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

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Tons of fun with the alpha, can't wait to see retail. Not sure if I'll put a lot of time into the beta, I think I have a good idea what the game is like and I'm already sold on it.

I put in one last run on Devil's Lair, and recorded it too. I think the walker fight is way more interesting than it gets credit for, especially as an early fight. I recorded a video of me being really aggressive trying to lock it into doing the emp instead of any other moves. Worked pretty well except for a mystery death.

http://youtu.be/uZYc_spKVc4

Went in with randoms, didn't bother coordinating or anything. Each boss took maybe 6 min. Video is better than words I guess...I didn't find either boss to be a slog or boring. I think I would consider them pretty decent mid game boss battles for any random shooter campaign, maybe a little bit of a throwback to the late 90's early 00's.

Also, Sharefactory is kind of neat.
 
Zoba said:
wUIVcHQ.jpg
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How did you remove the HUD?
 
super-famicom said:
I think this is a very good criticism of the game. The fetch side quests are pretty bad (I once got the exact fetch quest twice in a row; the only difference was it was given out by a different faction/person), and I don't like the bullet sponginess of the Devil Walker on Legend. But I'm hopeful that side quests will have more variety in the main game. The Alpha has been out for 4 days, and we've only had 2 missions, Exploration with side quests, and PVP multiplayer. I'm sure a lot of people are bored doing the same few things over and over. But I'm pretty positive the full game will have a lot more interesting things to do.

In spite of all the negatives, though, I am having a lot of fun with the game. I can understand if people got turned off by the alpha, but I'll be playing Destiny on Day 1.
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The problem isn't so much in regards to the diversity in the Alpha, of course people would get tired of playing the same two quests over again. It's the quality of those two quests in the Alpha. The first one, being the story mission, is amazingly boring in that you open a door and kill some enemies. Nothing exciting there. Then the Strike mission itself is also pretty flat just now with bigger sponges. There's no lore or anything to make the quests themselves even remotely interesting. The sidequests aren't even quests but errand boy level stuff that WoW has you done early on.

They really do need better quests in the game.
 
Probity said:
See I was afraid to ask if GAFfers wanted to play with me, just because I am sort of new here and I don't have any kind of reputation or know anyone. I thought about it, but never really asked. It would have changed a lot. I'm not bad or anything, but playing with Randoms was terrible. I should ask GAF more I guess.
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I've had the same problem with randoms. But all the GAFfers I've met have been super nice, and we all love our video games. Add a bunch of us to your friend list, and you won't have to worry that dumb randoms got you killed.
You can laugh together with us when we fuck up and die instead.

Add me (anyone else is welcome to do so), I like playing with other GAFfers
PSN ID: hi-fi_famicom
 
chickdigger802 said:
so alpha folks, haven't been paying attention to this game much until gb did the QL of the alpha.

a few questions:

- is the skill tree stuff just a side thing, like you can spec towards skill use in borderlands but gun play is still priority in terms of gameplay/dps? Is there a resource with skill trees i can read up on (from the alpha so far)?

- how is group play? Are there support builds? Is there a tank/healer/dps triangle or just anyone can do w/e?

- Is 3rd person in missions only during power use and vehicles?
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1. Since the beta only allowed up to level 8, it's difficult to tell if there even is any build diversity. The big differences between the classes for the Alpha was pretty much what type of grenade they use, their special ability, and their armor.

As far as gunplay versus gear, I would argue that in Borderlands, gear with the main priority. In Destiny, gunplay is the priority. Of course gear matters, but you can take on enemies a few levels above you easily with smart gunplay and it's not a situation where killing +3 or +4 enemies will take you several minutes because they take almost 0 damage.

2. As I said with #1, there wasn't much diversity between the builds due to the level limit, so of course there wasn't much role playing. I guess the Titans would be "tanks" but group play really was more about one person drawing fire while everyone else takes the enemies down. This can be accomplished no matter what class you are.

3. The third person view is only during power use, vehicles, and when you're in the Tower city.
 
Jarmel said:
The problem isn't so much in regards to the diversity in the Alpha, of course people would get tired of playing the same two quests over again. It's the quality of those two quests in the Alpha. The first one, being the story mission, is amazingly boring in that you open a door and kill some enemies. Nothing exciting there. Then the Strike mission itself is also pretty flat just now with bigger sponges. There's no lore or anything to make the quests themselves even remotely interesting. The sidequests aren't even quests but errand boy level stuff that WoW has you done early on.

They really do need better quests in the game.
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I am sure they are hiding lore stuff for release. They chose this section because of it I am sure.
 
I am gonna miss this game until beta :( Was so met some great gaffers and have expanded my friends list with this game. When you have coordination the game really opens up.
 
