Excellent video. Honestly can't believe how low balled this game has been. Yes, the mission structure is repetitive, as it is in most fps, that said the actual arena and level design, balance and choice of enemies and enemy types, the excellent AI coupled with the fantastic gunplay all make for some super intense and fun combat scenarios. There's so much diversity in mobility, cover, tactical options etc. It's the reason why you can do missions and strikes over and over and have different, continually fun experiences each and every time. Don't think I've had as many close calls and nail biting moments in any fps in a very long time.
Destiny - Review Thread
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Excellent video. Honestly can't believe how low balled this game has been. Yes, the mission structure is repetitive, as it is in most fps, that said the actual arena and level design, balance and choice of enemies and enemy types, the excellent AI coupled with the fantastic gunplay all make for some super intense and fun combat scenarios. There's so much diversity in mobility, cover, tactical options etc. It's the reason why you can do missions and strikes over and over and have different, continually fun experiences each and every time. Don't think I've had as many close calls and nail biting moments in any fps in a very long time.
RespectThySole
Member
Exactly the 10s and 0s balance each other out. And more importantly it's not just about the actual score of the user reviews really. If you look at the actual content of the user reviews, many of them make very valid points.
Yes, the game is not worthy of a 0, but it's definitely not a 10 either. If you are going to call one extreme out at least be fair about it and not ignore the other side. Every game receives 0s and 10s on metacritic, but overall user scores clearly leaning one way show discontent with the game.
Furthermore, I wasn't really talking about the quality of the game or even the "validity" of the user reviews in this instance. I'm just saying that comparing Destiny's overall reception to CoD4 is very far-fetched. It's reception is more akin to Watch Dogs based on user scores and even then the critics scores are still lower with that comparison.
ViewtifulJC
Banned
Marty's music needed to be a better game. Or at least one with some kind of narrative drive/momentum and an understanding of pacing. As it is, its just kind of there. Not great, not horrible, its well produced and all that, but it doesn't leave any strong impression.
Which kinda sums up Destiny, in a nutshell.
Which kinda sums up Destiny, in a nutshell.
Poodlestrike
Banned
That one actually works pretty well. The problem is that it's the exception, not the rule. Most other fights take place in locations that are designed to double as throughways, which creates two problems: first, it restricts their options in terms of encounter design, since people need to be able to move through it at a fair clip if they're not interested in fighting, and second, it means you're going to be seeing the same areas a lot. The first time you're fighting your way into the Hellmouth, it's impressive, but the 2nd? The 3rd? The 6th?
Same.
For example, at first I thought the lack of local public chat was a huge oversight. Now, I've built up a friendslist by adding people in game and the social experience has been much more focused and personal and incredibly positive. Overwhelmingly positive in fact. It has none of the usual downsides of including local chat, none of the malicious trolling or nastiness you always find in an online game and I honestly think it's a really smart design choice.
However, I think it needs refining. For instance, when running along with another player through a story, there should be an options you set for on the fly matchmaking so you if you both run into a restricted respawn area and you both have it selected you install party up. They need to refine stuff like this and make it more seamless.
Also some kind of looking for fire team flag or party board would be a very good idea. Matchmaking for daily and weekly missions/strikes too. Maybe an option on the matchmaking screen to invite players to a fire team just to remove a few steps as a QOL update. Things like that.
They also need to remove the double dice roll from legendary engrams. Make them only drop legendary items or materials, with a very rare chance of an exotic. Farming for hours to be rewarded with a legendary drop only for it to open into a rare feels like a slap to the face. Just make them rarer to find if they have to be.
The point being, there are things I initially considered flaws that I now consider positive, and vice versa. Had I written a review myself a couple of days ago it would be different to the one I'd write now. And I've had three days off work and nothing to do but play Destiny, I can imagine some of the reviewers didn't put nearly that much time in before committing to paper.
Statue of Limitation
Member
Come a month when Shadow of Mordor hopefully gets high reviews I'll look pretty damn savvy cancelling my pre-order of Destiny for it.
I'm shocked at the hate the game is getting critically. Not that it doesn't deserve it. But its the same gaming press that gave a stagnant Call of Duty 9's year after year - the same press that will call GTAV game of the year because it has a huge budget and a lot of style over what I personally consider to be substance.
