It doesn't help that Grimoire is a UI train wreck *LONG* (Destiny)

by Jordan117 , Ala-blam!-a, Sunday, September 14, 2014, 20:15 (3521 days ago) @ Jillybean

Seriously, I've been totally baffled by the interface ever since the beta, both on a laptop and in the companion app.

You've got a big Grimoire card with tiles and progress bars and a score. Then a bunch of individual cards next to it with their own categories and progress bars and scores (and red bookmark tassles with numbers, for some reason).

But click any one and you get a different, secondary layer (Inventory, say) with a different main card with different categories and tiles and progress bars and scores.

Click one of those (Economy) and you get a third layer of cards -- this time a main card with pictures instead of tiles, no progress bars, a numerical count of cards collected out of the total (in that category, I guess? Or maybe subcategory?). But then the score on that main card is zero, even though I've found two of six.

But then, when clicking one of the two cards found (Glimmer), there's no description and it just says "Unlock this card by playing Destiny." So you have to both find the card, and unlock it? Unlock it how? And the other four cards all say "Card not yet acquired." But I have no idea how to acquire nor how to unlock these cards. Or why. Nothing is ever explained.

Desktop version adds another layer of confusion with a sidebar of "new cards," all with a score of zero. Clicking any one both removes it from the queue (or maybe activates it...?) while also diving you somewhere into the ridiculous triple-layered tarot deck interface, where you encounter a whole row of shiny cards, some colored white, some colored gold, all with +0 score. The one you clicked to get there is blank on the reverse side (bug? feature? who knows). But if you're lucky, one of the other cards will have a random snippet of context-free, in medias res lore whose depth and character in no way reflects what you see during gameplay.

Also, apparently finding/unlocking Grimoire has some kind of positive effect on your stats or weapons or something. But, like most of the rest of Destiny's abstruse and non-intuitive system of gameplay mechanics*, there is nothing to indicate this possibility in the game or on the Grimoire site, much less explain how to do it. Because having to trawl forums and read wikis just to figure out how the damn game functions is the new hotness or something.

The fact that the rich backstories which were so elegantly woven into every Bungie game from Marathon to Reach have suddenly been relegated to this absurd maze that you have to stop playing the unpausable game to read is utterly ridiculous and more than a little frustrating. That the game's story without this system is a bland mishmash of mediocre dialogue and Generic Proper Nouns is just a kick to the ribs.

* Off the top of my head, some gameplay elements whose narrative relevance and in-game function the game has yet to explain, despite the fact I've already beaten Earth, the Moon, and reached Venus: Orbs of Light. Crucible Reputation. Armor Shaders. Vanguard Marks. Spinmetal. Spirit Blooms. Reviving dead Ghosts (even though a Grimoire card said Ghost death is irreversible). What the different level icon types on the map mean. Who the player character was, why they died, how long they've been dead, why they were chosen, what they know, etc. The nature, origin, and motivations of any of the enemy factions. The nature, origin, and motivations of any of the playable factions. The nature, origin, motivations, gameplay relevance, and basic mechanics of interacting with any of the Tower factions. What the different ammo types are, what effect they have, and why you lose it all just for switching weapons. The difference between Attack and Impact. How to switch to your heavy weapon. How to contact/team up with other players. How to travel back in time and convince yourself that buying DLC for a game that hasn't been released yet is a stupid idea. At this point I'm only continuing to play to justify having bought it.

[Also, being booted from an essentially single-player campaign IS NOT FUN. Especially not towards the end of an INFINITE BULLET SPONGE BOSS FIGHT. Hasn't happened yet (the boss fight part, not the getting booted part), but I'm sure it's... in the cards. Oh ho ho.]