I didn't play Destiny until shortly before House of Wolves, so I missed a lot of the drama following Destiny's release.

Today at work, I listened to Giant Bomb's Game of the Year podcasts for 2014, and obviously Destiny came up and was argued about for quite a while. It was interesting to hear, even though it's all stuff I've heard at this point. It sparked my curiosity, and I went to their site and watched their first hands on quick look at the alpha, and it's fascinating to see people playing Destiny for the first time before release, knowing what we do now. It also oddly gets me really hyped to play more Destiny.

Also, there's lots of little things that changed. Just little details in the UI, mainly, but apparently there was something called Illumination that would lock in your Subclass choices, which I don't really understand the point of.

Giant Bomb's quick look at the Destiny Alpha.

And on a related note, I know I'm super, super late to the party on this one, but I only recently really discovered Giant Bomb towards the end of last year. I finally ponied up for the premium membership, and it's totally worth it. I was never really one to really watch Let's Plays or anything like it, but these guys do something special that I can't really articulate that makes watching them play games super entertaining.

Also, there's lots of little things that changed. Just little details in the UI, mainly, but apparently there was something called Illumination that would lock in your Subclass choices, which I don't really understand the point of.

some of the early previews mentioned a mechanic where you would make a subclass permanent, but you'd get a small stat boost, you'd then get another copy to level up. I THINK that was the mechanic.

I also really liked Errant Signals take on it from back around TDB.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7VYd93oEbA

Yup. I'm not sure exactly when they scrapped it, but that was how things worked at one time.

Also, there's lots of little things that changed. Just little details in the UI, mainly, but apparently there was something called Illumination that would lock in your Subclass choices, which I don't really understand the point of.

You could lock in your skill choices which would prevent you from switching, but give you an overall bonus for doing so. You could also do this on weapons locking in the perk / barrel / scope selections as well, for a boost to damage.

Funny you should post this. I just watched CruelLegacy's early impressions
yesterday.

Funny you should post this. I just watched CruelLegacy's early impressions
yesterday.

hah, I always cringe when I go back to old articles I've written, but I'd say my feelings today still line up fairly well with what I wrote back then. It's funny how cold I was feeling towards Destiny's combat at that point. I love the combat that emerges during the end game, when you have a fully leveled guardian with multiple subclasses to choose from and a wide selection of weapons to play with. But I do still find the combat during the early game pretty dry. I just recently played through the entire game on my Xbox Hunter. It was a strange experience, playing through all of Destiny's content in a single run (Dogcow, we should compare notes!). Because I didn't have to wait through the months between content releases, I didn't need to replay a single mission or strike, or spend any time grinding/farming out in patrol. I just made my way through all the missions, strikes, and Raids (still need to do King's Fall, but that's it).

On the one hand, it is a real drag. Because I don't have countless hours of grinding and replaying content under my belt with this character, she is still largely under-developed. By the time I beat the final TTK story mission, I still hadn't completely unlocked my ability tree for my starting subclass, much less even touched the other 2 subclasses. In a sense, it sapped some of the fun out of the later story missions because I felt like I was still engaging with early-Destiny combat; slower, more limited, less exciting. On the other hand, there is something to be said for going through all of these missions and making do with the gear that I had available. My weapon and armor selection was limited, and I often didn't have the ideal tool for the job in front of me. I really enjoyed that sense of replaying the game.

Destiny is just such a strange beast in this regard. The end game content is SO GOOD... far better than the rest of the game, IMO. I wonder if Bungie will do anything substantially different with Destiny 2 in terms of how they ramp the player towards the end game stuff.

Funny you should post this. I just watched CruelLegacy's early impressions
yesterday.

hah, I always cringe when I go back to old articles I've written, but I'd say my feelings today still line up fairly well with what I wrote back then. It's funny how cold I was feeling towards Destiny's combat at that point. I love the combat that emerges during the end game, when you have a fully leveled guardian with multiple subclasses to choose from and a wide selection of weapons to play with. But I do still find the combat during the early game pretty dry.

Yeah, I found it interesting how bored you were with the mechanics vs. knowing how much you like the gameplay now.

