Problems with Destiny

by Reconcilliation , Imagination Station, Sunday, June 16, 2013, 03:13 (4189 days ago)

Problems with what I've seen so far:

• Gunplay looks uninspired and uninteresting, players were just shooting healthbars.
  
• Levels for players and enemies is a huge gamble and ripe for problems relating to difficulty
  
• Cinematic events that leave questions about static-ness of the gameworld - for example the shot of a Fallen spacecraft jumping nearby which causes two towers to collapse. The next time you come through that area, do those towers stay collapsed, or are they upright again? If they stay collapsed, then what if you're not the first person through the area? What if you join your friends as they're going and the towers just collapsed and now that's permanently done on your profile and you never got the chance to see it?
  
• Unlockable leveled abilities implies grinding.
  
• Hollow level design, wide corridors, nothing to really interact with.
  
• Mini-boss fights that aren't any more engaging than "shoot it a lot".
  
• Speeders seemed pretty bleh. I couldn't really see myself caring at all for them.
  
  
  Recommendations:
  
• Introduce interesting methods of killing various enemies. Halo had this in spades, so I was surprised to see it lacking so much. As an example: Hunters are mini boss fights when you encounter them, but they have certain behaviors and abilities that make them dangerous but counterable with the right strategy or weapons. Nothing like this was shown in the demo beyond shooting the legs on the spidertank and it's not even clear if that was necessary.
  
• Make the environment interactive! It's not just a matter of cover, it's a matter of interesting things to see and find, buttons that can be pushed to open up new avenues of attack or defense, loot that can be acquired, dangerous environmental hazards, books, video or audio recordings. STALKER did this really well with anomalies, mutants, humans, stashes of hidden loot, audiologs and related material on NPC's and scripted blowouts and other events. ODST did it to a lesser degree but still in the right direction. Even Halo 2 had dangerous environments with the train on Terminal. This is absolutely vital for an RPG-esque game. Make the players THINK.
  
• Lose the healthbars and introduce some other visible mechanics to indicate that an enemy is nearing death. Elites had this with their shields bursting and their battlecry animation before charging. Actually, thinking on it, most of the Covenant in Halo had such AI behaviors; clear indicators of imminent death are MUCH more immersive and interesting than healthbars!
  
  
  Other Comments:
  
• Competitive multiplayer needs to be more than a tacked on effort. It's what kept Halo alive, and in more ways than just 4 on 4 MLG team slayer: Hogball, Cat and Mouse, Infection/Zombies, Griffball, Forge. If Destiny lacks in this department, it will kill the game.
  
• What I've seen so far really isn't selling me. I see potential, but it's unmet. The demo did a poor job of revealing anything interesting or solid about the game. It basically showed us what we already knew or expected. Which either means gameplay is still largely being worked (and so criticism has a good chance of changing things) or Bungie is being their usual obtuse selves about revealing anything about the game.