Destiny (Video Game) Discussion

[Withers]

Huge fan of TTK, big improvements across the board. I don't even know where I want to start now that I've finished the campaign and hit 40. The campaign was extremely well done. I felt like I was in Firefly

I've only started with my hunter but the nightstalker subclass is tons of fun.

 

[Paul Andrew]

So, this game has had pretty mixed reviews since forever, but I like Bungie's previous work so I downloaded the trial version on XB1 and gave it a spin the other day.
A few things I've noticed:
The shooting is great. The guns are loud, and feel like they're wrecking their targets.
The load times are stupidly long. Why am I loading forever from the city to go into orbit to select from a map to go into another long ass load time?
The actual missions (granted, I've played like four so far) seem a little short. I knew going in that this wasn't Halo, but the brevity of the missions works against the feeling of grandiosity that the game wants so badly to sell me.
All that having been said, I might actually spring for a bundle here soon and play it through. It's been a long time since I played a really good shooter and Destiny certainly feels like I want a shooter to feel (when I'm actually playing the shooty parts).

 

[Wes R]

The audio on it is amazing, especially with headphones on as you hear stuff you never hear out of the speakers. Halo is part of the problem: it's a standard everyone expects of Bungie even though only a few folks at the company right now worked on that game. They expected halo length missions not a game whose main story missions you could finish in a week if you take your time. In the end I think it may eventually be that you need a fireteam/clan to play it as they phase out single player mode, it felt like they were working on that last week when they had you do those special missions for your vanguard mentor but to finish them you had to work with a team you knew to get them done. Withers: wait you're at level 40 with all the new campaign stuff done already after a day?

 

[Withers]

Yeah, 40 is essentially the new 20. My light is only like 212 which is wayyyyy short of end game. The nightfall is 280. No idea what the raid will be.

 

[Wes R]

Damn one day's worth of new game missions then you have to wait 2 more days for the raid. That's alot less new content than they made it sound like. I think the PvP folks made out like bandits again with new stuff.

 

[Mr.Spider]

I dunno, I hit 40 and finished the main story and then all these secondary quests opened up for me, I dont even have the sword quest yet, But even as much as this dlc was 40$ Im honestly happy with it, their story telling has improved dramatically from vaniall standpoint, it really goes to show how they ended up rehauling the game a year before release and it suffered, all this time they've been tweaking it and changing it. I look forward to finishing the rest of the quests and attaining a high enough light level for the raid.


what I'm not a fan of is light level on cloaks, marks and bonds, I had to give up my fun nagiri cloak for an ugly one just because those levels matter now. and theres way too many camo cloaks, army camo doesnt work in space bungie lol

 

[jlee562]

Last Friday my roommate (whom is my Destiny partner in crime) storms into my room and is all like "that's it, I'm boycotting it!" I had misgivings about another $40 for TTK, as I really kind of hate the DLC money making model. Monday he came in and is like "Ok, I'm in."

Destiny finally feels like a complete game now. It sucks that most of the last year was essentially for naught; but I am pretty excited about the new content.

Kotaku had a good line which described Destiny as "...a year long beta." Yeah, that's about right.

 

[Withers]

Damn one day's worth of new game missions then you have to wait 2 more days for the raid. That's alot less new content than they made it sound like. I think the PvP folks made out like bandits again with new stuff.

I can't say I agree with that. In addition to 8 new story missions, which are leaps and bounds better than the entire vanilla story, you get a new subclass for each main class, 3 new strikes, a new raid, half a dozen PVP maps, 2 dozen new exotic weapons, a bunch of which are new exotic bounties, who knows how many new armor pieces and tons of new weaponry. Plus an entire new quest system and a completely revamped UI. So far I'd call it well worth $40.

If your only concern is the story campaign I honestly think you're in the wrong genre.

 

[Talisen]

What genre is that? I bought Destiny as a FPS, much like Halo or Half life, even Portal. They all had story, multiplayer is just an additional extra added for longer shelf life. I don't like that I can't progress in a game unless I participate in multiplayer. I tried for a while but playing the same Raid for 6-8 hours because someone in the team invariable has a problem or gets killed halfway through a stage gets tiresome really really fast. When it comes down to a specific method to kill a boss, you lose the spontaneity of playing and it becomes a job.

Boy I'm glad Fallout 4 comes out in a few months...

 

[Wes R]

Destiny doesn't know what it wants to be: they say it's not an MMO even though it borrows heavily from that. Honestly i think the Destiny they promised and what we got are vastly different, what they promised would have been a mix of Halo and World of Warcraft with NPC quests and actual NPC interaction. Destiny feels so unfinished but it could also be the fact that we're holding Bungie to a high standard they just can't meet anymore. I agree Destiny is for sure not the genre for me but I'd be willing to give another MMO a try and i have halo 5 on preorder.

 

[Withers]

What genre is that? I bought Destiny as a FPS, much like Halo or Half life, even Portal. They all had story, multiplayer is just an additional extra added for longer shelf life. I don't like that I can't progress in a game unless I participate in multiplayer. I tried for a while but playing the same Raid for 6-8 hours because someone in the team invariable has a problem or gets killed halfway through a stage gets tiresome really really fast. When it comes down to a specific method to kill a boss, you lose the spontaneity of playing and it becomes a job.

Boy I'm glad Fallout 4 comes out in a few months...

There are 2 distinct types of FPS. Single player and multiplayer. Halo is the closest comparison but I think calling its multiplayer a little add on for extra shelf life is doing it an extreme disservice. Many people have dedicated thousands of hours to it.

Either way, Destiny falls firmly in the multiplayer category. I hate that people got duped into thinking it would be more like a single player FPS, but I don't think it will ever be that. It's main focus will always be multiplayer content.

