Opinions (Destiny)

by Phoenix_9286 , Wednesday, October 03, 2018, 15:54 (2220 days ago)

I've been playing a fair bit of Destiny the last few weeks, which translates to doing a fair bit of thinking about Destiny, which translates to forming opinions about Destiny. I'm at a point where I feel a need to deposit them somewhere, and this is as good a place as any.

Let's start with a super unpopular opinion. I finally wrapped up the Ace of Spades quest two nights ago. Late. Stupid late. Should've been in bed for work two hours ago late. I signed in last night, loaded up an adventure to put it through it's paces and... It's garbage. Ace of Spades is trash. It looks good on paper, I was psyched to get my hands on it, but it does not live up to any expectations. It's slow to fire, slow to reload (even with a friggin buff), takes forever to proc arguably it's flashiest perk, and doesn't punch hard enough. If it wasn't the highest light Kinetic I had, I'd have already vaulted it. I gave it a fair shake and went back to absolutely wrecking with Crimson. You heard me. Crimson is better than Ace of Spades, which just feels wrong, but that's the world I live in. It fires faster, it hits harder, it stays on target better, it reloads faster, and it's flashiest perk is more useful than blowing things up, which is sad. To be clear, I'm talking about the fact it reloads itself. Not the health buff. That's just a nice bonus. Dudes, even Sunshot is better. Seriously. The hell? Take Sunshot and square it, and that's more or less what I was expecting out of Ace.

Speaking of Energy weapons...

Badlander is the best shotgun in the game. It's Immobius crossed with Party Crasher. Keep your Ikelos Shotgun. You know, the one I'll never get because RNG and keys that take forever to get and farming that sucks. But that's fine. Because I have Badlander, and it's better.

Also, Misfit. Misfit is a beast. Misfit plays into my deep-seated desire to fire all of the bullets at that one thing that just will not die, and then reload so fast it doesn't physically make any sense so I can continue to fire all of the bullets. If I could have Misfit and Badlander at the same time, I would be a very happy hammer throwing flaming wrecking ball.

Moving on, and in no real order...

They should've called the expansion, "Loading..." because I sure as hell see and am held up by that FAR more than I used to be. Destiny 2: Loading. Half of my experience with the game is loading. Turn on Xbox, launch game, walk away, mix a drink, maybe return and sign in, wait some more, travel to destination, wait some more, run 600 feet around a corner, stuck loading. Even if, you know, I stood around for several minutes to perhaps give the game time to precache or preload or whatever it does to the areas immediately around or close by, nah. 50/50 chance you're gonna load, son. You know how annoying this is in Strikes? Hey, I was first out of the area, lead the charge to the next encounter, and then managed to miss the entire first half of it because I GOT STUCK LOADING. Oh and god forbid I need or want to check my inventory. It was slow before. It's a slug inching through salt now. Some nights are ok... I'll only get truly irritated with it's inability to keep up once or twice. Others are awful and I consider playing something else.

Hey, let's talk about how awful the Director is now! I sure do like having a hundred things demanding my attention with no idea what they are until I dive down into the locations! This was a bad idea. I liked being able to pop the trigger, get a briefing, quickly keep track of progress, see what was next, and 'dismiss' notifications. I got no interest in all that Crucible stuff. Be nice to not have it begging for attention. But really, it's a pain to keep up with now, it's a poor redesign, and I hate to say that most of the time, I feel like there's so much flashing at me begging for attention that I want to give none of it attention. Also, stuff is still splintered off in the Pursuits tab, so the Director continues to not be a one-stop shop.

