Destiny: The Repetitive Menace

01-28-15 07:50 PM

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People were excited to know about Bungie's next big project, Destiny. When it was revealed console gamers were seriously stocked for a game that would play like an mmo on consoles. The hype for this game had reached a boiling point with every major gaming journalism outlet getting coverage of the game. However, players and journalists alike were disappointed at what they actually got in the end.

Now, Destiny is absolutely gorgeous game to look, though with expected lower texture quality and shadow jaggedness. Each planet basically has its own art style that really showcase how beautiful that this game looks. The cinematic cutscenes are especially well done, and the animations on pretty much everything are also very well done.

The sound effects of everything from your gun being fired to a fallen's roar comes out fairly crystal clear. However, the music is Destiny is absurdly such a bore that I do not even remember a track beyond the one used for combat scenarios. But the voice acting in Destiny doesn't get much from me either. First off depending what your chosen race and gender were, your character will a different voice actor/actress. I was a male awoken so I got Crispin Freeman (known for his role as Kirei Kotomine in Fate/Zero), which was pretty cool for me. However, he has very little dialogue through the entirety of the campaign. The vast majority of the characters had some very good voice acting (The Speaker being among the best). However, the worst of the bunch would have to be Ghost a.k.a. Dinklebot, whose voice sounds so boring and effortless that Peter Dinklage might as well have been reading a textbook.

Destiny's story can be describe in one word as bad. First off your ultimate enemy is called The Darkness, which an awfully generic name for an adversary. The Darkness serves as the seemingly antithesis to the equally enigmatic Traveller, whose mysteries are never unraveled to you gradually as you play through the campaign. There is a severe lack of interesting characters throughout the entire campaign. The Speaker who seemed like he was going to be a pretty cool character is criminally underutilized. The mysterious Exo Stranger is also pretty bad, as she just appears to say something then just leaves. The story ultimately does not make players feel like they're going up against a vile force, never really making them feel like they're accomplishing something bigger than themselves.

Now, Destiny lets you choose from three races: Human, Exo, and Awoken. Although these choices only offer you aesthetic changes. Players will also be able to choose one of three classes: Titan, Warlock, and Hunter. After choosing your race, class, and gender, you can customize your character's face, although it's very little.

Each class is comprised of two subclasses to make up its abilities. However, despite there being different classes, they have a lot of similarities with only a few differences. Each class has grenade abilities, jump abilities, a super ability with upgrades, abilities to focus on two attributes, and abilities that focus on only one attribute. Despite a difference between super abilities, grenade abilities, and a few passive abilities, I felt no real need to play as any other class or subclass. Players have three main attributes that they possess. They are intellect, strength, and discipline, and their amount will change depending on the armor currently equipped. However, they are all just act as ways of decreasing the cooldown for your active abilities.

Players are able to equip helmets, chest pieces, gloves, boots, and an extra piece that is merely cosmetic. However, despite armor being meant to increase your defense I never felt like having better armor gave me a better chance of surviving. Players are also able to equip up to three weapons at a time, they being primary (Scout Rifles, Pulse Rifles, Auto Rifles, and Hand Cannons), secondary (shotguns, sniper rifles, and fusion rifles), and heavy (machine guns and rocket launchers). Each of these weapon categories also share ammo packs; white for primary, green for secondary, purple for heavy. Both weapons and armor can be upgraded at the cost of currently and possibly materials. However, I felt like only a few of these pieces of equipment had distinguishing upgrades, as the majority of the equipment have vastly similar upgrades. Players are able to get equipment by either purchasing at The Tower, or by picking it up from defeated enemies to be decrypted. However, both of these are very flawed in the end. Purchasing equipment with regular currency is only good during the early levels, then it just becomes utterly useless. But, players can purchase equipment using special currency, but that takes a long time to get any good amount. However, the drop system is even worse, as the drop rate in this game is absolutely abysmal. I could kill enemies for hours hoping to get a rare item, only to get a common item. Also weapons have different damage types, which are only used to take out shields depending on its color.

