Destiny - Review Thread

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Mammoth Jones said:
I absolutely loved Fable. It just didn't live up to 1/100th the hype it got. But I did really enjoy that game.
ff the bat then I'm not sure if this game has the ability to be sustainable for its player base.
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For me it's an apt comparison because I agree with you, Fable was actually a really enjoyable game, just like I'm sure Destiny is, but one that had no hope of living up to the high expectations that the developers had very blatantly cultivated. People bought Fable thinking they were getting a more transformative product than they ended up getting.

The trouble there is that the pool of buyers ends up including a ton of people who might not have bought the game if it had been sold more honestly. They are understandably unhappy, and I think it's the kind of thing that creates a certain bitterness and suspicion about video games period. We saw something similar with the Watch Dogs downgrade.
 
Leafhopper said:
Didn't see this.
Oh that explains a lot. So instead of doing a fantasy setting (which I admit is cliche in itself) they went back to the sci-fi shooter thing they are used to doing? Shame. that could have been neat.
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I would have preferred a mix of both. Kind of like Star Wars, or Dune.
 
ProvenDeadly said:
Not sure how many people agree with this, but I am fully convinced at this point that Halo Reach was kind of a test for some of Destiny's features. The bad part is they left out everything else.
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In some regards I agree. Halo: Reach had a pretty decent campaign though.
 
If people want a great campaign FPS, I'm gonna pimp Wolfenstein.

Although I think the word of mouth is pretty well out there by now.
 
Crewnh said:
Ghost: The vex are invicinble machines

*proceeds to lay waste to them*

Random girl: I don't have time to even explain why I don't have time

Evil that despises other evil

The darkness

The traveler

The speaker

The writing in this game is atrocious
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The Grimoire section on The Darkness is pretty interesting actually. Its a series of theories from around the universe, my favorite being something similar to Mr.Shadow from The Fifth Element :)

Again, I had to read this buried on the game's website/app

...way to go Bungie
 
Erevador said:
For me it's an apt comparison because I agree with you, Fable was actually a really enjoyable game, just like I'm sure Destiny is, but one that had no hope of living up to the high expectations that the developers had very blatantly cultivated. People bought Fable thinking they were getting a more transformative product than they ended up getting.

The trouble there is that the pool of buyers ends up including a ton of people who might not have bought the game if it had been sold more honestly. They are understandably unhappy, and I think it's the kind of thing that creates a certain bitterness and suspicion about video games period. We saw something similar with the Watch Dogs downgrade.
Click to expand...

I think it is time people stop expecting any AAA game to be a generational leap and break totally new ground.

Budgets are too high, the risk is too great. I'm expecting all big budget games to be evolution not revolution from this point forward.
 
After the Sabre segment in Reach and all those cool ships in Destiny, I would be really interested if Destiny added space battles in future installments actually.
 
Mammoth Jones said:
Well said. But when will we as gamers also stop falling for the hype? This isn't new. Publisher/Dev hypes games to the moon and beyond and we fall for it nearly every time then act shocked and hurt that the game didn't usher in the second coming of Christ, lol.

Also it sucks that the gaming journalists tend to be glorified mouthpieces for gamer advertising agencies rather than objective journalists asking really hard hitting questions and demanding and pressuring for answers.
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Yeah, when publishers like Activision are willing to spend millions upon millions to market the game, then it's going to be hard for ANYONE to not fall for the hype. I'll be the first to admit it: I fell for Destiny's hype. Granted, a major reason for me doing so was that Bungie was (and still is) one of my favorite developers. Based on what was being hyped by the marketing machine, I had an expectation that I set for myself where I thought Bungie would create the first console "MMO experience" that truly worked for consoles. I didn't expect it to be an MMO, but I expected it to have the same kind of impact. After all, Halo heavily inspired and innovated on the FPS genre for consoles, so I thought it seemed like Bungie was truly inspired to do it again in a different way.
 
Nipo said:
I think it is time people stop expecting any AAA game to be a generational leap and break totally new ground.

Budgets are too high, the risk is too great. I'm expecting all big budget games to be evolution not revolution from this point forward.
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Destiny is neither of those things which is the most funniest part.
 
