Some random thoughts. (Destiny)

by cheapLEY , Monday, July 02, 2018, 20:05 (2413 days ago)

I started a Titan on Xbox, and have been slowly making my way through the campaign. This is the first time I've done this since the game launched--with every other character I just rushed through to get the max level to do endgame stuff.

I've also been playing Halo: Reach again, for the first time in years (probably since 2012). I play a mission every few days or so, when I want a break from Destiny. I just finished Long Night of Solace yesterday.

Doing those things at the same time has been a neat contrast, I think, so here are some random thoughts in no particular order.

Bring assassinations back, please, Bungie! I know they're useless, I know they're unnecessary, but damnit, they are cool. Assassinations in Destiny with neat space magic kills would be incredibly fun.

The campaign in Destiny 2 is really good. Great even. Forget about the story, which is serviceable. As I said, I'm taking my time, doing the adventures on every planet as I make my way through. I'm just getting ready to leave Io, and I'm most of the way to level 17 already. Doing the adventures as you go makes the game feel whole, and actually pretty interesting. The stories of the adventures aren't really connected to the greater story, but it does make the game feel paced much more evenly if you do them.

It does make me wonder, though, about how Bungie will approach Destiny 3. There's a lot of content during the campaign, if you include the adventures. I feel like Bungie definitely wanted people to play the game the way I am right now, but, in some respects, it feels like a complete waste of resources. For the most part, it's a massive amount of content that most players see once (per character, I guess). It's not easily repeatable (please fix that!), and, even when it is, it's irrelevant to post-20 progression. In some ways, it feels antithetical to what Destiny actually is for most of it's life. I'm trying to envision a game that's only Destiny 2 end game content, but I'm not sure how you structure that.

Destiny 2's mission design is actually really good--much better than I had previously given it credit for. The spaces are all mostly really great. After playing Reach, I'd honestly say it's mostly on par with Halo, although it doesn't live up the greatest moments of Halo. It's just easy to overlook, I think, because there's no easy way to replay it, and we spend so much time in the same spaces without the context of moving through them in the way the campaign missions have you do.

I still think Destiny suffers in comparison to Halo in regards to vehicles. The Warthog segments in Halo still feel way more spectacular than the tank sections in Destiny 2, I think, and the variety of vehicles adds a lot of replayability to those missions.

Halo: Reach is still really damn good. Oddly, I don't think it's aged nearly as well as the other Halo games, but I guess it's not a fair comparison since I use the enhanced versions in the Master Chief collection. Its motion blur is truly awful. I think it would benefit greatly from a One X enhancement in the same way Halo 3 did. But I think it has great mission designs, and I do think they nailed the sort of boots on the ground story they were trying to tell. It's really compelling, even if it is light on actual story.

Long Night of Solace still makes me want some space combat missions in Destiny. As simple as it is, it's still a blast. Landing on a beach, fighting into the Saber facility, launching into space, flying around and blowing shit up, then landing on a Covenant Corvette and fighting through it still feels like a impressive piece of level design.

I wish I could put my finger on exactly why, but I still feel like most missions in Destiny lack that sort of thrill.