I just recently played through the entire game on my Xbox Hunter. It was a strange experience, playing through all of Destiny's content in a single run (Dogcow, we should compare notes!). Because I didn't have to wait through the months between content releases, I didn't need to replay a single mission or strike, or spend any time grinding/farming out in patrol. I just made my way through all the missions, strikes, and Raids (still need to do King's Fall, but that's it).

On the one hand, it is a real drag. Because I don't have countless hours of grinding and replaying content under my belt with this character, she is still largely under-developed. By the time I beat the final TTK story mission, I still hadn't completely unlocked my ability tree for my starting subclass, much less even touched the other 2 subclasses. In a sense, it sapped some of the fun out of the later story missions because I felt like I was still engaging with early-Destiny combat; slower, more limited, less exciting. On the other hand, there is something to be said for going through all of these missions and making do with the gear that I had available. My weapon and armor selection was limited, and I often didn't have the ideal tool for the job in front of me. I really enjoyed that sense of replaying the game.

I'd love to play it with all the new questlines in place. They brought much-needed structure to the story. The burden of releveling those subclasses, though, is too much.

I just recently played through the entire game on my Xbox Hunter. It was a strange experience, playing through all of Destiny's content in a single run (Dogcow, we should compare notes!). Because I didn't have to wait through the months between content releases, I didn't need to replay a single mission or strike, or spend any time grinding/farming out in patrol. I just made my way through all the missions, strikes, and Raids (still need to do King's Fall, but that's it).

On the one hand, it is a real drag. Because I don't have countless hours of grinding and replaying content under my belt with this character, she is still largely under-developed. By the time I beat the final TTK story mission, I still hadn't completely unlocked my ability tree for my starting subclass, much less even touched the other 2 subclasses. In a sense, it sapped some of the fun out of the later story missions because I felt like I was still engaging with early-Destiny combat; slower, more limited, less exciting. On the other hand, there is something to be said for going through all of these missions and making do with the gear that I had available. My weapon and armor selection was limited, and I often didn't have the ideal tool for the job in front of me. I really enjoyed that sense of replaying the game.

I'd love to play it with all the new questlines in place. They brought much-needed structure to the story. The burden of releveling those subclasses, though, is too much.

The questlines are a nice touch in a lot of ways, although I did find the overall experience is still a bit off. It helps add a little more focus to the narrative threads that tie the missions together, but it doesn't make the missions themselves any more enjoyable, at least not for me. Plus there's the issue that Destiny pre-TTK doesn't have much of an in-game story to dig into, regardless of how the missions are chained together. There's also at least 1 major plot hole that is actually created by the new quest system. The TTK missions start at level 26, but the Crota's End raid is still a level 30 activity. So in my playthrough, by the time I faced Crota, Crota's dad had already shown up seeking revenge for the death of Crota. As someone who has already played through all the content, it wasn't a big deal at all. But I could see it being a major "WTF?!" moment for new players who started with TTK.

If nothing else, I came away thinking "I'd love to see more of this quest system built into future incarnations of Destiny right from the start, rather than tacked on after the fact". It definitely has lots of potential, IMO.

There's also at least 1 major plot hole that is actually created by the new quest system.

Can you elaborate? I have not played through the original missions since before TTK so I'm curious.

There's also at least 1 major plot hole that is actually created by the new quest system.

Can you elaborate? I have not played through the original missions since before TTK so I'm curious.

Read the couple of sentences immediately after the one you quoted :)

There's also at least 1 major plot hole that is actually created by the new quest system.

Can you elaborate? I have not played through the original missions since before TTK so I'm curious.

Read the couple of sentences immediately after the one you quoted :)

I uh, yeah. Thanks.

I'm currently playing through again on the PS4, and I don't think the way they integrated the quest lines does anything to help the structure. As you said, it creates some weird situations, because it opens up TTK content after you've finished the first few standard missions, so nothing makes sense in that regard. There's so many new quests that you're picking up at the beginning, it's often confusing. Add to that the fact that most questlines consist of "Complete X and X Missions" and it honestly doesn't really do anything to add to the experience, for me anyway. In fact, for me, it's almost detrimental, as it seems to sort of clutter things up in a weird way, with all the quests that now get tracked in the quest log.

