If you've got Destiny , developer Bungie asks you to not make any snap judgments.
Bungie says players need to put a significant amount of time into the newly released game; once you reach 20 hours, it becomes a "whole different kind of game."
This is what Executive Producer Patrick O'Kelley said in a recent Xbox Wire interview :
"Twenty hours in, I think that players will find that they’ve evolved to playing a whole different kind of game than the shooter that started them off. They’ll find that they’re immersed in a different world, and are deep into the history of their characters. They’ll have built a community of other players. And, without realizing it, they’ll have learned some sophisticated mechanics that enable them to gear up and dive into a six-player cooperative raid, in pursuit of high-level exotic weapons and armor."
Prior to this, Bungie said the game really opens up after you reach Lv. 20 so if we combine the two statements, perhaps we should assume it takes about 20 hours to reach that plateau…? That's pretty quick but based on our time with the game, it seems plausible. Either way, we're not sure this is good news. Should a game only start to shine after you put in 20 hours? Or actually, after you beat the main story? If that's the case, that's a negative commentary on the campaign, is it not?
Hey, I'm not saying the game is bad. I don't agree with some of the lower review scores I've been seeing. At the same time, it has always bugged me when developers put in a campaign, tell you it's important and lengthy and then, a few months later, basically write it off and say, "eh, you'll only be impressed after you're done with the main story." I will remind everyone that I said from the start , from the instant Destiny was announced, that the campaign – which they actively and energetically promoted – would be a joke. I knew it was a shooter based on multiplayer and that's what would ultimately matter.
Yeah, well, I was right.
Related Game(s): Destiny
I have played for less than 20 hours in total and I'm at Level 20.
The game definitely doesn't get 'good' at level 20, the game is good throughout, however there are actvities that don't unlock until you reach level 20, as well as Legendary/Exotic Gear (the truly great stuff) and other things.
So to say the game doesn't get 'good' till level 20 is a total disservice. It's more like, level 20 opens the game up more. Which is exactly what Bungie said.
The story, is NOT a joke. Just because that is your opinion does not make it fact. I quite enjoyed the story personally.
You are looking at the game completely wrong, there is no 'campaign' mode. The crucible is the competitive arena. Everything in the game on the planets themselves is all based around the story of Destiny. The story missions focus on one chapter of the overall story, but even the Strike's, Raid, and the Patrol Missions are all given context within the game based on the story of Destiny. The game is based around a shared world, not 'multiplayer' or 'single player'. Those are legacy idea's which should not be applied to a game like this. Titanfall is a shooter based on multiplayer. If you want to reduce a game to something stupid like that, then Destiny is a shooter based on co-op.
Although hearing you talk about the game is making me understand why the reviews are coming in lower than expected.
The community reaction to Destiny's release has been disappointing. People are saying some really crap stuff, and why? Because they wanted it to be a different game….. How about we enjoy it for what it is. The gaming community is just one giant negativity building machine now days.
Last edited by Akuma_ on 9/14/2014 10:27:55 PM
I agree with most everything you said Akuma. The only unfortunate thing going for Destiny was the Marketing. I believe they didn't market the game right and it's battling against a pretty great game. I'm still having fun with it and will continue to look forward to the extra content and what else Bungie has in store for this title.
no Im sorry but the story is crap… considering 99% of it consist of Ghost talking during loading screens. where the character development? the learning abut why the earth is the way it is and how the other living humans are effected by it? what about learning the enemies true goal and purpose, seeing things from their perspective, finding out why theyve pretty much destroyed humanity and what they hope to accomplish, gain from it etc etc.. THATS what I call story and so far Im getting none of that.
Like someone said the "story" In this game is Like telling everyone about the lore and world of The Hobbit, so where familiar with all the areas, races, what races populate what areas, basically being a complete encyclopedia of the world and its inhabitants but not telling us about Frodo and Bilbos epic quest/journey with the ring…. THAT would be a story explaining the world and its inhabitants is lore not story, Destiny has lots of lore but no story as of now… theres a difference between lore and story please do look it up.
