Understanding how Destiny will play

by electricpirate , Tuesday, July 16, 2013, 12:37 (4159 days ago) @ NotTheVacuum

I've started to get the idea in my mind that Destiny is going to be a lot like Borderlands. You'll have a big open world with a story thread and lots of side missions, building your character along the way, finding awesome guns, etc - but with public events and a persistent world.

Those last two are not just throw-away features. I remember when people said the iPad was "just a big iPhone"; it's basically true, but that means a lot more than it sounds like it means. Public Events sound fun, and the persistent world will be interesting to see (assuming you can't ruin it for everybody else by being a turd).

This is NOT meant to diminish the excitement for Destiny in any way, nor is this any kind of intentional flame bait. Totally sincere.

I think that's mostly fair, but we have a few pieces we don't really know much about.

1. The Tower and communal spaces
2. PVP and how that work
3. Mission structure/Exploration

For 1. we know that Destiny will have some true communal spaces, more along the lines of PSO than borderlands small instanced areas. Number 3 comes from statements that bungie made about wanting to give players reasons to explore new areas. Borderlands is so focused on the missions, that exploration is a pretty empty experience when you aren't on one.

Number 2 is the big one. Borderlands competitive gameplay was... non existent? Bungie is hinting that there's lots of cool stuff in Destiny for that, and given their pedigree I believe them. Plus, the shared world nature of destiny can lead to some really cool stuff.

Finally, I think destiny is going to feel really distinct from borderlands mechanically. Borderlands focuses on a player getting really high DPS/health, and dishing out/taking tons of damage. Destiny characters looked more nimble, and their powers gave big damage spikes that you wouldn't see in borderlands.

I've always kind of seen destiny as the unholy mashup of Halo, Borderlands, Dark Souls, and PSO. As a concept that really works for me :).