What's more interesting is the hate now found here. I wonder if there is any cross-over between the people in this thread and the people in the Destiny beta thread, posting screen shots of sunsets and wishing the beta was going to last just one more day.
People knew what was coming before the beta - the game was being met with a very healthy dose of scepticism because we were told how great it was going to be, but they just kept showing us a duck-shooter with Borderlands type features strapped on.
The beta comes and everyone loses their minds and suddenly, nothing stops the hype train. Why?
On reflection people expected a different experience? Did you expect the rest of the campaign to have a more interesting and engaging story? Did you expect the later maps to open up in a way Russia never did? Did you expect NPC's worth a damn would drop out of the sky and populate the world?
The beta was a very fair interpretation of what the game would be, and everyone loved it.
I'm shocked at the hate the game is getting critically. Not that it doesn't deserve it. But its the same gaming press that gave a stagnant Call of Duty 9's year after year - the same press that will call GTAV game of the year because it has a huge budget and a lot of style over what I personally consider to be substance.
What's more interesting is the hate now found here. I wonder if there is any cross-over between the people in this thread and the people in the Destiny beta thread, posting screen shots of sunsets and wishing the beta was going to last just one more day.
People knew what was coming before the beta - the game was being met with a very healthy dose of scepticism because we were told how great it was going to be, but they just kept showing us a duck-shooter with Borderlands type features strapped on.
The beta comes and everyone loses their minds and suddenly, nothing stops the hype train. Why?
On reflection people expected a different experience? Did you expect the rest of the campaign to have a more interesting and engaging story? Did you expect the later maps to open up in a way Russia never did? Did you expect NPC's worth a damn would drop out of the sky and populate the world?
The beta was a very fair interpretation of what the game would be, and everyone loved it.
Gametrailers gave it a
. It should go up. IGN is also pending. At the end of the day it will have an average about 75, which is quite fair.
http://www.gametrailers.com/reviews/gfn381/destiny-review
8.0
http://www.gametrailers.com/reviews/gfn381/destiny-review
I'm looking for more than the tone to be set. I think it's easy to come up with some sort of music to evoke 'suspense', or 'horror', or 'chaos', or 'serenity', or whatever. I want character. I want something unique and memorable. You could lift anything I heard in the first ten hours here and plop it into any other shooter and it'd fit just as well.
I'll give it more of a chance as I keep playing.
People keep saying this, but Ghosts' metascore is between 68 and 78, depending on platform. Call of Duty 3 also reviewed much lower than the other IW CoD games it was being compared with at the time, game reviewers aren't completely incompetent.
It got what it deserved. Advanced Warfare will probably review much better this year, because it looks like a much better game.
The only CoD game I think is extremely overrated, in general, is Modern Warfare 3 (that was about as bad and bland as Ghosts).
Do you even play Call of Duty, though?
ffejeromdiks
Banned
Anyone wanna speculate on what the "combined arms" update is going to bring?
I'm hoping for a halo style "big team battle" It's what I think this game is missing from PVP, people hate the vehicles in this game for some reason but I think they are a blast. Each and every player has a special that can 1-hit-kill each and every one of them so it's not like they are unstoppable.
If it's not PVP though I would looove vehicle focused co op missions. Destiny's mission variety is seriously lacking and having more vehicle sections would alleviate that monotony the same way the vehicle sections break up the gameplay in Halo.
I'm hoping for a halo style "big team battle" It's what I think this game is missing from PVP, people hate the vehicles in this game for some reason but I think they are a blast. Each and every player has a special that can 1-hit-kill each and every one of them so it's not like they are unstoppable.
If it's not PVP though I would looove vehicle focused co op missions. Destiny's mission variety is seriously lacking and having more vehicle sections would alleviate that monotony the same way the vehicle sections break up the gameplay in Halo.
ViewtifulJC
Banned
Destiny never develops much of that
Some friends and I were joking about how funny Nathan Fillion is in the Tower, like maybe he didn't get the memo. "Yeah, your voice acting is very charming with a rogue-ish quality to it, but uh...could you maybe make it more monotone? A more self-serious delivery perhaps? Lets try that again, but just take the natural sense of warmth and humanity out it, please"
Anyone wanna speculate on what the "combined arms" update is going to bring?