"You are looking at the game completely wrong"
I could argue you're doing the same thing.
The campaign and story blow. Feel free to read GameSpot, The Escapist, EGM, Polygon, or any other major source that harps on this.
The community didn't want it to be a "different game." They wanted it to be the game Bungie told them it was. And it isn't. You can love it all you want; doesn't change the facts.
Last edited by Ben Dutka PSXE on 9/15/2014 12:22:38 AM
Disclaimer I know Akuma is entitled to his opinion but I will list out the facts that people are complaining about, myself included.
Before I get to that, I will say I have been enjoying the game quite a bit, but I will explain where all the "hate" is coming from.
First off Akuma, the story has potential the lore is fantastic but 90% of the lore and story is only told to you through the grimoire, and that is a bunch of lazy crap to be frank. They could have fleshed out so much more but they chose to put it on the bungie website and you unlock more lore through grinding. If it was accessible in game that would be a bit better but considering most people wont sign up at bungie well it seems a little weird.
So overall the story does fail, whats there is alright and full of potential, but I was expecting something on the scale of Mass Effect 1s over arching story at the very least. Like others have said why don't we know the motivations of the enemies we are destroying? Sure they might add this in DLC but that is not cool, that means that with the seasons pass they have it would cost 100$ to get the full story from Destiny, which is a complete rip off.
Okay so now that that is out of the way lets get to the gameplay. Gunplay is awesome, its tight responsive all the things it should be, but Classes really don't feel that varied even post level 20, yes they are different but they lack the variety that say Borderlands classes have.
Which brings me to my biggest complaint about the game, the mission variety. There is no variety, you are either holding down a position fighting off hordes, scanning an area or collecting drops from enemies, all of the patrol missions require you to just gun enemies down which is fine but very repetitive.
Top this all off with the fact that the raids bungie is bragging about, and the drastically different game 20 hours in is nothing more than grinding out long repetitive boss fights for gear, to do what? Do it again against a reskinned boss.
Lots of loot games do this you say? True but EVERY single boss in Destiny is a bullet sponge that throws adds at you. The bosses are so boring to fight and all very similar. They need more bosses that have multiple stages requiring you to do more than just hit their critical point thousands of times. Why couldn't the enemies critical hits change? Why not have the enemies attack patterns change, maybe the enemy morphs, or the level environment changes creating more challenge?
Not to mention that for this 30 minute boring boss grind you get very small rewards, some vanguard or faction points some gear if you are lucky, and then you have to do it all again. Like I said I wouldn't mind grinding if the bosses were really fun and challenging and not just repetitive bullet sponges.
Nope none of that, just bullet sponges.
These are the reasons people are pissed off about the game. Now all of that being said I actually like the game. It reminds me of a game on the PC called Killing Floor, which was a budget horde style co op game. I played that game for years.
If bungie does a lot of cool free updates, public events, holiday events and adds more variety in patches for free I will be happy but if the game stayed in its current state it is a 7 or an 8 at most.
TL:DR
Story had potential but failed, lore/world is amazing. Gameplay as far as the gunplay goes is awesome, strike bosses are boring bullet sponges with no variety in boss patterns. Mission variety is also very limited, no stealth missions, escort missions, escape missions etc.
7/10 maybe 8/10 in its current state.
Last edited by xenris on 9/14/2014 11:54:06 PM
I mean dont get me wrong the game is FUN I easily would give it an 8 but as far as story goes the way Bungie talked I expected better, Maybe no mass effect quality but at least Halo quality (which I cant really speak for as Ive never played the games and only read the novels which I loved to death).. I men heck ANY glimmer of a story woulda been good enough fo me even if it was Syfy Sharknado worthy Id at least say they tried (and failed) which is better than failing without trying at all….. lets hope Bungie learns from the sub par reviews and if they don downright kill the franchise at least learn from its mistakes if they want this quadrilogy to be anything more than just a fun shooter for ppl on Sony consoles who never got to experience Halo
Ben, he said he enjoys the story personally. He doesn't care what GameSpot, the escapist, or emg and polygon think…
I especially don't care what Polygon thinks. I'd take a dump on that site if I could.
