Destiny Alpha Thread: Impressions from the wild [Code Begging=ban]

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I have just finished the Strike and I must to say it was my least favorite part of the alpha so far. On brave it took us about 90 minutes and 20 deaths per person to finish the mission that should have ended after maybe 25 minutes. The last two bosses had way too much hitpoints.

On top of that The Devil Walker encounter lacked a way to replenish amunition. I know I can buy packs on the tower, but come on! It was efficient to intentionally die now and then to get new ammo.

The final battle had mobs that left ammo when they died, but these were actually harder to fight than the end boss itself, wich made the battle super annoying.

I really hope Bungie works hard on their encounter designs before the game launches. As a starting point the hitpoints of the bosses could be reduced by three quarter.

They need to fix that, polish the engine a little (more fps, unlock option, maybe improve the image quality) and offer enough content. The potential for a great game is certainly there.
 
I don't think I like this game. Quit out of the 3 man Strike after our team went through our 6th respawn at the Devil Walker, which is a boring encounter with way too many enemy repawns and way too little ammo dropping from them .

Glad I didn't pre order the other day.
 
Today I finally learned the power of the melee move. It's quite helpful in close combat situations and when you're running low on bullets. Can't believe that I spent most of Thursday not using it.
 
I have just finished the Strike and I must to say it was my least favorite part of the alpha so far. On brave it took us about 90 minutes and 20 deaths per person to finish the mission that should have ended after maybe 25 minutes. The last two bosses had way too much hitpoints.

On top of that The Devil Walker encounter lacked a way to replenish amunition. I know I can buy packs on the tower, but come on! It was efficient to intentionally die now and then to get new ammo.

The final battle had mobs that left ammo when they died, but these were actually harder to fight than the end boss itself, wich made the battle super annoying.

I really hope Bungie works hard on their encounter designs before the game launches. As a starting point the hitpoints of the bosses could be reduced by three quarter.

They need to fix that, polish the engine a little (more fps, unlock option, maybe improve the image quality) and offer enough content. The potential for a great game is certainly there.

The point of the waves of enemies that come out during each boss fight is for you to replenish your ammo. And also to keep people from sitting back and sniping the boss until it dies.
 
I wish there was a faster way to jump on the sparrow without having to bring up the ghost first, even if it would still require holding a button for a second. Am I missing something? Feels particularly annoying in pvp.
 
Initially playing exploration, I was getting a bit bored, feeling I was slowly progressing, so I went to the City, and it opened me to the game. The Alpha barely has any content. I felt like it had a lot to offer.

Then I played Strike, and it was awesome. I imagined how it's going to be on other maps, and what I could do to actually survive one of these things to succeed at a bounty.

Then I play the Crucible, and man, it was awesome, first Bungie MP game I've played through internet (I played Halo on splitscreen heh), and that was only one mode on one map!

Seriously, this game is gonna be awesome. It reeks of atmosphere (love the music combined with the day/night cycle), and it seems of content too. God I'm a sucker for space games. The story is barely talked about, which is great, I hope it's advanced at least.
 
The point of the waves of enemies that come out during each boss fight is for you to replenish your ammo. And also to keep people from sitting back and sniping the boss until it dies.

Which would be great, except a lot of the time they don't drop ammo. I did a run earlier and after the first wave, not a single grunt I killed during the final boss dropped ammo. I didn't run out of primary, but it sure would've been nice to get more than 8 sniper shots off without having to use an ammo consumable considering the thing's health.

I've also had trouble obtaining ammo during the walker encounter in the strike. I don't mind the grunts so long as they serve a proper purpose besides wasting more of my ammo =p
 
I have just finished the Strike and I must to say it was my least favorite part of the alpha so far. On brave it took us about 90 minutes and 20 deaths per person to finish the mission that should have ended after maybe 25 minutes. The last two bosses had way too much hitpoints.

On top of that The Devil Walker encounter lacked a way to replenish amunition. I know I can buy packs on the tower, but come on! It was efficient to intentionally die now and then to get new ammo.

The final battle had mobs that left ammo when they died, but these were actually harder to fight than the end boss itself, wich made the battle super annoying.

I really hope Bungie works hard on their encounter designs before the game launches. As a starting point the hitpoints of the bosses could be reduced by three quarter.

They need to fix that, polish the engine a little (more fps, unlock option, maybe improve the image quality) and offer enough content. The potential for a great game is certainly there.

This is where the skill and learning the game/boss comes into play. That strike is easy as pie for me now.
 
This is where the skill and learning the game/boss comes into play. That strike is easy as pie for me now.

Yeah. I just ran through a strike in less than 20 minutes.

