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My Not-A-Review of Destiny 2 Beta (Destiny)

by INSANEdrive, ಥ_ಥ | f(ಠ‿↼)z | ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ| ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, Thursday, July 27, 2017, 20:17 (2467 days ago)

Welp! The Beta ruined everything! THIS ALL YOUR FAULT BUNGIE! Oh my... It's truly unfortunate you had to see that, but it had to be said. I'm sorry? Did you think I was talking about something else? Oh! No no. Not THAT! You see, now my TITLE doesn't fully rhyme! It's very bothersome and I'm oh-so-very-uncreative to figure out a better title.

Welcome to my Not-A-Review of Destiny 2!... Beta.

Uhg! IT JUST KILLS THE FLOW! :(

(Oh! Is that foreshadowing? Shhhhh.)

In a way... what I'm doing here now, as I have done in the past for the first non-release versions of Destiny; is stupid. In retrospect "reviewing" something that isn't finished is a bit of a fools gambit, as technically these things are still in motion. Of course, that doesn't mean that what I and others demand in our righteous angst will inspire change in the immediate Vanilla of the game. At least I don't expect it to be. I right now, unless otherwise officially specified by...TOP. MEN... I feel that what we felt in the beta will be very close to the Destiny 2 Vanilla experience, just as it was (or as I recall) for Destiny Beta and its Vanilla. Which is a shame, as I was hoping to play Destiny 2 out of the gate. I ultimately recommend to view the this thread simply as my comments and concerns. Don't take it TOO seriously. Some drama is pushed for effect, because in some cases words alone don't do justice. Good Luck.

WARNING! There is some strong language, and I am not holding back, so... buckle up buttercup!

This was (for me) the Destiny 2 Beta! (All 1d 14h 50m I had of it, not all of which was game play.)


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Welcome To A World Without Light
Hint: It's kind of like writing, but from inside a lion. Rawr.


[image]
Pictured: A really angry grunt

Sheesh. They weren't kidding. If some flippen-space-turtle can do this damage to us, what can the DARKNESS (THE DARKNESS!) do? Other than... you know, un-goldenage. First - let me just lament real quick here, as angst truly does come easy, does it not?

Also... did I say real quick?

I'm very much someone who favors PvE. My thoughts very much slant in that direction, as I don't have the PvP experience to push back with. Well, not enough any way. I do not envy the job of those whose job focus was gun game play and design in Destiny 1, who on top of not having per gun controls and perhaps other issues as well, had no choice but to take on the monumental task and find a way to make PvE and PvP weapons, of whatever they be, gel. They had to bite the bullet, and make it so that non character foes received damage differently. Shotguns are an example of this. It worked. Yet... for Destiny 2 Beta it seems they went for safe in the load out scheme. Thanks to this new scheme, now all the fancy fun weapons are gated in some way, be it a slot or a rarity. That's a shame. For what I can see, Bungie has decreased my options in the fun-to-use part of the game when it comes to some of the fancier weaponry. I say that as a person who in Destiny loved Fusion Rifles game play and reward esthetic, where when the chips were down and I was being overwhelmed, I had an ace up my sleeve and everything embraced the light. Now I have to choose between fusion rifle or a rocket launcher? Fantastic. Thanks a bunch. :/

Expect more detail into this... annoyance, as this post progresses. Fusion Rifles are in the rarest ammo slot now. Are they worth it?

Such is true for not only the fancier kit, but of the guns I do have freer access to as well. How do they hold up? Oh boy. Again, expect more detail into this... annoyance, as this post progresses. Needless to say my old favorites are... I don't know what you did. Awkward. It's like the grip wasn't made for a hand, for whatever that means for videogames. Yet, to the guns that I didn't like to use in Destiny 1 or even to some the newcomers that I was able to get my hands on to in the Destiny 2 Beta, they were pretty good. Well... except for the sidearm. In fairness be it Destiny or Destiny 2 Beta, I have yet to find a sidearm I've liked. This should be heavily noted; There is a curious case here where my enjoyment is pretty much inversed in comparison from what I enjoyed in Destiny. Isn't that interesting? It's true for classes too while we are at it. Uh oh.

To which, it's not just the game play weaponry at large, but our ability to play with our basic and super ability loadouts as well. All lack that mixing we had and enjoyed from Destiny. Now it seems the stance is; you can play this way or play this way. It's all... nice... and... safe. I blame permutation complexity! DARN YOU MATH. DAARNN YOUUU!

I mean - don't get me wrong. ... Oh boy how do I say this?

It's... not bad. I had moments I enjoyed, but it's just not good. The game is fighting my increased enjoyment. To be fair, Destiny did the same thing - but inverse. We could customize to our hearts intent, but had little to play off of. To which I segway in wonder. (Yes, that's the best I got right now; deal with it.)

