I agree that the Vault opening was probably the height of my "ohh baby" moments. Some notable ones are going down the hole into the Pit on Crota's End. Initiating the Crota Fight as OK the first time. Other than that not much. I think that I was rather impressed my first time around on alot of things, but I have played everything so much its lost its glammer. Halo Moments were great for me, but I never played through any of the games more than 3 times (excluding Halo: Combat evolved). So in my mind they arent "wore out".

I hope they bring more cinematic moments into the Taken King. I hope that the ghost become more than a digital scanner. And I hope the quest givers are more interactive than : go here and kill things, then come back.

I'm ashamed to admit this now, but I had that feeling the first time I watched the cutscene in the black garden mission. Specifically, when all of the enemies slowly turn and look at you.

I think you're right.

Public events definitely had that feeling the first few times, and still can when they coincide with a pack of Wolves and Urzok, or some similar mega battle.

There definitely aren't many scripted events that really stand out like there were in Halo. The very first mission sets up a very Halo like feel, then it's completely abandoned. We see the Fallen ships jump in and knock shit over, then nothing like that ever happens again. We see Fallen basically crawling out of the walls and ceilings, and then that never happens again (they're forever after just standing around waiting to die).

I think a lot of this has to do with the basic way the game is designed. Missions are far less interesting because they use mostly public spaces, so the encounters aren't very interesting. Also, I feel like less game-changing events can happen because of it's public nature. After you activate the Array in Skywatch, is it always open in Patrol? I actually don't know, as I've never looked, but I suspect it's not. Because of the public areas, they can't change things in interesting ways. They can't blow up a building during a mission, because it's in a public area, and not everyone will have done that mission, so how do they decide which state that building is in? Either way, it won't match for some set of players.

Which, I guess all that is different from you're point. You could still have some cool, "Oh, wow!" moments during missions. The Covenant Fleet filling the sky during Regret on Delta Halo comes to mind, or the Forward Unto Dawn swooping in to drop off Scorpions and Warthogs, as you said.

This kindof relates to a lot of the discussions we've had around here lately. Destiny just needs more things to happen that make you actually care about what's going on, and even simple things like these would go a long way toward keeping people (or me, at least) interested and invested in what's going on.

I think we finally get why most of us love the game, but feel it is missing something. There are no set pieces, no "this is going to be badass" moments but those were filled throughout Halo. I might be that you are part of a team, instead of a single super Solider, but we could still get that feel of, "We are going to kick some ass", "we are going to be legend", but those don't happen.

CheapLey said it well, the public spaces limit their ability to do dynamic changing items or set pieces (think hollywood style) in the game.

I too hope they can change that with TTK.

I had an OH SHIT! moment when I blew up megaton, but that's it.

I've never had a this is going to be awesome feeling, I think. In fact, I don't even remember the events about which you speak except for Level 4 from Halo. The thing with seeing forward unto dawn on the ark seems neat, though.

The segment with Breaking Benjamin was awesome, probably my favorite part of the Halo games outside of The Maw run, but I didn't get the feeling beforehand.

During the beta, Public Events were amazing. I remember doing a public event and just as I was about to lose some reinforcements showed up and we completed it. I wish public events scaled their difficult to the level of the players in the area or something so we could recapture that feeling.

What about all if you? Does Destiny already have moments like this for you? If so, which ones? What would you like to see more of in The Taken King?

I honestly think the raid is the only thing that's going to come remotely close to that. But even then, the Vault of Glass was so amazing because it was the first raid ever, and nobody knew what to expect. Nobody knew how raids worked. But now we do. It's in essence, more of the same even if it's different.

