Something’s Missing: Defeats (Criticism)

by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Tuesday, January 23, 2018, 20:24 (2529 days ago)

This morning I was pondering why Destiny often doesn’t feel as good/involved/complete as the Halos often did. Or as games in other, somewhat similar series do. One of the first and biggest things that came to mind was Destiny and Destiny 2’s relative lack of setbacks and defeats.

In Halo

• The Covenant capture Captain Keyes
  
• The Flood is unleashed
  
• 343 Guilty Spark turns on Cortana and the Master Chief
  
• 343 Guilty Spark stops the Pillar of Autumn’s self destruct sequence
  
• Foe Hammer is shot down before she is able to help you escape the Autumn’s detonation

In Mass Effect 3

• Earth and Mars are lost to the Reapers
  
• The Turians sent to disarm the bomb on Tuchanka are shot down then Victius sacrifices himself to save the day
  
• The Quarians are locked in a deteriorating stalemate with the Geth around Rannoch
  
• Cerberus attacks the Citadel and Thane Krios is killed
  
• Thessia is overrun by the Reapers
  
• The Citadel is moved to Earth very nearly preventing the Crucible plan from being successful

In Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Senua begins her assault on Hera only to be significantly outclassed and thrown off the bridge she worked so hard to reach.

In Gravity Rush 2, Kat is ripped away from Jirga Para Lhao and winds up in a significantly changed Hecksville where almost everyone has forgotten her.

In Tomb Raider 2013

• The rescue plane that responds to Lara’s radio call is struck down by lightning / the island’s power
  
• Sam is kidnapped
  
• Grim dies protecting Lara from mercenaries
  
• Roth is killed after he and Lara attempt to escape the island

So what about Destiny and Destiny 2? What real setbacks do our Guardians face over the course of the two games?

• In the Cosmodrome we are entirely successful
  
• On the Moon we are entirely successful
  
• On Venus we are entirely successful
  
• On Mars we are entirely successful
  
• Against Crota we are entirely successful
  
• Against Skolas we are entirely successful
  
• The Awoken fleet is defeated by Oryx
  
• Against Oryx we are entirely successful
  
• Against the Devil Splicers we are entirely successful
  
• Ghaul suppresses the Traveler and inflicts heavy damage and casualties on The City and its Guardians
  
• Against the Fallen in the EDZ we are entirely successful
  
• Against the Hive and Fallen on Titan we are almost entirely successful
  
• Taeko-3 sacrifices herself to stop the Hive deep beneath the Titan Archology
  
• Against the Vex and Fallen on Nessus we are entirely successful
  
• Against the Cabal and Taken on Io we are entirely successful
  
• Against the Cabal in The Last City we are entirely successful
  
• Against Ghaul we are entirely successful
  
• Against the Vex on Mercury and in their Infinite Forest we are almost entirely sucessful
  
• Against the two challenges put before us by Calus we have been entirely successful

So much of the defeats that have happened in Destiny so far have been almost entirely offscreen and hundreds of years in the past. Once our Guardian comes on the scene it is almost entirely non-stop success. Even when there are setbacks, they pretty much only happen to other people and then we sweep in and clean up the mess.

Regardless of how good or bad Destiny’s combat is or how pretty it renders its worlds, the fact that our Guardian’s biggest, longest lasting setbacks in Destiny are the various times the Hive block our way forward with their Hive Runes... it leaves the stories we’ve played through somewhat flat and so far there hasn’t been much room for emotions like sorrow or guilt or really even worry.

Will we see any significant setbacks in Gods of Mars? Or future Destiny 2 expansions? Will Destiny 3 start with the Darkness arriving and blowing something up only to see us defeat them at every turn from then on out? Is Destiny, with its patrol zones that need to exist after players finish the campaign, even set up for significant defeats at all?