colours, especially the brightness which is dimmed down in destiny 2 compared to destiny 1. Makes me miss the old days even more now DX
Thats because it is now a deadzone. We took down all threats in the cosmodrome. I like that they keep up with current story and live events and not a copy paste of the past.
This makes me want a destiny remake for the 10 year anniversary more than ever. Imagine the beautiful graphics of d1 with the frames and optimization of d2
The thing that kills the moon for me is how dim the lighting is and how its submerged in fog. D1 let you see what was out there in the distance, and told a story with things like the ISS being destroyed in the sky, random hive artifacts having animations and lighting effects to show that they are important / powerful, and dust / lighting effects in the distance that told you something was happening or building up in the distance. D2 has hidden its environment with bland, flat lighting, removed powerful artifacts and replaced them with a glowing spike, and has hidden the distant parts of the environment with fog... really frustrating and makes me feel closed into the patrol space I'm in rather than on part of a larger planet or moon
I think one of the major things is that the far lower texture resolution/poly count and lack of true realtime effects meant they had to be much more painterly. The clip at 4.42 illustrates this best as viewed at 60fps, motion blur disabled, D2's more subtle realtime DOF/vignetting and higher resolution those awesome edge highlights on the cliffs would look incredibly muddy, lose their 3-dimensionality and be low fidelity. However the thing is in D2 much of what we get is a 4k+ Supersampled etc texture slapped on the basic Geo at Halo Reach polycounts, so it often looks bad. The original D1 artists knew they had horrendous Halo Reach low poly geo, had to use low res compressed textures and couldn't afford many realtime effects, so made the best of it.
I think the D1 stuff is a direct port, and with them being ported it'll probably have caused graphical issues they will have fixed but the way they likely fixed it was as fast and little care as possible
personally I think they're lying - BUT - They said making old areas in the new game is as much effort as making a new area altogether since they redo everything from the ground up, just referencing the original shape of the world to keep it as the same location
@@dave7474 I don't think so, my reasoning behind it is, its the same out of bounds areas , its weird looking textures in areas, very muted lighting in a few places and like in VOG there's one vex who just looks so out of place, because it's from D1 where the model isn't the same and doesn't interact with D2s lighting Engine
Totally fine to criticize the differences here, but I'd really love to see you try to understand and explain why there's a difference. People just go "oh it looks worse, they dropped the ball" and leave it at that. It's unproductive and just serves to perpetuate negativity in the destiny community. I agree with your opinion on destiny 1 looking better, but I don't understand how you can highlight these differences without attempting to explain why. There's a bunch of reasons WHY destiny 2 looks so different, and understanding those reasons is important to the health of the community. All this video does is create discourse and get a bunch of people upset that destiny 1 looked better, instead of serving to reminisce about the glory days, and learn to appreciate what we have now, even if it doesn't look the same. Improvements in certain areas of the game require the sacrifice of other areas sometimes, and I'd way rather have what we have now, than what we had then. Even if it's a bit less graphically polished.
Debated on putting background music in this video but thought it was important to compare the audio of the two games as well. Destiny 2 has almost no ambient sounds in most scenes (little to no sounds of wind, water trickling, trees rustling, footsteps, etc.) and lacks a lot of on screen effects like visible wind gusts and particle effects.
Definitely a good choice. You never notice just how bland and non-existent the ambient music is in D2.
D1 Bungie devs got some skill when it comes to environment art. The Moon in D1 is so atmospheric and mysterious, I love that place. Edit: and btw I think you made the right call on the music, it would be too hard to hear the ambient sounds if you had it
I've never played D1 being PC only gamer and after putting thousands of hour's into D2.. seeing this is very sad, with this comparison video it's truely shocking that you can actually see how the modern game developers attitude and mentality has shifted towards being less focused on the artistry in the medium and more on the business side of things
What a beautiful looking piece of art being discarded and left to be forgotten by it's creator's.. but hey it's just a videogame right Bungie ?
Well I turn the music volume down to play spotify anyway lol but it was almost humorous when the music would just abruptly cut off
It’s an important point, I’d compare the sound and music too. The visuals I agree are better in D1 but maybe even more so with sounds. D1 just had more depth, worse storytelling but it felt much more polished. D2 in comparison feels more rushed. ‘The worlds’ are effectively the campaign so ditching out on so much details like sound and visuals feels disappointing even if there is a better story to chew on.
I have to say destiny 1 was the first game I ever saw where parts of the levels looked exactly like the concept art. I like the way the first game had kind of a painted look, and it’s a shame we lost that and got a slightly more generic look for d2
I find it funny that so many people will blindly say D1 art style was only the way it was because of hardware limitations as a way to defend D2. I’d be a millionaire if I had a dollar for every time someone said the fogs and grays were only used to hide bad textures. Just compare the view of the Hellmouth pit from D1 to D2. In D1 you see this awesome looking pit of Hive magic. In D2 it’s just some green fog. That’s not even mentioning debris and other details lazily ignored when porting to D2. How can anyone make this argument?
@@alter6243 Yeah thats very true, bungie have been lacking in the detail department.
But playing DSC and VOW, bungie have stepped up their game a little, those raids have some amazing detail in them but I'm merely listing 2 raids which is only a percentage of the game itself, I don't want to defend this game, just thought I'd mention something.
@HorrorPleb I do think they're stepping apart a little. Savathuns throneworld is an amazing skybox (my opinion) and the new dungeon and how you can look out on the Mars surface for miles. If they have a good sky box and details for lightfall, I'd say both d1 and LATER STAGE d2 had great detailing. Early d2 was definitely not and lacked when expoting the d1 world's for sure
@@Horrorpleb I totally agree. Can’t forget to mention the Argos boss fight room right? Destiny 2 has some really awesome detail in the right areas. I just think they are too scared to innovate as even the Lightfall location is very similar in design and coloring to the arcology on Titan. Bungie has gotten comfortable with a few color schemes and seem scared to branch out. Bungie has amazing world designers and it would be criminal to let them be complacent.
@@alter6243They’re not wrong.
When you have limited resources, you have to get creative with making the art look appealing to the eye. Destiny 1 blended photorealistic backdrops with stylized foreground subjects.
Destiny 2 can get as visually creative as Bungie wants with hypothetically little to no limits. Look at how beautiful Y1 was.
However, combined with entering budget mode after splitting ties with Actvision, the dumd lockdowns, and senior development being reserved for other projects, Destiny 2 current year has taken on a “good enough” strategy. Yea, the maps are not simply ported. They’re rebuilt, textures upscaled/redone, scripting fixed, environments axed or added, but Bungie is not dedicating a full development cycle to rehashed content. If Bungie can reuse assets to help match the D2 art style for less effort. If they can save time and money, they will not hesitate. If it’s good enough, it ships.
