I really want to like Destiny. It seems so promising! A Sci-fi MMOish shooter:
I like sci-fi settings.
I like shooters.
I am even willing to take a tepid plunge into the MMO thing.
The core loop of Destiny, the loot loop, should appeal to me: Angband had a really similar loop, and ate many hours of my high school life.
Yet Destiny doesn’t work for me. (If you read any reviews of Destiny, this will largely be a rehash I expect)
My level 10 Warlock.
The story of Destiny, what little there is, is built on mystery. But in the time I’ve played, so little mystery has been resolved, I’m left hopeless that any of it ever will be. The lore is built up in Grimoire cards, yet, disjointed paragraphs are no substitute for narrative.
At the end of the day, my biggest complaint is that Destiny is… boring. The setting feels generic; the fact that the story and setting is so heavily punted out the game really hurts it. The levels often feel like big open spaces… with nothing filling them. Very little life.
The enemies appear in fixed positions, and seem lifeless, operating on fixed patterns. Challenge only ever comes through large numbers.
The game is beautiful, and hits the sweet spot for control between a lot of aiming help and no aiming help (in my limited experience with console shooters — though I wish they’d chosen another mapping for running). Over all I find the game feels old. Destiny feels like it was designed just before Half Life.
Multiplayer should really be this games saving grace, but, no luck.
In the campaign, there’s only one matchmaking raid per level set. This is especially terrible since Bungie has largely punted on the in-game social aspect. Not that the matchmaking raids feel any good, as there’s no impetus for real cooperation. One player races ahead, doubling back only if someone dies… if they feel interested.. maybe.
In the Crucible (PvP) the loot cycle causes huge problems. I rarely feel like I’m winning or losing on skill, instead, I feel like I’m being destroyed by items or levels. Even if this is only a matter of perception, it still taints the game for me.
I think I might be done playing Destiny for a while… It’s too bad. I want to like it so much. It reminds me of EVE Online in that sense, yet, the gaps in the game just destroy my interest.