Bungie has done fantasy in the past. The Myth series of games from the 90s is phenomenal. Probably my favorite RTS series ever, and there really is nothing like it yto this day
 
Another thing that is really odd to me. Destiny is one of the more self serious games I've ever played, but then they release this trailer with immigrant song playing in the background and humor. I'm pretty sure there is more humor in that trailer than in the entire game itself.
 
Erevador said:
For me it's an apt comparison because I agree with you, Fable was actually a really enjoyable game, just like I'm sure Destiny is, but one that had no hope of living up to the high expectations that the developers had very blatantly cultivated. People bought Fable thinking they were getting a more transformative product than they ended up getting.

The trouble there is that the pool of buyers ends up including a ton of people who might not have bought the game if it had been sold more honestly. They are understandably unhappy, and I think it's the kind of thing that creates a certain bitterness and suspicion about video games period. We saw something similar with the Watch Dogs downgrade.
Click to expand...

Mea culpa here. I bought the game because I've been a fan of Bungie's since the Halo games and was completely convinced by all the dev diaries/interviews etc that there was an epic space opera campaign in there somewhere. I even ignored the lack of one in the Beta because the gameplay seemed solid and Bungie kept saying there was a lot more to the story and the campaign than what was shown. I have friends who bought it convinced it was a FPS Mass Effect.

All of us wasted our money because what we got was ~12 hours of COD extinction mode set to Tyrion Lannister phoning in his voice acting broken up by a few embarrassingly cheesy cutscenes. As far as FPS campaigns go, it is the worst I've played in ages. Wolfenstein and Metro Redux both absolutely destroy this shit and even the much hated Killzone Shadowfall pisses all over Destiny's "campaign".

I'm done with Bungie.
 
ProvenDeadly said:
Not sure how many people agree with this, but I am fully convinced at this point that Halo Reach was kind of a test for some of Destiny's features. The bad part is they left out everything else.
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Oh, I definitely agree with that. I think the space combat in Reach was one of the tests for Destiny -- and the sad thing is that I really enjoyed the space combat in Reach. I think Bungie could have refined it a bit and it would have been an awesome addition to the game. It feels like something is missing for ships right now in the game just because all they are is a purely aesthetic thing which makes it hard to actually purchase them with glimmer when there's literally no real benefit to it.

gamechanger87 said:
Anyone else think it feels like Bungie has gone completely radio silent since release? They are usually one of the more vocal and outgoing devs.
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It's kinda hard to say anything when, before release, you (the developer) set the bar so high (and the game failed to deliver) so what is there really to say? You can either ignore the criticisms and go on with the narrative set, or you can admit the mistakes made, try to reassure the fanbase, but also reinforce the bad word of mouth indirectly as a result. It's a lose-lose right now. I think the best course of action for Bungie is to talk about the things that are going to be added to the game rather than comment on the reactions (so ignore and move on) after the dust settles.
 
gamechanger87 said:
Anyone else think it feels like Bungie has gone completely radio silent since release? They are usually one of the more vocal and outgoing devs.
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They're holed up with Activision counting their money. i expect word saying they've sold X million copies on either Friday or Monday. Then some kind of info-graphic with useless states like "X hive killed" "X orbs of light generated"

I'd love a meaningful response about complaints about the amount of content and AI but I don't expect to get one.
 
gamechanger87 said:
Anyone else think it feels like Bungie has gone completely radio silent since release? They are usually one of the more vocal and outgoing devs.
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I doubt they will comment on it at all until a solid 7-10 days post release. The comment will be, Destiny is selling great and our fans seem to be running to the stores to get it. While true, it doesn't address the concerns.

ProvenDeadly said:
I have no idea. They can't be happy with reviews.
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I doubt they truly care with all the money raining in.
 
infiniteheteroskdasticity said:
Mea culpa here. I bought the game because I've been a fan of Bungie's since the Halo games and was completely convinced by all the dev diaries/interviews etc that there was an epic space opera campaign in there somewhere. I even ignored the lack of one in the Beta because the gameplay seemed solid and Bungie kept saying there was a lot more to the story and the campaign than what was shown. I have friends who bought it convinced it was a FPS Mass Effect.

All of us wasted our money because what we got was ~12 hours of COD extinction mode set to Tyrion Lannister phoning in his voice acting broken up by a few embarrassingly cheesy cutscenes. As far as FPS campaigns go, it is the worst I've played in ages. Wolfenstein and Metro Redux both absolutely destroy this shit and even the much hated Killzone Shadowfall pisses all over Destiny's "campaign".