Plus, it’s been years. Talent comes and goes at game studios. Bungie is no exception.
A lot of these D1 areas feel like they were made with horror movies in mind, or rather, made to invoke a sense of ominous isolation and abandonment. They all convey the feeling: “You Don’t Belong Here” with their art and tone. The lighting ambient sounds and music only added to that and it’s sad that the team that worked on D1 is most likely not the same people who worked on D2 locations since, you can tell that ominous isolation is not present in any D2 locations.
that team (the original Halo team) was gone before D1 was even released. they made such a strong foundation that the game still lives on thanks to it.
There's nothing quite like the moody atmosphere that just oozes from every location in D1.
yeah, things just felt "alien." but it was made by the same guys who worked on Halo when Bungie was the most loved in the biz, so they wanted to do something huge for the next game- even hiring paul mccartney (guy from the beatles) for composition of the base game. they just don't have that same drive as they used to, and the vibes are for the most part so much worse. forsaken was a different story- great music and visuals, but it still ran on the same engine- everything looked shiny and unpolished. this isn't that surprising- as good as rise of iron looked, it didn't look as good as TTK or the base game of Destiny, so D2 not looking as good isn't too surprising.
The you don’t belong here is there perfect way to put it
Im still waiting for a Destiny 1 Classic release akin to WoW classic.
Redo it all with the different phases and do raid races.
I never noticed how quiet destiny 2 is until I watched this video, D2 needs more ambient audio and soundtracks in overworld areas.
I play with no word audio and no subtitles, only thing I hear in destiny is music and guns shooting lol
The Cosmodrome part had ambient music disabled for D2
November really didn’t put in any thought into accurately recreating even the stationary shots - with things like not decreasing FOV to 90, seemingly disabling ambient music in the Cosmodrome and not standing in the same spots.
I agree that things like the sand mixing with snow in the cosmodrome or the Drednaught’s green lighting gave the locations so much more character, and I would love to agree with the whole video, but this is just nostalgia baiting, with no actual thought put into comparing the views in an objective manner.
I really want to like this video, I really do, but it’s just disappointing how little thought was put into recreating the actual shots - while the editing is so good and well thought out.
@@emberthecatgirl8796 i actually did set the FOV to 85 in d2 for this video because d1 fov was 85. also i did not disable the ambient music at all. there simply was not music playing at any point while exploring d2's cosmodrome. i had the sound volumes at the same level for both games, and tried to recreate the scene as accurately as possible. pretty silly to just throw out wild accusations that i disabled audio and purposely tried to make d2 look bad. i think you doing that just proves that Destiny 2 truly does lack style and atmosphere if you think i bothered messing with settings lol
@@emberthecatgirl8796 get dunked on
@@NovemberHotel I do admit, the ambient sounds are extremely quiet if any - and the same goes for the music. The sound design, at least in the revamped locations, is a downgrade compared to D1 (though original locations have some banger ambience).
However, I double and triple checked the first Cosmodrome example and the FOV is different. I took a screenshot of the same spot you're standing, with the right-side hangar lined up, and my image cuts out in the middle of the second group of trees from the left when taken at 90 (not 85) FOV.
I now realise that I have gone over the line between criticism and just being obnoxious and I want to apologise, but I am 100% certain that at least some images do not have the same FOV settings (which, again, I now see is a dumb hill to die on). Regardless, I can send you my screenshot as proof if you want me to, sorry for causing a scene.
What a difference, been playing D2 so long I forgot how great D1 looked and never would have thought the differences would be that obvious. They definitely dropped the ball on the lighting
Yeah, I just straight up forgot.
Stepping out a cave literally gets you blinded in crucible. Like who thought that lighting was a good idea!
dropped the ball?!? na they straight up cut the power
@@SpiritOfDestiny Semantics, we mean the same thing.
At least on the baked lighting, because the dynamic lighting is better on D2.
After watching this video it really goes to show that D1 has immaculate ambience and the sky box is incredible. I never realized how much detail D2 is lacking and how much they covered up with muddy looking fog. I’m amazed at the floating particles and bugs flying around in D1 and see none of it in D2.
Exactly. It’s such a shame that I so often see and hear people who point this out be met with something along the lines of “that’s just nostalgia speaking” when it’s just not
I remember playing D1 for the first time. The rusty deserted cars. The colony ships in the distance. The echoing Fallen screams. I don't think any game will ever give me the same sense of wonderment. Skyrim came close, but not quite.
Skyrim felt way better about the way the world felt and it’s even better with mods allowed. I just don’t find rusty cars, ships in the distance, or echoes to be anything remotely impressive. Out of everything you could’ve said pointing out 3 generic things does nothing for a sense of wonderment.
@@irvinflores6284 So you took the 3 things I mentioned and made the entire Destiny franchise about those 3 things and only those 3 things? Might be through dumbest fucking thing I've ever heard.
@@irvinflores6284 ☝️🤓
@@irvinflores6284Man let people have their opinions and joy
@@irvinflores6284 But somehow you find random trees and plants thrown about, crappy looking aurora borealis in the distance, and dragon echoes to be more impressive? What a weird take….
The effects in the skybox were significantly more dreamlike in Destiny 1. It gives you the impression of a world that is far vaster than what you as a player are allowed to explore.
But the things in the distance added to the character of the world. The scale and care put into the environment was a deliberate choice.
There’s far less “care” in Destiny 2..
In Destiny 2 the environment isn’t telling a compelling story, it’s just the space in between the next thing you’re going to shoot at.
The same lack of care is in the enemy design. You were fighting Cabal, Vex, Hive, and Fallen sure. But there was different colors, armor patterns, heraldry, it made the factions you fight look more vast.
Now It’s just a homogenous mess of the same copy pasted enemies without the illusion of difference.
Very well said! The different subsections within the factions fleshed out the world building a tob, and it added unspoken context for the player whenever we'd come across these subfactions and engage them. Unlike now where it's the 6th year now, and I still can't fathom why we're fighting Red Legion. They should have nothing left.
The lack of distinctions in terms of factions in D2 always bugged me. Like how the Kell's Scourge, House of Devils and Pirate Fallen all just used the Purple Dusk appearance, how the Cabal enemies in Caiatl's legion are mostly just Red Legion units, and how Xivu Arath's Hive look are just the same ones we've been fighting since year 1. It gets really old, really fast.
Not to mention the art design of the enemies in D2 is just a downgrade in general. I feel like Bungie knows this, and that's why newer factions use the old D1 models instead.
