Vehicles. (Destiny)

by Durandal, Tuesday, November 05, 2013, 17:40 (3834 days ago) @ GrizzNKev

I think vehicles were a very fun and core component of the Halo series, and certainly Destiny has shown that players will have access to Ghost/jetbike equivalents from the get go. With the large environments promised in Destiny vehicular movement is a must, and that will drive some type of vehicular combat system.

Halo's vehicular combat evolved heavily from the early days of invulnerable craft that instantly killed anyone they so much as gave a tiny love tap (although I have fond memories of throwing down the plasma grenade, ducking as it blows the oncoming warthog over my head, then gunning down the riders as they are thrown from the overturned jeep) to a system with boarding, vehicular damage, and specialized anti-vehicle weapons and techniques.

Destiny doesn't have the same options as the Halo series, since you will have three standard weapons at all times, but it could easily keep the grenade and boarding aspects. We've already seen rocket launchers in Destiny, and a Spartan Laser and EMP Grenade Launcher are feasible from a lore and technical standpoint. PVP vehicular combat could be a function of control of the heavy weapon ammunition in order to suppress enemy vehicles. But all this is just replicating Halo gameplay. Destiny needs to build on that solid foundation and take it in new directions.

Each player, in addition to their heavy weapons, have powers. These powers offer a number of ways to interact with vehicles in addition to the Halo style mechanics. Also, Destiny is an even more group oriented game. Beaming down each player in a Scorpion is overkill, (but still awesome, Tank beats Everything!) and should be rare, but uncovering ancient technology and using it to rip up our enemies on the way home is a common occurrence.

We therefore should see lots of segments where teams of players are on a coop vehicle of some kind, ranging from Warthogs at low levels to Scarabs for big battles. You wouldn't necessarily have these vehicles on call, but can come across them often enough, and a good team manning the various aspects of the vehicle would make for a fun and interesting segment.

We have already seen from the brief gameplay that the Devilwalker has location based damage and stages similar to the Scarabs of Halo 3. How hard would it be to face down one of the Fallen's big dropships? Or some sort of land battleship? By Bungie's own admission, our enemies are more varied and bigger then anything Bungie has thrown at us before. I expect bigger things then Scarabs, and the tools to take them on.