No Bonus (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Monday, December 11, 2017, 18:01 (2617 days ago) @ cheapLEY

No, I liked it too.

As always seems to be the case, I wish it was deeper. Honestly, this is a story I’d have loved to see explored in a full length campaign. But maybe that’s just because I like the Vex and their aesthetic, and also love the simulation and time travel stuff. I feel like Osiris was wasted a bit.

So, I walked away from the CoO campaign feeling like I don't really need to play another Destiny campaign ever again. And no, I don't mean that in the ragingly negative way that it sounds... because I found the campaign fun. I'm still piecing together my thoughts on why I feel this way. But to me, Bungie's storytelling has just become so surface level, so unsatisfying, that I almost want to see what would happen if they just got it out of the way. Stop treating it like something that matters, because it SO does not.

Overall, CoO felt a lot like a mini version of D2; mostly fun campaign that doesn't live up to the glory days of Bungie's past, with a bare-bones "end game" that feels lacking compared to the later days of D1. It feels stuck in an awkward middle ground to me.

Is the story of Destiny 2 or Curse of Osiris really any worse or more shallow than anything in Halo? I like Halo's story, but I don't think that it's that compelling on its own. It's good because it gave us tons of cool moments and characters ("Tank beats everything!").

I'm a little bit of an outlier around these parts in that I don't think Halo's story was that great in its own right... but I do think it was very effective in terms of how it drove the player through the campaign. First of all, we always had a clear idea of what we were doing and why we were doing it. 2nd, while none of the characters were particularly deep, they had believable and relatable reactions and motivations. They behaved in ways that made sense given the context of the situation. And in many ways, their words and actions were a reflection or extension of the player's thoughts. Characters would express feelings of wonder upon seeing a Halo ring for the first time. They would greet 117 with relief and renewed courage. They would attack the Covenant with the anger and aggression you would expect to see from marines who's home had just been attacked or destroyed.

On both the points I've outlined above, Destiny 1 failed. Destiny 2 is an improvement as far as point "A" is concerned, but it is still mostly a failure as far as point "B" is concerned. Characters talk to each other as if they are doing anything, but they generally aren't (or if they are, it is invisible to the player). Zavala and what's-her-name talk about ships and scouts and patrols all over Titan, but there's never any sign of any of it. Zavala and Ikora have their own "arcs" where they overcome their doubts and fears, through absolutely no action of their own. They're depressed, they see us show up and do everything, and suddenly they go back to acting exactly the way they would have acted before D2 began.

Nowhere in Destiny 1 or 2 is there a moment that comes close to producing a sense of loss or urgency the way Fohammer's death or the crash landing of your escape pod or failure to save Keys does in Halo. Never does Destiny's story make me ready to run screaming into enemy forces the way the intro to the Silent Cartographer or the landing of the Forward Unto Dawn on the Arc does. In fact, when Destiny sets up moments that have the potential to carry such weight, the writing actively works against it. Cayde gets his arm blown off for comic effect. Views of the grand vistas on Nessus are undercut by one-liners about "Vex Milk".

Didn't somebody here once post a video talking about how the Marvel movies have started undercutting their most important character scenes by undercutting them with untimely attempts at humor? Yeah. Destiny 2 does that a lot.

I honestly think the lack of friendly AI characters is what separates the two the most from me. As you said, why can't I fight next to Ikora and Osiris? Having these characters only ever be voices on the radio really hurts my relationship with them and my ability to care about them. Would anyone like the Arbiter if he just spoke to you on the comms the entire time during Halo 3, rather than fighting by your side? I wouldn't.

Agreed.

Despite having a much more grand and epic lore, Destiny feels far more mundane than Halo in a lot of respects. Lack of friendly AI helping fight makes it feel like my Guardian is literally the only one doing anything ever. The Master Chief was the hero of Halo, for sure, but it never felt like he was the only one accomplishing anything. That's not true in Destiny, where it feels like everyone else might as well just not exist, because my Guardian does literally every single thing of any importance.

That's part of what I'm getting at regarding storytelling in Destiny and Destiny 2. What is supposedly going on is just so disjointed from what we actually see in-game.