I'm hoping for a halo style "big team battle" It's what I think this game is missing from PVP, people hate the vehicles in this game for some reason but I think they are a blast. Each and every player has a special that can 1-hit-kill each and every one of them so it's not like they are unstoppable.
If it's not PVP though I would looove vehicle focused co op missions. Destiny's mission variety is seriously lacking and having more vehicle sections would alleviate that monotony the same way the vehicle sections break up the gameplay in Halo.
Combined Arms is the mode with big maps and vehicles.
Misses the point.
It's about the reason that I, and many like me, have been playing Halo pretty consistently for the last 12 years - the mechanics are peerless. The act of playing the game is in itself the reason to keep playing. So far Destiny have proved to me at least as good as Halo in this way.
What Bungie have done here is to bring context and added incentive to it's endlessly replayable combat loops.
If you just play through Destiny and have a quick bash at everything, like you would a COD, then you're missing out on 90% of it.
This is only really the case mostly in outdoors open segments. Once you go through a main gate, cave, cavern, tunnel, door or whatever, it's a completely different story. I'd actually say most of the major encouters are not through way type engagements at all. In fact all the major mission and strike ones go in to a darkness mode that boots other players out and introduces level design very specifically crafted for the encounters, but in no way does it compromise on scale. Some of these specifically designed and cordoned off areas are absolutely humongous.
It's not an mmo.
ViewtifulJC
Banned
People say that only when its convenient for their defense
Then you bring up the boring bullet sponge boss fights or awful quest system, and its all "well duh its a MMO you can't judge vanilla WoW in a week breh"
I'd make a detailed post about the issues with level design and combat encounters if I wasn't on my phone at work, but the open endedness hurts it, and the AI can barely handle it as they never know what to do when you're sniping, an just running away makes them back off since they have strict lines to not cross over. The core loop is still a lot of fun, but in this boiling pot of gameplay systems it ends up not fully playing to the strengths of the genre.
And the anount of times a crowd of enemies literally spawn on me in a strike is crazy.
And the anount of times a crowd of enemies literally spawn on me in a strike is crazy.
thats the worst of it all.
You spend 20 minutes killing one of these giant bullet sponges and when youre expecting a lot of engrams and loot falling on the floor...
Well, that isn't really a objective thing. It's not a typical linear FPS, for instance. It's strikes an unhappy medium between the two. It's not social enough to be an MMO, though multiplayer hub-worlds are typically an element of MMOs, and it's not constructed enough to be a well designed FPS (in terms of missions). That's its problem. It's part of a weird, nebulous genre that doesn't really have any inherent benefit.
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
If you want to go by big page numbers than any game other then smash would be wrong
ComputerBlue
Member
Best thing about the game is the score. Marty did a great job, not his best work, but still great.
thats the worst of it all.
You spend 20 minutes killing one of these giant bullet sponges and when youre expecting a lot of engrams and loot falling on the floor...
Yeah but they drop ammo though, which is better than actual loot because what good is an Exotic gun if you have no ammo? Only a fool trusts his life to a weapon.
Is that just this guy with a beard?
Yeah, David Mitchell.
ffejeromdiks
Banned
It's damn good. The first time you encounter the Vex was a true holy shit moment and the sound design in that encounter is impeccable. You fight the first two waves with a lowly drum score playing and then all of a sudden the final wave teleports in and the enemy count is completely overwelming, while the score swells into an outstanding drum orgy. Love the music in this game. It's a shame Marty departed Bungie, that's a guy that's hard to replace.
Doctor_Thomas
Member
I am currently installing it. I really don't have much to comment on, but I am on PS4 and it made me think I could start more or less immediately, only to be greeted by "Installing Destiny". Truly, on PS4 this is highly annoying.
speculawyer
Member
I dug up this Penny Arcade thread in reference to the Duke controller in another thread but it seems to make a comment that is today relevant to Bungie level design.
bigbaldwolf86
Banned
Aren't game installs on PS4 really quick? My installs only take about a minute.