@Xenris
Yeah I agree about the Grimoire thing. There is a tonne of lore in the Grimoire cards, which is great, but I wonder how many people bothered to even find out what they are.
I get your points, they are all valid. I guess those things just don't bother me.
Also I always have the thought in the back of my mind "This is a new IP". I can't remember any other new IP that started out perfectly. AC2 is widely considered the best in the series, while AC1 was labeled a repetitive snoozefest, so I'm excited for the future.
I guess I'm just more forgiving than others.
But yeah, Bungie has said that there will be new content in upcoming updates, there is also the first expansion in December and there will also be events (which seem weekly since we have 4 scheduled for September). So the outlook is good.
@duomaxwell007
No thanks, I would prefer that Bungie ignore the critical reviews and focus on user feedback.
Thinking about it. I guess the thing about the Grimoire cards is that it kind of falls into the vision they had for Destiny.
Destiny was all about your own personal story. You create your story. They don't try to explain everything, they let you discover it yourself. This is the same for many of the worlds. There are many locations in the world where you find them and you're like "woah what is this place". In other games you'd get a full on explanation as to what is going on, who is doing what and why, but in Destiny they leave it up to your imagination.
Before the game released Bungie spoke about how much they enjoyed watching people come up with their own ideas and theories about the game and locations in it, and that was part of their vision.
In terms of that, they succeeded in their vision. Destiny is exactly that. However, it seems as though the gaming community has completely missed that, and has expected another game just like every other one, where the story is explained in detail and everything is handed to you on a silver plate. Like I said, the community wanted it to be something different, instead of figuring out what it is.
Even the loot system fits with that vision, instead of making it clear cut how to get items, most of the best gear is received by looting from enemies or rewarded for doing/completing something.
You say "People wanted it to be the game that Bungie told them it was". But that's the thing, the game is exactly what Bungie said it was. Gamers are the ones who had the wrong idea. They seen the game, played the Alpha/Beta, they formed their OWN opinons on what the game is, then they expected their opinions to be correct. Surprise surprise, many of those people were wrong.
Last edited by Akuma_ on 9/15/2014 2:16:30 AM
Sounds like how a bunch of the story in FFXIII was told through the archives…
Yeah, that's extremely lazy and disappointing.
Sorry if my reply post came off as aggressive it was late when I posted it.
I was really trying to emphasize that I like playing the game it is fun the core gameplay is fun, I just really hope they step it up and do more with the boss fights, strikes, patrols, and raids.
I get your point about the lore and what they wanted Destinys story to be but I dunno I still think its a bit lazy. Its a cool concept and they tried it out, but I think you need to give us some idea in game why these enemies are trying to destroy humanity and what their beef is with the traveler.
My hope is that they do a lot of free updates like most MMOs do with their games. WoW had a lot of expansions but they also had a TON of "free" updates throughout the years that added a lot to the game.
Its on them to deliver, for me I'm going to be optimistic and wait and see.
except with FFXIII there was enough story ingame that even without reading one archive I felt like i could follow the story well enough to have some idea what was going on also if i actually wanted to read the archives they were included in game I didnt have to go to some random website to see it
Xenris, I agree that the non-strike mission bosses are plain and boring bulletsponges. But the two bosses from the strike missions I've played require good teamwork and tactical knowledge. The moon strike mission boss session was great. I was lvl 14. Another guy was 14 and we had a 13.
Between the 3 of us it required good team work and it was fun. Yes, the boss was a sponge but he was deadly and so too where is helpers.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 9/15/2014 2:21:13 PM
"The campaign and story blow. Feel free to read GameSpot, The Escapist, EGM, Polygon, or any other major source that harps on this."
What a backward thing to do, base your opinion on another critics opinion and state this as the basis on why you think the story blows. I wonder have you played Titanfall? One of the most overly hyped games of this year that absolutely had no campaign or story what so ever and was 60 bucks and still is? I'm going to hope as a gamer you have, but judging from this comment you haven't.
