Destiny - Review Thread

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Ninjician said:
Hello.

I've been playing Bungie games since Halo 2. Did the whole MLG thing for Halo 2, played 3, Reach, 4... and have no plans on playing 5.

Let me break down what I think Bungie has created, and why there is so much backlash, disappointment, and confusion.

1) Expectations. People were expecting a story game, maybe a fantasy single-player game with epic build-ups, character development, and cut scenes. I, for one, felt the Reef will play a deeper role later on, and feels kinda tacked on with this first batch of content. People are accustomed to epic single player experiences, expecting a VAST amount of playspace with tons of new content, not retreads. I will cover this point below.

2) Multiplayer. I loved Reach more than any other Halo game. Destiny is an evolution of Reach, and based on what I've seen on NeoGAF, most people don't like Reach. I think there is a select few that states it had the "worst campaign" "unbalanced multiplayer" "bloom" and so on. I will cover this below.

3) Features. Destiny is getting picked on for not having Forge, Custom gametypes, Offline play, and voice chat in the Tower and Open World. I think this is a poor request, and I'll cover this below.


A) The world. Destiny is not meant to be linear. Each mission is episodic, like watching a weekly television sci-fi series. The missions are not supposed to build on each other like people expect, and it's supposed to be designed to jump in and out at any time. This is Epic. For people who wanted a "story" the lore is there, but you cannot focus a story on one character in a Destiny universe, where teamwork and multiple guardians are paramount. The game is designed for CHALLENGES, just like Reach. Once you beat Reach, the campaign, there were daily and weekly challenges, just as Destiny has done, with modifiers, rewards(Cr) and the ability to further rank up, get new armor, and improve your guy.

The game is PVP - based, not an MMO or open world. Saying Destiny is an MMO is like calling Reach an MMO. Destiny is FIREFIGHT, CAMPAIGN, and PVP, all wrapped up into one seamless package. It's truly amazing what they are doing here.

Reach's endgame was playing tons of matchmaking with new playlists, modes, DLC, and earning new armor and commendations. Destiny expands on that ten fold by allowing you to customize your Guardian to a great extent, have awesome stacking abilities that work in any game environment, and again, have a seamless play experience.

Now, for the negative? I disliked the Reef cutscenes. I don't think they added ANYTHING to the story, and felt very forced. I'd have preferred playable space in the Reef, then a cutscene.

B) Multiplayer. Okay, guys. If you hate Reach, you'll hate Destiny. That's all I'm going to say. Currently I'm using a lvl 24 Warlock. Let me tell you some of the attributes I have unlocked. Sticky Grenades, with a faster cooldown, meaning I get more grenades more often. Angel of Light, which allows me to float while ADSing, allowing for extremely tactical jump over your head maneuvers. Revive. I can bring myself back to life when acitvating my Radiant Light, and then run around like a mad man with almost zero 'nade cooldown, torch punches, and stick people left and right. I have customized my guy to throw up to 6-7 grenades per Super. This is awesome.

You think the gameplay is unbalanced? This is probably the most balanced vanilla game I have played. If you're getting killed by shotguns or fusion rifle guys, switch to long-range weapons and pick them off. Titan got a bubble shield? Ignore him. Don't engage. Blade Dancer? Get up into the air, they can't hurt you. You have a game where teamwork builds points, amazing map designs, and they actually balanced out having a custom loadout through using ammo drops. That's an achievement.

C) Features. Okay, please explain to me why you would expect custom games, or forge in Destiny? Custom games - How? They wouldn't allow you to earn XP, weapons, armor, or stats. Why are they necessary? I can understand people wanting to play with and against friends, and maybe they will add the feature later on, but the reality is that the more I played Reach, the less custom games I played. Forge? Screw that. Awful looking set pieces with user created content that makes me wish Bungie just had more DLC. I don't see any point in it. Splitscreen I can bow to, that's an oversight if true.

Let me finish this with a quick rant about those who think 343 will create a better game with Halo 5, or that Bungie did a shitty job on Destiny. Time will tell. I know for a fact that I'm playing this game for a long, long time. Making new characters, doing Raids, and playing the Strike playlists with my buddies. The same way that Reach had daily and weekly challenges and amazing PVP, Destiny will provide the same experience.

I'm biased against 343 simply for the reason that they butchered Reach, eliminated its DLC content, removed playlists and adding the Title Update crap that divided the play experience. I do not trust them as a developer one bit, and I despise the fact that they are making a living off Bungie's past work. Halo 5 will hopefully be better than Halo 4, which I consider the worst Halo game in the series.

Again, this is the evolution of Halo Reach for me. Not an MMO, not a story game. It's amazing PVP and PVE with friends, Challenges, Firefighting and Objective VS.

It is AMAZING.
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Thanks, well said and I agree with most of it. I think once Bungie patches the game up over the next few months, it's going to get a lot better too. It seems to me that people that don't care for PvP are going to like this game a lot less. Those that enjoy the PvP are going to understand why this game is different.
 