I remember the first time I saw David Copperfield in Detroit. It was insane. So much fun and so entertaining, and the tricks were spectacular. I'm not sure how I can describe to you the wonder. So when I go to the Magic Castle, and see literally some of the best magicians in the world perform, even though their tricks and showmanship are of an amazing caliber (perhaps higher), and even though the tricks are different, it wasn't the same as that night in Detroit. Because then I had no idea what to expect. I didn't know how a magic show worked. Now, I have a general sense of how magic is performed, so it's great, and it was really entertaining, but it wasn't awe inspiring…

The truth about Destiny is that bungie wanted to make the kind of highly directed crafted FPS experience that worked for an 8 hour linear experience, and believed that their excellent AI and skulls would give the game enough variety and dynamism to create something deeply repayable if people only had some carrot to go try it out.

It works... Kind of? I think when you get in a co-op game with an interesting mix of skulls, powers, and a decent challenge level those systems start to come out. But when you are running vanilla strike playlists it is just straight repetitive.

The lack of wow moments also comes from this. Spectacle loses it's effectiveness pretty rapidly, so I think Bungie tried to avoid it and favored fun encounters that could spiral into different directions. (Once again, the success is pretty mixed here).

You know the moment I'm talking about. Swooping down on to the beach at the beginning of The Silent Cartographer. Watching a pair of friendly Hunters mow down dozens of enemy Brutes as you press towards Delta Halo's control room. Seeing the Forward Unto Dawn rush down to the surface of the Arc and launch a fleet of vehicles out from its loading bay.

Those moments that Bungie is typically so good at creating. The moments where a situation is put in front of you and you say to yourself "ooooooh baby... this is gonna be good!" Moments that get the adrenaline going, and make you look forward to replaying the mission over and over.

I bring this up because it occurred to me last night that as much as I love Destiny, it has very few of these moments for me. It comes close a few times: the first couple times I experienced a Public Event, watching the gate to the Vault of Glass part open. For me, that's pretty much it.

Going in to The Taken King, this is my biggest hope. I hope the story missions and strikes have more of those "ooooh baby" moments that leave a lasting impression. I feel like they go a long way towards making each mission feel unique and special, which would help Destiny's story missions a lot.

What about all if you? Does Destiny already have moments like this for you? If so, which ones? What would you like to see more of in The Taken King?

For me, it was when we first stepped in the Endless Steps ring, Marty Music started playing, and the Gate Lord assembled in front of us. That was great.

Also, picking up the Sword of Crota for the first time and going to town on the Hive.

And lastly, when we first dropped into the Abyss, and rushed blindly into the darkness as a group, with no idea of what we were doing... Especially the epic holdout at the end of the abyss (that is now bypassed by the couple of folks on the rocks).

Good stuff, I hope TTK has more.

But I've killed most of my good memories by playing everything over and over again, as fast as possible, to try to get experience, ascendant mats, bounty stats, etc.

Thinking back... I remember the first time I unlocked my speeder bike. The archive was creepy and great. The exclusion zone was very memorable when the first cabal jumped toward me (man did I kill that memory with repetition). Killing those statues, whatever they were, at the end of the campaign was awesome. Each of the original game strikes was fantastic the first time I did them. Almost everything about the Vault and Crota was memorable. Soloing the Crota bridge and abyss on hard will be burned in my brain forever. Lamp cannon!

Nothing else in the expansions has been memorable, I think because I was already all geared up. TDB strike nightfall took about 10 minutes the first time. There were no new enemy types to figure out. Nothing unusual at all, really.

Now I have an even deeper understanding of what's lacking in my experience, and it'll make me sad. So, thanks for that. ;)

Seriously, though, you're right. My guess is that Bungie knows this, and will do more of that sort of thing in the sequel(s). Probably they'll try for it a bit in current Destiny, but my guess is that they've already done what's technically feasible.

One sub-thread went into the possibility of displaying the world differently for different players. It should be doable, at least for non-solid, non-interactive things like the array. Obviously doing it with level geometry would cause major problems, but I don't think any of that really changes anyway, other than doors opening and closing.