"It gives you the impression of a world that is far vaster than what you as a player are allowed to explore" Dude this hits hard, in d1 simply looking at the skybox made you think that something is out there, that there's probably some guardians fighting hive on earth or something, whilst d2 seems seperated i cant imagine that the planet im standing on is in the same galaxy as the others its more like just a game map with enemies on top of it. I was so hyped to see the cosmodrome in d2 thinking maybe it will have the same feel to it but it was just a disapointment.
I always hated that they removed the variety in the enemies even just through colour. Colour is so incredibly important and D1’s variety -something they didn’t have to do- made fighting each at least somewhat unique, especially if you read the lore.
D2, while I understand the story reasons why at least the Fallen don’t have much variety anymore, still bothers me in this regard.
One thing that was so immersion breaking to me was in the beginning of the the witch queen, it’s implied that we tore through CAITALS cabal to get onto Savathun’s ship. Yet they use the red war models. WHY CANT THEY JUST CHANGE DAMN COLORS OF THE ARMOR IS IT TOO KUCH TO ASK?! I don’t get how they can throw such a crucial part of the environmental story telling to the side like that. Same with the fallen.
What I miss the most from D1 are the Cosmodrom's clouds. I remember watching them move for hours...
Depth. It's all about depth.
When you really think d1 was so immersive I could explore for hours, I do any of that in d2 and it feels like a chore, in fact the game as a whole does
It's a little sad... You can actually see the art direction from D1 being practically scrapped and reused with the bare minimum effort this time... If D2 had the atmosphere‚ lighting and tone like D1 and with improved graphics? D2 would look downright gorgeous‚ but sadly it's somewhat fallen from grace as the Passion clearly wasn't the exact same as it was for D1
Passion is something the entire destiny team lacks now. Now it’s just a cog of generic content being churned out in generic environments. Even in this newest season Rasputin is still way cooler in d1 than d2
@@dawsongranger4940 ding ding ding, we have a winner.
They don’t really care. They’ve admitted it before.
I mean that kinda adds up with how Bungie said that speed is the main priority now. D1 was made with love and actual care, D2 is made just as fast and as sloppily as they can get away with with and still profit. It's such a let down.
It’s corporate greed and lack the same passion for the game
My friend keeps trying to defend the price hikes with expansions‚ the seasonal ranks and the sunsetting of old content.
"It's a free-to-play game! You don't need to buy all the content to play."
And yet if you don't own an expansion you can't play trials‚ visit europa‚ do most of the raids and dungeons‚ lose out on a huge arsenal of exotics and other gear and you're locked out of using the main app to make LFGs
Destiny 2 isn't F2P‚ maybe back when it first became free and there were ways around playing this main activities‚ but now your literal handicapped hard if you don't open your wallet and sell out to bungie
He even tries to defend sunsetting "Well if there is to much content then the game would take up more storage."
I get that‚ but at most it would take 200 something Gbs which compared to other games is nothing
D1 has that ‘living breathing world’ feel to it. D2 took the ‘living and breathing’ part out.
Facts
I feel that Destiny 1 had a more space western vibe that was mixed with some fantasy. It also felt pretty grounded with the color pallets they went with in the first game. Destiny 2 aims for a more colorful, sci-fi/fantasy vibe, which can come off as a little generic to me. I think D1’s art style is more timeless compared to D2’s. D2 isn’t ugly to me, but it lacks the originality D1 had imo. Love your vids btw!
It was so unapologetically halo era bungie.
D1 was sci-fi with a fantasy twist, D2 is fantasy with a sci-fi twist.
It’s like they tried to copy d1 and only took it at face value
Like rather than seeing a tree, with wind whistling through the leaves as it moves around and has different tones of colour, with a winding trunk; they just copy the concept of tree and leave it at that.
@@Dipsxi This. This is actually so fucking true. Destiny 1 is thematically a sci-fi set in space with quite a few dark fantasy elements. Destiny 2 is thematically a high fantasy set in space with quite a few sci-fi elements.
Another thing is that a lot of people talk about how D2 has less of a sense of mystery contained in its art style. I think that was an intentional choice. In D1, both the studio and the players were still discovering this world for the first time. Now in D2, it’s more “known”, and the art conveys that.
so a western wild west sci fi with fantasy elements
I've been saying this for a while I could never put in words why I thought destiny 1 looked so much better and every time I would bring this up anywhere people would just say it's just nostalgia which is the lamest ass deflection of criticism
Yeah to everyone who says it's just nostalgia literally just show them this video. There is no way anyone in their right mind would say D2 looks better even after seeing this
You say you like anything in D1 better than D2 they are programmed to say “its just nostalgia”
@@Gilbert_Eugene I think D2 is far superior with the sandbox and loot. But D1 has the art style and qol advantage.
destiny 2 looks so much better than d1, you just seem salty tbh, maybe your specs is ass ? :)
The Cosmodrome’s always been my favorite location, but seeing how it looked when it returned in D2 was the biggest let down I can remember. I mean aside from the continuity errors, they didn’t even keep the day/night cycle ffs.
I agree. I love destiny but dropping the style for a more realistic look was a bad idea. I can see that they are trying to reverse that with newer looking locations and armor but it still pales in comparison to how D1 looked.
I still think D1 looks more realistic than D2.
D1 abided for the rule of cool much more. Like as you can see, more saturated colors, vibrant skyboxes which almost looked painterly. Environments mostly set during golden hour. Everything looks better. D2 just goes for realism which looks lame as fuck
Sav’s throne world was definitely a huge step up.
@@Firex00 I mean, the Moon looked more realistic in D1.
@@Firex00 D1 = Halo 3 while D2= Halo reach
As a longtime consistent player since TTK, I’m always surprised that the majority of content creators seem to believe D2 dunks on D1 in every way. While D2 definitely has significant technological advancements and quality of life improvements, the soul of D1 seems to be something D2 keeps half-heartedly, but deliberately circling back to. There’s something about D1 that isn’t just nostalgia that Bungie is either ignorant of or they’re just slow-dripping it back into the game for appeal instead of building off of what D1 produced.
I’ll always love the game, but always wonder why it seems like multiple times Bungie either hasn’t been aware of what has made this game appealing or they have and have strung players along for various reasons instead of continuing to build on their fantastic previous work.
As a d1 player before crotas end, d2 has cooler sky boxes like the dreaming city and views like the seraph station, morning star and the queens court
It really feels like two different studios made the games from time to time. Of course there are moments when this dissonance disappears, like in the opening of the last Witch Queen mission of that campaign, most of Europa, King’s Fall, and Seraph Shield, but Bungie really shot themselves in the foot by not making more Destiny 1 environments with Destiny 2 story telling.