Edit: But I've never really thought about it from that type of player's point of view. If you came in expecting Destiny to be like a Bioshock that would be a massive disappointment. I'd never been able to figure out why some people were so utterly disappointed with the game before. I just never considered it might have been that type of FPS. I always assumed it would be like Halo but more MMO like.

 

[Rook 3]

Just hit level 40 with all 3 characters last night. Now starts the work to build that light level. I fought a taken boss
(imagine an upgraded version of the Vex Black Garden endgame bosses... with FIRE damage)
encounter in regular patrol, and my tried and true Gjallahorn did NO damage whatsoever!
First time THAT ever happened! Had to switch to small arms with a higher attack rating to do any damage.

The game is challenging again, and with the new expanded inventory space you can store/destroy
first gen weapons and strive to find those new legendary guns/gear.

Quite enjoying the story as well. It has that old "Halo storytelling" feel that Destiny was missing in the beginning.
Amazing what a few cutscenes can do for a game.

 

[niennumb1]

I have to say I'm a bit surprised how fast I am leveling up from my 34 Warlock. I LOVE Stormcaller subclass. I'm just REALLY surprised in the little time I have played that I am already tipping near lvl 39 just doing bounties and some of TTK missions. It's fun, but yeah... what happens after the cap? So weird.

And even some of the green level guns have better stats than some of my other higher lvl guns. What's with that? Does the colors mean anything anymore?

 

[Wes R]

I have to say I'm a bit surprised how fast I am leveling up from my 34 Warlock. I LOVE Stormcaller subclass. I'm just REALLY surprised in the little time I have played that I am already tipping near lvl 39 just doing bounties and some of TTK missions. It's fun, but yeah... what happens after the cap? So weird.

And even some of the green level guns have better stats than some of my other higher lvl guns. What's with that? Does the colors mean anything anymore?

You're going to find that green and blue guns and armor are going to be better than anything you've had before in a lot of cases. You're basically starting over as if your old armor is worthless and you have to get an all new set of legendary gear to up you light levels. I'm not sure what the point of the red bull xp bonus is now since you can level up so fast to start with. Plus if you got the collector's edition you got exotic items that gave you a permanent xp bonus.

 

[Rook 3]

I've been running the XP boosting class item since I got it. Really helps with getting to 40 faster.

I agree that the nuking of the old armor kinda sucks. I wish there was a way to ascend it, like they allowed
with the last expansion. It amuses me that they made a big deal out of "make your character look the way you want to..."
...except NOT with any early gen gear. The thing that annoyed me with the Dark Below was after a while EVERYONE
looked the same with their Crota gear. They fixed some of that issue with House of Wolves, and people stopped
looking like an army or Crota-clones.

My level 40 Warlock has found a couple decent Legendary items. My Hunter... nothing. Just green and blue so far.

 

[niennumb1]

So the big thing though right now is light levels, right? And armor no longer affects those things if I remember what I read right? I can't believe they would do that to all the old armor in not letting you have those higher stats. I also see they wiped out my vanguard marks for purchases completely. I don't know why they couldn't convert it over. Are we able to dismantle stuff in exchange for currency now?

 

[Withers]

Every piece of armor/weapon/class item/ghost skin has light on it (and stats). The higher your light gets, the more damage you'll do. It's literally the exact same system as before just reworked to be better. Level 40 is now the same as level 20 was, and before you had "light levels" but now you have just "light." It's just a gear score now. But what they HAVE been able to do is make it more dynamic. Instead of just collecting a handful of legendary armor pieces and calling it done you will now be constantly chasing items with more and more light. Your current light level will dictate what your new items will have. It's like a 5% increase or something.

It does suck that we lose our cool year 1 armor. I don't really understand why they won't let us ascend the armor and class items at least. Maybe they're recycling the skins back in for year 2? I do like that we can infuse basically any armor piece we find now, so these bad ass rare sets that were PS exclusives last year can be upgraded to be raid level pieces now

Vanguard marks are gone, but I think they converted them into something you can turn into rep. Maybe commendations? I can't remember. You can convert all year 1 currencies into year 2 currencies or reputation at the speaker I think.

The new endgame currencies are: Motes of Light, Strange Coins, and Legendary Marks, which come from doing daily heroic story missions, the heroic strikes, the crucible playlist of the day, dismantling legendary items from year 2, etc.

 

[Amish Trooper]

So should I grab the new Destiny? I am a launch player and quit due to the grind and lack of depth. I even bought the first expansion. I see GameStop is offering the $20 credit trade in the old game and buy the legendary or whatever and get everything to date which would cost $40. I guess what I'm asking is. Does Destiny deserve a 2nd chance? I already have Fallout preordered and Star Wars... Hmmm

 

[Amish Trooper]

Bah I went and got it.

 

[Westies14]

I bought the game, bought two expansion packs (which did nothing for me)... Running somewhere close to a $100 investment in Destiny. Now they release this version, and needlessly lock out content? I don't play the campaign. I don't care about the story. I just like multiplayer battles, and I like to have an objective - therefore, PVP "Control" matches were where I spent my time in Destiny. Now they're behind a paywall. Buy the expansion pack for $40 bucks with a couple clicks and we'll let you play. There's no technical requirement that's not being met, as they still offer 6v6 matches which sometimes have Control in the mix, but you're much more likely to be served a numbing, pointless deathmatch.

I've read lists of other unnecessary exclusions and complaints about the redundancy of raids/campaigns based on the last two paid expansions from other players. An expansion pack should not needless lock out functionality that you already had. Bungie/Activision essentially bricked this game for me, and I have no intention of encouraging this ransomware model with my hard-earned money. Unreal!