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O Hai (Destiny)

by Kahzgul, Thursday, September 06, 2018, 22:15 (2247 days ago)

I loved D1's pvp and it's high skill ceiling, steep learning curve, and incredibly rewarding gameplay.

Then I got D2, and hated it. One of the biggest issues for me was that the dramatically slower TTKs resulted in teamshooting trumping everything, and it was impossible for a skilled player to make up for three uncooperative teammates (thanks, bizarre and slow matchmaking algorithm). But that wasn't all that frustrated me. The advanced movement was gone. The weapon choices were nearly meaningless. The rewards were meh. After the initial gleam, I lost interest in PvP completely.

But the single, most heartbreaking issue, was that the PvP balance was completely garbage, and it became obvious to me that hunters simply could not compete at a high level. For a while, I changed to warlock (and my K/D went from 1.3 to 3.2, no joke).

Then CoO happened, and my GOD it was bad. I'm sure you remember, but just in case you don't, the opening mission on Mercury ends just after you get to the entrance to the "infinite" forest and much ado is made about the fact that you can't enter it.

Two levels later, your mission starts with you just waltzing through the door. Not a single line of dialogue is dedicated to any explanation for why this is now a trivial event. Of course we can guess that Sagira knows how to open the door, but that's US filling in the glaring holes of Destiny 2's plot.

So I was done. I quit. I uninstalled. And I'd already paid for the Warmind expansion. Which I still have not played at all.

A while after that, Bungie released their "roadmap." It did nothing but convince me I had done the right thing. PvP wasn't being addressed until December 2018, more than a year away.

And, well, here we are. Bungie has beaten their timetable and changed the game's PvP balance. And it's MAGICAL.

I've been playing for the last three nights, and the pvp is goddamnned GLORIOUS. It feels like season 1's best balance patches, which good decisions made on all fronts. Movement is fluid and responsive. Engagements are quick and deadly, but not so much that you can't escape if you recognize you're outmatched or you miss a shot. There is far less lag that I remember from D1, even. The weapons feel crisp and a wide variety of them feel effective. Matchmaking is still atrocious; Fortnite can match 100 players in less time than Destiny 2 can match, well, 2. And when playing doubles, I've been matched with the exact same teams 3 times in a row, twice. And I've only played 6 rounds of doubles since I came back. But that actual play, holy god it's FUN.

And here I am, back home, as it were, wondering how all you fine people are doing. I'm not sold on the new xpac yet - gonna give that a few weeks for the shine to tarnish and honest reviews to come out, but the PvP changes are a massive shift in the right direction and I'm having a blast right now.

So, how are you guys? How's gaming?

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Kahzgul! :D ... I've missed your posts. Welcome Back!

by INSANEdrive, ಥ_ಥ | f(ಠ‿↼)z | ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ| ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, Thursday, September 06, 2018, 22:23 (2247 days ago) @ Kahzgul
edited by INSANEdrive, Thursday, September 06, 2018, 22:27

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Welcome back

by Robot Chickens, Friday, September 07, 2018, 07:59 (2246 days ago) @ Kahzgul

Now go run around Mars. Its got good strikes, secrets and Escalation Protocol is silly fun. The plot is a bit silly, but the play space is excellent with lots of things to do.

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Thanks! You're too kind.

by Kahzgul, Friday, September 07, 2018, 10:01 (2246 days ago) @ INSANEdrive

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Welcome back

by Kahzgul, Friday, September 07, 2018, 10:02 (2246 days ago) @ Robot Chickens

Now go run around Mars. Its got good strikes, secrets and Escalation Protocol is silly fun. The plot is a bit silly, but the play space is excellent with lots of things to do.

It's gotta be better than Mercury. My kid playing with his legos makes up more consistent characters and coherent plots than CoO.

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Welcome back

by Robot Chickens, Friday, September 07, 2018, 10:47 (2246 days ago) @ Kahzgul

Now go run around Mars. Its got good strikes, secrets and Escalation Protocol is silly fun. The plot is a bit silly, but the play space is excellent with lots of things to do.


It's gotta be better than Mercury. My kid playing with his legos makes up more consistent characters and coherent plots than CoO.

Yeah... the writing for that was pretty bad. I had fun with the missions that weren't Infinite Forest playthrough, but I was happy enough with the Raid Lair for that DLC.

O Hai

by Avateur @, Friday, September 07, 2018, 14:42 (2246 days ago) @ Kahzgul

Oh hello there! It's been a long time! Destiny 2 was pretty... soulless. I had planned on doing this whole write-up regarding its "story" and writing and even how the gameplay itself faultered so hard in many ways. Even had a ton of it written. But then I thought, what's the point? You know? Bungie's clearly not getting it, and isn't gonna get it. Just gotta wait for the new IP and hope that #codywaswrong and that the new IP isn't some F2P microtransaction bullshit type of product.

So I mean, I popped into D2 occasionally. I never got all the way through CoO, and it left such a bad taste that I haven't done the Mars DLC that I paid for. lol

I did play Crucible plenty! Not all of it on my own account. I just couldn't get invested. Was I good at it? Yeah. Was it fun? I mean, sorta. It was just so freaking soulless. Just going through the motions. Nowhere near as fun as D1's. Trials sucked compared to D1's, too.

I really enjoyed the Leviathan Raid. Eater of Worlds was fantastic. I haven't done the second Raid Lair. I've watched buddies do Whisper of the Worm, but I haven't tried it myself. I think it looks amazing and I can't wait to get there. But I'm not buying this expansion yet. Waiting on reviews and for actual non-knee-jerk responses to kick in. Fanboiz be fanboi-in, but is it really good? I'mma sit and wait and let time tell me. I've been MCCing and MW2ing. I've been Overwatching and playing my Switch. I'm hearing some very interesting and good things about this D2 expansion, and I am genuinely looking forward to getting back into playing. BUT I may just wait until November when it will surely get knocked down to $20 or less. Why pay $40 to buy D2 getting back to D1 when it should have already learned from and carried so much of D1 with it at launch? Gotta vote with that wallet, right?

I still don't hate Destiny. I've stopped caring about the universe. Even the fantastic lore doesn't do much for me anymore considering that there's practically no story in the present. Who knows. I'm making a lot of sweeping statements and judgments without knowing if Bungie's got major plans that are working their way along, or if there's just never gonna be a payoff. I'm just not going to invest myself heavily. But I would really love for the gameplay to find that soul. D1 was a blast to play. I want that blast back! So I'll be popping back into the D2 gaming scene eventually here. I'm not at a loss for hobbies. Real life is plenty busy and awesome. Other games and consoles have some amazing stuff going on. It's a great time to be a gamer in general! :D

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O Hai

by Kahzgul, Monday, September 10, 2018, 02:54 (2244 days ago) @ Avateur

Sounds like we're in the same boat. I'm giving it a few weeks to see what people think once they've hit level cap and are mostly doing endgame activities. I did have one pvp match against a team of 4 that legitimately smoked us, and showed that Bungie still hasn't solved spawn camping. Removing the opportunity for one team to even react is not fun, and it's shameful that Bungie STILL hasn't addressed this adequately despite it being a problem since vanilla D1. When I actually get to move after spawning, I'm really liking what I'm seeing.

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