My Beta Thoughts and Feedback (Lots of Text) (Destiny)

by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Sunday, August 03, 2014, 18:26 (3574 days ago) @ Avateur

All the talk of skill, with almost everything that makes up a FPS being listed as requiring no skill made me wonder just what "skill" is supposed to be... In my experience, once "skill" gets involved in a conversation it becomes defined as "that thing the people who beat me don't have." That's what I felt here, at least in part. Maybe it's because Avateur's experience was so opposite to mine. I loved the slow pacing and firing rates Reach forced players to play by and was convinced that I'd dislike Destiny. By the end of the beta I was in love with the Crucible despite its faster pace.

I feel like I rarely lost, actually, and my K/D ratio was maybe negative once or twice. It's more that it felt too easy even for me to just romp all over people. I guess I was expecting more of a challenge in Crucible, and generally more challenge means more skill from my perspective. I also really enjoy Reach (it has its problems, too), and I'm very good at it, also.

Being in a groove is probably magnified by Destiny's faster kill times. It's funny, having said that, I'm not really sure Destiny plays all that much faster than Halo. In Halo 4, for instance, it's three or four quick bursts with the Battle Rifle. In Destiny I was getting kills with four (somewhat slower) shots from my Scout Rifle. Shotgun and Fusion Rifle combat felt almost exactly the same as Halo, with the Fusion Rifle taking the place of everyone's favorite gun the Bolt Shot. And sniping is still sniping. Two shots to the body or one to the head, though I probably agree it's slightly easier in Destiny. Why? Because I was getting sniper kills! (I very rarely snipe in Halo...)

Really then I think most of Destiny's speed up comes from more movement options (imagine if every Spartan could jump to the glass balcony in Sword Base!) and quicker Auto Rifle kills. It'll get even more interesting as more Supers and passive abilities are unlocked. I wonder if a team might dominate with Void Titans (with Ward of Dawn set up to provide everyone personal shields) by saving their Supers then activating them in turn to provide a group with shield buffs running a solid minute or more... kinda similar to how hard it could be to take down a team who were all smart with Armor Lock...

Hm. Cody mentioned that before, and I just never noticed a difference regardless. I wasn't sure if it was just the center, or if it was the radar as a whole. I think it needs to be more apparent.

One of my favorite moments in the Crucible was on the earth map. I'd lost somebody above me as they jumped over me as I was going (roughly) from A to C and I was prepared to lose the spin in circles game but I caught their long shadow projected onto the ground and wall (something no Halo would have done) and was able to turn the correct direction and finish them off. It doesn't have much to do with complaints about the Destiny motion tracker... but it was a bit of unique, Destiny-only, fun. :)