Destiny 1 was made by the Bungie of old when they had their history of halo, now Bungie has none of them left and it somewhat shows, now I know what some of you are thinking “How does that correlate to what is going on then now”? If you played Halo then you remember the visuals and the atmosphere that gave Halo the mysterious and beautiful vibes, this was done with the team that moved to 343 or away from Bungie
Yeah I agree, I can't understand why Bungie won't just look at what their community is saying and actually consider it being a good idea.
I believe the audio created this atmosphere in the first game that d2 lacks big time
That's Marty O'Donnel for you
@@Firex00 Was he still with them for D1?
@@bannedmann4469 yeah he got fired a few months before launch so all his audio design and audio mixing was in Destiny 1's worlds.
What'd he get fired for?
@@Drunken_Moth Bungie wrongfully fired him and didn't wanna pay him for his work. Marty Sued bungie and won, and they had to pay him for his work. He'd been there since the original days of Halo so for Bungie to do that to him was pretty nasty.
D2 now does not even look as good as D2 original. We had an engine switch in Beyond Light which totally screwed up the lighting in all existing areas. The engine change did enable them to put more enemies and effects on the screen though, so… The worst part is that the graphical change also made the readability of the game worse, especially in Crucible, everything is either too dark, or too bright, or washed out by particle effects.
They seem to rely more on dynamic lighting now, which cuts some of their work and eases the dev's lives, but also takes away part of the atmosphere, since most things relied on baked lighting and some texture work to make things more noticeable (can't think of a better word since I can't remember the english stand for "destacado"). There's also the lack of outlines o the polygons, something that makes the models less vivid and again, noticeable (because I can't remember what is "destacado" on english -_-).
@@ilucasz Featured, highlighted, noticeable, notable, to name a few.
@@stephensteve8454 Thanks I was almost falling asleep when I wrote my answer. Ahahahahah
Yep a lot of those moments of way too many sources of light(Altar of Flame is a massive offender) visual fx and other things causing a cluttered overload at the end of the day are kinda just cheapo shortcuts especially if there is that factor that the game is going to be across multiple platforms with varying considerations of hardware and tech settings involved. I think ultimately that's why D2 did a lot that it did design wise compared to the relatively more level playing field of D1.
I also cannot stand Bungie's reliance of flashing bright light and noise in your face so frequently and it stings even worst when there are those moments when it's in extremely contrasted dark space, the hobgob snipes in Shattered Throne on top of the swirling greys of environmental fx is one of the most obnoxious things I can think of in the game. It seriously hurts my eyes
So that's why lighting felt so off when I came back
The moon is a big example of what a grand, detailed skybox can do for a landscape. The cliffs behind the hellmouth in D1 are radiant, crumbling, almost like they're alive and have a battle going on right then and there. Such a small detail makes the area feel so much bigger than just us.
In contrast, D2 somehow feels so much smaller despite being the newer, bigger game. Everything in the game is exactly as shown. No depth, no wonder, it is a single, 4 segment patrol zone and nothing else. There's no one else out there, no other mysteries to make headcanon for. Just cold, dead cliffs.
I guess this is what we're gonna get from a studio who believes in "not over delivering."
Destiny 1 is still impressive looking still to this day with it’s art style and atmosphere. It’s crazy how this game is 1 year from being a decade old.
Every time I jump back in and see places like the Cosmodrome or Venus I’m still kind of wowed to this day. I think it’s aged very well especially for an online game which is very rare.
Destiny 2 just has a more hallow feel. I remember in D1 always feeling immersed in the area I was in but D2 just lacks that same feel. I guess if I had to sum it up, when playing destiny 1 I felt like I was in another world with so much to experience all the time. While playing Destiny 2 I feel like I’m just playing another game with a check list of things to get done.
so the world itself was looking at you in 1, some of the imagery here makes it seem like you see something alive but it's just the environment and placements made to fool you
I have to say that I miss the eerie ambience of D1 so much. The audio design was so good. The areas were always designed with the intention of feeling ominous and mysterious. I miss the sound of rustling grass, and small detailed sounds that really work to immerse the player in the environment.
in an odd way, many of the moon areas in D1 remind me of many parts in Bloodborne
you feel the horror of the place you are in with such a beautiful and rich environment. with an artistic direction that just tops it up with a little nice wrap. D1 shows off its areas with an artistic depth that catches you into the world inside the game, despite being as fantasious as it gets. but despite that, every object in the places you visit have their purpose and fit just like a jigsaw piece
D2 just feels like its made realistic to look cool and sellable to the audience, a product made to be consumed. because why bother with artistic choices? as long as it looks high quality it sells, as they said... "Its all about being quick"
Luke smith sucked the soul out of the game
Destiny 1 always gave me the kind've feeling I somewhat expect to feel from traveling in space, to distant worlds.
The mystifying soundtrack of choirs, violins, and soft piano keys followed by those powerful loading screens of our ships jittering and shaking cameras while flying through light speed to distant planets.
Destiny 2's soundtrack is "hero-ized" to sound more epic and grasping...At points where I'm not exactly sharing the feeling. And those passive loading screens of just drifting through light speed like we put the ship on cruise control is so...Bland.
I can go on and on about how weapon designs fell off and nothing feels special anymore now that seasonal weapons all look unique and fancy while the nightfall weapons are all I actually want, with their simpler yet captivating designs like Shadow Price, or Grasp of Avarice's Matador 64 Shotgun.
The art direction did things D1 should have, and shouldn't have done. The only new world that's ever felt like it really captures the essence of a D1 destination is Europa, with the abandoned structures and arctic drifts accompanied by the contrasting underground labs of Clovis Bray. I can only really give credit to a handful of Exotics for looking and feeling like they used to. Wardcliff Coil, even though it was originally a D1 weapon, feels so unique to the rest of the weapons due to its design, and it's functions. Whereas new exotics race directly for DPS metas and best performance, original D1 Exotics were just...Unique, Exotic even.
@@protobust262 honestly that statement is wrong outside a handful of destiny 1 exotics like pocket infinity. Destiny 1 is no stranger to having exotics that are just legendaries with higher stats. Looking at you Boolean Gemini. Even gjallarhorn is more unique in d2. What d2 lacks is the rarity (for good or bad) over these exotics. But to say they’re worse in d2 is objectively wrong
@@dawsongranger4940 Well, I never meant to word them as "worse than". I mean to say, that the goal of what an exotic is has changed. The community loves exotics that deal extraordinary amounts of damage, the issue comes from Bungie's response to that. Early D2 Exotics took advantage of the expanse D2 saw in its capabilities, the fresh coat of paint for the series meant they can increase the weird and quirky characteristics of how an exotic weapon functions.