I'm done with Bungie.
Click to expand...

Worse campaign than Shadowfall?

That's a bigger lie than any Bungie ever told.
 
Nipo said:
I think it is time people stop expecting any AAA game to be a generational leap and break totally new ground.

Budgets are too high, the risk is too great. I'm expecting all big budget games to be evolution not revolution from this point forward.
Click to expand...
I agree except for two things:

Nintendo. Sometimes they pull something out of their ass and it just blows up and changes the field.

Morpheus. It's going to take some thoughtfulness to get this to work well.
 
what is bizarre to me is how evident it was from the beta. Even the gunplay became tedious due to the enemy respawn rate (fixed?), and the bullet spongey enemies that didn't really drop anything.

in addition, i really dont understand how the hype and PR translated into this game. i am kind of shocked to hear the story is nonexistent. i was convinced they were holding back a magnitude of content while in the beta.
 
Leafhopper said:
Star Wars but the starting area is Tatooine would have been cool. People could have made the joke "It's like Journey with lightsabers" or something.
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I don't know, I think I would make the opening area a forest world (Endor-like - or better yet, imagine something like Avatar's forest world where you're fighting huge predators) and then I would send them to a desert area just to blow their minds with a HUGE open level where they could ride minutes into the sunset trying to reach an abandoned building in the horizon. Something kind of like Mad Max (or your own "Journey with lightsabers" idea).
 
antitrop said:
If people want a great campaign FPS, I'm gonna pimp Wolfenstein.

Although I think the word of mouth is pretty well out there by now.
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Wolfenstein is a good game, and the dual shooting is awesome but I find amusing that you recommend it in a thread where everybody is upset about lack of content when it only consists on a 10hour campaign and nothing more.
 
AgentOtaku said:
The Grimoire section on The Darkness is pretty interesting actually. Its a series of theories from around the universe, my favorite being something similar to Mr.Shadow from The Fifth Element :)

Again, I had to read this buried on the game's website/app

...way to go Bungie
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Ive only been playing the game. all I know about the darkness is that it's something in space that chased the traveler all the way to the milky way...and that's it, I'm only in Venus maybe something comes up. I don't know, but the game doesn't explain shit. I don't even know what the traveler is even supposed to be. A big giant globe that guided humanity in space? Why? Why does the speaker speak for the traveler? How does he do it? What's his story? What is anyone's story here? What even is a Guardian? Why are there aliens and robots roaming earth? Why is anything even happening?

I don't know what was going at Bungie but the actual game writing makes no sense at all
 
MrCookiepants said:
Worse campaign than Shadowfall?

That's a bigger lie than any Bungie ever told.
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Shadowfall had a more coherent story with more interesting characters and waaaaaaaay better voice acting. It has some good - great set pieces (as well as some amazingly terrible ones - you'll know which ones if you've played it). It wasn't a great campaign but it was average. This is well below average.
 
I feel so justified now. My gut was right for once.

My take away from the beta:

tanod said:
Feel similarly.

Destiny is giving me the same feeling that I felt prior to Halo 3 coming out. I was really excited for the conclusion of the arc and they pushed the "epic" Master Chief story part HARD in their marketing materials / commercials. The game turned out to be very shallow story wise and very little of the interesting world-building parts get covered in-game.

Very skeptical until I have real-world impressions. I'm keeping in mind: As much as this feels like Mass Effect, it is not Mass Effect. My expectations are being kept in check this go around.
Click to expand...
 
AlphaDump said:
i am kind of shocked to hear the story is nonexistent. i was convinced they were holding back a magnitude of content while in the beta.
Click to expand...

I think everyone is shocked about it. It was justifiable in the beta, oh they are just scrambling it so the release isn't spoiled. Nope, there isn't a story to be had.
 
Crewnh said:
Ive only been playing the game. all I know about the darkness is that it's something in space that chased the traveler all the way to the milky way...and that's it, I'm only in Venus maybe something comes up. I don't know, but the game doesn't explain shit. I don't even know what the traveler is even supposed to be. A big giant globe that guided humanity in space? Why? Why does the speaker speak for the traveler? How does he do it? What's his story? What is anyone's story here? What even is a Guardian? Why are there aliens and robots roaming earth? Why is anything even happening?

