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[Opiate]

True. But I think it's fairly obvious at this point we can't trust the designers to make the two work together.

I don't think it's because they're all stupid dumb dumb heads, though. I think the medium just makes it challenging; interactivity and story telling are not easily fused.

But again, that doesn't make it impossible and doesn't mean that any game with any story is "bad." I personally really like Bungie's solution with Halo (basically make two separate games and then fuse them in to a single "universe"), but I also understand that this approach is becoming prohibitively expensive. I'd add that not every game needs to be mechanically focused and that having a wide swathe of different approaches is a good thing.

 

[Brakke]

You're supposed to be out of the loop. The story is from the perspective of your character, who has been dead for centuries. To expect them to know almost everything about a situation they were forced into is quite asinine, in my opinion. The beginning of your story starts when your Ghost revives you.

Also, read the grimoire cards and a lot of the questions in the OP are addressed through them. It isn't hard to read them as you earn them. Just keep your phone next to you.

You're begging the question. According to what's presented the story is "you wake up and don't know anything and then don't try and learn anything and then you MURDER A SPACE GOD(?) and then still don't know why you did that tho". You're saying that it's intentional somehow makes it not trash?

The real problem is there's no theme to the game. They shouldn't have even tried to build an arc of escalating tension into this thing. You can't have a game that supports/encourages/requires replaying the same missions multiple times and also have one of those missions be Kill A God(?).

 

[Poodlestrike]

The problem, as I see it, is the characters. There aren't any; at least, not any worth mentioning. And stories, especially video game stories, live and die by their characters. They don't have to be massively deep, but they do have to be entertaining, and if they fail that criteria, the whole story falls apart.

Story IS character. And Destiny doesn't have any.

 

[ShinMaruku]

I don't think it's because they're all stupid dumb dumb heads, though. I think the medium just makes it challenging; interactivity and story telling are not easily fused.

But again, that doesn't make it impossible and doesn't mean that any game with any story is "bad." I personally really like Bungie's solution with Halo (basically make two separate games and then fuse them in to a single "universe"), but I also understand that this approach is becoming prohibitively expensive. I'd add that not every game needs to be mechanically focused and that having a wide swathe of different approaches is a good thing.

I was not trying to say that they are dumb or incompetent, rather that they don't have the skillset or the team make up to make that jump. I put that on all developers, which is why I will never be saddened that they have not put out a great story. But people should keep trying to fix it though, but when they fail I won't be as merciless as some reviewers would be.

 

[Bizazedo]

Assuming your Guardian chooses not to share this information with other people, sure. How are details about the story irrelevant to it, exactly?

So you're now saying my Guardian knows, but chooses and enjoys leaving Ghost in the dark?

 

[Heroman]

Yo gaf, why cant the ghost bring dead guardians back to life. If he do it for you why cant he do for the other dead one?

 

[foxtrot3d]

Yo gaf, why cant the ghost bring dead guardians back to life. If he do it for you why cant he do for the other dead one?

ssssshhh, no more quesions now.

 

[Anton Sugar]

Posting for new page:

So is there any actual exploration of sci-fi/sci-fi themes in the story? Outside of the weapons, armor, setting, spaceships, etc.

I found it fascinating that this was originally to be a medieval/fantasy game--it absolutely shows.

Yo gaf, why cant the ghost bring dead guardians back to life. If he do it for you why cant he do for the other dead one?

Can't ghosts only revive one person?

 

[jaaz]

My "favorite line":

"Ghost and You: Can you help us find "The Black Garden"

"Exo (British) Hunter Girl: I can't... My path is my own."

What? You've been pretty much trailing us and telling us where to go for the entire game and all of a sudden you get a conscious after you speak to your schizophrenic self?

It's not like we asked you to join our Fireteam or anything, geez. Oh and thanks for giving us that cool Pulse rifle AFTER we get our ass kicked a few times by statutes come to life in The Black Garden that you didn't even help us find!

 

[The Elite]

My favourite part of the story was the part where I was an awoken and the awoken don't acknowledge this at all in the reef

I was wondering if the dialogue was any different for an Awoken player.

