Videogames these days are becoming more and more veritable works of art. Beauty is now no longer found in the darker recesses of easter eggs. Games are becoming consistently beautiful and the developers know it. Uncharted 4 and Lost Legacy, Horizon: Zero Dawn and Hellblade have all implemented a photo mode, replete with fancy filters and settings. Destiny 2 should be no exception to the rule. If Bungie excell at anything, it’s their beautiful sky boxes. Nothing more than 2D sides of an artsy cube, these little beauties literally encapsulate our adventures while fooling the eye with “depth perception trickery”. Just take a look at the below image to see what I’m talking about.
But it’s not just the skyboxes that warrant some digital tourism, encouraging that press of the capture button. Destiny 2 has a lot going for it, visually and community-wise. Yes, the game carries on automatically behind menu screens, sure. But if Bungie figured out a way to make a photo mode possible, the already strong community behind Destiny 2 could become even stronger.
Why just stick to raids, patrols and co-op missions? Destiny 2, with its clans and large scale potential for parties of nine, opens up all kinds of possibilities with a little imagination. Why not take the reigns in organising a flash mob dance? We have dancing emotes and, heck even jumping back and forth in unison counts. Then there’s the football found on the farm. Figure out some kind of game with your party and a lot of un-official fun can still be had. For these potentially beautiful moments to those involved, wouldn’t it be better to have a photo mode? It’s certainly better than rushing or forgetting to press the capture button at that crucial moment! Not to mention the cool angles and filters that could be applied.
Remember back to the Halo 3 days. We had a fantastic photo mode that remains unrivalled in any Bungie game since. Cleverly, we could load our last mission as a video, pause and capture at will. Is this a good enough solution to Destiny 2’s hankering for a photo mode? This could even allow us to take our time and capture that perfectly jammy PvP moment in The Crucible…
Camera control in Halo 3 was smooth and slow motion ran at a buttery smooth frame rate, allowing a true appreciation for Halo’s particle effects and explosions, bullets and flying grunts. As time has gone on, polygon counts have gone up. You don’t need me to tell you how pretty Destiny 2’s particle effects are. Even the lighting effects, morphing as the action goes on, are wonderful; a result of Bungie’s veteran and experienced team.
I won’t spoiler anything for those still working through it, but near the end of Destiny 2’s story missions, your eyes are in for a treat. They say being in the countryside and looking at vast views of nature is naturally soothing to the brain. Destiny 2 is about as close as a videogame is going to get to that, in its closing chapters. Frankly it’s impressive just how much game you get after a single load screen. Here’s where we break things down to something more simplistic. Destiny 2 is just a gorgeous game. Get up close to some textures and they may seem a little jagged or fuzzy. But every game has that since we don’t yet have alien supercomputers in our homes. For now, what games like Destiny 2 do offer, is great stretching landscapes and wonderful conglomerates of colours for our eyes to feast on. Sometimes, you just want to take your time and capture the moment. So, apologies if I’ve made you realise something that you wish you hadn’t. Upon coming to this revelation, I now REALLY want Bungie to pop a photo mode in.
Playing Destiny 2 these days? Why not tell us where your best snapshots would take place and why you’d want to take them.