Zok310
Banned
The game is defiantly rigged, today I started playing and guess what?????
The very first mission I got a strange coin. Then I leveled up my cryptarch to Lvl 6 and got another strange coin!!!!!????? All within 2 hours of playing, yet last night after grinding 8 hours straight I could not get 1 until xur was removed.
Freaking joke. Game is shit in my book.
I don't see it that way. He was fired and his music belongs in better games.
How can anyone hear it when you're communicating with other people on headsets anyway? And when I'm not on the headset, I turn down the volume on the TV and listen to my own music, like any other grindy loot game.
Most of the people who love destiny won't come in here due to the thread being a hate train earlier. Now that it's settled down there is some actual discussion going on.
Destiny is a game that gets better as you play it for me. PvP gets deeper with all the ability options you unlock, pve gets better because the game takes the chains off encounters and things get brutal. It very much feels like Diablo to me.
people criticize the lack of weapon variety. The weapon abilities are important and offer distinct differences when actually using the weapon. If your just looking at photos or videos then I could see someone thinking that.
Doctor_Thomas
Member
Normally, yes, but with Destiny, it lets you start straight away and basically takes you to an "installing game" screen.
Poodlestrike
Banned
But it still takes place in those same areas. Like, the first instanced area in the Devil's Lair takes place in a hallway. Ditto the second. The encounters are instanced, but they're still happening in what amounts to hallways. They're still bound by those same limitations; all the Darkness does is let them shift enemy placement and level, and keep out guardians not on your Fireteam. They can't shift the level geometry around. One of the reasons the fight in the video works so well is that it's an area designed solely around that firefight; most other fights take place in multi-use zones.
Didn't say it was. It is, however, like an MMO, which is what I said.
And that's what it's trying to be. Why does it have to be either one of these previously pre defined things and not a balance of both? I don't personally have the time, patience and commitment to play MMOs, and I've played nearly every major traditional fps out there, so Destiny's accessible balance of both of these things, a kind of Phantasy Star Online meets Halo meets Borderlands type amalgamation works great for me.
It can be this accessible mix of these different genres without compromising on its quality. Lack of more diverse content was most probably a time and resources management issue (cross gen, going from an exclusive developer to a multiplatform one, first game on a new generation and a new IP), and the story is something they can hopefully work to improve in the sequel.
It's still sad that he was fired. For me, Marty was a big part in Bungie's games.
But contrary to some people's beliefs, I don't see Bungie's reputation forever tarnished if they're willing to listen to criticism and amend their mistakes (And that's an If considering there's a possibility that Bungie will not give a shit). Whether it will be on this game or the sequel, who knows.
I absolutely think it can. But I don't think it was, and that was its problem.
ArkkAngel007
Member
But the majority of the story mission and strike encounters do not take place in through way zones. Nor is the quality of the arena design hindered by the ones that are. The Devils Lair example is a great one, because both the arena with the wizards, fallen etc work well, as does the one outdoors with the big tank boss. There are just so many cover, mobility, and tactical positioning options in the latter area. It's very cleverly designed, through way or not.
RespectThySole
Member
We'll see, but it's definitely more likely to end up like those games than it is CoD4. There is much more in common with the former than the latter in terms of the reception so far. It's great that your friends were able to enjoy the game to such a degree, but honestly I've felt that my friends were a good barometer of seeing how things would most likely turn out and many of them are not enjoying the game.
Some do find it fun(like myself) just because we're playing with friends and the mechanics are great, but it's been a very lacking experience for us overall especially considering who the game was developed by, how hyped it was and the misleading PR.
I'll still play it to get my money's worth, but it could and should of been a lot better than this.
I'm sure it won't have any lasting power with my circle of friends once the other Fall AAA experiences come around and judging from the overall reception it won't have lasting power with many others either.
Bungie is lucky that the expansions were purchased with limited edition versions of the game and that there was a season pass. Because if their wasn't I'm sure the expansion sales would be a great disappointment once many in the user base move on to CoD, Halo, GTA, WoW, Smash, Dragon Age and so on.
Also, I do think that the lack of social features was a very poor design choice and it seems that most agree with this sentiment.
