Destiny - Review Thread

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In addition, the fact that there is not matchmaking for the story missions is fucking atrocious. atrocious.
This plus the lack of split screen really pisses me off. They got the former to work in Reach and the latter to work in every Halo.

Now in order to experience what is mainly a co-op game as a co-op game, you need to have a friend on another console on a different TV who is on at the same time as you.

How long was this game in development really? Everyone knows about the "Destiny Awaits" Easter Egg in ODST so this game has to have at least 5 years of development time unless they scrapped everything like Halo 2.
 
I'm honestly shocked at the negative sentiment here on neogaf. This is the most fun I've had inflammatory game in years. I think I need to tune out for a while. (As if that would happen, I'm addicted to neogaf.)


I think it's more of a vocal minority. I mean, any game or console that is extremely well received will have a few negative threads about it that get a lot of attention..

See oculus rift, guild wars, world of warcraft, dota two, etc. The negative posts just stand out more because they are inflammatory.

My next prediction is star citizen hate. Once it's released, it will probably be awesome, but gaf will hate it. I guarantee it.
 
Yeah also bungiw saying the game needs to be well populated made it sound the events can actually change the world

One public event i was in was stand close next to thing then shoot the things cominf at you

Heck i would have accepted a delivery mission using the vehicle if it meant getting a break from shooting stuff
 
My score would be a 5/10 at best. Not a happy chappy owning the digital CE.

- Poor AI
- Terrible attempt of a story; hampered by exposition style
- Ultra repetitive mission design
- No characterisation; all the NPCs in the tower are completely one-dimensional and add absolutely nothing
- Completely non-social unless you are in a fireteam of friends, in which case you could be playing any game and get the same experience
- Loading times are fucking atrocious
- Limited customisation, mostly meaningless cosmetic stuff and fails hard at even that
- No reason at all to explore the barren levels; there is literally nothing to discover, its clinically sterile

It has some solid points, music, graphics are nice, spawning a sparrow anywere to zoom off to your destination is very cool, PvP is decent fun.

But damn is it a disappointment everywhere it counts.

This is accurate to how I feel about the game. I'm not sure why this game is always online. When I go into missions I usually see either nobody or one other person, it's not something like GW2 where you're constantly jumping into fights with others. A specific matchmaking system for all levels or just the ability to roll solo and pause would have been nice.

And the AI is weird. Most enemies (other than those ones that specifically rush you) will stay under cover and won't come close to you, unless you move too close to them at which point they'll stick to you and just chase 'til they die. Have not seen any flanking, I'll stick to my side of the map, the stick to theirs.

The music is almost too epic at times. Like an amazing score will start playing when I'm doing something that's barely impressive or just plain mundane. It's a strange feeling, props to Marty O'Donnell though, the music and sound design are really top notch.
 
If it's such an issue, host a review event. Get a group of 30 critics together, and populate the world. Nothing about Destiny suggests that the social elements are an integral part of the experience. They're window dressing for an otherwise standard co-op shooter. Games have been doing it for years, and nothing about Destiny's execution of the concept deserves special treatment.

There's simply no justifiable excuse for the review delay at this point. It was for all intents and purposes, a release-day embargo.

It really doesn't make any sense. The only thing I can think is that mock reviews came in too low and they couldn't risk it.
 
It confuses me as well. Sometimes it can be hit or miss, but that comes down to lower levels, number of enemies present, and the purpose of that enemy (rush, sniper, support, etc) in the given situation.
Oh absolutely. As I touched upon, the AI is tweaked for gameplay design, depending on factors such as the ones you mentioned and more. It's similar in Halo too, Eg Fallen acting like Covenant, Brutes like Cabal, Flood like Hive, Ogres and The other giant Cabal like Hunters and so on.
 
How? Enemies hide, flank, run away, take cover, surprise, split up and work together, retreat when low on shields or health and so on. The AI is far from bad. It's actually competent.
This may be the only time I ever agree with anything that you will ever say.
 
Is the raid info really needed to put out a good review? I imagine that most reviewers won't have the time to do the attunement or even complete the first level of the raid. That and the small population that intends on raiding are already at level 20 and so reviews probably won't do much for them.
 
For those that have played Destiny, is the AI tough because:

All enemies are crackshots or extremely aggressive/suicidal, and use bullet sponginess to their advantage.

or

They use tactics, will draw the player out, flank the player, send lesser enemies in packs to force the player to move, use grenades to force player movement.

Halo 1 is a lot more like the latter, Halo 2 is a mix of both, and Halo 3 is mostly the latter.
 
How? Enemies hide, flank, run away, take cover, surprise, split up and work together, retreat when low on shields or health and so on. The AI is far from bad. It's actually competent.

Watched a little bit of that Giant Bomb QL and Jeff ran around like 5 enemies and none of them moved or shot at him.

Didn't look too hot.
 
To all the people that keep saying that the media overhped destiny, I disagree. Aside from ign and the ign first bs, this game was not being hyped by the media that much. Watch dogs and titanfall both had far more hype.
 
Really surprised by these reviews, after the beta which was extremely well received and the fact that it is both a shooter, AAA and mains on the PS4, means it has everything goin for it to get amazing reviews.Looking forward to see the other reviews.

