More thoughts about the story (Destiny)

by Decom , Wednesday, September 17, 2014, 15:10 (3520 days ago) @ Cody Miller

+1 to everything you said, Cody. I'd also like to weigh in on why I think the story is such a disappointment.

The wonderfully artistic environments in Destiny almost write a story of their own and yet Bungie still wasn't able to make what they wrote feel connected to the world in any sort of cohesive manner. Or even connected to the story, itself.

When I first saw the E3 demo of going into/through the wall, I imagined that this was further into the game and was going to have significant meaning to the player. Like they would have been weak and desperate while outside the wall in the first bit of gameplay and that it was really going to be conveyed to the player how much destruction humanity had faced. I thought you'd be able to see the Traveler off in the distance (and almost always in front of you), as well as the massive wall protecting the city, and really get to feel the story.

Then you'd get to the wall and see how massive it is and then go inside and see how massive it is from that perspective, too (that one part where your ghost turns on the lights for the first time felt like it was just the beginning to the massiveness you'd get to see). And you'd work really hard to get through the wall and lay eyes on the city for the first time and see the tower and know that's where you want to go.

And this would have been just the very beginning of great game and a great, 10-year experience. I imagined many more things like this, based just on the concept art and initial tidbits Bungie fed us. I thought the story was going to help showcase the fantastic art and, in turn, the environments would help fuel a story of discovery and wonderment. I though it was going to a really good job of standing as its own game setting the franchise up for some great games/DLC/etc in the future. (I think some people are still in this "it's going to be so good over the next 10 years" phase because they haven't let the actuality of the released game set in yet.)

I never once even considered how disconnected the story, let alone the environments, would feel. It's so disconnected that it's easy for me to say that Destiny is one of the least immersive games I've ever played. And that's quite an impressive accomplishment, considering how much immersion the art alone provides, not to mention the FPS mechanics.

The game I hoped Destiny to be—the game Bungie advertised Destiny to be—had so much potential. It still wouldn't have been considered a good game if they hadn't over-advertised it, but at least the reality of Destiny would have been much more palatable. Such a disappointment.