Destiny Lore & Spoilers: Shakespeare it ain't

Admittedly a few years back. I do know that I never remember the name or character of the Arbiter ever showing up until Halo 2. Most people don't even know what the title of Arbiter even means, I'm sure. I don't remember much about the rest of the plot threads being spoken of in the Library (and I spent a lot of time in that hellhole), but a couple of throwaway lines doesn't change a whole lot, in my opinion.

Definitely wasnt throwaway. It was crystal clear. Maybe its time to play Halo again so there are no more obviously erroneous statements about its story in here.
 

Fuck. I really want that game they are talking about.

Something more open world, where you can wander around and learn about the lore and mystery of the world.

They talk about seeing some ancient structure in the distance and wondering what's underneath it, and having the freedom to go down and explore.

In Destiny, we're assigned missions to go and explore, while being told little about the structure.

"See a derelict spaceship and explore it". Can you imagine how amazing a more free-roaming or free-mission mode would have been? If not free-roaming, then a timed event or alert that a spaceship has been found and you have a limited time to explore before it drops from orbit.

Everything they talk about is so limited compared to what we got.

Where are the beasts? Why can't you use your ship as anything other than a load screen device? Where are enemies that aren't bipeds or floating shapes?

I barely even noticed any of the details they mention about the last city, like the giant wall around it. Guess I missed that, but the tower feels TINY right now. Give us something to do there!

This video frustrates me. Love that they used Tarkovsky as an influence in their art style--it really shows.

EDIT: Can definitely see the Beksinski influence, too. I thought there was a lot of Giger influence in one of the Moon dungeons, actually.
 

Wow. Now I really am in mourning for all of the story possibilities. Writers in the video game industry already get the short end of the stick a lot but the wasted opportunity to build a broad and immersive world is tragic...

I mean, if this was their best option for getting flavor and lore into the game, no wonder they don't have any characters or clear player motivation...
 
You misunderstand me. My reaction to that post from the review thread:

i38DokaDixQNc.gif

Completely appropriate and your reaction is shared by many gamers. However, I'm sure what Mace Windu did in your GIF afterward was load up Destiny and run the daily Strike...because that's what I did :/

Really hoping this game gets better because it just LOOKS so cool.

Wow. Now I really am in mourning for all of the story possibilities. Writers in the video game industry already get the short end of the stick a lot but the wasted opportunity to build a broad and immersive world is tragic...

I mean, if this was their best option for getting flavor and lore into the game, no wonder they don't have any characters or clear player motivation...

I do agree, why is this revelation in a random post on NeoGAF instead of being a headline on every gaming news site? Headline should read "Bungie admitting Destiny story was half-assed, read on..." Tons of clicks would drop like green engrams at level 23.
 
"The Darkness 4" grimoire card is interesting in that it's clearly addressing you, a Guardian, but that it's a card under The Darkness set.

It begins with "This war is all there is for you."

This connects to a quote attributed to Lakshmi-2:

"What if on some dreadful night, the Darkness were to come creeping up to you and whisper 'This war, is all there is for you."

Is the card then quoting The Darkness or Lakshmi-2?

Anyways, I really like the grimoire cards.
 
Finished the story tonight. As many have mentioned already it feels like it's missing so much and it's a real shame because the universe feels like it has a ton of potential.
 
Finished the story tonight. As many have mentioned already it feels like it's missing so much and it's a real shame because the universe feels like it has a ton of potential.

Yup, stuff was probably cut.

If you look at this video. starting at about 58 seconds. He gets updates for story mission for the Queen that includes the character "crow" who shows up on the IMDB as a voice actor.

at the same time we have proof that the grimoire was hastily written right before the game so who knows. I just have a hard time thinking they wanted this to be the campaign.
 
I always thought that the story of Halo wasn't presented very well, especially in comparison to how deep the actual world is when you look into the game's lore. There are hidden plot lines and world building scattered about or mentioned briefly, but you only get the most basic stuff if you just casually play through the campaign. But I was never confused as to what the character's motivation was. I always knew why he was doing what he was doing, and what was happening around him. If I didn't, I would find out later.