Valentinus said:
It's good that more people likes Warlock & Titan, there will be less Hunters like you & me then :P
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I love Hunter, sniping and all that, it is an art. But I saw soooo many of them in this Alpha. I was disappointed with the number of them. My first Fireteam was literally only Hunters.
I hope the other upgrades to this class make it worth keeping though, Warlock's abilities were pretty fun, but I still prefer Hunter right now.
 
I was in exploration mode when I happened across like five other players. Not even doing anything, just poking around. My first time seeing anyone else in exploration mode.

Then we all took to our hoverbikes (what are they called again?) and rode down a river together. It was glorious.
Shortly after we hit a loading zone and poof, they were all gone :( It was sort of depressing to find a group and then have them just disappear, leaving me all alone again.

Is that supposed to happen? Why cant we ride together into the sunset?

Also found a neat cave.
B2rfhv1.jpg
 
Jarmel said:
The problem isn't so much in regards to the diversity in the Alpha, of course people would get tired of playing the same two quests over again. It's the quality of those two quests in the Alpha. The first one, being the story mission, is amazingly boring in that you open a door and kill some enemies. Nothing exciting there. Then the Strike mission itself is also pretty flat just now with bigger sponges. There's no lore or anything to make the quests themselves even remotely interesting. The sidequests aren't even quests but errand boy level stuff that WoW has you done early on.

They really do need better quests in the game.
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The game does throw you into the story quest without any context, and the Alpha does have a huge lack of storytelling. I'm sure the first couple hours of the actual game will give context to what you're doing. And we can unlock grimoires which fill in the backstory of the Destiny universe, but you have to go to Bungie's site to read it. Really hoping it gets put in-game. And hopefully there are better side quests in the retail release, maybe even long, multi-step ones.
 
Gryph said:
I loved the crap out of this Alpha. I ended up getting all three classes to level 8.

I did feel that some parts of the Alpha ended up feeling a little repetitive but I'm guessing that has more to do with the small slice we got to play than anything design related.

I'm looking forward to the Beta...



There's a vendor in the Hangar Bay, before the ship merchant, the option to turn in the spin is down at the bottom of the list.
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thanks, found the guy
 
Probity said:
I love Hunter, sniping and all that, it is an art. But I saw soooo many of them in this Alpha. I was disappointed with the number of them. My first Fireteam was literally only Hunters.
I hope the other upgrades to this class make it worth keeping though, Warlock's abilities were pretty fun, but I still prefer Hunter right now.
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Actually, my world is quite balanced, I do however see a lot of Hunters in Crucible though. It is so satisfying to kill a random hunter dude while he holds a golden gun :)

This is my playthrough:

Alpha: Hunter
Beta: Hunter
Final: Hunter

You see a pattern there? :P
 
Did anyone find a way to kill the yellow enemies undrground on the explore mission? I fired at them with pretty good level 8 weps and hit for a bunch of 1s. lol

Also ran into a mission where you have to kill a target before s/he gets to 5 points on the map.
 
Jarmel said:
So after playing the Alpha for a good long while, I have to say I'm not impressed. I feel the game exhibits the worst elements of Skyrim thrown together with Borderlands. First let me say that the amount of ground/space in the game would be amazing if it wasn't for the fact that there isn't shit to do there. All you do is wander around and kill/collect things. There are no sidequests or anything of that nature to make it even somewhat appealing. The only reason to explore is for loot, which is easier gained by doing Legendary Strikes anyway. It's a boring timesink where the only claim to fame is the size. The Public Events can help to alleviate that but the core problem still exists. They need better and more elaborate sidequests. What we have right now is the worst kind of MMO-tier quests where you just go and kill so many enemies and come back to collect your reward. This is compounded by the lack of personality the game has. Everything is played very seriously despite the awful writing (which it absolutely is) and when you already have a somewhat boring world, it just makes everything flat. There just isn't any sort of spark or dynamic aspect to such a large part of the game.

There are bullet sponge enemies who really don't provide much of a threat other than taking up your ammo. This is in part due to how bad the AI is. Enemies stand around even on Legendary and the major threat coming from them is their hp and damage output.

We then have the shitty VA work. This is probably the worst aspect of the Alpha and seemingly the game as a whole. Dinklage doesn't give a fuck and neither does that multiplayer announcer. No, Dinklage playing a robot doesn't excuse his crappy performance. There have been tons of AIs who all sound leagues better than the performance he gives here. The MP announcer also isn't exactly putting his best foot forward. As to how Bungie can fix this, I don't know as VA work isn't cheap and the release date is coming up. I don't think a filter is going to be enough unless they really go heavy on it.

All of that said, I thought the visuals and music were for the most part really good. The image quality is really clear and the game does have some gorgeous vistas. I haven't seen enough of the game to say whether the artstyle is great but it's not lacking so far. I also thought the game for the most part controlled fairly well although at times it felt like the game has some input lag.