Opening Cinematic
Gate Lord
The last Arrary

First VoG runthrough
First abyss run through

One thing that i've noticed is that in Halo, i would methodically kill every single enemy (in some instances you had to). I played the hell outta Silent Cartographer, AOTCR, The Maw, Delta Halo, Regret, Uprising, High Charity, The Great Journey, Sierra 117, Tsavo Highway, The Ark, The Covenant and Halo. In destiny, i look for the quickest way through b/c i want to get my XP/rewards and move onto the next activity. I don't care to replay any of the missions unless there is a bounty associated with them, or i need to glimmer farm. I'd rather play End-game content and Iron Banner.

I started thinking about this and realized there are many moments that made an impression on me. Maybe not all of these are quite “Wow,” but you started me down the path of remembering, and these remain indelible.

• Joining Beorn in the Cosmodrome during the alpha (you didn’t need to go through the initial wake up sequence), and feeling like my eyes would bleed because everything looked so great.
  
• Coming through the wall the first time and seeing that flair shoot up, and hearing and seeing the Ketch pop in. (Wish I could play that again. :-()
  
• The first time I faced a Devil Walker. The first time I took one down by myself.
  
• Seeing the array unfold—that music!
  
• Lance Reddick’s intros still work for me, and one particular outro—“They always do.”
  
• The first time Sepiks Prime killed me with a proximity attack.
  
• Getting ambushed by invisibles on that “safe” balcony in the Refinery.
  
• Getting ambushed by pikes in general.
  
• Getting last second help with a Kill the Target public event is still killer.
  
• My first wolves public event (I failed). They’re tough!
  
• The first time I figured out the scorch cannon charge mechanic. They’re not so tough!
  
• The craziness that is Skywatch. Urzok the impenetrable.
  
• Taking in the scenery on the Moon and Venus for the first time. Mars less so during the day, but at night, it’s one of favorite locations.
  
• Turning on the lights for the accelerator on the moon.
  
• Unleashing the Hive. The chains breaking off the door.
  
• Killing Phogoth for the first time, when we all ran around like mad.
  
• Taking up the sword the first time. Taking up the sword for the first time in the Cosmodrome.
  
• The battle after which you retrieve the eyes. (Wish I could play that again. :-()
  
• Seeing the orbs appear in the library before the Vex materialize for the first time. First insta-death by minotaur.
  
• The way the foliage shakes as the Archive doors open, and descending that staircase. Felt similarly the first time I entered Rasputin’s bunker. The music is perfect.
  
• The entire Endless Steps battle.
  
• The first cutscene in the Reef. This was the peak of my hope for the story. (Wish I could play that again. :-()
  
• The height of the battle after which you retrieve the eyes. (Wish I could play that again. :-()
  
• The Dying Mind final battle. Maybe it’s the novelty because I’ve only played it a handful of times, but that’s in part because people always quit and I don’t want to do it alone.
  
• Unlocking the constellation map during the Black Garden story. The intro and outro to the Black Garden final battle. That music!
  
• Getting handed the Stranger’s rifle and then shooting it for the first time. It was a revelation compared the other guns I had then.
  
• Skolas’ first appearance in that first HoW story mission.
  
• Fighting my way into Draksis’ and Taniks’ ships. Always get a bit of that Truth and Reconciliation vibe.
  
• Fighting invisible vandals outside the wall.
  
• Using the drop mines on a heavy pike for the first time.
  
• Pre-HoW: breaking through the gate and revisiting our “birthplace” outside the wall. Getting to the Terminus (with the current geometry) and climbing up to the playable space. I love that actual mission, too.
  
• Most boss mechanics in the POE have impressed me.
  
• The sound design is magnificent. Once recently I was very tired and just shut my eyes for a few seconds. I realized I could tell exactly what was happening just by sound.
  
• Nearly every week I find a cave or space I haven't seen yet, which is kind of stunning at this point.
  
• Virtually every sequence of the raids provided “Wow” moments for me the first time through. I still find them exciting.
  

All in all, I think I like this game. :-)

Before I clicked I thought you might be talking about:

:p

I still love it when a Ketch flies overhead. It makes you realize how legitimately big they are. Sometimes just looking out over a landscape to the skybox does that for me as well. Destiny is such the perfect evolution of the Bungie/Halo art style. And they still make the best skyboxes ever.