Thinking about “The mood of Destiny” lately… (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Monday, March 27, 2017, 18:39 (2587 days ago) @ Beorn

I wrote a post a while back about the slight thematic shift with Rise of Iron, and how much I liked that aspect of the expansion (I can't find the link right now, but I'll keep looking). I enjoy Destiny's sci-fi roots, but Rise of Iron leaned ever so slightly towards a more typical fantasy/medieval/lord of the rings stylistic presentation, and it all just clicked for me. The Iron Lords armor, big magical broadswords, snow-capped mountains and ancient temples... I really enjoy that aesthetic. Maybe that's why VoG stood out so far above and beyond the rest of Vanilla destiny for me (aside from the awesome mechanics). There's a little bit of a "Mines of Moria" vibe to the Vault, and that really speaks to me.

There's something else I've been thinking about, not necessarily related to the fantasy style I mentioned above (although it would certainly compliment the medieval armor and magical swords). I've been thinking about what Bungie could possibly do from a mechanical point of view to make Destiny stand apart from other FPS games. Since the release of Destiny, they've taken tiny little baby steps towards making melee combat a more prominent part of the game (swords, axes)... what if they took that idea waaaaay further?

What if melee combat in Destiny 2 was more than just a single button, stock melee animation? What if melee combat could have similar levels of depth and complexity to the shooting mechanics? How could Bungie do that without turning it into Streetfighter with guns? I don't think I'd want complex combo systems or anything like that... but I think there is room to make melee combat more diverse than it currently is in most shooters. In Destiny, like Halo, melee combat often devolves into 2 opponents mashing the melee button as fast as possible until 1 person kills the other. Maybe there could be a way to block melee attacks? Or counter them?

There could be a whole new dimension of combat waiting to open up there. Subclasses and/or specific abilities that truly favored close-quarters combat. That concept art that showed a Titan holding a shield hinted at a whole world of possibilities and really got me thinking :)