It's later on when the exotics evolved into absolute necessities, and that's not exotics in general; That's specifically a handful. Izanagi's, Lament, Eyes, and Sleeper are all figurehead DPS Meta Exotics that no matter what endgame activity you do, at least one person in your fireteam will expect you to have.
Instead of expanding the role of exotics, they narrowed them into choices between what is "fun" and what is "required", but almost never both at the same time.
Now it is a little too late to go back now, the meta is constantly changing, and the ship to raise the value of other exotics is already sailing as Lightfall draws closer. But the definition of what an exotic is just doesn't feel as it should. I'm not with the impression that I'm using some powerful weapon with a compelling history or background, like I was back in Destiny 1. I guess that's just more of a personal perception, though; A bias.
And I agree with your statement that exotics are way too easy to acquire. I genuinely miss getting exotic engrams, and the hype involved with getting the new weapon of the expansion, or an armour piece I'd never had before. It feels all but sort've pointless to have exotic engrams in the game now that we're given a new weapon every season, and new armour can only be acquired through legendary lost sectors. Really, the only reason I can think of having them around is just to re-roll older exotics for better stats.
@@protobust262 I’ve said this in another reply, but I actually feel that it’s extra-warranted here. I think the main reason you feel that Europa is the most d1-esque location in d2 (and I think I agree with you) is that I think d2, thematically and artistically, tends to focus a lot more heavily on high fantasy with sci-fi sprinkled in, while the first game is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi with dark fantasy sprinkled in, if that makes any sense.
The biggest issue with the Cosmodrome is the lack of snow makes everything darker and blander. The moon looked so good with all the lightning effects in D1. In D2 I feel in the helmouth is a lil better but doesn't make up for it (the missions that you fight near the pyramid tho look incredible)
Not to mention the lack of a day/night cycle. It’s always midday so you don’t get any dramatic shadows
@@A-with-the-J really? I've never stayed on the cosmodrome for long enough
@@JISHBOSIN Yup. It was there in D1 but I guess Bungie didn’t feel like bringing it over. The Cosmodrome’s my favorite location and they did it so dirty
I like the busted up space station and ploom of smoke on d1s moon
D1 definitely had a more vibrantl look. That's what made me fall in love with it in the first place. I loved farming for materials for hours on end at the different patrol areas because of how beautiful they looked. I hardly go on patrol anymore in D2
Yeah me too , I use to love patrolling in d2
D2 lighting is a joke
More vibrant because these areas were active in activity at thee time. Time had passed since the events of these content locations. We guardians have stabilized the threats there. The hive ship/needles glowing for example? It's death coz it's not longer active there. I like that content is changing with the story.
@@LuchoVenathis is a terrible excuse for the lack of life in these environments tbh. doubt they put that much thought into it
Another good one to point out is looking down from Felwinters peak. In Destiny 1, you can actually see all around and spot a possible settlement! What's down there? Was that possibly the place where Drifter had his bar? We don't know! It was a mystery. In d2, (in one little side mission) the peak is completely fogged out below the pinnacle of the mountain, and you can't see anything.
Wait really? I know you can see the Cosmodrome if you look out off of side of Felwinter Peak with the old vaults from D1, but I’ve never noticed any little settlement
@A with the J it's pretty cool, looks like a tiny town. It should be off that same side as the vaults.
@@sauceboss9443 pretty sure that's the plaguelands
@Austin Gray I'll have to check that but sounds plausible!
the lighting and atmosphere is 100% the main difference, d1 just hits different
Destiny 1 felt gritty and dark and Destiny 2 just feels like a colorful cartoon.
D2 is so cartoony it’s unreal
@@4am446 yea
I haven't played d1 but it looks so nice with those warmer, smoother tones. Texture fidelity can only get you so far, lighting makes the scene.
I think it could have something to do with d1 being on console and so it went for more of a cinematic vibe? Idk
you missed out, d1 was better than d2 imo
@@harvvv8930 Agreed
A lot of the changes are likely optimizations to achieve 60fps. The Bungie boys went into D1 knowing it would be capped at 30 so you can get away with additional lighting tricks and shadows. But that was 8 years ago now and there's very little excuse with more powerful hardware available today. D2 on PC still needs a lot of help so I imagine that's holding them back as well.
@@StephenZelenak So, you're saying back on XBOX 360, which is when Destiny came out, they could "get away" with making the game look unbelievably detailed to the last pixel, but with much more advanced technology, doubling the fps stops them from doing anything?
Yeah I 💬 the focus was on getting as much detail out of the engine as possible while holding a locked 30 fps, with the downgrade in details shown in the sequel and the fact that it went multiplatform, Bungie wanted to cast a wider net and make the game as accessable as possible on all systems low to high end going forward by scaling everything down
I'm a PC only gamer BTW and it sucks that I could never experience D1, as a D2 player with more then 4k hour's put into it this truely feels like missing out
D1 Cosmodrome will never fail to absolutely awe me. It reminds me so much of a snowy January/February evening where winter is at its most desolate, barren state, but the setting sun showers everything across the fields and forest in beautiful shades of orange, yellow, and red. The ambient roars from the Fallen with the wind would add so much mystery, danger, and depth to the environment. I spend hours in the Cosmodrome, just as many as I spent outside on those snowy evenings.
You should check out the tunnel in the Summoning Pits! After defeating Phogoth, I'd always become entranced by the immensity of the cavernous tunnel. It looks good in D2, but still loses that mystery from D1 due to how sharp and crisp everything looks.
I never really noticed the visual changes until now. But yeah, Destiny 1 is mostly better. For instance, in your VoG clip, Destiny 2 is missing the somewhat sepia toned filter, the door’s lighting is orange instead of white which leads to bad contrast, and the gun model isn’t (for the most part) getting affected by the lighting of the scene, it’s just… bland.
I feel like with most of the patrol planets they had the sun quite low which was casting a really nice golden light and harsh shadows in D1, but D2 seems to be lit in a much more bland less dramatic way.
The lighting in d2 is a joke
@@KrakkenXXX agreed. it feels so static. Either super bright or super dark. Minimal transitions between the two. Few localized lighting areas really feel like they are projecting light. (The lantern in Kings Fall is prime comparison. It’s gorgeous compared to most anything D2 has to offer)
Definitely, and it’s way too bright in d2, d1 had a lot of darkness
@@mon-taffitan yea actually you’re right it’s both too bright and too dark. The amount of times I’m in a spot where it’s bright and makes 0 sense to be and has no light source???
I have exactly the same feelings. I play D1 and D2 very often, but I've always been bitten by the fact that I liked the graphics in D1 much more. Why bungie decided to make the changes remains a mystery to me.
