Beta impressions (Destiny)

by car15, Friday, July 25, 2014, 04:25 (3774 days ago)
edited by car15, Friday, July 25, 2014, 04:46

Just started playing the Beta tonight after waiting over 24 hours for my verification email from Bungie. I never did get that email, so I ended up downloading the game when Bungie made it freely available for all players. It's ridiculous. I'm an Xbox gamer, so I already missed out on the entire Alpha and a third of the Beta by default, but now I miss almost another third of the Beta because Bungie.net can't get their shit together? I know it's a Beta and they're strained and the whole point of public Betas is to test things like this, but for the love of God, did they just not plan for a high volume of applicants? I still haven't received a reply of any kind from Bungie, by the way, not even an automated alert that the Beta has gone public.

So right out of the gate, I only get to play the Beta for two days and some spare change. That's a pretty negative way to start the whole Beta experience.

Fortunately, the game itself is amazing, and totally worth all the horse-shit I had to wade through to get it on my console.

**************

Unorganized preliminary thoughts:

PROS:
* The game is absolutely beautiful.
* A persistent character and persistent world begets tangible player progression. I like being able to upgrade skills and buy new gear. We got a hint of this system in Reach with the Armory, but Bungie went full RPG this time around, and I couldn't be happier about it.
* Explore mode is the best thing ever.
* The Strike mission was a magnificent challenge, especially going it alone. *gulp*
* The lore is very intriguing, and what little we know about the story seems like it will be interesting as well. In particular, I want to know more about the factions. Hopefully, Bungie has given story the attention and prominence that it deserves.
* The cutscenes and voice acting (well, most of it) have taken a quantum leap beyond anything Bungie has ever done.
* Unbelievably fluid and addicting gameplay. I'm amazed how well Bungie has pulled this off. Matchmaking is seamless with the sole exception of the Crucible (but more on the Crucible later) and enemy encounters feel as polished and tailored to the player as they did in the Halo campaigns... even when I run over to a battle in progress or join in on a random Fireteam midway through their mission, it still feels absolutely seamless.
* The Tower is wacky and useful all at the same time. The merchants provide valuable upgrades and the Speaker gives important story information while your fellow Guardians climb trees, kick soccer balls around, and stage impromptu dance-offs. The Tower is everything I hoped it would be.
* In a broad sense, I enjoy the sense of adventure and fun this game presents to the player. It's epic and engrossing, but it doesn't take itself too seriously and it never goes grimdark on you. This is a social game and a hopeful story. It's a nice change of pace from the endless stream of A Space Marine Is You and Modern Warfare shooters.
* Somehow, it just feels like it's not a shooter. I mean, it is a shooter, obviously, but it feels like an adventure RPG shooter MMO smorgasbord. I like that feeling of freshness and newness.
* Last but not least...
* THE MUSIC, OH GOD THE MUSIC IS PERFECT, WHY DID THEY FIRE MARTY, IT WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN

CONS:
* I don't find the Crucible to be very fun at all. It's easily the most disappointing aspect of the game. I thought it was way too fast-paced, even more than Halo 4, which really threw me for a loop. Halo was always strategic and balanced, more or less, but this is a complete mess. Half the time, I'm not even sure how I died.
* While I enjoy the story missions and believe them to be very well-made, they aren't as cinematic as I thought or hoped they would be. I'm not asking for cutscenes and elaborate dialogue in every mission, but it would be nice to have some sense of importance attached to what you're doing. Most of the time, all we get is Dinklage telling us "there are some Fallen/Hive in this cave/building and the Speaker says we should check it out." It just feels mundane.
* Speaking of story, the Beta didn't have too much in the way of actual plot. I almost didn't include this, because I know it's a Beta and Bungie are probably just playing things close to the vest for now, but it bothered me enough that I decided to mention it anyway. Explore mode is the most glaring offender here. Don't get me wrong, I love Explore mode. I spent more time playing it tonight than I did anything else, but it is almost entirely devoid of story. After playing it for a long period of time, I became highly conscious of the fact that I was playing a video game rather than exploring an ancient frontier. It would be nice if Bungie threw a few more story bits in there to make the experience more immersive. Nothing major, of course, just something to add to the lore. It's Explore mode, after all, and it's all about completing odd jobs for the Tower factions. I like doing that stuff and I don't want it to change. I just feel like some more Dinklage commentary would spice things up, especially when it comes to things like scanning fighter jet wreckage or old computer data, or the presence of the Hive on Earth. Throwing some story in there would make Explore mode feel far less like a video game and more like a living breathing world. (And no, the Grimoire doesn't count. Lore needs to actually be in the game.)
* This is a nitpick, but there should be more facial customization options. I would like to have a wider variety of faces to choose from, and BEARDS are a must. How else am I supposed to build my Sage Merrill lookalike character?
* Dinklage still sounds like he's phoning his performance in. I know it's been said before, but goddamn, it's like he's purposely trying not to emote at all. Maybe he was going for dry and sarcastic, except his dialogue doesn't lend itself to that tone at all, so it just comes off like he's not even trying. The voice manipulation and robot sound effects do help, but they can't disguise all of it. There are still glaring moments when Dinklage sounds like he'd rather be anywhere else than a recording booth. It's such a shame because the rest of the voice acting is brilliant. All of it. Just not Dinklage.

Letter Grades:
The Tower = A+
Explore = A+
Strike = A
Story Missions = B+ or A-, I'm still making up my mind.
The Crucible = C
Story & Lore = None. (It's very intriguing, but not explored sufficiently in the Beta. Hopefully, story will be given attention in the final product. Based on what I've seen so far, it gets at least an A- as long as it's given enough prominence.)