I'm not going to say Destiny has an amazing story at all, The Last of Us takes that from many, but it has a story that is coherent compared to Titanfall, which is another shooter/multiplayer experience. I don't want to hear about how it was so good, because honestly the game should have been 25 bucks and a digital download at best. Destiny has much more content and excels in that. I'm sure we'd both agree.
I don't understand critics or gamers these days. Want something new, cry and moan, but we'll be willing to hop all over crap (ie Titanfall) any day of the week. Give me a break. I haven't trusted a critics opinion or review score since the droves of them gave Titanfall high 9's and perfect 10's.
"Destiny was all about your own personal story. You create your story. They don't try to explain everything, they let you discover it yourself."
That has ALWAYS been crap. It's a lame-ass excuse for developers not to actually write a story, and that's it. It's a way for designers to completely bypass any character development and the forming of any real plot arcs.
It's like trying to say The Elder Scrolls or such games tell this amazing story. They don't. They focus on the open-world aspect and that's it. They provide a ton of lore (most of which nobody reads) but it's not tied together in any way, and the character is meaningless because you can create him or her from scratch (and if the writers don't know what you're going to create, how can they write for that character?).
You can ignore every aspect of storytelling by saying "make your own story." I've never bought into it, nor will I support it.
I agree completely Ben same with Demon And Dark Souls the story is crappy/non existant… but at least their fun to play.. I just pray they make a souls game with an actual narrative…. but I guess on Ubisoft, Bioware, Rockstar and JRPGs try to do that anymore
And games like Elder Scrolls and Souls series sell, care to give insight as to why? I know why I buy them, just curious to see what you'll pull out of that hat this time.
I buy souls because theyre FUN TO PLAY lol. Definitely not for their story (or lack there of) running around not knowing when youre gonna get invaded keeps you on edge all day not to mention the non players that can kill you, then when you DO get invaded you pray he doesnt find you before you finish the mission and if he does you hope you can beat em, seeing messages others left behind, a level boss thats actually anoher player etc etc if it werent for the online Aspect of souls Id call it not so great either…. i tried playing that without being logged in and wasd bored to tears.
So while dark souls is crap in story but fun to play Destiny also has the "fun to plsy" part nailed… the difference between the two is Dark/Demon souls never boasted/claimed to have an epic story, it also never got tons or hype, talked about it 500million budget and how ist the best preordered game ever. Destiny did all that yet theers no sign of this "epic story" they claimed to have and as for all the hype this game shouldnt have less than a 9 on ANY site (and before you say "someone somewhere would find a reason to give it less than a 9" I then say ok show me a CoD or GTAV review at any popular well known site that isnt a user review that has less than a 9?) yet not only did it get less than a 9 ay PLENTY of places its gotta as low as 6s and 7s…. thats pretty bad
@Duo
Nah I wouldn't argue against your feelings on Dark Souls or the Souls series for that matter. My personal opinion on those games are that they are pretty boring. No story and not great game play leave them pretty empty for me. Now that is my personal opinion on those games. I know a lot of folks who find them entertaining and amazing. I just don't follow. I typically don't follow hype for things as I know better anyway, Aliens Colonial Marines comes to mind.
So when I went into Destiny I went in blind for the most part only having played the Beta. I knew what I was going to get and I enjoyed it. There is no wrong or right when it comes to someones personal enjoyment of anything. So we should cut the facts out of it. Cause there are none. Just opinions. It's all it is.
@Temjin I think the moon boss felt like a bullet sponge because on of my members left…so it was me and another guy and it took forever and I was over leveled too.
I didn't think he required too much strategy I just ran around the arena in a circle killed the adds and shot him when I could. It was intense because he was dangerous but I wish there was a little more to the fight like the boss got different attacks or something.
I'm looking forward to trying some more of the strike missions to see if any boss can give me what I want 🙂
@Duo and Dismael
I actually like the story in dark and demon souls. You are a character in this crazy world and while you don't speak I feel like those are true roleplaying games.
Its a shame dismael doesn't like dark souls, I find the games immensely fun but I can see the slower combat being a turn off.