I'm scratching my head at people saying it took them 90 minutes... are they jumping in at level four or something? Really hope Bungie doesn't listen to the people complaining about the difficulty.
 
Spent some time doing some exploration and missions to build exp. Only did one mission twice and ran into some enemies that were a higher level than me (one enemy in particular just wouldn't go down as I was under-leveled). Saw a few people (some in groups) but I was mostly doing things solo. Did encounter two targets that had to be killed in five minutes or before they reached a 5th checkpoints. Both attempts were unsuccessful. It was me and two other people trying to kill the second target.

After reaching Level 7, I decided to upgrade my weapons and try The Devil's Lair mission. The Devil's Walker was definitely a pushover and killing that thing took more time than the boss target. And I see that the FOV could be a problem. I found my stomach feeling a little funny.

For now, I'm gonna focus on Control matches so I can complete my bounty. Then I'll probably try Devil's Lair on Legend
 
Lost connection to the Destiny servers like 5 times tonight. Not sure if it's on my end or just the alpha server being finicky tonight. Had no issues last night.

ps. I suck at the PvP stuff. Can't hit jack squat with my gun.
 
Yeah. I just ran through a strike in less than 20 minutes.

I'm scratching my head at people saying it took them 90 minutes... are they jumping in at level four or something? Really hope Bungie doesn't listen to the people complaining about the difficulty.

Agreed. I'd even be down with a higher difficulty level.
 
Just wondering what exactly is a turn off
More than that specific Strike encounter, I just don't find the gun mechanics fun. I feel like they started with a foundation in Halo but then bogged it down with an RPG mechanic that really only serves to give the player fewer options in the midst of combat. Want to pick up a different weapon to beat that tanky enemy? Nope. Throw a grenade? That's on a timer. Need ammo? Pray that RNG rolls in your favour. Want to use your secondary weapon? Well, you can barely hold any shots (think my shotgun held 18) and that ammo type drops much less often.

And the multiplayer map has damn vehicles whose best path is mostly to circle far outside of the normal on-foot encounter areas.
 
Now that you guys mention it, there has got to be someone at Bungie who has OCD that notices that the reticle is slightly lower than the middle of the screen, right?

RIGHT? It freaking bothers me a lot.
 
More than that specific Strike encounter, I just don't find the gun mechanics fun. I feel like they started with a foundation in Halo but then bogged it down with an RPG mechanic that really only serves to give the player fewer options in the midst of combat. Want to pick up a different weapon to beat that tanky enemy? Nope. Throw a grenade? That's on a timer. Need ammo? Pray that RNG rolls in your favour. Want to use your secondary weapon? Well, you can barely hold any shots (think my shotgun held 18) and that ammo type drops much less often.

Enneies drop ammo pretty much all the time, the only problem could be during the tank encounter. Just buy a consumable, 100 glimmer, 1 min cooldown, replenish all your normal ammo. And you can switch weapon whenever you want, juste make sure you don't die while you do.
 
Game feels a lot like borderlands to me while the encounters a bit more Halo like. I really was concerned about the special powers in MP and they are well founded. It isn't balanced at all, gun fights turn into one hit kills with the special powers.
 
Man, just completed that lvl 6 Strike...those were some HP heavy bosses. That tank alone took a good long while to whittle down. Random group worked out alright, but I think it's time for some new gear after hitting cap.
 
Impressions from a dude who hasn't played a Halo since 2 and has never played Borderlands (me):

Mixed bag for me. I'm going to start off with what doesn't work, and in fairness this first complaint isn't wholly fair since I'm playing an Alpha and not the finished product: I have no idea what's going on. I'm down on the earth and Peter Dinklage is telling me that a Wizard alien should be on the moon and I'm thinking, "Okay." What year is it? Who am I? What are guardians? Why am I shooting aliens? No clue. But again, not really a fair complaint since this is just the Alpha.

There are some gameplay aspects I have issues with. The numbers. I just don't like seeing health bars and numbers floating around aliens as you shoot them. It doesn't break the immersion fully (since this is sci-fi; you could say it's your helmet vision giving you that info), but it does feel kind of weak. And speaking of those lovely numbers...

The bullet sponges. This is a result of going with the levelling style of gameplay, but I got in some fights (with a single enemy) that lasted minutes. Which WOULD be okay, if there was actual strategy involved in the gun fights. Instead, the boss hovers around cover, I hide around cover, and eventually make his red bar go down after loading him with 450 bullets. It really made me think back to that Sunset Overdrive E3 trailer and how it just wasn't fun. Again, it's a byproduct of the levelling system, but I would have much preferred the fights themselves be more interesting if they're going to take longer.