(I think the game looks amazing btw).
 
So 'good' and 'great' aren't enough for a game now? Because that is what they represent in the end, review inflation and all.

A 9 means 'amazing' while a 10 means 'Perfect/Close to Perfect', and considering all the issues this game reportedly has, it falls a bit short of 'amazing' sadly :(.
Its not that its not *enough*. That is an entirely personal expectation issue. But I think for a game that had $500,000,000 spent on it and a ton of hype in the gaming community, 7's and 8's would be underwhelming.

Doesn't mean everything, obviously. But I was definitely hoping for a more positive reaction.
 
It's weird hearing people say Halo has some of the best AI in the business, but then hearing others proclaim Destiny's AI is bad. Destiny's AI is basically a carbon copy of Halo's, only slightly tweaked. Enemies literally do the same sort of shit, with similar animations, tactics etc. Suffice to say, the AI is very good from a gaming, still needs to be fun and do-able perspective.

The grenade aspect is non-existent in Destiny so there's that. It seems like they do have a behaviour but the game is pretty open and the encounters are decidedly more wave based (as in literally a wave of enemies charge towards you) there isn't room for more intelligent design. The big boss enemies aren't necessarily harder, they hit harder but its not all that interesting. They don't really bother with cover aside form the teleporting ones. Wizards don't give a fuck at all. If they didn't have shields or that yellow vitality gauge (take half damage) they'd drop just as quick with their dumb asses.
 
It really doesn't make any sense. The only thing I can think is that mock reviews came in too low and they couldn't risk it.

I found Bungie's reasoning, for why they held off sending the press copies early, really flimsy so I wouldn't be surprised if the mock reviews were lower than they expected.
 
I think it's more of a vocal minority. I mean, any game or console that is extremely well received will have a few negative threads about it that get a lot of attention..

See oculus rift, guild wars, world of warcraft, dota two, etc. The negative posts just stand out more because they are inflammatory.

My next prediction is star citizen hate. Once it's released, it will probably be awesome, but gaf will hate it. I guarantee it.

The official thread is full of honest criticism and praise. Destiny has problems, it isn't being hated on unfairly.
 
Eww
549898.gif

Ummm, hello, Cracker Jack?
 
So GAF, I've had an issue where I received a copy of Destiny on Amazon.ca that I thought I had canceled. However, it was only $52 with tax, when compared to the $75 it would cost normally.

Should I play it or return it? While I enjoyed the beta, I didn't feel like it was worth full price.

Assuming you've read through this thread and some other Destiny-themed ones and have gleaned a good idea of all the conflicting opinions: if you enjoyed the beta but didn't feel like it was worth full price, you answered your own question, didn't you?

For what it's worth, I think you got it at a price where it's fair to keep for someone on the fence. You got a decent discount at launch which helps offset any potential negativity you'll experience. At the very least, you'll easily get a good 20 hours out of it, even with the heavier criticisms going around.
 
I skipped the beta, hype and most media on it.

I can see how this type of game might not appeal to everyone.

Seems very different now that I've played it compared to how I imagined it.

Enjoying it so far, the gunplay, presentation and polish are all fantastic. Will continue with it for sure.
 
My score would be a 5/10 at best. Not a happy chappy owning the digital CE.

- Poor AI
- Terrible attempt of a story; hampered by exposition style
- Ultra repetitive mission design
- No characterisation; all the NPCs in the tower are completely one-dimensional and add absolutely nothing
- Completely non-social unless you are in a fireteam of friends, in which case you could be playing any game and get the same experience
- Loading times are fucking atrocious
- Limited customisation, mostly meaningless cosmetic stuff and fails hard at even that
- No reason at all to explore the barren levels; there is literally nothing to discover, its clinically sterile

It has some solid points, music, graphics are nice, spawning a sparrow anywere to zoom off to your destination is very cool, PvP is decent fun.

But damn is it a disappointment everywhere it counts.

Did you play the beta? All of this stuff was clear as day back then. Thankfully I was able to find time to put about 6 hours into it and realise I should dodge the game. It was clear that the beta was a vertical slice that would be almost entirely representative of the final product, too.

If you missed out on that, I feel for you buying that CE. If you played the beta, I can only ask - what were you thinking?
 
So this year we got Titanfall, Destiny and WatchDogs. Some of the most hyped games of the last few years and all of them seem to be disappointing. Not bad games (well, I would argue WatchDogs is pretty bad) but also not great ones.
Believe the hype, eh?
 
And the AI is weird. Most enemies (other than those ones that specifically rush you) will stay under cover and won't come close to you, unless you move too close to them at which point they'll stick to you and just chase 'til they die. Have not seen any flanking, I'll stick to my side of the map, the stick to theirs.

Oh man, go to Sky Watch where you've got Hive and Fallen trading shots with each other. Every once in a while an event pops where that skirmish turns into an all-out war. You'll experience a helluva lot more than flanking then :)
 
I loved the alpha and beta. I think I played too much if it. Going through earth again is making me miserable. I just unlocked the moon but I just can't seem to want to play it for more than a hour or two. Hopefully once I start the moon missions I will get really engaged but now I play and just want go back to playing diablo
 
Watched a little bit of that Giant Bomb QL and Jeff ran around like 5 enemies and none of them moved or shot at him.