With Destiny, it is a constant barrage of shit. Except even shit has more substance than Destiny and you have a pretty good idea as to what it contains. Meanwhile, if you want to know more about the world of Destiny you need to collect dead ghosts and acquire grimoire cards through others means so you can go to bungie.net just for some bits and pieces.

Almost all of the story seems to be presented through Dinklage's dialogue at the end of each level. This seems like a horrible way to do things, until you realize that when you do get a cutscene it is both unskippable and boring. Is there a single cutscene that isn't just people standing around and talking? It makes some missions unable to be replayed due to being unskippable. So somehow the few times it tries to show you the story, it does it in an obnoxious way that discourages you from replaying the mission.

I wish there was a "play-all" option for cutscenes, it would be a perfect summary of the events. Because while I don't think there is anything wrong with telling the story while you are actually actively playing the game, I feel like even in games that do that you get a good idea of what is going on through cutscenes. If you play the four or so cutscenes available in the game in a row all you get is a disjointed, vague mess. Which is a good summary of Destiny. That or "a story by someone who is bold enough to use 'wizards' as an enemies, but ends up only writing sentences that end up as memes with them."
 
I do agree, why is this revelation in a random post on NeoGAF instead of being a headline on every gaming news site? Headline should read "Bungie admitting Destiny story was half-assed, read on..." Tons of clicks would drop like green engrams at level 23.

Person who posted it was a junior, so he couldn't make a thread about it, and most other people can't be assed to make a thread about it. If someone wants to, go ahead. It might just make it to a news site.
 
The lore and its implementation leaves a lot to be desired, but I did come across a piece I actually really enjoyed yesterday:



This is the kind of thing I was hoping we'd see - vague but evocative quasi-spiritual lore, not lists of what The Noun did to The Noun, which is unfortunately what most of the Grimoire is.

This would have been awesome.
 
Just finished the story missions and my verdict:

I don't remember a story as bad as this in videogames.

I mean I didn't even know what black garden was. Why I was going where I was going. Not that the game made anyone care... every mission was the same, every boss was the same story wise. The actors must've struggled to not punch themselves when delivering the nonsensical dialogue.

I could've wrote a better story. Anyone could've.

Shame on you Bungie I hope you get flamed forever for this shit.
 
Fuck. I really want that game they are talking about.

Something more open world, where you can wander around and learn about the lore and mystery of the world.

They talk about seeing some ancient structure in the distance and wondering what's underneath it, and having the freedom to go down and explore.

In Destiny, we're assigned missions to go and explore, while being told little about the structure.

"See a derelict spaceship and explore it". Can you imagine how amazing a more free-roaming or free-mission mode would have been? If not free-roaming, then a timed event or alert that a spaceship has been found and you have a limited time to explore before it drops from orbit.

Everything they talk about is so limited compared to what we got.

Where are the beasts? Why can't you use your ship as anything other than a load screen device? Where are enemies that aren't bipeds or floating shapes?

I barely even noticed any of the details they mention about the last city, like the giant wall around it. Guess I missed that, but the tower feels TINY right now. Give us something to do there!

This video frustrates me. Love that they used Tarkovsky as an influence in their art style--it really shows.

EDIT: Can definitely see the Beksinski influence, too. I thought there was a lot of Giger influence in one of the Moon dungeons, actually.

Now you understand why people were so disappointed.

Especially if you're coming from an RPG gaming background like me.

Just finished the story missions and my verdict:

I don't remember a story as bad as this in videogames.

I mean I didn't even know what black garden was. Why I was going where I was going. Not that the game made anyone care... every mission was the same, every boss was the same story wise. The actors must've struggled to not punch themselves when delivering the nonsensical dialogue.

I could've wrote a better story. Anyone could've.

Shame on you Bungie I hope you get flamed forever for this shit.

The game is already very hand holding, I'm sure you could figure out the basics by yourself. *Hint* The main story missions have a different icon than a side mission despite both of them being labelled as 'Story'.