The respawn system is ridiculous. I suppose if you want to grind a bunch it's convenient, but I'll spend a minute killing ten enemies, then I'll walk a few feet away and they're suddenly back. Makes you feel like you accomplished nothing.

One last complaint: I hate having to take out robo-Dinklage to find out where my next checkpoint/quest is every ten seconds. I have a feeling this is a glitch, but that little white arrow on your radar that tells you where you're supposed to go? Not there half the time for me. I wish those white boxes that appear on screen for checkpoints would just always be there.

So what's working? Some stuff! The visuals are pretty unique and breathtaking at times (artistically). Speeding around on the hoverbike is fun. I find the Dual Shock 4 works great for this game, which truly surprised me because I normally HATE playing FPS's with Dual Shocks.

Playing with other people is awesome, and honestly the coop is probably what's going to make this game a sale for me. I honestly don't think I'd buy it if I was just playing single player.

So basically I feel that the customization and stats and everything are a little overwhelming, but this IS an Alpha and I haven't gone through the full tutorial, hand-holding process, so I'll forgive it for that. The gameplay is fun aside from the bullet-sponge aspect, and Bungie's really going to have to get that part right in order for this game to be a success. I like the Skyrim open world stuff they've got going on in levels too.

All those complaints said, I'm watching the Stanley Cup right now and I'm itching to get back into the game, which does say something.

Feel free to agree/disagree!
 
Enneies drop ammo pretty much all the time, the only problem could be during the tank encounter. Just buy a consumable, 100 glimmer, 1 min cooldown, replenish all your normal ammo. And you can switch weapon whenever you want, juste make sure you don't die while you do.
Problem there is I try to play FPS games as traditional shooters and not races through menus to equip gear.
 
Just finished the Strike with Net Wrecker and Courage. Things got hairy fighting the Devil Walker but Septiks was a fun battle. Geat game, guys.
 
The bullet sponges. This is a result of going with the levelling style of gameplay, but I got in some fights (with a single enemy) that lasted minutes. Which WOULD be okay, if there was actual strategy involved in the gun fights. Instead, the boss hovers around cover, I hide around cover, and eventually make his red bar go down after loading him with 450 bullets. It really made me think back to that Sunset Overdrive E3 trailer and how it just wasn't fun. Again, it's a byproduct of the levelling system, but I would have much preferred the fights themselves be more interesting if they're going to take longer.

Aside from the mech spider, I've never had a fight with one enemy last for "minutes", not even when their level was red on my screen.

Just finished the Strike with Net Wrecker and Courage. Things got hairy fighting the Devil Walker but Septiks was a fun battle. Geat game, guys.

It's laughable how easy that last boss is compared to the one before it.
 
Yeah. I just ran through a strike in less than 20 minutes.

I'm scratching my head at people saying it took them 90 minutes... are they jumping in at level four or something? Really hope Bungie doesn't listen to the people complaining about the difficulty.

20 mins seems a bit fast, I'm impressed. I'd like to see a run that quickly I'll see if I can get dig one out on youtube, my fastest took me 38 minutes. I really wonder if there's something I'm missing to chunk that much out.
 
Welp I think this is exactly the game I want. The music, the aesthetic, the gameplay, it's all there. It's borderlands without the shit. In my belly now please.
 
Controls feel off to anyone else? Maybe it's just the input lag, don't know, they just don't feel right to me, Halo felt better.

Didn't play the alpha all that much, but it was just super boring. Shooting and meleeing felt good (melee was way overpowered, but whatever). Just kinda wandered around shooting baddies, never enough of them in one place to make it interesting.

Did a few missions. Kill some baddies for me around this place, didn't point out where I was supposed to be killing them, took awhile to find any, didn't seem to care where I killed them anyway. Collect some stuffs... which is done by killing enemies. Collect some other stuffs, oh look just more killing enemies. Hey I love killing baddies as much as the next guy, but don't pretend the missions have any sort of variety.

Big boss dude came out of no where and everyone stopped killing boring baddies to beat up on it, that was pretty sweet.

Feels like a triple A coat of pain over a free to play sandbox, without the addictiveness and constant progression of Borderlands or even Warframe...

Am I just playing it wrong? Does the alpha get more clear progression or reason to play co-op?
 
Had a pretty sweet pvp match just now on the moon map, Camped between B and C in a turret and got a huge kill streak until someone popped around a corner with their super and killed me.
 
Loving this game, can't wait for it to come out, already put more time into it than I have Titanfall.

Anyone found those 3 ??, that kill you in one shot? If you run past them and to the left there is a little room where they won't follow, for me it had a loot chest. Plus you can use it to bait them in and out. Saw the 3 guys on Reddit kill them 1 health at a time. Tempted to load up on Ammo packs and try soloing one.
 
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