Yes, playing games with friends are fun, but what about when our friends aren't online? What about when we just want to interact with the community and joke around in a competitive environment? What about trading items? What about coordinating with people on your PvP or Strike team? And the list goes on and on. Voice chat should be standard out the box with a toggle option.
If a particular user doesn't enjoy talking to others in the game, then simply don't. However, there is no reason to limit everyone else's experience just because a minority only wants to game with friends.
People used to make many online friends IN multiplayer games in the past for godsake. It is so counter-intuitive to the type of game it is to make the community feel so lifeless. Bungie basically zapped the game of any real community that made so many multiplayer games before it so great.
infiniteheteroskdasticity
Member
You can't be serious. Destiny's campaign is literally the same horde mode mission copy pasted to new locations having you defend Dinklage while he talks rubbish. Calling it a campaign is actually overselling it a fair bit.
It's also like a fps and an rpg. Should we compare Destiny to FF7? Or should we compare it to COD? Or should we compare it to world of warcraft? Which comparison feels right? It's not an mmo. Comparing it to an mmo is silly. It's an fps variant.
your comment is one reason I think it's reviewing poorly. I picture puzzled reviewers trying to write a review and thinking well is this an mmo or a shooter? What should I compare this to content wise and feature wise?
Well first no the campaign isn't like that. Strikes are not that way and are part of the campaign.
Second please find where I said campaign in my post? The ganeplay, actually playing the game, is better than last light. I have far more fun actually playing this game than last light by a country mile. When I played last light I got about half way through then stopped. Even though I'm curious to find out what happened the gunplay wasn't addictive and it felt like just another shooter.
The gunplay in destiny is peerless.
ffejeromdiks
Banned
I've been playing all the story missions by myself, and with headphones. It's just the way I prefer Bungie games, it's definitely made the story last longer by doing it all on the hardest possible difficulty and by myself. I'm level 25, I have one exotic and I have yet to even beat the game yet.
I do the same thing with the Halo games, you miss far too much when you're playing with a full group, not to mention that you'll end up beating the entire thing in one sitting. I like my games to be drawn out as long as possible.
And that's why Bungie never expressly called it an MMO or an RPG, or a traditional fps. Their definition for the game was 'shared world shooter', which is pretty fair, but it matters little because it's a definition they essentially made up to describe their unique casual twist on a mix of these genres.
Poodlestrike
Banned
Except, see, that's just not true. Consider the first firefight of the Moon strike. It takes place in a zone that you walked right through not 2 mission prior, but this time, you need to set down Dinklebot and defend against some waves. It is a hallway, and the design is always going to be fundamentally limited by that.
And I don't know how you can cite the Spider Tank fight as an example of good level design. They had to invisible wall off one of the towers on the right because if you could get up there it would break the fight, and there's still places you can hole up that make the whole affair a cakewalk.
But the MMO comparison is more apt, since that's what the whole "end game" concept is shooting for, and that's what it's most reminiscent of. Call a spade a spade: they borrowed the core concept (grind the same set of high-level dungeons to get better loot to tackle tougher high-level dungeons), but they don't have the breadth of content to pull it off, and most of the high-level dungeons are pretty terrible.
bigbaldwolf86
Banned
Ah gotcha
I think they are saying that when Xur is there, strange coins just don't drop which is really weird. Once he left they could grind for them again.
Feels more like Diablo fps to me than an mmo. It's not massively multiplayer enough. The name massively multiplayer online in itself does not fit destiny. Does Destiny have an online shop? Does it have a monthly fee? No? It's not an mmo.
How are strikes not like the normal missions? Move through easy trash mobs, reach an area in which Dinklebot has to be initiated, wait for Dinklebot to STFU, then defend him while wave after wave of enemies comes out of doors covered in "darkness", move on to bullet sponge boss and also fight off wave after wave of enemies while taking down the bullet sponge boss. Real creative, Bungie.
Strongly disagree. Maybe if you're playing on easy. But try a hard difficulty, or one a few levels outside your level scope and using the terrain and cover to your advantage is vital. And if you think you'll have the ammo or ability to just sit in some far away distant outpost the whole time, you clearly haven't tried this strike on any setting resembling a proper challenge.
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