Granted, it doesn't follow well at all, but doing the right missions in order can smooth out the jumps in plot points better.
 
Now you understand why people were so disappointed.

Especially if you're coming from an RPG gaming background like me.



The game is already very hand holding, I'm sure you could figure out the basics by yourself. *Hint* The main story missions have a different icon than a side mission despite both of them being labelled as 'Story'.

Granted, it doesn't follow well at all, but doing the right missions in order can smooth out the jumps in plot points better.

I think that part of the problem is that by 2/3 of the way through the game, people have started to subconsciously tune out Dinklebot. Makes the whole Mars sequence more confusing than it has to be :P
 
Maybe this could shed some light on the story ;)

There are laws that govern the workings of the universe that have remained immutable for countless aeons. According to these laws, the forces of light and dark hold dominion over the world successively, the land belonging in turn to men, or to monsters.

Each cycle would be presaged by the appearance of a great comet, foretelling the rise of saviour or destroyer. Each golden age would give way to one of darkness, when foul things would stir beneath the earth, and evil spirits would plague the land. In turn, each dark age would fall to one of light; the evil would pass from the land just as the comet from the sky.

The saviours of each golden age were men who had risen to face the Dark and never turned away. They were men of unflinching heroism who would not rest until they had loosened the bloodless grip of wicked things which had dominated their lands. Many of these heroes were doomed to return in the following age...
 
Just finished the Black Gate mission.

Yo, wtf was that shit? Is that it?

What's worse is that for those without PSN Plus, you're done. There's nothing else to do. Can't even find out about the AI Rasputin thingy.
 
I still think there was major plot removed (for dlc) which makes the current story such a convoluted mess.

There is the mission on Mars (can't remember which one) where dinkleberry says that Rasputin has stretched through the universe. It is stated in almost an ominous way. I'd like to think that Rasputin was created by mankind to fight the darkness and little does mankind know, they created the darkness. At least that would have been better than what we got.
 
The worst thing about the story is that it was so goddamn pompous and "epic" without any meat in it. Everything was "fascinating" and "unbelievable" to Dinklebot followed by vague descriptions of "they really wanted to seal/cover/defend/destroy x". THEY CAN BE EVERYWHERE AT ANY TIME AND HAVE SPREAD THROUGH THE MULTIVERSE AND SPACE AND TIME AND ARE SUPER INTELLIGENT = Vex just being another stupid enemy.

Also the Reef cut-scenes were even worse because my character was an awoken... ugh.
 
Personally, I would love an in-game Codex to be brought in with one of the expansions - voiced by someone decent (get the ME guy...).

As someone who listened to EVERY codex entry in the Mass Effect universe, this would make the lore side of things a lot cooler.
 
reposting from OT

do you guys think the story in this game (assuming it was actually a story) would be better as a sequel or final title?

a lot of aspects of the universe -were- interesting, but by the time the game throws the player into the universe, everything has already settled down and you don't really feel any urgency at all. the traveller is already dead so it isn't doing much in the story. earth is reduced to old russia and the tower, neither of which seem to be in too much danger given how few fallen are actually invading the former and no one is touching the latter. the cabal are just space truckers so IMO they barely count as THE DARKNESS. there's a small force of hive on earth and on the moon but both get loose because of your character and kind of do nothing anyways.

the game likes to tease a lot of history and I feel like the first game of the series should have been set in those times; being part of humanity as it's pushed back to its Last City, or being the pioneer Guardians setting off to planets to defend against THE DARKNESS off world.

by the end of the game, it feels like you've pretty much dealt with the Vex and hurt the Fallen hard so where could a sequel go? this game was definitely missing a lot of despair and urgency a lot of the pre-release teasers suggested the game would have and it would stink if the sequel was about humanity on the offensive.
 
reposting from OT

do you guys think the story in this game (assuming it was actually a story) would be better as a sequel or final title?

