Hopes and Fears - Des2ny and You. (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Monday, April 03, 2017, 13:34 (2572 days ago) @ Harmanimus

There are plenty of obvious things I'd like to see in Destiny 2 (better storytelling & character development, better mission design, 60fps, etc etc etc). I could go on an on here, so I've narrowed things down to 2 big ideas that I hope to see in Des2ny.

1) Levels, be gone.

I've posted before about my feelings towards light levels and character ranks in Destiny. Basically, of all the ways character leveling changes the game, I don't think any of them are positive. It twists the focus away from doing that activities we want to do, towards doing activities we need to do in order to reach the light level required to do the activities we want to do. And it can take MONTHS of constant grinding to get a full selection of weapons and armor leveled up to the point where a player can bring their guardian into any activity and have a full set of tools at their disposal. Destiny has lots of great, fun, exciting content (from raids or Trials or Nightfalls to cool weapons and gear). But the game places SO MANY barriers between the player and their ability to just enjoy that content. The whole level-up process is the largest and most obtrusive of those barriers. You don't need levels to have a difficulty progression (just introduce more challenging enemies/encounters). You don't need levels to have our guardians get more powerful over time (we already have a power-upgrade tree, and new weapons and armor could have higher damage and health ratings).

This first week playing the Age of Triumph update has helped confirm my opinion. For the first time since the release of Destiny, we have an update that doesn't include a light level increase. As someone who is going into Age of Triumph at max level, the difference to my experience is huge. I'm able to jump in and play whatever activity I want with my friends with zero concern over grinding, deciding which gear to level up first, playing the first half of a raid over and over until I've leveled up enough to beat the 2nd half, or any of that nonsense. Destiny right now is probably the most fun it has ever been, and the lack of level-cap increase is a huge part of it.

2) A more seamless world

I think the area of Destiny that holds the most untapped potential is Patrol mode, and the "hub-world" areas in general. For all its faults, the Division does some things with its open world that I'd love to see worked into Destiny. The way story missions and strikes resolve with the player right back in the open world (patrol mode) keeps things feeling seamless and connected. Being able to look at a mission marker on your map, walk over to the start location and seamlessly begin the mission is very cool too (no need to go from patrol out to orbit then back down to the same planet to start a mission).

Horizon Zero Dawn has been getting lots of attention for its open world, and rightfully so. One element that jumps out as being particularly relevant to Destiny is the way they handle enemy spawning. The map in HZD is filled with machine "zones"; specific areas where you can consistently find specific types of machines roaming. Very similar to the way you will find specific enemy deployment in the various patrol zones in Destiny. Except in HZD, you never see the enemies spawn. There are no "monster closets", you just happen upon them wandering around.

The other great thing that happens in HZD is that the various herds of machines move around a bit, which leads to plenty of unique encounters. On your first trip through an area you might come across a couple Snapjaws and have a cool battle with them. Your second time through, you might be fighting more snapjaws in the same location, only to have a Sawtooth come wandering into the fray and completely change the dynamic of the fight. Adding various factions into the mix makes things even more dynamic. Destiny tries to do this in a few places, but that usually boils down to a few patrol locations where the same group of 4-5 vex keep teleporting into the exact same spot and fighting the exact same group of cabal, over and over and over, forever.

There are so many ways that Destiny's open-world could be brought to life. I'd love to see as much focus on that as possible :)