But the Grimoire cards aren't in the game (Destiny)

by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Wednesday, November 05, 2014, 16:04 (3470 days ago) @ Kahzgul

Yeah, I don't think Destiny's state is the result of any one thing. Instead I think it was a combination of:

- Part trying to do something much bigger than they ever did before. Four consoles, a new much better game engine, much larger and more detailed playable spaces, and all the customizable class abilities and weapon perks. Destiny really does do a lot and does it extremely well. But maybe there was only so much that could be done well with even a ton of money and a longer development period?

- Part internal problems. Marty and Joe's leaving may have not affected things much, but maybe it did. Also, expanding to such a huge team may have hurt development a bit even as it allowed them to go bigger and better in many places. Right now I don't think Destiny suffered from a Halo 2 style development problems... the stuff that does work like core gameplay and ability balance and level design seems too strong to me for this to have happened... but then, would we have guessed that Halo 2's problems came about because it nearly crashed and burned if we hadn't been told so after the fact?

-Part trying to make a game with no central driving player characters. I wondered from the beginning at how Bungie would tell a good story when that story had to be general enough to support the existence of many heroes instead of just one or a few that every player played as. Also, even though The Master Chief was a quiet character, with Noble 6 and The Rookie being quieter still, each was clearly responsible for the story moving forward. Destiny, unfortunately, rarely acknowledges our Guardian's accomplishments and even then mostly does so after the fact through Grimoire cards.

- And, part by design. I don't think the shorter missions and fewer cutscenes are an accident or so much the result of cut content. I think Bungie was trying to build a game more friendly to both co-op play and mission repetition but took its sliming down of "distracting story" too far. Sure, we all ignored the stories of the Halos as we replayed them but perhaps removing story content for the player instead of allowing them to skip or ignore it themselves proved more controversial than they'd hoped?

I think Destiny still shows a lot of promise because its gameplay is very good and, despite problems in the story it presented, its backstory and universe are also very good. I think the question now is when will Destiny live up to what it should be? With "The Dark Below"? I don't think so. I think its release is too near to react to Destiny's criticisms. "The House of Wolves?" Maybe. I expect it to at least begin to show signs that Bungie gets the need for more front-facing story. If it doesn't... well then it's time to start worrying. Destiny 2? Hopefully. Bungie has a very strong base to build on. They "just" need to do so.