The core game still is very boring.
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just wanted to say.......I disagree with your whole train of thought on this opinion.
 
Zoba said:
...

Spent the better half of the last 90 minutes doing this (successfully). Clips incoming.
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Sweet. I tried to solo twice, once while lvl 4 and then later with higher weps.

Good job, is all I can say. Those guys would take longer than any enemy I encountered in the Alpha.
 
Jarmel said:
So after playing the Alpha for a good long while, I have to say I'm not impressed. I feel the game exhibits the worst elements of Skyrim thrown together with Borderlands. First let me say that the amount of ground/space in the game would be amazing if it wasn't for the fact that there isn't shit to do there. All you do is wander around and kill/collect things. There are no sidequests or anything of that nature to make it even somewhat appealing. The only reason to explore is for loot, which is easier gained by doing Legendary Strikes anyway. It's a boring timesink where the only claim to fame is the size. The Public Events can help to alleviate that but the core problem still exists. They need better and more elaborate sidequests. What we have right now is the worst kind of MMO-tier quests where you just go and kill so many enemies and come back to collect your reward. This is compounded by the lack of personality the game has. Everything is played very seriously despite the awful writing (which it absolutely is) and when you already have a somewhat boring world, it just makes everything flat. There just isn't any sort of spark or dynamic aspect to such a large part of the game.

There are bullet sponge enemies who really don't provide much of a threat other than taking up your ammo. This is in part due to how bad the AI is. Enemies stand around even on Legendary and the major threat coming from them is their hp and damage output.

We then have the shitty VA work. This is probably the worst aspect of the Alpha and seemingly the game as a whole. Dinklage doesn't give a fuck and neither does that multiplayer announcer. No, Dinklage playing a robot doesn't excuse his crappy performance. There have been tons of AIs who all sound leagues better than the performance he gives here. The MP announcer also isn't exactly putting his best foot forward. As to how Bungie can fix this, I don't know as VA work isn't cheap and the release date is coming up. I don't think a filter is going to be enough unless they really go heavy on it.

All of that said, I thought the visuals and music were for the most part really good. The image quality is really clear and the game does have some gorgeous vistas. I haven't seen enough of the game to say whether the artstyle is great but it's not lacking so far. I also thought the game for the most part controlled fairly well although at times it felt like the game has some input lag.

The core game still is very boring.
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The alpha made a point in not having a hint of actual story and context to it, I wouldn't judge anything about the game's script, story or context until we actually have some of it. IMO it's been awesome stuff from the trailers and other pre-release content. That lore that's trickled out there if you look for it also helps in the exploring sections, giving context and a bit extra wonder to that exploration.

For the strike I don't know what game you're playing man. The bullet sponginess from enemies comes from either not going in well equipped or tacking the bosses in an inefficient manner. If done right they go down in a reasonable amount of time.

Bad A.I? Seriously what game were you playing!? Looked like classic best in the industry Bungie A.I. on display to me, especially on the strike. In explore they're more scattered around and easier to take care of but when set up like in the Devil's Lair they were damn good.

Mooks would try and flush you out of cover for the snipers, captains would press their advantage if they took your shield and would retreat if they lost their own until iit recharged, saw someone throw down an AoE grenade ability at some melee enemies and they would retreat around it and take another path to get to the player all while swarming to try and overwhelm a specific player instead of scattering... just to name a few examples off the top of my head.
 
Dax01 said:
Also, Hunter's second type of grenade is awesome. Throw grenade, deploy seeking explosives.
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It is 'proximity' which translates to hella fun :) I once threw that grenade in a crucible match, my health was low and I was alone at an enemy checkpoint. Threw that grenade behind my back and take watch on my left & right. Then lo & behold, in comes another hunter who's supposed to know what that grenade does but he said 'fuck it' and goes by the wonderful fire balls. He died instantly while I successfully took the checkpoint. lol my Alpha had many great moments & stories!
 
Valentinus said:
It is 'proximity' which translates to hella fun :) I once threw that grenade in a crucible match, my health was low and I was alone at an enemy checkpoint. Threw that grenade behind my back and take watch on my left & right. Then lo & behold, in comes another hunter who's supposed to know what that grenade does but he said 'fuck it' and goes by the wonderful fire balls. He died instantly while I successfully took the checkpoint. lol my Alpha had many great moments & stories!
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Strategies like that work really well in the Hunter's favor. Crucible is great to use our abilities.
 
Did anyone else think that the balance in pvp is fundamentally broken as it is based on players bringing in weapons from the pve aspect of the game? For ex. I never got a shotgun drop for me (apart from the default one the hunter has) and it seems everyone was running around with shotties. Also, I kept getting Pulse rifles and Scout rifles but no auto rifles. The scout rifle is great for the moon base map but not so much for the other smaller map with lot more cqc.

