Destiny: The Jillybean Verdict (Destiny)

by Jillybean, Sunday, September 21, 2014, 12:37 (3759 days ago)

Before we start, a disclaimer.

Destiny is not a bad game. Bungie are not bad people. If you enjoyed Destiny, that does not make you inherently bad or in some way a loser.

But you are wrong.

I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Mostly

Less Than The Sum of Its Parts
Cody said the Destiny was less than the sum of its parts, and I almost agree. You know what game I was reminded of the most when playing Destiny? It wasn't Halo, or even Mass Effect, it was Remember Me. Nothing to do with the promising (but ultimately frustrating and repetitive) gameplay, nothing to do with the weak, confusing storyline - all to do with the fact I was really excited for both. The new IP, something different, and both disappointed me. Because that's the thing - I'm disappointed by Destiny.

The Beautiful Game
Let's start with the positives - the game is gorgeous. Unbelievably beautiful in places. Dem skyboxes, dat score, they compliment each other so well. There are moments in Destiny that evoke a resounding 'rule of cool'. Confronting the Primeval Minds in the Garden - the cocked hip and flowing longcoat on my warlock was just so awesome I had to smile. Destiny does these cool things a lot, and I find myself saying "XBox Record That" almost every cutscene (lucky for my cloud storage they are few and far between).

I really have to highlight the music again because it's so good.

There are also little gameplay elements that I love - I had killed a bunch of Fallen, leaving their Captain, somewhere on the Moon. I stalked behind him, sneaking round corners, shotgun at the ready, while he tried to find me. I loved that organic little moment. Another one, getting too close to a Legionaire while bouncing around the place and I was launched clean across the map by a backhander, but with my glide still activated it was a gentle soar that took me out of harm's way. I felt like a total badass. That stuff is all great, like I say, Destiny is not a bad game.

The Stranger
Unlike most people, it seems, I don't have much problem with Dinklage's voice acting. I think he does the best he can with the downright awful dialogue he's been given.

By encouraging me to use multiple screens while playing, Destiny screws the final nail in its own story's coffin. I've already moaned about the Grimoire, but why should I pay any attention to cringeworthy scripts when I could be watching YouTube channels on the side, or even better, reading a walkthrough so I can grind as much XP from a level as possible - what's that? A YouTube video teaching me how to farm from the Murder Cave? How wonderful. I only need to use one trigger for that, I can even write my students emails while I do so.

This kind of hints at another problem I have with Destiny - I have the wealth and ability to play this game because I'm a young professional - my little sister, still a student, needs to wait until her loan comes through. I don't have enough people to play this game with, even with all of you guys. I'm behind most of you already, and I'm still a liability even at level 20. I'm shit. Grinding will never interest me because it can't help - I just want to look cool and be entertained. Destiny doesn't really do enough of that for me.

If I'd played this five years ago, I would have written so much fic. The world has a lot of promise, but the previously alluded to story issues means it needs a lot of fixing. The thing is, I don't have the time to repair a story any more. Especially not one as broken as Destiny's. My Warlock may be the Queen's warrior concubine, but no one will ever know, and this is ironic in a world meant to be so social.

Ten Years
This is supposed to be a game we'll be playing for ten years. This game makes me feel old. I had to stop a mission (and climb up a ledge to sit out of the way in case anything spawned) to deal with a worried student via email. In theory, in ten years I'll have kids (or at the very least a number of cats). Is Destiny the game I'll be choosing to play in between school runs? I highly doubt it. This may seem like a strangely specific gripe, but it's horribly true. This game is not designed for the casual player, and the casual player gets very little from it. I feel horribly frustrated that I have the ability and lifestyle right now to play awesome games, and then I'm given something where I stand outside a cave and shoot red bars until I can by a badass longcoat.

Just a Game, Standing In Front of a Girl, Asking Her To Love It
How can Destiny win me back?

• More story, quickly and cheaply (I am not paying £15 on top of this game for a new skybox, and if that locks me out of playing with my friends, meh). Open up a library in the Tower, like I previously suggested, or just give me some way to care about any single person in there.
  
• Script writing. Dudes, if you need me to, I'll do it.
  
• Give me some way of naming and saving a gun if I've got it the way I want it. A rare Regulator Hand Cannon I'm running with right now is just EPIC and I love it.
  
• Perhaps give me an armory or something in the Tower where I can test my guns out and above all - HAVE SOMEONE EXPLAIN THESE FRICKING NUMBERS TO ME. I finished the game and I still don't know what strength or discipline is (and for fuck's sake no, I will not go and look it up elsewhere on the web. I don't give enough of a shit).
  
• Design your levels so I'm not tempted to climb that dune over there not to immediately die from the soft barrier of doom. Seriously. That is Fable level shit right there.
  

I've realised in writing my list that I have a lot of suppressed rage about Destiny. That's not fair. Mistakes happen. As I keep repeating - Destiny is not a bad game. In fact I even had fun playing it.

But it's nowhere near my top ten list :(