Challenge accepted. (Destiny)

by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Monday, April 28, 2014, 21:00 (3657 days ago) @ NartFOpc

Just watched the gameplay vid, first Destiny content I've consumed in awhile.

Please provide me 3 reasons why Destiny is different from Borderlands 2 in terms of gameplay. Jump height does not count.

Also note that I am somewhat excited for Destiny, and disliked Borderlands 2 quite a bit.

1. Tone. The world of Boarderlands was largely a silly silly place. Almost everything is a joke. Almost everything is over the top. It can be fun but it wore on me after a while. In contrast Destiny, even if it were exactly the same gameplay as Borderlands (it isn't), appears to be a much more serious and epic science fiction story more comparable to Halo. Impossible odds. Incredible victories. Amazing discoveries. All things that the goofy Borderlands rarely tried to do.

2. World. Borderlands did have some nice level and enemy designs. I liked the huge boss that launched flying attackers for instance. But Destiny looks like it is going to have a vastly more interesting world. Already we've seen the ruins of Old Russia with giant colony ships that never even made it to launch and ruined buildings being overrun by enemies, and that's just one of several locations. It appears we'll get a flooded and rainy Chicago with skyscrapers who's lower submerged floors are held by the enemy. There will be the seemingly open red sands of Mars that have swept in over a once great human city and buried at least one ancient war intelligence. Venus has strange vast gardens, forests, and volcanic sulphur pits. And even our moon has a rich history, with long forgotten human bases on the surface and deadly enemies burrowed beneath the crust who seem to be building up in order to destroy us. And that's just the locations we've really seen. There's still the frozen moon of Europa, The Reef which I speculate is some kind of junkyard station built out of the scrap of the space battles of the Golden age, and who knows where else.

3. Gameplay. Destiny appears to have a lot more going for it in terms of gameplay. Guns, grenades, and melee seems to be alive and kicking from Bungie's Halo days, each with a few upgrades for good measure. Then you add in sets of class specific offensive and defensive powers that can be changed out and upgraded. Each piece of your Guardian's armor will have its own upgrade tree seemingly allowing you to bias your guardian in the direction you choose. Same with your guns which seem to allow you to make choices and trade offs as you gain experience with them. All that and I think we can be confident that Bungie will deliver first rate enemy AI. Add in big choreographed battle set pieces like a fleet of enemy dropships swarming a location and multiple fire teams of Guardians teaming up to win the day.

And that's just what we know about. There's more to come like upgrading your own personal spaceship, vehicle combat, details on multiplayer, and who knows what else. To me it feels like maybe Borderlands blazed a nice trail but did so in a way I never really liked and now Destiny is coming it to provide me the game I always wish Borderlands could have been.