I hope bungie has a more Halo-esque game mode for pvp in the final game. Destiny has great game mechanics and I hope pvp doesn't come down to RNG loot drops.
 
Random_Guy said:
Did anyone else think that the balance in pvp is fundamentally broken as it is based on players bringing in weapons from the pve aspect of the game? For ex. I never got a shotgun drop for me (apart from the default one the hunter has) and it seems everyone was running around with shotties. Also, I kept getting Pulse rifles and Scout rifles but no auto rifles. The scout rifle is great for the moon base map but not so much for the other smaller map with lot more cqc.

I hope bungie has a more Halo-esque game mode for pvp in the final game. Destiny has great game mechanics and I hope pvp doesn't come down to RNG loot drops.
Click to expand...

You could easily buy a white grade shotgun (or green if you were lucky on a store refresh) straight from the weaponmaster or get lucky on the cryptographer (?) if he was offering special weapons.
 
I will spend the rest of my time just sitting around watching the world at The Tower until the server kicks me. I am done until the beta.

See everyone in the Beta.
14410003546_61d653c70c_o.png
 
My god, I was watching a stream earlier and I noticed the accuracy penalty for jumping is completely insane, even while using ADS. It was much, much bigger than I expected.

I don't understand why would Bungie give us all these cool movement options, and then introduce such huge accuracy penalties while using them. Makes literally zero sense. I hope they remove them before the final game releases, as it would greatly improve the gameplay.
 
Probity said:
Strategies like that work really well in the Hunter's favor. Crucible is great to use our abilities.
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It is where we 'shine'. On another note, I have an epic story to tell to a fellow Hunter GAFer, I brought out my gun and went on what I like to called 'shut some bitches up' on an enemy's camp site over on Rusted Lands checkpoint C. There were around 5 people camping there after getting that checkpoint. I jumped around quickly from the back door of checkpoint A and head for their camp immediately (I was being informed by a buddy that they were camping). I stocked up my special ammo fully and ran quickly below checkpoint C where the 'supposed' campers are. Saw my first target, he was on guard, I ran along to his back and shot him once, he dropped like a stone then I ran quickly up the stairs and threw my knife and ran to her and knife her again, she died. Then I threw my wonderful fire balls grenade at a titan camping and he panicked and ran towards me, big mistake. I knifed him hard and I double shot his companion a warlock who tried to save him in the head. All I need to do now is get the checkpoint and wait for my team to get here, then in come another warlock who tried to nova bomb me, I ran towards her instead, shot her once mid air and knifed her from the back. Then, my team got there and we won the match :)

#HunterForever
 
Random_Guy said:
Did anyone else think that the balance in pvp is fundamentally broken as it is based on players bringing in weapons from the pve aspect of the game? For ex. I never got a shotgun drop for me (apart from the default one the hunter has) and it seems everyone was running around with shotties. Also, I kept getting Pulse rifles and Scout rifles but no auto rifles. The scout rifle is great for the moon base map but not so much for the other smaller map with lot more cqc.

I hope bungie has a more Halo-esque game mode for pvp in the final game. Destiny has great game mechanics and I hope pvp doesn't come down to RNG loot drops.
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This was the best feature of the game imo.

When a dude seems way better geared than I am in pvp, it motivates me to up my game in the pve.

I much prefer that to a sterilized "equal footing" pvp experience.
 
I found a hidden chest, that is impossible to get to. As in, there is no path toward it, hidden behind gates and in an area you can't go into. It is such a tease.
 
Random_Guy said:
Did anyone else think that the balance in pvp is fundamentally broken as it is based on players bringing in weapons from the pve aspect of the game? For ex. I never got a shotgun drop for me (apart from the default one the hunter has) and it seems everyone was running around with shotties. Also, I kept getting Pulse rifles and Scout rifles but no auto rifles. The scout rifle is great for the moon base map but not so much for the other smaller map with lot more cqc.

I hope bungie has a more Halo-esque game mode for pvp in the final game. Destiny has great game mechanics and I hope pvp doesn't come down to RNG loot drops.
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I agree, game definitely needs some work to keep me staying in PvP like halo did
 
GReeeeN said:
I agree, game definitely needs some work to keep me staying in PvP like halo did
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Hopefully the bigger part of the Alpha status other than the "gotta test the servers" angle is that the balance is very, VERY rough so far. Though I think the addition of more game modes will help.

It's actually the most I've enjoyed of MP in quite while, maybe I really am more favorable to something more Halo-esque, or rather that I might actually survive a few bullets (short of shotgun-to-the-face anyway) rather than crumpling the second someone spots me and pulls up the sights.
 
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