 

[DNAbro]

Also this game suffers from a "you are the chosen one" problem but without saying we are. we are not better than any other guardian, yet for some reason we are able to do feats that many others died trying to do. Slight complaint but it feels off.

 

[Poodlestrike]

Posting for new page:

So is there any actual exploration of sci-fi/sci-fi themes in the story? Outside of the weapons, armor, setting, spaceships, etc.

I found it fascinating that this was originally to be a medieval/fantasy game--it absolutely shows.



Can't ghosts only revive one person?

Nope. There's almost an interesting bit about AI, but they totally fail to go into the Rasputin thing.

 

[KiefbladeMaster]

You can't have a game that supports/encourages/requires replaying the same missions multiple times and also have one of those missions be Kill A God(?).

This is literally every end game in any MMO/ARPG ever. Also, replaying the story missions is not something you'd do unless you wanted to. Strikes, Raids, and PvP are the things to repeat because you actually get gear from them. Have you even played the game?

 

[show me your skeleton]

On a semi-serious/interesting note, I thought this theory about "The Darkness" was actually somewhat interesting:

http://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/2gd9lr/i_overheard_a_fallen_dreg_say_something_and_now_i/

oooh, this is exactly what i am getting at. it's funny because bungie can do oblique ultra-dense sci fi so SO well but can't portray it effectively in their primary medium for some reason. marathon, halo and destiny all suffered from this.

 

[Shoeless]

I was wondering if the dialogue was any different for an Awoken player.

BioWare spoiled us in this regard.

 

[Muskieratboi]

My Opinion: The Grimoire should have been viewable from inside the game.
None of this "use the mobile app" shit. If it's lore, it should BE IN THE GAME ITSELF. I don't mind poring through an encyclopaedia to figure things out, but I DO mind being torn from the experience to do so.

The story through the missions as is, works. it has a good beginning. it has a good ending. it's.. just missing the middle parts.

More cutscenes! (That are skippable after you've sen them at least once of course)
I loved Dinklebot's banter with your Guardian. he's cute and snarky.

To Paraphrase and add to a line from the Gamespot review: There's an empty house here, built on a strong foundation, and I'm sure that Bungie will furnish the place quite nicely over the next couple of years.

I just wish they didn't have the housewarming party while we all sat on Milk Crates with throw rugs over them.

 

[thatmariolover]

The single player level up from 1-20 is basically an unnecessarily long tutorial, and the storytelling is really slapdash. You never meet any guardians other than yourself in the story, so there's no sense of struggle. They need NPCs other than those that give you direction, you need peers. If you're going to follow typical fantasy tropes you also need to make the player care about something (people, places, etc) so that you can take them away or put them in compromising situations. There's no reason to care. Nobody to empathize with.

The entire script suffers, but nowhere moreso than Ghost's dialogues. He's making serious references, but there's no attempt to bring the player up to speed on why you should care. He goes on about 'things being worse than [he] thought' or how you 'struck a blow' but the conflict doesn't seem real. The Grimoire is a bastardized way of storytelling, and is really just an excuse to neglect worldbuilding while pandering to completionists.

Honestly, the entire game seems to lack creative direction. It's like a dozen different teams built a dozen different parts of the game and sloppily mashed them together without any unifying vision.

 

[ultron87]

The one part where your guardian gains a personality for 10 seconds and jokes around by calling the Ghost "little light" was nice.

 

[The Cartographer]

Maybe the whole story is just a huge hoax.

 

[Toa TAK]

But did I do any of that? I have no idea what my character accomplished at the end of the game. My major complaint about the plot of the game isn't so much that it's vague in the information it gives the player, but rather that almost nothing happens in it. The major plot beats of the game are as follows:

1) I am revived on Earth by a Ghost and find a ship to take me back to The Tower
2) I get to the Tower and am told that I should join other Guardians in a fight to 'save the Traveler'
3) I do some scouting on Earth and find out I need to go to the moon
4) I go to the moon and am told to go to Venus
5) I go to Venus and am told to find The Awoken
6) I immediately find the Awoken and am told I need to go to The Black Garden (don't worry about what The Black Garden is, it's really bad and I need to go there)
7) I kill a Gatelord so that the mean Awoken guy will let me into The Black Garden
8) I am told to go to Mars to find The Black Garden
9) I find The Black Garden and shoot some statues
10) The day is saved?