I wonder... how long will it take for things to become stale? It's a cruel but honest question. My expectation? It won't, of course. Not for a long while I expect. Why? Well, I'll just say that I'm also curious about their new bouts of customization which we did not truly see in action in the beta, but was blatant in the design of things. Yet, ignoring this unknown, with the beta as we played it, with its current known beta required load out scheme on display for all things weaponry; mass or energy, your light or what you point to your foes. Any digressions will, I expect, be dwarfed and diluted by the full content of apparent en-mass of "things-to-do" we have before us in Destiny 2. That's not acceptance, just simply a deal with it mentality. We will adapt, with love or hate. For those who agree with my observations, we shall grumble in breath alone. It's not like my outlook here before you on is going to change anything. Even if my voice is heard, it's points understood, I know now what I - in the last time I wrote from a beta - did not then. There are many clocks.

Game play is a finely tuned clock, and even I have to lament at MYSELF abit in my harsh criticisms here and to come. Be it AI, level design & mechanics, character abilities - both of motion & weaponry, or even the simple complexity in a design of a UI; It all has to work together. That takes time. Just some of the moving tick tock that makes a games interesting. That makes GAMEPLAY interesting. We in the time we had to play the Destiny 2 Beta are playing a vague percentage as it was MONTHS ago, plus the added needed annoyance of path blockers on the Nessus Strike start area. Again, because it's so important to keep in mind, this is an old build from an unfinished game. Yet, I have to make my observations without reserve. Even if the Top Men, the Bungie Community Representatives bring something to the public table that may make a point or multiple points that I make moot in the future, I have to take that risk if I want to do this right. I'm taking this KNOWN dated build as a close facsimile of how vanilla Destiny 2 will be. I'm taking what I have - and running with it. What else can I do?

Bleh. I'm eating old food to determine the skills of the chef.

Amongst my distaste for the setup we've been told of, the micro bit we've played, there is something in particular that just bothers me something awful. Where we apparently will have at start two groupings of traites that conduct the exact set of our lights class abilities at launch. It is odd, is it not? That instead of just having a single node called "Way Of The Warrior", or whatever it may be for each class, that it is a grouping of 4 nodes each that we can't customize from. It has to be THAT SET OF FOUR or THE OTHER SET OF FOUR. Is that not the oddest thing? To me it feels like... something is missing. It's just too odd and too inefficient. Bungie is better than that - right?

Thus with these broad brush strokes made, and some of the sore spots mentioned, it's time to fine tune. To do that, I'm showing as much of everything I saw as I could. My idea for this whole post is - "What if I was in the BUNGIE offices, giving my thoughts on the game play". My comments and concerns.

As such this is your warning for those of you running 56k off your phone or whatever.

*MEDIA HEAVY POST WARNING FROM THIS POINT ONWORD*

I've broken up these posts, to make it easier to view the content on slower connections. Less to load. The very first one will be the worst, as there are a lot of images interspersed with the videos. After that I got savvier and focused more on video based content. Those posts will be much lighter.

In some of the videos, there will be points where things lag, sound cuts off, or may all around seem odd. In ALL these cases it is a result of my capturing as much as I can, and in those cases it is the XBOX ONE grabbing the data from its cache. It's not all bad through, as in one moment at least it actually adds a bit more gravitas to the moment witnessed.

These next posts, especially the first one, are very... granular. Very content heavy. I tried to figure out a more streamlined approach, but my issue is time. I wanted to get this out as quick as I could after the beta finished. So here it is. At best, you get to connect the dots with the order of nested videos, and choose what you wish to see as I saw it in video accordingly.

To see the nested list of videos, when available, there will be a Hamburger/Play Icon ( three stripes and a small sideways triangle) and #(you are seeing)/#(of total) on the top left of the videos with that feature. Click it to see the list of videos and select accordingly. I've also made it so that in the event you just want to go straight to the youtube video page instead, you can also do that by clicking the corresponding number on the post as well, through I expect that will make more sense I once you see it. It's not perfect, as some of the things I wanted to do is hindered in this forum format and I can only go so far without HTML power. Regardless; If there was a way you prefer to consume content, get to it, or what-have-you I did what I could to make it as painless as possible, with the least amount of clicks as possible. What can I say; I like making nice things, best I can.

I also don't expect everyone to watch ALL the content I provide. That's fine. It's there if you wish to see it, or were unable to play the beta due to other obligations. There are a few things through I will point out, so please do at least give those things a look at.

All text under and image or video corresponds with said item, unless otherwise noted. Even then, common sense if you have it helps too.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! All said...

Shall we begin? (☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞

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