Speaking of enemies, they are fairly stupid. I mean I have encountered a few instances of good A.I., such as when I threw a grenade into a group of enemies they all teleported away from it. But most of the time they are typical FPS enemies, meaning they basically run and shoot or sit behind cover and shoot. It also doesn't help that the enemy factions basically feel the same in terms of their combat capabilities. But the enemy factions do have their specialties; Fallen have stealth and healing support, Hive have melee and poison, Vex have teleportation and damaging fields, and Cabal have impenetrable shields and jumping. However, only teleportation will give players issue. The game's bosses are also lacking as they are just giant bullet sponge versions of enemies. Seriously, the archon bosses are basically just giant captains. These bosses are meant during either story missions, strikes, and raids.

Now, the story missions in this game are just plain old boring, as they are just basically run to this point and kill these things, rinse and repeat. When you complete these missions you presented with your awards, which may range from junk to treasure. Sometimes it's armor, sometimes it's a weapon, and sometimes its material, or if you died, it's absolutely nothing. Strikes basically work the same as story missions from what I heard (yes, I never did any of the strikes, so what I'm saying is just based off observation). However, by completing strikes in the strike playlist, players are rewarded with vanguard reputation and vanguard marks to buy vanguard equipment. However, players can only accumulate a total of 100 marks per week. Now, vanguard equipment have parameters that require a certain amount of vanguard reputation. Vanguard reputation is earned by completing bounties, patrol missions, public event, and strikes in the strike playlist. However, these are all just dreadfully boring to do. Bounties are basic kill enemies quest with few deviations. Patrol missions are really just generic mmo style quests, such as kill X amount of enemies to get X amount of item. Public Events are somewhat better, but they are just kill these guys or defend this point. It also doesn't help that they occurred very little for me. But since your vanguard reputation accumulates very slowly completing these activities, you'll be forced to do them over and over again. Which brings me to the light system a.K.A. Destiny's prestige level system. When you reach level 20 all regular experience becomes worthless, as you technically at the max level. However, if you gather enough motes of light from fallen enemies and use to buy special armor from The Speaker, you can increase your level cap. However this requires the right amount of light in the special armor to increase your light level. The light system is flawed because of the amount of light required for the next level. Nevermind the fact that you have to count on Destiny's abysmal drop rate to even purchase the special armor, but the fact the game forces to get rid of a great piece of armor because the other piece has a higher light rating. The light system ultimately kills the customization of Destiny. However, if there is one good thing that Destiny actually did, it would be raids (again observations were made). Raids can be basically seen as strike's big brother who went to prison and joined a ruthless gang. Raids are more difficult than strikes due to each raid's special mechanics plus the fact that players will have figure out the raid for themselves without any help from Ghost. Even the bosses are very much improved compared to the ones from the story missions and strikes. I mean they are just basically giant bullet sponge of enemy classes, but the mechanics needed to defeat them (something that the other bosses should have had) is much welcome improvement.

Ultimately, Destiny is a game that tried too hard to be an mmo, but ultimately took the worst parts of the mmo genre. By forcing players to perform the same activity in the fizzling hope of being awarded, Destiny becomes a repetitive and boring game to play. But what's worse is that Bungie and Activision plan to make sequels to Destiny as per their 10 year contract. If they plan to make this I.P. into a full fledged franchise they will need to seriously make some major improvements. One such improvement would be an actual in-game grimoire, instead of forcing players to go to the website to look at entries. Seriously though, this game gets really boring really quick.

People were excited to know about Bungie's next big project, Destiny. When it was revealed console gamers were seriously stocked for a game that would play like an mmo on consoles. The hype for this game had reached a boiling point with every major gaming journalism outlet getting coverage of the game. However, players and journalists alike were disappointed at what they actually got in the end.

Now, Destiny is absolutely gorgeous game to look, though with expected lower texture quality and shadow jaggedness. Each planet basically has its own art style that really showcase how beautiful that this game looks. The cinematic cutscenes are especially well done, and the animations on pretty much everything are also very well done.