a lot of aspects of the universe -were- interesting, but by the time the game throws the player into the universe, everything has already settled down and you don't really feel any urgency at all. the traveller is already dead so it isn't doing much in the story. earth is reduced to old russia and the tower, neither of which seem to be in too much danger given how few fallen are actually invading the former and no one is touching the latter. the cabal are just space truckers so IMO they barely count as THE DARKNESS. there's a small force of hive on earth and on the moon but both get loose because of your character and kind of do nothing anyways.

the game likes to tease a lot of history and I feel like the first game of the series should have been set in those times; being part of humanity as it's pushed back to its Last City, or being the pioneer Guardians setting off to planets to defend against THE DARKNESS off world.

by the end of the game, it feels like you've pretty much dealt with the Vex and hurt the Fallen hard so where could a sequel go? this game was definitely missing a lot of despair and urgency a lot of the pre-release teasers suggested the game would have and it would stink if the sequel was about humanity on the offensive.

Mmm... I kind of agree with you, and kind of don't. My vision of Destiny's story is one of hope, a tale of Good triumphing over Evil, because dammit, sometimes that sort of thing is nice. However, for that to be worth pursuing, Evil needs to have some freaking legs under it. You're right that there's no sense of urgency; the City seems perfectly secure, what with the huge walls and army of nigh-unstoppable superbeings guarding it. The Fallen are spoken of in hushed terms, but when you run into them, they seem more like a band of disjointed raiders than anything else. Showing us exactly how bad things are/could be would go a long way. Having a setpiece battle of Guardians vs. hordes of Fallen would have been an amazing way to send off the Earth missions, and would have added a dimension of urgency to the Hive, since it would demonstrate that no, we really can't afford to have any additional threats.

But this is more symptomatic of one of the game's many critical story flaws: they don't show you anything. It's all delivered in exposition, which often contradicts what you're seeing on-screen (The vex are unstoppable war machines, unless you shoot the glowy core!) and as such, totally lacks impact. This is a fundamental issue with Destiny's story telling, and unless it's fixed, their plots will always fall flat on their faces.

I would argue that a game set during the Collapse, while having the potential to be interesting, has the potential to just be depressing more than anything else. I'm fine with it staying backstory. Just... make sure the present stories don't suck :P
 
I posted this before but it feels relevant here. A scanning mechanic would enhance both gameplay and lore. I would love going on a collectible scanning adventure during patrols just to scope out what everything is. It would also help during missions to study the environment on the fly as you kill aliens. Metroid Prime showed beautifully how a relatively solitary adventure can be full of life when context is given to your surroundings. Destiny seems to love the idea environmental collectathons. Looking for things to scan would not only expand the lore in-game but also offer a new activity to break the monotony of patrols and killing. (And no, don't have me scan stuff only to get a prompt to visit bungie.net for the lore. Do it in-game like this:

sWohHJ4.jpg

I would be so down for this, great way to expand the universe without taking you out of the action. Who knows, maybe something like this was originally planned but ended up getting cut and they just did the Grimoire card thing instead.

Playing through Destiny I can sort of understand the kind of universe and background they were going for, but it was just implemented so badly. When a game forces you to consult an external wiki or app to understand the story, taking you out of the experience that's just bad design.
 
I decided to have an explore of Old Russia today, I just went round the map and went to places the story missions didn't really take me.

I was surprised in how much of the area wasn't really explored in the story and wasn't fully utilised. I found some level 20 Hive enemies and went into their base only for it to exit into the strike mission, I quite liked how the entire map came together at that point.

I later came across some House of Kings Fallen enemies with their yellow armour, it might be a small thing but after doing a little bit of research into the structure of each house I definitely got a better appreciation of how the game works.

In the future I'd definitely like to see a massive Fallen on Fallen house conflict, it hasn't really been done in Destiny yet and it would allow for the game to naturally explain how the Fallen work (since the game just throws terms at you right now).
 
I still think there was major plot removed (for dlc) which makes the current story such a convoluted mess.

