I had a lovely time of it with the original Destiny. For a while, anyway.

Then I got bored doing the same blimmin’ thing - mostly until the sun came up and reminded me I probably should have slept before skipping off to work.

It fell out of favour and I never had the inclination to return. Besides which, by this time Far Cry 4 had made me less bored about shooting glib villains in the face.

Three years on and what have we got? Well it’s better…

…for a while…

…anyway.

So the giant power-giving entity in the sky, which we all know as The Traveller, returns to the story, this time to be taken out by the most preposterous alien overloard stereotype in history and his planetary clasp, giving the Last City a good pasting in the process. The Guardians (that’s you) lose their powers and then… well it’s up to you and the millions of other gamers/Guardians around the world to fix this little mess.

To do this, one must trip about a handful of hub worlds, killing things, finding allies and changing your clothes repeatedly. The last aspect is the result of your enemies apparently discarding bigger weapons and more protective clothing each time you put some ammunition inside them, which is jolly generous.

Now this is all very well and good in the early stages as you watch your level rocket, but then you’ll hit a progression snag. Want to continue the story? Up your level, sunshine.

A couple of side missions later and you’re on your way. Nice.

Until you’re not. Again.

Not so fast, you’re now two levels shy of the required expertise. Sorry chum.

Now I wouldn’t mind if the story came up with a good reason why it thinks I’m not good enough like, I don’t know, the door can only be unlocked with the Key of Spindlydoo which just happens to be held by a bigger-than-normal-but-not-as-big-as-the-game’s-main-guy on a planet over there somewhere. But it doesn’t, it’s just a gaming device.

Wait, I’m in a game? Oh great, thanks for pulling me out of the storyline and slamming me into the reality of my comparatively dull life.

All the incredibly earnest characters and their instruction-heavy interaction have returned with a vengeance. I know the world’s gone to hell in a large and spectacular way, but there’s nary a muted wisecrack between anyone here. Jeez, lighten up, otherwise this post-apocalypse is going to get pretty boring very quickly.

As always, there’s more fun to be had with a batch of like-minded chums, or even hopping into a group which is short a couple of players.

But there’s no denying the repetitive nature of the original hasn’t been tweaked enough, especially if you’re the single-player type. It’s a solid FPS with stunning graphics and a fine score, but no more than that.