The sound effects of everything from your gun being fired to a fallen's roar comes out fairly crystal clear. However, the music is Destiny is absurdly such a bore that I do not even remember a track beyond the one used for combat scenarios. But the voice acting in Destiny doesn't get much from me either. First off depending what your chosen race and gender were, your character will a different voice actor/actress. I was a male awoken so I got Crispin Freeman (known for his role as Kirei Kotomine in Fate/Zero), which was pretty cool for me. However, he has very little dialogue through the entirety of the campaign. The vast majority of the characters had some very good voice acting (The Speaker being among the best). However, the worst of the bunch would have to be Ghost a.k.a. Dinklebot, whose voice sounds so boring and effortless that Peter Dinklage might as well have been reading a textbook.

Destiny's story can be describe in one word as bad. First off your ultimate enemy is called The Darkness, which an awfully generic name for an adversary. The Darkness serves as the seemingly antithesis to the equally enigmatic Traveller, whose mysteries are never unraveled to you gradually as you play through the campaign. There is a severe lack of interesting characters throughout the entire campaign. The Speaker who seemed like he was going to be a pretty cool character is criminally underutilized. The mysterious Exo Stranger is also pretty bad, as she just appears to say something then just leaves. The story ultimately does not make players feel like they're going up against a vile force, never really making them feel like they're accomplishing something bigger than themselves.

Now, Destiny lets you choose from three races: Human, Exo, and Awoken. Although these choices only offer you aesthetic changes. Players will also be able to choose one of three classes: Titan, Warlock, and Hunter. After choosing your race, class, and gender, you can customize your character's face, although it's very little.

Each class is comprised of two subclasses to make up its abilities. However, despite there being different classes, they have a lot of similarities with only a few differences. Each class has grenade abilities, jump abilities, a super ability with upgrades, abilities to focus on two attributes, and abilities that focus on only one attribute. Despite a difference between super abilities, grenade abilities, and a few passive abilities, I felt no real need to play as any other class or subclass. Players have three main attributes that they possess. They are intellect, strength, and discipline, and their amount will change depending on the armor currently equipped. However, they are all just act as ways of decreasing the cooldown for your active abilities.

Players are able to equip helmets, chest pieces, gloves, boots, and an extra piece that is merely cosmetic. However, despite armor being meant to increase your defense I never felt like having better armor gave me a better chance of surviving. Players are also able to equip up to three weapons at a time, they being primary (Scout Rifles, Pulse Rifles, Auto Rifles, and Hand Cannons), secondary (shotguns, sniper rifles, and fusion rifles), and heavy (machine guns and rocket launchers). Each of these weapon categories also share ammo packs; white for primary, green for secondary, purple for heavy. Both weapons and armor can be upgraded at the cost of currently and possibly materials. However, I felt like only a few of these pieces of equipment had distinguishing upgrades, as the majority of the equipment have vastly similar upgrades. Players are able to get equipment by either purchasing at The Tower, or by picking it up from defeated enemies to be decrypted. However, both of these are very flawed in the end. Purchasing equipment with regular currency is only good during the early levels, then it just becomes utterly useless. But, players can purchase equipment using special currency, but that takes a long time to get any good amount. However, the drop system is even worse, as the drop rate in this game is absolutely abysmal. I could kill enemies for hours hoping to get a rare item, only to get a common item. Also weapons have different damage types, which are only used to take out shields depending on its color.

Speaking of enemies, they are fairly stupid. I mean I have encountered a few instances of good A.I., such as when I threw a grenade into a group of enemies they all teleported away from it. But most of the time they are typical FPS enemies, meaning they basically run and shoot or sit behind cover and shoot. It also doesn't help that the enemy factions basically feel the same in terms of their combat capabilities. But the enemy factions do have their specialties; Fallen have stealth and healing support, Hive have melee and poison, Vex have teleportation and damaging fields, and Cabal have impenetrable shields and jumping. However, only teleportation will give players issue. The game's bosses are also lacking as they are just giant bullet sponge versions of enemies. Seriously, the archon bosses are basically just giant captains. These bosses are meant during either story missions, strikes, and raids.