I don't know what was going at Bungie but the actual game writing makes no sense at all
Click to expand...

Like ive said in other threads, im willing to bet Bungie was hoping for another Dark/Demon Souls scenario where the player base would be super stoked to figure it out themselves....

....and it backfired
 
I remember the "Will Destiny be bigger than Halo" thread where I was on the side of absolutely not. It's not even in the ball park. Sure it's going to sell more than Halo but that's a given.
 
One thing that bugs the heck out of me -- can anyone explain this for me?

Spoilers for the Reef:

Why, as an Awoken Guardian, do the Awoken (in the Reef) not recognize me as one of their own, nor do I seem to know anything at all about the Awoken, the race that I am myself?

I haven't finished the game, but I hope someone can at least give me an explanation for that.
 
gamechanger87 said:
Anyone else think it feels like Bungie has gone completely radio silent since release? They are usually one of the more vocal and outgoing devs.
Click to expand...

Vacations, launch interview stuff that will probably come out soon, concentrating on whatever they're working on.

More than likely though they are just taking everything in and will just keep communicating through the Bungie Weekly Updates like they normally do. If anyone is expecting them to outright admit they dropped the ball on anything though, I wouldn't be holding my breath.

^Bad/lazy writing. As from what my friend and I have been going through in the grimoire cards, there's nothing to address that. Which isn't surprising since that deals with lore rather than the moment-by-moment stuff, which for some reason Bungie felt no need to curate properly.
 
Shrinnan said:
One thing that bugs the heck out of me -- can anyone explain this for me?

Spoilers for the Reef:

Why, as an Awoken Guardian, do the Awoken (in the Reef) not recognize me as one of their own, nor do I seem to know anything at all about the Awoken, the race that I am myself?

I haven't finished the game, but I hope someone can at least give me an explanation for that.
Click to expand...

Dumb writing has no answers. Too lazy to write a scenario for each race.
 
Fdkn said:
Wolfenstein is a good game, and the dual shooting is awesome but I find amusing that you recommend it in a thread where everybody is upset about lack of content when it only consists on a 10hour campaign and nothing more.
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Quality over quantity, my friend.
 
AgentOtaku said:
Like ive said in other threads, im willing to bet Bungie was hoping for another Dark/Demon Souls scenario where the player base would be super stoked to figure it out themselves....

....and it backfired
Click to expand...
I'm not sure how much is in the game, but I think we need more on a surface level, with stuff under the surface that makes things look more and more interesting. And I imagine being sci-fi actively works against them, if it were full on fantasy it'd be "well ok so we have this god that showed up and a devil/evil god showing up, whatever let's fight some evil wizards!" and it'd be easy to take at face value, much like the Fire in Dark Souls, but being sci-fi and ostensibly our world in the future it's more "whoa, what is this, where did it come from, and what does it want!?" from the offset rather than something that starts to raise questions as we immerse ourselves in the world more and more.
 
People surprised at the lack of content of Destiny fail to realize that Bungie has always been a failure at game development and always compromise there games quality, look at Halo CE and Halo 2.
 
Shrinnan said:
One thing that bugs the heck out of me -- can anyone explain this for me?

Spoilers for the Reef:

Why, as an Awoken Guardian, do the Awoken (in the Reef) not recognize me as one of their own, nor do I seem to know anything at all about the Awoken, the race that I am myself?

I haven't finished the game, but I hope someone can at least give me an explanation for that.
Click to expand...

I thought the same thing the whole damn time it was happening. And yeah, it reeks of lazy writing and bad story. Hell the
Queen and her brother are pointless and just thrown in, and the way she controls (or is guarded by) fallen, wheres the story there
 
ProvenDeadly said:
Dumb writing has no answers. Too lazy to write a scenario for each race.
Click to expand...

Apathy said:
I thought the same thing the whole damn time it was happening. And yeah, it reeks of lazy writing and bad story. Hell the
Queen and her brother are pointless and just thrown in, and the way she controls (or is guarded by) fallen, wheres the story there
Click to expand...

Yeah, I figured that's what it ultimately came down to. I could have even explained my own character's lack of understanding
with amnesia from being dead (perhaps his memories from his previous life as a Guardian were essentially erased) but the Awoken at least should have acknowledged something.
Stuff like that is usually story gold for little attention to details and they seemed to have utterly failed with that.

