Destiny – I have some opinions

I have been bingeing on Destiny for the last week and a half. No joke. It has consumed nearly all of my free time and even time usually earmarked for sleeping. (Sleep is for the weak! Crush the Cabal!) During this time, I’ve noticed the game getting pretty heavily panned by many outlets. Is Destiny a perfect game? No. It is, however, still a lot of fun and certainly worth playing for anyone that digs MMO-style games (as well as your general FPS fans). Since I’m also a games critic (and not just an Exo Titan that can’t decide between defender and striker), I figured it was about high time I weigh in on this exceptionally entertaining AAA title.

 The good

Holy shmoly, I don’t even know where to begin with this. The game is exceptionally polished and detailed nearly to the point of being ludicrously so. (Hey Bungie, if you need a box quote, feel free to use “ludicrously polished.” You’re welcome.) The character design, both for Guardians and their foes, is downright gorgeous. The environments chosen for the initial four game areas are diverse and fun to explore. The armor design, for example, still makes me feel slightly more badass with each new upgrade without needing to cover everything in skulls and spikes. Destiny is a damn good-looking game that pulls off a sci-fi aesthetic while remaining grounded in the idea that humanity is just trying to claw its way back to dominance. And if the whole patchwork armor thing doesn’t do it for you, there are always shaders available at level 20 to give the armor palate a more uniform look.

The seemingly random (which turn out to be quite predictable) public events that spring up add spice to questing through certain areas. This is especially true when a satellite falls out of the freaking sky and annihilates me in a white-hot flash. These events are generally pretty challenging to solo even if you’re exceptionally overleveled for the area. It certainly makes life more interesting for me at level 25 when I’m scouring the early zones for spinmetal to upgrade my gear.

I do enjoy my large floating bosses with a side of rocket launcher.

I’m sure this doesn’t sound awesome, but there are several paths for grinding reputation and rewards. If you’re familiar with MMORPGs, then you probably have experience with reputation grinds to gain favor with specific factions in order to gain some kind of reward. Destiny is no different in that, but it does offer multiple avenues toward gaining rep and legendary (purple color for those familiar with the now standard quality rankings) items. PvP has multiple match types, so players can do whatever works best for them. However, I still don’t care for PvP, so I avoid the Crucible as if it were a rabid badger bearing a ‘free to good home’ sign left in front of the local liquor store.  For those of us more PvE minded, the Vanguard is the way to go. Some days I just like to go on patrol for rep; most of the time I combine that with bounties for extra bonus rep. Other days, it’s all about getting matched with random strangers and grinding level-appropriate strike playlists. And then sometimes my brother and I get ambitious and take on the weekly strike mission without a third party member.

Destiny is very accessible to the casual solo player throughout most of the game. Story missions can be pretty easily completed solo, patrols are an option, and matchmaking is available for most strike (group dungeon) options. I leveled to 20 (the max for experience) almost entirely as a solo player. Bottom line: we filthy casuals can go forth and enjoy the game without annoying the more hardcore of our brethren.

The meh

Yes, I am playing this game as if there’s nothing more important in the world, but there are some places where Destiny in its current form is just a bit flat. First among these is the story as told in the game. Nothing illustrates this better than the initial meeting between the player and the Speaker. When his speech starts out with “I could tell you about…”, it’s a great clue as to how virtually all in-game story is going to be handled. They could tell you, but they won’t. If you’re looking for lore about the Destiny universe, you’ll need to go to their website or get the companion app and read through the grimoire, which will remain incomplete until you hunt down all of the dead ghosts in the world. Honestly, it’s very clear that this is set up as the end of a chapter and not the entire story. As a result, completing the story missions didn’t feel as satisfying as I thought it should.

I generally hate (with an intense burning, supernova kind of passion) playing an FPS using a goddamn controller. Yet I’m still enjoying Destiny enough that I’m mostly willing to overlook this grievous transgression against sanity. Bungie is known for Halo, which to my understanding is the best FPS series on a console. (Disclaimer: I have never actually played Halo.) So I shouldn’t be terribly surprised that the controller scheme is done well enough that it’s only a minor inconvenience to me. Still, I can’t be entirely happy that Bungie seems to hate the PC market and somehow believes that nobody plays FPS games with a keyboard and mouse anymore.

The WTF

Did I mention that Destiny isn’t perfect? Yeah, it certainly has flaws that really should have been worked out in early testing. The chief two that bug me are the lack of a reasonable social aspect in what is clearly an MMO and the rather frustrating loot system.

My very first legendary engram! (It only got me a blue item.)

While it’s true that much of the game content can be enjoyed by a solo player, there are certain areas that require being a part of a group in order to progress. The strikes accessible on planets, the level-based strike playlist, and the PvP matches all allow for automated team matchmaking. That’s great! However, things like the weekly strike don’t have that feature. This wouldn’t be much of a problem if there was any freaking way to look for a group! I’m in good shape because I know two other people with copies of the game on Xbox One that I can group with for such content. Why Bungie would develop a game that functions like an MMO in so many ways, but completely neglects one of the most basic needs of the genre is beyond me. Players really need a way to find others that wish to take on similar content. As it stands, it feels more like a marketing ploy to make players convince their friends to buy the game so they’ll have someone to group with.

On the other hand, who needs a group when the game’s loot system is absolutely borked? The problem is that loot drops are based on player level, not the level of the enemy being gunned down. This makes rewards no better for grinding heroic strikes than they are slaughtering hordes of level 1 trash. This has led to the now infamous Cosmodrome loot cave. If anything could be described as shooting fish in a barrel, it’s this little gem. Honestly, this is exactly how I got my first legendary item. I’d been playing a bunch of strikes and getting nothing worthwhile in the missions or as post-mission rewards. Then I went and stood with three other players and mowed down hapless mooks as they tried to be a part of their pre-programmed conflict and filled my inventory to bursting. It was possibly the most boring way to spend time in Destiny, but it was also unreasonably effective. (As of yesterday’s patch, the loot cave and other spawn points like it have been removed or had their spawn timers significantly increased.) Performing well should be rewarded with cool gear, not simply standing around a bunch of people that can press the right trigger on a controller. (I’m sure the PvP crowd will wholeheartedly agree with me as well.)

Parting thoughts

Destiny isn’t a perfect game, but it’s enjoyable and compelling enough to keep me coming back every bloody day to do more bounties and grind out that Vanguard rep. Bungie has been doing a great job of putting out more content for people to dive into on a near-weekly basis since launch. Thankfully, the Queens Wrath quests actually reward people with legendary items for completing the missions. Graphics- and gameplay-wise, it’s a great feeling and handling game. Hell, it’s everything I’ve wanted Firefall to be for the last 4 years. It needs tweaks to how players find and interact with one another.  It really needs to see chapters added to the story on a regular basis. And in the name of the bloody Traveler, fix the fucking loot system.