That's a bad plot. There's no character arcs, nothing changes from beginning to end, I don't even know if I saved the day at the end. Seriously, can someone tell me what was accomplished at the end of the game? Is The Traveler saved?

This is literally all I got from the story as well. The game is fun as hell, but jeez, I cannot gather the point of it all.

 

[LiK]

The only cutscene with some substance was the douchebag with his sister. There was barely anything in the game to grasp.

 

[KiefbladeMaster]

So you're now saying my Guardian knows, but chooses and enjoys leaving Ghost in the dark?

Not at all, actually. You don't receive that Grimoire card until after your Ghost's surprise. When you actually, you know, kill a Vex.

 

[Bizazedo]

Not at all, actually. You don't receive that Grimoire card until after your Ghost's surprise. When you actually, you know, kill a Vex.

That's great that you think that, but you kill Vex before Ghost makes his comment about "Time? That can't be right".

 

[GrandHarrier]

If the Vex can teleport anywhere why don't they just like turn one of their numbers into a bomb and teleport into the city? Or why doesn't the Fallen drop an asteroid onto it? Or, at one point you're said that the Cabal blow up planets in their way, why don't they do that to the Earth? How is the dormant Traveler stopping that? We're told it can only protect a single city.

 

[KiefbladeMaster]

That's great that you think that, but you kill Vex before Ghost makes his comment about "Time? That can't be right".

No you don't. He says that on the first mission on Venus right before you encounter them, when you reestablish your Sparrow link.

 

[Bizazedo]

No you don't. He says that on the first mission on Venus right before you encounter them, when you reestablish your Sparrow link.

Negative. He talks about it later when he talks about some of the info he's stolen and how the Vex keep places locked in Time and Space. It's then that he displays incredulity at the Time aspect of that.

I'll replay it tonight to get the exact mission if you'd like.

 

[ShinMaruku]

The only cutscene with some substance was the douchebag with his sister. There was barely anything in the game to grasp.

Was my fave scene.

 

[sjay1994]

I don't have time to explain how I don't have time to whatever is Destiny's story in a nutshell.

I just gave up playing the story at venus and have resigned myself to get loot through the crucible and strikes.

 

[Rodney McKay]

On a semi-serious/interesting note, I thought this theory about "The Darkness" was actually somewhat interesting:

http://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/2gd9lr/i_overheard_a_fallen_dreg_say_something_and_now_i/

I haven't even played the game yet, but this was already something that I almost immediately thought of when I heard that this game had the incredibly lazy "Light vs. Dark" theme.

Hmm, what would be something that could possible make this one level lazier than pure "light vs. dark?" I know! What if the Dark ISN'T bad and the Light ISN'T good! Mind. Freakin. BLOWN.

wat_a_tweest.gif

 

[Brakke]

So is there any actual exploration of sci-fi/sci-fi themes in the story? Outside of the weapons, armor, setting, spaceships, etc.

No, there are no explorations of any themes in the game at all.

This is literally every end game in any MMO/ARPG ever. Also, replaying the story missions is not something you'd do unless you wanted to. Strikes, Raids, and PvP are the things to repeat because you actually get gear from them. Have you even played the game?

There are bounties that would require you to replay missions. Eventually you get "heroic" versions of "story" missions. Replaying missions is literally built into the game, it's an expectation.

 

[Poodlestrike]

Was my fave scene.

Mine too, but frankly I feel that says more about the rest of the game than anything else.

 

[Scirrocco]

The game seems to troll you so badly. Besides the " I could tell you..." line the speaker gives, theres also the strangers " I dont have time to explain I don't have time to explain..." and right before the last boss the ghost is scanning some things and goes " Its beginning to make sense..." and doesn't say a damn thing about anything.