Now, the story missions in this game are just plain old boring, as they are just basically run to this point and kill these things, rinse and repeat. When you complete these missions you presented with your awards, which may range from junk to treasure. Sometimes it's armor, sometimes it's a weapon, and sometimes its material, or if you died, it's absolutely nothing. Strikes basically work the same as story missions from what I heard (yes, I never did any of the strikes, so what I'm saying is just based off observation). However, by completing strikes in the strike playlist, players are rewarded with vanguard reputation and vanguard marks to buy vanguard equipment. However, players can only accumulate a total of 100 marks per week. Now, vanguard equipment have parameters that require a certain amount of vanguard reputation. Vanguard reputation is earned by completing bounties, patrol missions, public event, and strikes in the strike playlist. However, these are all just dreadfully boring to do. Bounties are basic kill enemies quest with few deviations. Patrol missions are really just generic mmo style quests, such as kill X amount of enemies to get X amount of item. Public Events are somewhat better, but they are just kill these guys or defend this point. It also doesn't help that they occurred very little for me. But since your vanguard reputation accumulates very slowly completing these activities, you'll be forced to do them over and over again. Which brings me to the light system a.K.A. Destiny's prestige level system. When you reach level 20 all regular experience becomes worthless, as you technically at the max level. However, if you gather enough motes of light from fallen enemies and use to buy special armor from The Speaker, you can increase your level cap. However this requires the right amount of light in the special armor to increase your light level. The light system is flawed because of the amount of light required for the next level. Nevermind the fact that you have to count on Destiny's abysmal drop rate to even purchase the special armor, but the fact the game forces to get rid of a great piece of armor because the other piece has a higher light rating. The light system ultimately kills the customization of Destiny. However, if there is one good thing that Destiny actually did, it would be raids (again observations were made). Raids can be basically seen as strike's big brother who went to prison and joined a ruthless gang. Raids are more difficult than strikes due to each raid's special mechanics plus the fact that players will have figure out the raid for themselves without any help from Ghost. Even the bosses are very much improved compared to the ones from the story missions and strikes. I mean they are just basically giant bullet sponge of enemy classes, but the mechanics needed to defeat them (something that the other bosses should have had) is much welcome improvement.

Ultimately, Destiny is a game that tried too hard to be an mmo, but ultimately took the worst parts of the mmo genre. By forcing players to perform the same activity in the fizzling hope of being awarded, Destiny becomes a repetitive and boring game to play. But what's worse is that Bungie and Activision plan to make sequels to Destiny as per their 10 year contract. If they plan to make this I.P. into a full fledged franchise they will need to seriously make some major improvements. One such improvement would be an actual in-game grimoire, instead of forcing players to go to the website to look at entries. Seriously though, this game gets really boring really quick.

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01-28-15 10:15 PM

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I was excited about Destiny. The story, the universe; but once I got a copy, I was presented with a little bit of a let down. I hope they learn from the endless amounts of feedback they get for their next game. They've already begun to change certain features in Destiny based on the player base. Maybe they will improve. I still play Destiny but not as an MMO, if I go in playing it as a game like Killing Floor, or Payday but with a story line, it becomes more bearable. But this is kind of what I expected out of a FPS developer.

Great review though, you bring up a lot of good issues and topics.

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01-28-15 10:59 PM

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Supergamer : Not a really bad review right here. Sure, I have heard about the game Destiny a whole lot of times because a friend of mine at work couldn't shut up about this game when it is being released, so that's where I have heard about this game and although I'm not much of a shooter person, but I think this game is still interesting.

I hope you work on a ton of more interesting reviews in the future.

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01-29-15 09:43 AM

Supergamer is Offline

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IgorBird122 : I'm aware I need to make a lot improvements, but I also wrote this from memory. I haven't played Destiny in like maybe half a year, so yeah.

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