There is the mission on Mars (can't remember which one) where dinkleberry says that Rasputin has stretched through the universe. It is stated in almost an ominous way. I'd like to think that Rasputin was created by mankind to fight the darkness and little does mankind know, they created the darkness. At least that would have been better than what we got.
Just one of the many things that get mentioned and then forgotten for the rest of the game. I just cannot figure out how they managed to get it so wrong. This game has no story, with dialog worse than a Sci-fi channel movie.
 
Fuck. I really want that game they are talking about.

Something more open world, where you can wander around and learn about the lore and mystery of the world.

They talk about seeing some ancient structure in the distance and wondering what's underneath it, and having the freedom to go down and explore.

In Destiny, we're assigned missions to go and explore, while being told little about the structure.

"See a derelict spaceship and explore it". Can you imagine how amazing a more free-roaming or free-mission mode would have been? If not free-roaming, then a timed event or alert that a spaceship has been found and you have a limited time to explore before it drops from orbit.

Everything they talk about is so limited compared to what we got.

Where are the beasts? Why can't you use your ship as anything other than a load screen device? Where are enemies that aren't bipeds or floating shapes?

I barely even noticed any of the details they mention about the last city, like the giant wall around it. Guess I missed that, but the tower feels TINY right now. Give us something to do there!

This video frustrates me. Love that they used Tarkovsky as an influence in their art style--it really shows.

EDIT: Can definitely see the Beksinski influence, too. I thought there was a lot of Giger influence in one of the Moon dungeons, actually.

I have no doubt they will get much closer to that vision when they leave last gen behind.

When it comes down to it, destiny was a 360 game and was limited in scope by that.

When Destiny 2 rolls around things will be different simply due to the fact that the baseline is Xbox One and PS4.
 
I understand what there trying to do but there execution is fucking horrible.

The way i expected it was going to go was like a TV show we would of got the pilot episode to ground us and then go from there.

If this was a TV show this would not of got past pilot as it explains FUCK ALL at least give us something to grab onto, to help us invest into it.
 
I think both the Traveler and The Darkness will have too die for their endless war too end. First we kill the Darkness then the Traveler says hem must die also. Because where there are Light there will also have too be Darkness. The End
 
For what it's worth, the story isn't complete yet. The expansions will only elaborate further. Don't understand why people were expecting a game that Bungie plans on supporting for a very long time, through several expansions, would have a definitive 'end' before any content is released.

That being said, I quite like what is there already. Having the companion app ready when you unlock grimoire's is very handy too, as they provide quite a bit of information.
Are you shitting me? Of course it doesn't need to have a true end but it also has no start and no middle.
No real explanation into their setting at all is given.

And having the grimoire stuff only on their website is absolute bbullshit. They could have put those texts in all the loading screens.
 
And having the grimoire stuff only on their website is absolute bullshit. They could have put those texts in all the loading screens.
Hell yes, Bungie what he said.

Even if it's the actual card that comes up for you to read and press x to get next card..because you know.. long loads..
 
The story is by far the weakest aspect of Destiny, and coming from Bungie, that is a real surprise. It's as if they didn't even care.
 
The story is by far the weakest aspect of Destiny, and coming from Bungie, that is a real surprise. It's as if they didn't even care.

I believe the missions they released were picked using RNG, i mean come on there all over the place and make no sense what so ever.
Everything ..EVERYTHING in this game uses RNG, why would the story be any different.

Explains a lot..
 
I was just thinking, was the ominous way the Queen said that the player now owes her a favor just put in there so that we'd have a reason to do the Queens missions?
 
The worst thing about the story is that it was so goddamn pompous and "epic" without any meat in it. Everything was "fascinating" and "unbelievable" to Dinklebot followed by vague descriptions of "they really wanted to seal/cover/defend/destroy x". THEY CAN BE EVERYWHERE AT ANY TIME AND HAVE SPREAD THROUGH THE MULTIVERSE AND SPACE AND TIME AND ARE SUPER INTELLIGENT = Vex just being another stupid enemy.

Also the Reef cut-scenes were even worse because my character was an awoken... ugh.

This drove me nuts too... it literally made no sense.

Its 100% clear the game was shipped WAY before it was "done".
 
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