On a semi-serious/interesting note, I thought this theory about "The Darkness" was actually somewhat interesting:

http://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/2gd9lr/i_overheard_a_fallen_dreg_say_something_and_now_i/

" No! I must defeat the Darkness." He shouted.

The Ghost said " But Guardian, you are the darkness."

And then the Guardian was a Wizard.

I write that as a joke, but its scary, I could see those exact words in the game. As it is i'm kind of expecting them to pull a Bioshock, and reveal the guardian isn't really in control of his actions, which would explain why he just goes along with everything without asking any questions. The black garden card posted earlier might kinda sorta hint at that.

My Opinion: The Grimoire should have been viewable from inside the game.
None of this "use the mobile app" shit. If it's lore, it should BE IN THE GAME ITSELF. I don't mind poring through an encyclopaedia to figure things out, but I DO mind being torn from the experience to do so.

But just making it viewable in game wouldn't solve everything, because you can't just 'Go to the grimoire.', you have to unlock the entries first, and since most people aren't going to go and hunt down all the unique items and dead ghosts for the cards, its really more " Go to the wiki'. You shouldn't have to fight that hard just to get a basic understanding of the story.

 

[show me your skeleton]

Maybe the whole story is just a huge hoax.

or more likely, will be expanded upon via the many many add ons and expansions.

 

[GrandHarrier]

or more likely, will be expanded upon via the many many add ons and expansions.

The ones we'll have to buy? You mean I just have to pay money to actually get a story to the game?

 

[Brakke]

This guy does a voice in Destiny. Having beaten the game, I have not even one single clue what his character's role/position are within the city, nor why I should be obeying his orders, nor why is he giving me orders, nor even what does his character look like. Is he a robo? Is he a human? Is he a not-quite-human Awoken like me? Is he a Guardian? Not a single goddamn clue.

I don't even know what is a Guardian. Do the Guardians have a command hierarchy or are we all independent agents? Do humans of the city who aren't Guardians ever fight? Is the entire military of The Last City comprised of Guardians? Is the Speaker a Guardian? Are Guardians at all concerned with civilians? Why would we be if we're immortal(?).

Can the bad guys kill Ghosts? How would they do that if Ghosts can turn invisible and also have access to some pocket dimension that's at least big enough to hold the head of that Gatekeeper thing.

The biggest question of all: why can't I match-make a party for Heroic Strikes?

 

[cripterion]

I liked the story.

I was asking me who is this powerful mage called Traveler that changed the life of everybody and now all the guardians are trying to find him.

There are a good end that give you a taste of the universe with more races, planets, etc that I believe Bungie have plans to fill up at least this generation.

You must love falling skies lol. Destiny's story is about nonsensical as that tv show.

 

[David___]

It isn't that there is only one habitable city. It's that the city is the only safe place for humans in the whole solar system (and possibly the galaxy) due to the various encroaching alien species. And those aliens are apparently all part of the Darkness except they fight each other? I dunno.

They're so evil they hate other evil.

 

[Sawneeks]

Destiny has awful in game execution of the story to the point where things you started solving in the beginning go nowhere. Ever. Which is a huge shame because the lore in the Grimoire is amazing and leaves huge questions and areas of speculation. And since half of this 'lore thread' is arguing over the merits of the in game story I'm going to ask a question:

What do you think The Darkness is?

In one of the Grimoire cards it explains how the Collapse and the Darkness are debated as nobody knows exactly what happened or what it is. My personal theory is that The Traveller caused the Collapse somehow and this 'Darkness' is simply the 'dark mirror of the Traveller' mentioned by the Strange Coin vendor.

I also have a crack theory that Oryx, the Hive God, is this dark Traveller simply because of the Shrine of Oryx. It's a planet shape for crying out loud and the Hive are the only race shown to worship the Darkness.

 

[Brakke]

Also is my ghost special? He must've have said "this encryption is impossible to break" like seventeen times right before breaking encryption. Is that the Traveler's magic, he knows the decryptarum bonum spell?