PepperedHam said:
It's amazing how after Watch_Dogs people claimed to have learned to never fall into PR hype again, but here we are and it's hilariously delicious to see so many people outraged at the game itself because they did it again.

For the record I'm enjoying playing Destiny with my friends.
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Reminds me of the Battlefield 4- disaster, where people stated they are utterly disappointed but buy the next one regardless.
 
Basically what happened is what we all knew was going on all along with the "We're not giving out review copies ahead of time so that reviewers can play a fully player-populated experience" line.

Bungie knew what was coming review-wise and that sales would be higher if consumers went into it blindly (with a relatively small portion having played the beta, then being promised that there was "so much more").
 
Latvian Hitman said:
Their reputation is far from shot to the general game buying public. GAF is not representative of the average gamer. If it were, COD would have been a defunct franchise for years now. I'd be willing to bet that most "normal" people who bought Destiny are quite happy with it.
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destiny isnt like the average shooter, it is very mmo-esque and there is barely any story so I can see the general public not falling inlove with destiny and more than likely brought it on hype alone and the fact that it was a shooter
 
Smurf said:
Their reputation is shot and will find it hard for gamers to have confidence or hype in their next product.
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lol what? How many yearly games are continually average and when the new versions get announced everyone forgets what happened and think " well if they fix this and do that the game will be great!" and then proceed to hype. Destiny 2 will still get hype
and I think it will be a much better game if this is the groundwork to go on.
 
Neuromancer said:
If, out in the world, enemy spawns were more dynamic, would that significantly improve the game? Because right now that's one of my complaints about the game, enemies always appearing in the same place. If the AI is advanced enough they should be able to drop enemies in just about anywhere and have them behave reasonably well.
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It would make it more random and alive which is ultimately a good thing. So yes.
 
Wolvesinthebathroom said:
I wonder what bungie is going to do to address all the complaints.
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Bungie doesn't have to do anything, they sold tons of copies based on their marketing campaign alone.

They probably knew this would happen which is why they held back reviews, didn't want critics to derail the hype train. A lot of us are complaining about the game but they've already got our $60 (or $90 for season pass owners).
 
hiphopcr said:
Was excited to pre-order.

Then I wished I had bought it on disc to trade it in.

Now I wish I had Redbox'd it
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This is the worst!
 
Dax01 said:
I'd say it's pretty fair when people are baffled or making fun of others for liking the game.
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Only few. Not anywhere near the thread being full of it.

edit:
Regardless it's simply completely unfair to label the thread being "really just full of people hating the game".
 
Nipo said:
I think reviews will go up a bit but I have a feeling the longer reviewers spend with the game the more repetitive it will seem to them. I have a sneaking suspicious if the raid were out someone would clear it this weekend less than a week after the game was released.
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We still have many of the toughest, lowest-scoring sites review to come: Eurogamer, Edge, GamesTM et all. Each 6 and 5 really hammers the Metacritic down, and those sites seem to have more weight than most.
 
Dante316 said:
i dont think we should rush to judgements though based on these initial reviews. the game will likely get patched and content will come and hence will be a better game. my example is diablo 3 which was hated on and pounced by the public till they made the changes.
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They only changed it right before the expansion hit so that they could change the negative perception of the game to get people to come back to it.
 
Zefah said:
While this isn't a huge issue for me, the complete lack of any kind of environmental physics definitely makes this game feel decidedly dated.
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I have to admit when I first walked to the side of the tower with 'the speaker' and I walked through that giant puddle and there was a reflection of everything in the environment except me it put a pretty bad taste in my mouth.
 
MormaPope said:
Wow.

1. Halo 3
2. Halo 1
3. Halo Reach
4. Halo 4
5. Halo 2
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+1 (for the campaigns)

If Halo 3 graphically looked better at time of its release, I bet people would have gone apeshit for it.

I think Halo 2 is above Halo 4 for me, but that's splitting hairs.


Halo 2 was my favorite MP in the series, even above Halo CE for me
 
Up to about level 10 - 11 and still enjoying the hell out of it. It definitely needs more content though but regardless I'm having a great time with the combat. I don't see it as a game I'll be playing constantly but I'll play the classes, play some PvP, play the events as they come along and the expansion packs. It's a good game with flaws and a great start to a franchise, their biggest fault was the marketing basically.

I do love the GAF hysteria though 'BUNGIES REPUTATION IS RUINED' Never fails to give me a good laugh.
 
Hoho for breakfast said:
That's a decent analogy I think. I don't remember if AC1 was quite this shallow and lacking, but I would say that Destiny has an absolute ton of potential for a brilliant sequel.
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All you did in AC1 was collect flags and occasionally assassinate someone. It was a tech demo for the parkour mechanics. Shallow and lacking is the perfect way to describe that game.
 
Destiny isn't an MMO, i don't know why people seem to think it is. For it to be an MMO there there would need to be able to be lot more players in each location. There aren't even "MMO features" like I've seen a few people say, the features they mention are things normally found in RPGs which is why games like WoW are called MMORPGs. Destiny is an FPS with some RPG and some social features stuck on.
 
