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These are my initial thoughts. I played the first mission through with all 3 classes, and played the strike with the Warlock. I haven't dived into PVP yet as I had completely lost my bearings on how to play Destiny and would get my shit stomped until I run a few more strikes. First and foremost, thank the heavens that the stupid ass sprint fatigue is gone. You can sprint, stop and sprint instantly again. That was the absolute worst in D1. Especially in tense situations when you had low health. It def wasn't good for my first PS4 controller's thumb stick, as the covering eventually sheered off of it. The difficulty feels like it has been taken up a bit. I died a few times on the story mission as Warlock and Titan, but oddly enough I never died as Hunter... that might have been because it was my 3rd play through, but the class itself and the exotic you get for the Hunter had a lot to do with it as well... more on that in a bit. The story mission was decent. It was lengthy, and you could skip the cut scenes without any loading delays. It gave you enough to use your super at least 2 times... you could probably fit 3 if you just used them as soon as you got them. I've always saved mine for "oh shit" moments or opportune times against yellow bars or massive trash mobs. The AI has improved a bit as well. The longer glide jumps that Warlock and Titan have aren't much of an advantage to throw off the AI's aim. You can get clobbered floating around. The Cabal is more aggressive than in D1.. I guess since this is a special faction of them. Certain ones will whip out a blade and melee you if you get too close, some wield two massive cleavers and will hurt you really bad if you get hit. John Ryan must have given anet's secrets to jumping puzzles and bad environmental clipping when he left. There are some frustrating and needless dips around objects you can hide behind. I found myself getting stuck on these when trying to move from cover. There is a lot of jumping going on in the mission and strike. I don't really mind this in what is offered because most the jumps can all be made by the standard single jump. Anyways, the mission doesn't really have a boss, but does have a section not featured in the E3 demonstration. They kinda baby you into fighting the few unique yellow bar cabals. Your first encounter they're just a red bar, then a red with a shield, then a yellow with a shield, and then a triple yellow bar with a shield. Psions are back and annoying as ever. They'll still die in 1 uncharged melee hit, but their wave attack will knock you up in the air... it's very annoying, and it goes back to the whole being in the air too long is dangerous deal. I mean you get knocked way up into the air to where it takes a few seconds to fall back down. The strike was long... longer than any strike I remember in D1. That's not a bad thing though, It was more fluid and sectioned. I don't think these will be "run past everything and get to the boss" type deals anymore. Each segment of the fight was necessary to activate the device that launched you across the map onto the next segment. It was mostly your standard gun down trash mobs at first, but it got a bit intense in one of the rooms where the cabal animals kept charging in. The boss fight was where the strike shined though. It wasn't easy, and was almost nightfall hard. However my horrible teammates might have had something to do with it. The Titan on my fire team never once put up a barrier. wtf? We died on the last stage of the boss 3 times. His last 20% or so of HP he just goes apeshit and gets ultra aggressive. If you're the last guardian standing, you're going to die. His big ass will chase you down and blast you to pieces while you try to revive someone. I ran behind a pylon once and his ass followed me around it and destroyed me. I will say I didn't care too much for the spinning drill area. It's pretty annoying to fight and keep track of which layer of drill is coming at you. As it stands for the beta, you only get legendary gear for the strike and PvP, Its only weapons at that. I got the same pistol I already had and a scout rifle that no class came with. I also forgot how annoying Hobgoblins were... and the standard Vex enemies will now cover up their weak spot if you initially miss it it felt like. I'll have to pay more attention next time. The weapons haven't changed much. The autorifles available were meh. They jumped around too much. The hand cannons were decent. I chuckled because the kinetic one was called The Devil Better... I guess that's a play on The Devil You Know/Don't. I didn't try the shotgun, the sniper was eh... but SMGs are beastly as hell. You won't hit anything after medium range like you can cheese with a hand