Also, that explanation I gave was just conjecture on my part. I have no idea if that is an actual reason because the game gives no clue. I actually hope they make free DLC to give dialogue specific sequences for the different races especially since the cutscenes don't even incorporate your fire team. I mean come on!
 
Crewnh said:
Ive only been playing the game. all I know about the darkness is that it's something in space that chased the traveler all the way to the milky way...and that's it, I'm only in Venus maybe something comes up. I don't know, but the game doesn't explain shit. I don't even know what the traveler is even supposed to be. A big giant globe that guided humanity in space? Why? Why does the speaker speak for the traveler? How does he do it? What's his story? What is anyone's story here? What even is a Guardian? Why are there aliens and robots roaming earth? Why is anything even happening?

I don't know what was going at Bungie but the actual game writing makes no sense at all
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure it's easy to infer at least why there are Aliens on Earth given how Humans are forced to live under one city, as well as what a Guardian is.

AgentOtaku said:
Like ive said in other threads, im willing to bet Bungie was hoping for another Dark/Demon Souls scenario where the player base would be super stoked to figure it out themselves....

....and it backfired
Click to expand...

It would have worked, except the environments aren't that good at telling the story. Well that's not true, I'm on the Moon now and it's a much better experience than fighting on boring Russia.

But to be fair to Bungie, the audience for Souls is not going to be the same as for a big budget shooter like this- majority of the players aren't interested in digging up lore and want to be told straight up.
 
Deception said:
People surprised at the lack of content of Destiny fail to realize that Bungie has always been a failure at game development and always compromise there games quality, look at Halo CE and Halo 2.
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It does feel half to me that their games can be big blockbusters that just aren't the kind of thing I really, REALLY like, and half that they're good but flawed developers. I wonder what would have ultimately become of them had it not been for Halo?
 
Eusis said:
I'm not sure how much is in the game, but I think we need more on a surface level, with stuff under the surface that makes things look more and more interesting. And I imagine being sci-fi actively works against them, if it were full on fantasy it'd be "well ok so we have this god that showed up and a devil/evil god showing up, whatever let's fight some evil wizards!" and it'd be easy to take at face value, much like the Fire in Dark Souls, but being sci-fi and ostensibly our world in the future it's more "whoa, what is this, where did it come from, and what does it want!?" from the offset rather than something that starts to raise questions as we immerse ourselves in the world more and more.
Click to expand...

If they really believed in this universe, they should have just said fuck it and went full Mass Effect
The Tower itself should be either a Codex that you literally walk around and read or something similar to The Citadel at least...
 
Arrogant Bastard said:
I think everyone is shocked about it. It was justifiable in the beta, oh they are just scrambling it so the release isn't spoiled. Nope, there isn't a story to be had.
Click to expand...

This was 100% me after the beta. I was so, so damn certain that they had to have cut massive amounts of cutscenes and dialogue. It just fit so well; that's why the story is intensely disjointed, that's why they've got an all-star voice cast seemingly sitting on their thumbs. Wheels within wheels, it all makes sense!

But no.

Shrinnan said:
One thing that bugs the heck out of me -- can anyone explain this for me?

Spoilers for the Reef:

Why, as an Awoken Guardian, do the Awoken (in the Reef) not recognize me as one of their own, nor do I seem to know anything at all about the Awoken, the race that I am myself?

I haven't finished the game, but I hope someone can at least give me an explanation for that.
Click to expand...

Apparently, it's not a "racial" thing, it's a cultural one. Earthborn vs. Reef dwellers. The Queen isn't the Queen of all Awoken, just the ones living in the Reef.
 
ArkkAngel007 said:
More than likely though they are just taking everything in and will just keep communicating through the Bungie Weekly Updates like they normally do. If anyone is expecting them to outright admit they dropped the ball on anything though, I wouldn't be holding my breath.
Click to expand...
I can assure you with absolute certainty that they will stay silent on these criticisms now, but they will mention how they've learned from their mistakes and blah blah blah when it comes time to hype Destiny 2.

That's exactly what they did after Halo 2 launched.
 
AgentOtaku said:
Like ive said in other threads, im willing to bet Bungie was hoping for another Dark/Demon Souls scenario where the player base would be super stoked to figure it out themselves....

....and it backfired
Click to expand...

It sure would help if they let us read those goddamned Grimoire cards in the game instead of making us visit their website.
 
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