D1 was absolutely more immersive! The depth of the experience, a combination of the visuals and sound just made it feel way more like an open world, more of an adventure. This really helped the replay ability of things like strikes, something that lacks in D2 big time
D1 - Atmosphere and environmental story telling
D2 - Corporate Slop
I absolutely loved the skybox of D1. Everytime I looked into the sky just to see the amazing galaxies above me
The skybox of the dreaming city is probably one of the best skybox in gaming history. Imo
@@fake_hugo404 Yeah everything Awoken related in Destiny is awesome
I quit Destiny 2 in October 2017, but even then I noticed D2 looked way more cartoony
So weird dude I was just playing D1 last night for a little bit before bed. Man…that game just reminds me of waking up from a dream and having a certain feeling that you can’t quite place. It was realistic but it was also..abstract? Or… ethereal all at the same time. If that makes any sense.
The Tower’s ambience for D1 is the absolute best and I was overcome with emotions when Tranquility was playing in the background while getting an emblem from Eva.
D2 has some great things like class abilities and mantle lol but damn does it lack* emotion. You can really tell it was rushed.
But you really also have to consider the soundtrack. Marty did an outstanding job. His tunes gave the world more weight, which enhanced the whole experience. D1 definitely had the cooler lighting
D1 looks like a game bungie made in its prime when D2 looks like something a soulless company would make
D1 felt, looked, and sounded like a world that just came from an apocalypse.
D2 feels, looks, and sounds too clean. Like the collapse was just an inconvenience.
I liked the armor and enemy design better in D1. The Fallen looked more like pirates with their armor, Canal looked like giant space turtles, and both Vex and Hive were a lot taller.
This is the main reason I don't play D2. I fell in love with D1s artstyle always have. I feel like D2's drastic change with the artstyle really killed the game for me
Just from this video this tells me that D1 everything was tailored so you can see the details but in D2 it's just a copy and paste without all the hard work that was in the first one
Honestly even the worlds sound so different d1 sounds so much more Immersive hearing the waterfalls in the cosmodrome really makes you realise what’s missing
In my opinion, the artstyle in D2 is not bad. Destiny 1 just had way more visible effort put into location design, lighting, particle effects and little details, like bugs getting close to your face sometimes, lamps highlighting set in smart places, day night cycles, hive props in particular having lots of carved details and horrifying sceneries and THAT BEAUTIFUL SKYBOX...
All in all I like the shadows in D2 but texture and shader quality don't come close. Normally you can't just solve everything with shadows, but they did an impressive job in D2 with it. It flows more fluently...
Also consider, as this game is live, evolving and we guardians took down those threats long ago, what we get is a changed atmosphere and I applaud that. Keeping up with live events, and not just a copy paste of the past.
I think they screwed up something with beyond light lighting update because after that vanilla locations started to look eyemelting ugly, shadows are just pitch black and colors went from colorful and vibrant to the tastleless toxic.
Those D1 locations i dont even think was made by just porting it, maybe they ported meshes and overall structure of zones but they used already made d2 textures thats the reason why cosmodrome just looks so ugly and different, even can clearly see they used EDZ textures and assets when making it
D1 is definitely superior. Also, the enemies look SOOOOO much better in D1
VoG reminds me and pains me of when Raids were in genuine Patrol zones. Really wish they didn't give that up.
D2 doesn't feel alive , the world just feels empty or lifeless
I think one of the biggest differences is improper use, or absolute lack of fog that gives that sort of fake volumetric feel to scene lighting in D1.
I am sure in D1 that fogginess and softness has been used to cover for LOD pop in like in many games, and they greatly toned it down in D2 since game didn't have to come out on PS3/360, but with that they also affected the mood of the game.
Simply compare kings fall between both games, that and the removal of graphical effects like the taken static makes it too bright.
10:29 , honestly... this is an improvement at least, the lighting is gorgeous. But it is not conducive with the walk out into the light and safety feeling that was from Destiny (I.E. the dark tunnel with a light at the end, this is just a UE5 demo looking setting in D2.
5:50 But I absolutely love this, that building looks amazing still.
11:11 also looks very nice ignoring the narrative it was originally used for. The Cosmodrome in D2 was a token area, so there's no excuse about that still.
The opening to King's Fall in Destiny felt like they encapsulated the feeling "You are not welcome here.", and then Destiny 2.
Edit; ............................... Thinking about all of this Destiny the Original being better, just makes me tired/sad about modern quality control, goodness saying modern feels so terribly overdone at this point.
One thing I was dissapointed about with D2's release and to this day is how the enemies hardly interact with each other in the patrol spaces. In D1, when "the enemy moves against each other" appeared, you knew havoc was right around the corner but in D2, when the same message appears, there is hardly any combat between the enemies and the event does not last nearly as long as it did in D1.
When are you in D2 patrol spaces anymore? In D1 you had to farm planetary mats, in D2 you can focus on doing fun activities.
@@FlammableRadish ok, valid
@@emberthecatgirl8796 What i'm saying is that there is a lot more to do in patrol spaces in D1 that where far more exhilirating than what is currently in D2. Yes, there are activities in the patrol zones in D2 but they are not nearly as upscaled as D1's patrol spaces. The only thing I will give D2 patrol zones over D1 patrol zones is the implementation of the Lost Sectors, but even then, I think the Lost Sectors are nowhere near the potential that they could be at.
They seem to have gotten a better updated lighting technology for Destiny 2 and then they just didnt use it, they just have a default for everything without actually adding life to the environments. Its like the difference between cooked food with garnishes and raw food that was cooked just until it was safe to eat. The biggest difference im seeing is Destiny 1 did a better job having dark/light contrasts to make environments really pop while Destiny 2 has better surface reflections/etc, but it feels like a black and white photograph. It also has less color. Destiny 1 felt artistically cinematic, destiny 2 feels blandly photographic.
It's been so long since I've fired up D1. I can't believe how much better it looked over D2. So much more mood, detail and atmosphere. Great video BTW. Eye opener. Wonder if they would ever patch D2 to improve these things, or is that too big a job to do now?
Definitely too big a job for bungo nowadays. Justin truman said it himself. “At bungie we now care more about being fast than quality”
I could be totally wrong here. But I recall it being mentioned that because of a change in engine, it was not possible to simply copy and paste the assets from D1 straight to D2.
This meant that while they had an obvious reference point to speed up the development process, the locations still had to be remade from scratch. Given that D1 had a much longer development time than what they had to remake the locations for D2, this could explain the lack of detail and lighting.