But just making it viewable in game wouldn't solve everything, because you can't just 'Go to the grimoire.', you have to unlock the entries first, and since most people aren't going to go and hunt down all the unique items and dead ghosts for the cards, its really more " Go to the wiki'. You shouldn't have to fight that hard just to get a basic understanding of the story.

You can't even pause the game to read the cards as you get them. The only possible way to get information out of the Grimoire is after any drama that information could created has passed.

 

[Pejo]

Personally, my biggest problem with the story is just how we kind of float from thing to thing with no real reason for doing so other than Ghost the Ghost somehow knows said thing will be helpful. He even admits several times in the story that he doesn't know what, if anything, these things are about to do. Yet he is batting 1000 with being right.

It's just such a bummer to see the world developed in such a cool way, visually, then just filled with the most boring objectives you can think of. To make it worse, usually you're examining some random ass computer or a box on the edge of a room that has nothing remarkable about it.

 

[Fisty]

I think the setup is pretty great, though its obviously not spelled out. Humanity is being kept alive by the Traveller/Ghosts because they resurrect the dead to continue to protect it. I would assume there are other people that have never been resurrected and are simply "normals" who carry on the species proper, while the Traveller uses dead humans (willingly or not? Its not exactly clear) to protect itself, and humanity by proxy. I havent delved into the Grimoire or lore yet, but obviously you dont need it to see something interesting could be building. Same thing with Halo 1

So what is the Traveller? What are its motives? What do other alien species hope to gain from it? Its all up in the air at this point, and the answers might not be what we want or hope when the story is concluded, but right now its intriguing and im anxious to see more.

 

[cripterion]

Why does my Guardian just accept the crazy circumstances he's been thrown into and never question it? Why does he instantly know how to use every piece of futuristic weapon and machinary? Why does our Guardian choose to believe the words of some random Exo that he has no allegiance to? There's plenty of examples in the OP too. The characters in this game seemingly do not behave in a logical way.

Lol do guardians even take a piss, eat or drink? Where does one get a decent burger up in that tower?

 

[j-wood]

Was my fave scene.

It's funny, because aside from the first scene with the speaker, that was also the only other cutscene.

 

[Sketchbag]

To be honest, the Darkness or whatever it is should win. Right now The Traveler does nothing for humanity. Not once in the story do we get any glimpse at negotiations or what not. In fact, the entire attacking species seem to want to get rid of the Traveler.

I'm Team Darkness. Traveler seems useless and probably a jerk.

 

[Brakke]

I also have a crack theory that Oryx, the Hive God, is this dark Traveller simply because of the Shrine of Oryx. It's a planet shape for crying out loud and the Hive are the only race shown to worship the Darkness.

What? Then what the hell is that Heart of Darkness thing at the end? The Vex are literally prostrating themselves before it in the middle of a temple, how is that not worship?

UNLESS THE VEX ARE THE FUTURE-HIVE BECAUSE... TIME???

 

[Bizazedo]

Personally, my biggest problem with the story is just how we kind of float from thing to thing with no real reason for doing so other than Ghost the Ghost somehow knows said thing will be helpful. He even admits several times in the story that he doesn't know what, if anything, these things are about to do. Yet he is batting 1000 with being right. .

Untrue. If it's a failsafe alarm he triggers it every time.

And then he expresses surprise.

 

[ComputerMKII]

I think you just put more thought into your post about Destiny's "story" than the actual writers of Destiny's "story" themselves.

This

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

Yeah, that "ending" felt less amusing than other encounters. It is an ongoing world though so they can't possibly do much without saving things for expansion pack and sequels to milk.

 

[ultron87]

To be honest, the Darkness or whatever it is should win. Right now The Traveler does nothing for humanity. Not once in the story do we get any glimpse at negotiations or what not. In fact, the entire attacking species seem to want to get rid of the Traveler.

I'm Team Darkness. Traveler seems useless and probably a jerk.

It apparently still generates a Shield. With a capital S.

 

[Magwik]

We got Halo 2'd again.