I continue to have issues with the economy, and have no idea what I'm doing wrong. Apparently my play style is either not profitable, or what time I have to sink into the game isn't valued enough. Legendary shards? What Legendary shards? Masterwork cores? What Masterwork cores? And no, I haven't done that much infusion. I've found two cores in the wild since the expansion dropped. Two. I've bought the rest piecemeal one or two at a time, and use them only when I HAVE to bring something up to par. So, 10+ light levels. And shards? I was broke on shards before and never spent them aggressively, and I'm broke on shards now and don't spend them aggressively. Meanwhile I have a friend that claims he's sitting on 3k+ and basically doesn't do much more than me. I don't even. World mats are easier to deal with, but the added micromanagement introduced with needing to decide if I should bank them for an engram, or save them for an infusion because god only knows what this item will want, is not welcomed.

TLDR;

The game is too grindy and I hate it. Thanks Bungie, you took a nice thing and ruined it for people with actual lives and commitments.

Oh, and the Dreaming City... Yeah. Made it there, haven't done anything there yet, get the impression I won't be able to do much there, because everything will insta kill me and I can't hurt it. So that's fun. Here's a new area, have fun dying and not doing anything in it until you grind out 50 more light levels! Thanks for that. I'm prolly wrong here. I hope I am. Like I said, I haven't looked or done a damn thing since I helped Petra talk to the Queen. This is just the vibe I get from everyone else I play with. Lowly 504 me though isn't super pumped to find out, because if it does require that much of a bump to my light, it's gonna be another few months before I have anything of substance to do.

Positive stuff, because I'm being super negative and don't mean to be.

The story was surprisingly good, it's kind of a revenge story in the same vein as John Wick, so what's not to like? Aside from my Guardian finally speaking up and proving she isn't mute, only to say like, five words total. And Petra totally smoked Uldren.

The Scorn are pretty fun. Certainly more fun than the Taken, especially in a horde.

The Prison of Elders strike. Best strike ever? Or BEST strike ever? I haven't had that much fun in a strike since, ironically, THE CELL FROM THE PRISON OF ELDERS strike in D1. More like this plzkthx. It took us five attempts to beat the Warden first time, because we were so concentrated on melting him we were completely oblivious to his solar/nuclear/whatever attack that'll damn near insta kill you if you don't have cover. Bonus mechanic touch I love: If he follows after you, the shadows of course move, and as long as you stay with it, you're safe. It's a simple, logical thing that makes me really happy. We keep wanting to drag out that fight and see just how much he throws at you, and keep getting so caught up in it we kill him and move on.

Seriously. That strike though.

The Tangled Shore is pretty slick. I have a lot of questions about the hows and whys of cabling a crap ton of asteroids together and giving them an apparent atmosphere, but maybe it's in a lore card somewhere that I have yet to bother reading.

On that note, putting the damn lore in the friggin game. THANK YOU. I haven't read but maybe a fraction of it, but I WILL once I've collected it all.

New supers. Dude. I thought I was Thor before. Then I got a hammer I can fling any time I want, is super effective, and is prime ammunition for stupid awesome comedy. The jokes that are made when I lose my hammer are worth the price of admission alone. I love it's an instant regen if I pick it up after a throw. I WISH I could perform a recall and have it fly back to me for a half regen, or a third, or whatever. It's all good though. And the giant flaming maul... Dude... I feel like a space age Harley-Quinn when I twirl around like a ballerina from the depths of Hell. Like, I'm legit salty with the way they're handling acquiring the other two. It's pretty much opaque if all you pay attention to is the game. But I damn near don't care because THIS HAMMER THO.

I had my doubts about the new weapon system. Still do. It feels hacked together and forced into an existing system. Square peg, round hole. I mean, it is, so it isn't surprising. But I'm loving the newfound freedom. And it isn't even that dramatic for me. My loadout hasn't change that much at all. I just get to go shotgun happy like I used to, or swap for a fusion rifle if I'm feeling something with a bit more zap.

TLDR part deux;

Forsaken has introduced a fair bit of stuff I do not like, or exacerbated problems I already had. It also, however, came with a bunch of stuff that's super awesome, and does a fine job balancing out the package. It got a few of my friends playing again who previously walked away because it wasn't as fun as D1. That's excellent. I'm enjoying myself despite my beefs.

I'm done performing a stream of consciousness dump now. Thanks.