That being said, I am really not a fan of how muted the colours are in D2 when compared to D1. I even loaded into a Crucible match yesterday and couldn't help but notice the shot of the 6 Guardians lining up before the match looked dull and lifeless. It wasn't even that they were using nuetrally coloured shaders. They were primarily red, blue and green shaders but they still looked so muted and boring.
I really appreciate how smooth D2 runs on my PS5 and locations like The Dreaming City are beautiful, but seeing locations side-by-side like this really brings the contrast to light.
It's the difference between game development then when compared to now. The rate that content is being produced at is beyond impressive but it has its costs.
I have nearly 3000 hours combined between D1 and D2. I love the franchise, but I'm getting to the point where I log in, do the weekly story in under an hour and then leave until next Tuesday. I'll stick around until the end of the Light and Dark Saga. I really want to see how it all ends, but playing Destiny for hours every week just for fun is a thing of the past now. I don't do the core activities and having to explore anywhere for a quest has me resorting to guide to get it out of the way as quickly as possible. Maybe I've gotten old and can't keep up with the grind anymore. But I feel the end coming alright.
Nah bruv i always had a feeling that d2 felt like something was missing and now i know what , d1 had alot more detail and depth you can clearly see it , i remember looking at all the beautiful areas and artstyle in d1 but in d2 it doesnt feel like that anymore and i could never point out why , now that i saw this video i finally know what it is. Bungie yall been lacking.
I definitely think that the moon and the dreadnaught were very noticeable. I thought that the cosmodrome looked better in several places but suffered in a mid range area (namely the pipes). I think the absence of the ship also really brings down the area as well as the overuse of fog. Venus though in a lot of ways I think is an improvement, especially when you take into account what the weather on Venus is actually supposed to be like.
The way i see it is that these areas were once vibrant and more active by enemy threats etc, and after we came in to contain jt, over time as these events passed long ago, they have become dormant, and this an art direction that i applaud because after so many seasons, stuff has passed and changed and kept up with the live story. The dreadnaught is a good example as we took down that threat, whats left is now deserted. Etc. Although I was hoping, just like Calus ship became derelict, was hoping the dreadnaught also became derelict with the egregoire darkness. But as it shows, it hasnt been active or retaken by the darkness in a long time. Look as he didn't compare calus ship in the video. That came back and active again so has vibrant new offerings.
Honestly I think it's just a matter of then not taking the art direction into account when porting the areas from 1 into 2. Same thing happened with total war warhammer where they put all the areas from each game into the sequels but the lighting engine would absolutely fuck up the atmosphere, whereas the areas actually built for it would look stellar. Savathun's throne world and the dreaming city are easily some of my favourite areas in the series and actually take advantage of the game's engine they were built for.
Yes exactly true.
D2 just feels sterile in some areas, it’s most noticeable when looking at the difference in particle effects. D1 had more life to it’s world, audio included too. Subtle differences between the 2 make such a huge difference.
Sadly, I'd say lightfall will be presented in the "D2" way rather than the D1 way. If it was done in the D1 method, it would probably be one of the most beautiful areas ever. My wife isn't a gamer at all but she was watching this video with me and when she saw the before and after on the cosmodrome, she was like, "Oh, my word!" Either they have had to scale back due to the size of the game or they are starting to give less and less effort toward the game. I wish someone could get an answer from Bungie on this. Really is sad. Maybe just me but even the hands and the gun in the video don't look as good in D2. Also, the waterfall comparison was just a travesty. A game should be progressing forward in all areas over time, not regressing.
I definitely agree about the lighting... I dont know what happened there, d1 lighting was superb
The skies in D1 are so detailed and beautiful
*edit:* I love your videos dude
Glad you enjoy the vids!
Loved Dreadnaught in D1. It’s perfect.
Sound tracks in D2 is good but not magnificent like in D1.
As a artist/concept artist, Destiny 1 has way more atmosphere and a stronger art direction. Also the sky-boxes in D1 are jaw dropping, something Bungie was renown for. D2 has its moments, but it feels dead in comparison.
So us d1 vets got a better first light view experience than the destiny 2 first lights. Thinking about it now. The only time I want to go hud-less is the dreaming city. Used to do it a lot back in d1. Bungie used to be proud of those sky boxes. You had the rise of iron mission where the ending was just looking out into the distance from where you was first rezed. Those were the days.
Destiny 1 will always be better than D2 just because it was made by (and unfortunately cause the seperation) the core Bungie team that worked on Halo and had the Expertise of making kick-ass games
When they said bringing back old patrol spaces from D1 meant they had to start from scratch, I knew a lot of detail would’ve been lost just to get the space out efficiently. Because the new areas are great, especially savathuuns world, and next is Neptune.
Never realized just how quiet Destiny 2’s world is. The Dreadnaught most of all - its a massive ship teeming with thousands of Hive and Taken, but it just feels so empty.
Destiny 1 was a passion project. Destiny 2 was a money grab.
concordo
It's a shame isn't it? After playing pretty obsessively since D1 up until around Forsaken I'd fallen off for a while. More recently been catching up and first impressions when I reached The Witch Queen was that it somehow didn't match up to the mood/atmosphere we were presented with in The Taken King. That isn't to say it's a bad looking game but guess I'm not alone in observing how things don't seem to have as much depth as before.
Be very interesting to see what happens with D1 regarding emulation and private servers in the future.
100% agreed , d1 is better in all things
I think most of the changes were made for the sake of Game Performance.
Things like Particle effects, Lighting, and Draw distances needed to be streamlined so that older gen consoles could play as well.
Take into account that the game has Way better Textures and a ton more Particle lighting from Combat effects and it allowed them to do more Game play wise.
Like, just having missions with twice as many enemies alone could crash an Xbox 360.
To anyone reading this who still game's on a Console, you simply HAVE to upgrade to PC nowadays... It's completely worth it...
D1 was made with passion and heart, D2 was made with the sole purpose to milk money
I agree I thought Destiny 1 was so immersive, the worlds were gorgeous I always got lost in the worlds and spent time in patrol just looking at things
They seemed expertly crafted and detailed where I’d get completely immersed into the world
Oh my god, even the water looks better in Destiny 1
Totally agree, D1 is better
graphically D2 looks like spongebob compared to D1
I'm getting a kick out of how much of an opp you are towards modern Bungie lmao. It's good to have an oldhead to point out the obvious. Keep it up! Love the videos.
Thanks 😅 appreciate the support!
Destiny 1 always felt like an escape from the world.... and it effortlessly sucked me in. Destiny 2 felt like a drag and a blemish to the first game so I stopped playing it altogether. They're just squeezing what was already there to get every last dime. They'll do it till it runs dry. I'm not saying d2 sucks, but I never got close to the 160 days I had on D1 or whatever it was.
Maybe sweet baby is to blame? Activison? Idk.
