Thoughts From Someone Who Wasn't That Excited (Destiny)

by Jillybean, Sunday, July 27, 2014, 10:17 (3570 days ago)

So somewhere in the last few months Destiny lost its shine for me. I can't point at which I lost interest, because it's still a space opera, still continuing the teamwork promotion that I've liked since ODST and Reach, but I did.

So I hoped this beta would reawaken my excitement for this game.

The Beta-Grumbles

• Firstly, this may be observer bias, but I don't feel like Destiny is a game which likes the Xbox One console. I had quite a few little glitches, such as the 'only being able to talk when party app is snapped', an awful noise whenever you return the game after being signed out - which is whenever you start the game thanks to the Bone's multiple app type thing going on, I fell through the floor more than once when mounting the Sparrow. All little technical things which are what betas are for, we'll leave them there
  
• The level 8 cap really pissed me off when I finally unlocked my cryptarch level 9 warlock band
  

The Good

• The game is stunningly beautiful.
  
• My warlock was a lot of fun at times, especially when enemies saw me running towards them and started to scatter.
  
• I managed a reasonable asari-vanguard build on my warlock which was only frustrating because her powers didn't regenerate fast enough, and I think with levelling that will be overcome.
  
• Mastering glide, while frustrating everytime I soared over that pillar in Shores of Time, is enjoyable and I like the 3d strategy it brings in.
  
• The playstyle I used, cribbed from ME3 multi with the vanguards/adepts, worked really well in campaign
  
• I caught glimpses of some really fun socialising moments, such as the impromptu game of footie that emerged, and my new favourite game "where can I sit?" I would like more options for emoting, and I might even consider paying glimmer to unlock new kinds of emotes - as feminine as my lovely closed knee sit is, I see my Awoken as more of a cross-legged meditator.
  
• Also I want the option to make glimmer dancing on tables. What can I say, I've played as an asari for so long now.
  

The Ugly

• How long was I playing before I started grinding for equipment? Barely hours. I don't have the confidence to say that this is because the beta doesn't have enough to do, because the beta has a huge area with plenty to explore and lots of story missions . . . which brings me to . . .
  
• Story missions are too short on story and too short on time. Now I had dozens of stories in my head about my warlock, she was a lot of fun, the interactions she has with people is fun, but this isn't enough to build a narrative on. I just need more than that.
  
• The Crucible is painful. I read up on the threads here to see what I was doing wrong and I definitely improved somewhat, but that just means I wasn't finishing last on the board. I was still a handicap for my team and I was still having no fun whatsoever. In one memorable match (Shores of Time) a player camped two of the control points (B & C) with a sniper and no one could disrupt him for long enough to maintain a hold on either. I was swearing. A lot. Crucible is not for me, and there wasn't enough in the rest of the Beta to hold my attention - something that I'm not convinced will change, thanks to the story problems mentioned above.
  
• This one's a little unfair but . . . throughout Destiny I felt like somebody had tried to expand upon Mass Effect 3's multiplayer - and that's very admirable, because that's undoubtedly the most fun I've had in a multiplayer environment. But Mass Effect has a sweeping storyline behind it which makes every fight important. Destiny just doesn't have that.
  
• And another unfair point - that soundtrack is stunning. I don't understand what happened there.

Overall
I was really hoping the beta would make me excited about Destiny again. You may say that's not the beta's job, but whose job is it? The marketing hasn't grabbed me. The company hasn't been doing a stellar PR job of late. And now the beta hasn't blown me over either.

You guys are keeping me here! I hope you're honoured. ;)