cannon, but up close these melt anything really fast. The Titan had a solar SMG and it ripped through the cabal solar shields like no one's business. The grenade launchers were pretty stout too... but those are for trash mobs IMO. The fusion rifle was still the best. I didn't have access to a rocket launcher... The Warlock might have had one, but I was too stuck on the fusion rifle to look. Only having 6 shots is an adjustment though. (but its the perfect PVP nerf) I ran Pulse Rifle and SMG combos when I could. Pulse Rifle was my favorite legendary weapon. The Scout Rifle was terrible. It fired really slow and didn't seem to do much more damage than the pulse. Energy ammo dropped frequently, way more than its special ammo counterpart in D1 did. I never found myself running out of energy ammo.. in fact I ran out of kinetic a few times before coming even close on energy. This was great solely for my favorite exotic in the beta which I never stopped using the whole mission. The Warlock... Dawn blade is as OP as I thought it would be. I shredded every yellow almost instantly with it, while the Nova bomb didn't seem to do as much because its not really that precise I guess. Its like a slow moving Hunter scatter nade now. It will home in on enemies. The glide is insane... its longer and higher than the other classes. I guess this is for dawn blade, because all that floating we saw in the videos is from the actual jump.. not the super itself. The healing rift is by far the best utility skill of every class. Screw damage rift.. healing rift can out heal mobs shooting you... it was a lifesaver in the strike when I was last guardian standing and had to revive. That being said, Warlock got the worst weapon set up for the beta. The exotic they give you to play with is some shitty arc damage AR. It has a small mag and doesn't do much DPS. Plus I saw one arc shield the entire time through the mission and strike. The Titan was... well a Titan. I didn't try Fist of Havoc because I already know what its like despite the changes to it. The barrier is interesting. You can't shoot through it nor can you shoot through the bubble from the sentinel ult. This is a pretty big nerf. Using the shield itself was pretty fun. I crushed a single yellow bar instantly with it but struggled on the triple yellow. I couldn't figure out how to throw it because I was too busy spamming the charge-melee with it instead. Overall its not really my favorite. The Titan jump is virtually the same in all 3 choices from the first game. The exotic the Titan had was no joke though. "Sweet Business" is outstanding for PvE, I don't see it being as good in PvP. Its a kinetic minigun that shoots slow for about 1.5 seconds and then shoots like you'd expect a minigun too but its laser accurate at top RPM. The mag is large enough to hold down the trigger and take out 4-5 enemies in succession. Before I even go into the Hunter, let me say that it got, hands down, the best exotic to play with. Sunshot must be what Fatebringer felt like. Holy shit this thing is a beast. super low recoil, great range, and exploding enemies? I bet it gets nerfed. It's a solar hand cannon, so it was a joy tearing through solar shields.... which was featured heavily in the mission. This is the weapon I'll be running as my exotic once/if I get it. Paired with the Hunter's faster reload off critical hits, it more than made up for its 8 shot mag. This gun was made for the Hunter. I didn't play any arc strider, I stuck with Gunslinger. I leave it to Strider for a better review when he gets his hands on this class. I never played hunter in the first game so I have nothing to go by. I did like the 6 shot golden gun though. It seemed to perform as well as Dawn Blade on triple yellow bars, but unlike dawn blade, you have to actually have to be precise. I mean for big fat Cabal it wasn't an issue, but faster moving Fallen or Vex it requires more skill. I stuck with the triple jump, and I liked it better than anyone else jump. You get to where you want without being exposed in the air like the other two classes and it offers more mobility without the aid of a super. I found a few jumps to be more tedious to make than with Warlock/Titan, but in a fight It was far better. I'm not sure how I feel about the utility skill Hunter has though. It doesn't benefit the group at all. One is essentially shadow step that instantly recharged your melee... the other is a dodge that instantly reloads your weapon. I used the latter because I was having way too much fun with Sunshot... and furthers my belief that this exotic was made for the Hunter class. The dodge does recharge a lot faster than the barrier or rifts. I'll run Strikes with Titan and Hunter and try some PvP tomorrow. I'll report back on what else sticks out to me.