But, also keep in mind, I'm playing as someone who has played all that content multiple times, so perhaps I'm not really paying attention and engaging in the same way a first time player would.

I'm currently playing through again on the PS4, and I don't think the way they integrated the quest lines does anything to help the structure. As you said, it creates some weird situations, because it opens up TTK content after you've finished the first few standard missions, so nothing makes sense in that regard. There's so many new quests that you're picking up at the beginning, it's often confusing. Add to that the fact that most questlines consist of "Complete X and X Missions" and it honestly doesn't really do anything to add to the experience, for me anyway. In fact, for me, it's almost detrimental, as it seems to sort of clutter things up in a weird way, with all the quests that now get tracked in the quest log.

But, also keep in mind, I'm playing as someone who has played all that content multiple times, so perhaps I'm not really paying attention and engaging in the same way a first time player would.

First of all: Refer-a-friend? Have you already linked up with anyone? Want to do that quest together?

2nd: Good points about the quest system. It does often feel like it is forcing me to go back to the tower for no good reason when all I'd like to do after completing a mission is go straight into the next mission.

First of all: Refer-a-friend? Have you already linked up with anyone? Want to do that quest together?

I actually sort of forgot about that. I'm down for that. My only issue right now is that I don't have good internet at the moment--I'm tethering through my phone, and it's awful. I cart the PS4 with me to my parent's place when I visit for downloads and updates and such, and can definitely play there, but it's hit or miss when I go over there though.

EDIT: I'm also not sure how to go about activating that stuff, and I think I've only got a few days left to be eligible.

2nd: Good points about the quest system. It does often feel like it is forcing me to go back to the tower for no good reason when all I'd like to do after completing a mission is go straight into the next mission.

Yeah, that's my biggest issue. It's actually impeding speedy progression through the story.

First of all: Refer-a-friend? Have you already linked up with anyone? Want to do that quest together?

I actually sort of forgot about that. I'm down for that. My only issue right now is that I don't have good internet at the moment--I'm tethering through my phone, and it's awful. I cart the PS4 with me to my parent's place when I visit for downloads and updates and such, and can definitely play there, but it's hit or miss when I go over there though.

No worries there... I'll send you a code on PSN so we can link up. We can do the quest whenever. No hurry at all :)

https://www.bungie.net/en/Clan/Detail/1507546

https://www.bungie.net/en/Clan/Detail/1485551

- No text -

Done!

And got the code. Cool. I'll be around Saturday night and during the day on Sunday for sure. I'm off all day tomorrow to, but I've got some stuff to get done, so I'm not sure if I'll actually be online or available at any specific point.

Korny tried to claim him already, and I promptly challenged Korny to a duel. It's cheapley's call of course.

Done!

And got the code.

:(

Korny tried to claim him already, and I promptly challenged Korny to a duel. It's cheapley's call of course.

Damn, now I feel bad. I had honestly forgotten all about that, too. I wasn't intending to actually buy Destiny so soon, but I downloaded the demo and reached the end of it and just wanted to keep going. Impulse won the day and I went ahead and got the full version, and it wasn't until Cruel's invitation that I even remember the Refer-A-Friend. He struck at the right time, I guess.

Sorry. ):

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Korny tried to claim him already, and I promptly challenged Korny to a duel. It's cheapley's call of course.

Damn, now I feel bad. I had honestly forgotten all about that, too. I wasn't intending to actually buy Destiny so soon, but I downloaded the demo and reached the end of it and just wanted to keep going. Impulse won the day and I went ahead and got the full version, and it wasn't until Cruel's invitation that I even remember the Refer-A-Friend. He struck at the right time, I guess.

Sorry. ):

No worries. Would like to play with you on the PS4 regardless.

If any of you other Xboxers are making the jump (or you know someone else just getting into Destiny on the PS4), hit me up!

Korny tried to claim him already, and I promptly challenged Korny to a duel. It's cheapley's call of course.

Crap, sorry. Didn't mean to cut in line there.