I’ve always thought this as well. There is something more real looking to Destiny 1. The way the fallen look is so much better in Destiny 1. I remember when I first saw the hive run at me and I distinctly remember seeing the thralls face while it ran at me which brought back similar feelings of mystery and atmosphere that the flood had as well but felt like a new interpretation that had the potential to be better than the flood. Something about Destiny 2s simplicity in its design almost keeps me from looking at thing up close or in detail. I feel like Destiny 1s art style was so good it made you think about what you were seeing. Destiny 2 feels like it was designed to always be just bland enough to stop you from taking a closer look because it’s interesting and stop you from taking a closer look because it’s bland.
I immediately noticed the graphics were lowered considerably in D2, when speaking to vendors. They look very weird in D2. The cinematic scenes are still great though.
I’ve said to my friends before that I easily fell in love with Destiny 1 for its art style. Armour, weapons, environments and all the sound effects including it’s amazing soundtrack.
If I hadn’t played Destiny 1 then I highly doubt I’d be able to get into Destiny 2 as a new player. Funny how the gameplay and systems are better than ever but the look of everything pulls most of my opinion.
I’ll never understand why Destiny 2 took such a drastic turn in it’s art style, armor design, and atmosphere/lighting. It’s not the D1 nostalgia, it’s just superior.
That’s crazy to see! But the visuals is just the surface of the problem. The ambient sounds are everything. So many game are lacking good ambient sound effects. The ambient sounds in those examples took me to a COMPLETELY different place.
Facts.
Its hands down D1. Sure it comes down to personal preference, since d2 is not ugly. BUT. D1 was all about this post apocalyptic, science fantasy space epic. The huge handmade skyboxes, the contrast of colours and materials, the environmental storytelling both in the playable area and outside.
Like Take the cosmodrome. Its a brilliant juxtoposition thematically and visually. Its literally a mass grave. 1000s of people died infront of the wall, and within it. dead bodies, rusted planes and facilities everywhere. Its cold. its a lost place. But the huge skybox with the layered clouds, godrays, and the sound design, as well as the materials and colours everywhere, create a breathtaking world to look at. Its ltierally the most beautiful and aweinspireing mass grave YOU WANT to spend time in.
D2 has nothing like that. No mattepaining/cloud cards skyboxes. no godrays, no contrast in colours and materials, nowhere near as much environmental storytelling in its playable area as well as the skyboxes and backgrounds. Sure the Dreaming City is to be excluded, but thats ONE location. ONE. I guess you can take the EDZ but even the EDZ is a joke.
D1 is an epic science fantasy space opera. D2 is what every F2P mmo becomes: a confused jumbled mess of artstyles and directions all driven by microtransactions.
7:29 Damn... thats one hell of a change....
You can see a major difference, the details, the atmosphere, D2 makes the cosmodrome look like a dead zone whereas D1 makes the place look more vibrant in colours, especially the brightness which is dimmed down in destiny 2 compared to destiny 1.
Makes me miss the old days even more now DX
Thats because it is now a deadzone. We took down all threats in the cosmodrome. I like that they keep up with current story and live events and not a copy paste of the past.
@@LuchoVenaI didn’t know taking out threats in an area automatically made it uglier. Interesting
D1 vets become more unhinged every opinion I see from them.
This makes me want a destiny remake for the 10 year anniversary more than ever. Imagine the beautiful graphics of d1 with the frames and optimization of d2
@@KalvinKoolAidKool you must not have played d1
@@KalvinKoolAidKool if you did you would know why
Even just the lack of music and immersive sounds is kind of sad to be honest
destiny 2 excels in texture quality, d1 excels in game and ambience qualities.
100 percent agree
LOL
The thing that kills the moon for me is how dim the lighting is and how its submerged in fog. D1 let you see what was out there in the distance, and told a story with things like the ISS being destroyed in the sky, random hive artifacts having animations and lighting effects to show that they are important / powerful, and dust / lighting effects in the distance that told you something was happening or building up in the distance. D2 has hidden its environment with bland, flat lighting, removed powerful artifacts and replaced them with a glowing spike, and has hidden the distant parts of the environment with fog... really frustrating and makes me feel closed into the patrol space I'm in rather than on part of a larger planet or moon
You can clearly tell Destiny 1 had way more passion poured into it the art style made you feel like you were in a much bigger world than you were
I think one of the major things is that the far lower texture resolution/poly count and lack of true realtime effects meant they had to be much more painterly. The clip at 4.42 illustrates this best as viewed at 60fps, motion blur disabled, D2's more subtle realtime DOF/vignetting and higher resolution those awesome edge highlights on the cliffs would look incredibly muddy, lose their 3-dimensionality and be low fidelity.
However the thing is in D2 much of what we get is a 4k+ Supersampled etc texture slapped on the basic Geo at Halo Reach polycounts, so it often looks bad. The original D1 artists knew they had horrendous Halo Reach low poly geo, had to use low res compressed textures and couldn't afford many realtime effects, so made the best of it.
man they havent implemented a proper day and night cycle in the D2 cosmodrome, its always and eternally day time :"[
I think the D1 stuff is a direct port, and with them being ported it'll probably have caused graphical issues they will have fixed but the way they likely fixed it was as fast and little care as possible
personally I think they're lying - BUT - They said making old areas in the new game is as much effort as making a new area altogether since they redo everything from the ground up, just referencing the original shape of the world to keep it as the same location
@@dave7474 I don't think so, my reasoning behind it is, its the same out of bounds areas , its weird looking textures in areas, very muted lighting in a few places and like in VOG there's one vex who just looks so out of place, because it's from D1 where the model isn't the same and doesn't interact with D2s lighting Engine
Totally fine to criticize the differences here, but I'd really love to see you try to understand and explain why there's a difference. People just go "oh it looks worse, they dropped the ball" and leave it at that. It's unproductive and just serves to perpetuate negativity in the destiny community. I agree with your opinion on destiny 1 looking better, but I don't understand how you can highlight these differences without attempting to explain why. There's a bunch of reasons WHY destiny 2 looks so different, and understanding those reasons is important to the health of the community. All this video does is create discourse and get a bunch of people upset that destiny 1 looked better, instead of serving to reminisce about the glory days, and learn to appreciate what we have now, even if it doesn't look the same. Improvements in certain areas of the game require the sacrifice of other areas sometimes, and I'd way rather have what we have now, than what we had then. Even if it's a bit less graphically polished.
I just wanted to tell you that your content never gets old, and i look forward to it, so thank you for this channel and the work you put into it.
Thank you! Glad you enjoy!
hell, id still. be playing D1 if they got rid of the special ammo nerf lol. *shrug*