Didn't look too hot.

But what does that change? In what first person shooter can you not run around 5 enemies (especially in an open world massive environment) unless the difficulty is really high? I'm assuming he was fairly early in the game when playing?

On a side note, it is funny you have to rely on videos to defend the critique. Maybe play the game?
 
For those that have played Destiny, is the AI tough because:

All enemies are crackshots or extremely aggressive/suicidal, and use bullet sponginess to their advantage.

or

They use tactics, will draw the player out, flank the player, send lesser enemies in packs to force the player to move, use grenades to force player movement.

Halo 1 is a lot more like the latter, Halo 2 is a mix of both, and Halo 3 is mostly the latter.

I'd say the normal ground troops are the latter. Once you start going up the hierarchy the enemies become a tad bit spongy imo.
 
Yeah also bungiw saying the game needs to be well populated made it sound the events can actually change the world

One public event i was in was stand close next to thing then shoot the things cominf at you

Heck i would have accepted a delivery mission using the vehicle if it meant getting a break from shooting stuff
There are missions where you go scout out locations or enemies. No shooting stuff required.
 
For those that have played Destiny, is the AI tough because:

All enemies are crackshots or extremely aggressive/suicidal, and use bullet sponginess to their advantage.

or

They use tactics, will draw the player out, flank the player, send lesser enemies in packs to force the player to move, use grenades to force player movement.

Halo 1 is a lot more like the latter, Halo 2 is a mix of both, and Halo 3 is mostly the latter.

I've seen both quite frankly (been playing on hard). A Captain will charge me as they know they have a ton of health and shields. The enemies with shields know to hide when their shields are out. I've had a couple of enemies flank me, like the last major mission on Earth in that room.

That said, there are some issues with the AI not reacting quickly enough or just tanking something.
 
How? Enemies hide, flank, run away, take cover, surprise, split up and work together, retreat when low on shields or health and so on. The AI is far from bad. It's actually competent.
Criticizing AI is almost too easy to do in gaming.

Now I haven't played Destiny, so I don't know how relevant what I'm about to say is, but AI is always flawed in any game. If you're looking for examples of bad AI, you will find them left and right. Anything that is short of super-believable could be seen by some as 'bad AI'.

And of course some people will trigger certain reactions from the AI that others wont and have different results.
 
But what does that change? In what first person shooter can you not run around 5 enemies (especially in an open world massive environment) unless the difficulty is really high? I'm assuming he was fairly early in the game when playing?
The moment he's talking about was when Jeff walked up to enemies without firing and they simply stood there, never moving, until he finally gunned them down. More like a glitch than anything else, but what I've seen of the AI is more average than amazing. Nothing better than the original Halo.
 
How? Enemies hide, flank, run away, take cover, surprise, split up and work together, retreat when low on shields or health and so on. The AI is far from bad. It's actually competent.

The AI is good, but the enemies are only allowed to work within the confines of specific areas, so once those areas are learned, it's easy to exploit. I guess it's not necessarily that the "AI is bad", it's that the "enemy location encounter design" is bad where it gives you a small area to engage enemies in and they won't let enemies really deviate too far from that area because it's all instanced for only you within the confines of the overall spawned game world that is supposed to feel like you're playing with others.

AI is great within a small confined area, then it becomes broken as it reaches the boundaries of their allowed engagement area.
 
I guess most reviews will be under the impression of the hype Activision/Bungie created and if its lives up to it. Which is not really good.
 
I'm still level 4. I can already tell they left out too many of the magic elements that made Halo such a great franchise. So far Destiny feels like it was designed by a focus group rather than a hardcore group of designers trying to make a fantastic game.
 
I'm actually enjoying the AI, honestly, at least in the captains and wizards that we've fought so far.

Maybe that changes later on.
 
I probably shouldn't bother posting in this thread since I'm on PC exclusively and this game obviously isn't on my platform of choice, but...
My score would be a 5/10 at best. Not a happy chappy owning the digital CE.

- Poor AI
- Terrible attempt of a story; hampered by exposition style
- Ultra repetitive mission design
- No characterisation; all the NPCs in the tower are completely one-dimensional and add absolutely nothing
- Completely non-social unless you are in a fireteam of friends, in which case you could be playing any game and get the same experience
- Loading times are fucking atrocious
- Limited customisation, mostly meaningless cosmetic stuff and fails hard at even that
- No reason at all to explore the barren levels; there is literally nothing to discover, its clinically sterile

It has some solid points, music, graphics are nice, spawning a sparrow anywere to zoom off to your destination is very cool, PvP is decent fun.

But damn is it a disappointment everywhere it counts.
This sounds exactly like what I expected from viewing the initial (very underwhelming) demonstrations of the game. It was very difficult for me to understand why anyone was actually excited for the game in the first place. It just looked so dry and stale.

I guess this is one console-exclusive that I can check off of my future wishlist.
 
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