Sola Scriptura said:
Basically what happened is what we all knew was going on all along with the "We're not giving out review copies ahead of time so that reviewers can play a fully player-populated experience" line.

Bungie knew what was coming review-wise and that sales would be higher if consumers went into it blindly (with a relatively small portion having played the beta, then being promised that there was "so much more").
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4.6 million people played the beta, I think the beta-to-retail crossover was probably relatively large.
 
sn00zer said:
This can be said for early PS3 lineup as well....lots of devs need to spend tons of time developing engines, so the actual game development time gets cut down. This is why most sequels in videogames are much better than the first.
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Nailed it. Look back on Assassin Creed one to two. Or leap from uncharted one to uncharted two. When it comes to watch dogs and destiny I think both ubisoft and bungie have built a nice core, so to speak, for these franchises that they will only improve on. Hopefully both of those sequels wont be held back by "cross gen" but sadly, I doubt that.
 
I really hope these reactions cause Bungie to make some tweaks. Balance the bullet sponge bosses and increase loot drops. That kind of stuff.
 
SkeptiMism said:
That's very true and people should remember it.
However:

This isn't very fair either. There's plenty of seemingly good criticism here, and I'm not sure if I've seen anyone (well almost anyone at least) who actually hates it. Most people admit it's a decent game in its core but just very flawed.
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Honestly, I really like Dax and she's typically a joy to talk to, but that kind of stuff just pisses me off. Especially considering:

1)People tried talking about this stuff in |OT|, and were told to essentially fuck off.

2) Review threads are always a bit of a toilet bowel, with people on both extremes coming out of the wood work looking for their confirmation bias.

3) Unfortunately, because of how |OT| was, the only place to discuss this stuff is in an environment that often degrades into a maelstrom of shit slinging.

4) Instead of tackling the actual criticisms and recognizing plenty of people still enjoy the game, people from |OT| come in here to attack the people instead of the arguments being made.

And you know, I figure someone like her would recognize the position people are put in when wanting to discuss things but can't due to the echo chamber. The fact that she said what she did doesn't want me to go in and discuss in |OT| outside of the odd question I can answer before someone else does.

So nice to be practicing that oft-mentioned GAF standard of objectivity and inclusionary discussion, right?

Edit: And tbh, it sort of reeks of the bullshit that was an issue with HaloGAF.
 
Nipo said:
Jeff Gersmann's Destiny Drinking Game (Don’t Try This At Home)

1. Drink every time your flying robot buddy has to scan something.

2. Chug if you have to fight off waves of enemies while your robot buddy is scanning.

3. Die of alcohol poisoning before you get off the Moon.
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Jarate's Mario Drinking Game

1. Drink Everytime you have to jump on a goomba

2. Chug if you have to go through a pipe

3. Die of alchohol poisoning before you get to 2-1
 
Heh it's interesting to see people come down on The Crucible. PvP is actually my favorite. Leveling also feels less stagnant.

Man, I'll say it again - if they had just made it easier to team up and socialize with people my feelings on this would be so much better. Proximity chat or something as others have mentioned. Matchmaking?! Clan communication?! I do not understand what the deal is with these. Solo'ing the missions is NOT fun. It's actually depressing to traverse the environments alone. :(
 
I bet Gamestop will get a lot of trade-ins of this game. I wonder if they will keep their $40 trade-in guarantee till Oct. 8 like it says on the receipt.
 
A lot of Halo people have left Bungie for 343 or other studios. I wonder if Destiny is the result of all that.


It has a great fiction and art direction but when it came to taking that and putting it into a fun game they dropped the ball.

Reminds me of Killzone/Resistance in that way. Interesting lore and world but next to none of it is taken advantage of in the game.
 
It's hard for me to trust most of the games media in general, but this thread does nothing to sway my opinion on Destiny. I honestly can't tell if it sucks or is decent or is absolute trash or is the next coming of Christ. The hyperbole and salt being tossed around in here is amazing. I can't stop reading this thread, keep it up guys.

I'll probably buy it in a year with one of those new newfangled consoles.
 
JetBlackPanda said:
I am completely in love with Destiny. 9/10 for me but I feel like Bungie and Activision deserve a slap in the fucking face for how they marketed this game but the game itself does not deserve a 74.
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I don't give a fuck how they marketed this game when I'm playing it and it doesn't feel very good/isn't much fun. The shooting is alright but not great and the rest of it lacks variety and soul. It's gorgeous and shiny but there just isn't much going on and I don't find the loot grind interesting which should be the most interesting part to me.

It's impossible to pinpoint a score that the game "deserves". You may like it and hey, that's great but the critical consensus is middling so far and I don't think you can just link that to the marketing.

I had a ton of fun with games that don't have a high metacritic score but who am I to decide what score avarage they deserve and I don't particularly care about it either.

From the impressions I've read Destiny seems to be somewhat polarizing so something around 75 seems about right? It sold enough that a sequel is probably going to happen and maybe Bungie can make good on some of the stuff I and some of the critics have a problem with. If enough people care about Destiny the way it is now they might also just cater to that audience and I'd be okay with that too.
 
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