Xenris, I just did the Venus strike mission. I didn't think that boss was better than the Moon's. So you'll be out of luck there too 😉
20 hours. So that's what a week of playing to get into it? People can't give a game a week?
Are you serious? What are all the COD fanboys going to do?
They can't enjoy a game if they can't prestige in the first 24 hours.
😉
I respect your point but 3 hours a day? I can dream.
Cant care less about reviews/opinions, loving the game, its everything i expected it to be
Precisely. Who cares about reviews and stuff when way more than a few hundred thousand people are enjoying the game.
Meh. Sonuds like more fluff from Bungie. Polished to the nines and enjoyable but the game is way too repetitive and stuck in boring go here, fight wave of enemies then repeat again and again and again. The story is just not good on any level. No personality, just spewing a bunch of names of things. Having alot of things with fanfiction level names does not make it awesome. and just because Lance Reddick or Shoreh Aghdashloo give me a lame excuse to go and kill the same respawning enemies over and over again does not mean that Patrol mission are building a rich tapestry that is Destiny. Give me a break If the idea of a shared world is the reason why Bungie kept everything so vanilla there should be a disclaimer for the lactose intolerant, then it was a bad decision. The shared world is too disjointed. You cant even finish a mission then opt to explore, you are automatically ripped back into space never to see anyone in that world you just left again. .
Sorry this is a huge cop out. This is to try and keep people's interest up. What they tried to do is give it the illusion that there is more to do after that point, much like Borderlands DOES, but it just isn't true.
They've done a good job creating illusions thus far though. Making us believe this was some huge open world, when in reality it's a bunch of hubs where you cant explore without winding up where the missions would take you anyways.
But this whole thing about the game opening up after 20 hours is just crazy. I mean the campaign is short for this MMO type structure, the side missions are redundant and nothing to hold the game up after that lvl 20 or 20 hour mark. The raids sound amazing but trying to tell me that I'll have learned the "sophisticated mechanics that allow me to gear up" to play these raids doesn't change the fact that the game is still pretty empty.
Regardless the game is fun I just wish it had more, because I'm going to finish the story and only come back for crucible (which has balancing issues and annoyances in its own) and those occasional raids.
Last edited by bigrailer19 on 9/15/2014 1:51:31 AM
Are you playing the game? Have you reached level 20?
I achieved level 20 last night, and a whole bunch of new things opened up for me.
Heroic Modifier.
Motes of light.
Exotic gear.
Legendary gear.
Armor Shaders.
Strike Playlist.
Nightfall Strikes.
Raid.
That's just what I can think of off the top of my head.
Last edited by Akuma_ on 9/15/2014 1:56:44 AM
Am I playing the game? Really? I wouldn't sit here and discuss it if I wasn't.
The strike Playlist is something I like because as I've said the strike missions and story are the only thing keeping me playing this game. But even they are terribly repetitive with no structure or variances, just shoot the big boss a million times. They are empty shells with only a surface to scratch, but nothing beyond that.
As far as legendary gear goes. Or any gear for that matter, it's completely useless unless the game has something to offer. I myself don't don't care for the gear outside the story or strike missions – which are easy to complete before you hit 20 – anyways so what good is the gear except for the occasional raid? While it's helpful to play the game it's hardly a point of interest when compared to a game like Borderlands where gear had a huge impact on he way the game is played.
Aside from that those things you mentioned don't open up a game. When I hear at level 20 the game really opens up I think of more story, or newer missions, and more depth, and certainly more rewarding experiences.
But let me reiterate I'm not calling the game a failure. It's good, I am enjoying it, mostly because it's a game I can play with friends and it is super solid gameplay wise. But this game from what I understand was supposed to be full of depth, story and things to do. But what I am playing is a game that in reality is empty. Empty of things that make games like this great!
Last edited by bigrailer19 on 9/15/2014 2:39:28 AM
Yeah Akuma except all those things you mentioned consist of fighting the same bullet sponge bosses that have the same gameplay mechanics (i.e none) just different skin.. the only difference between those and a story boss is they take longer to die…… make the battles more dynamic…. you can use the same strategy on every strike nightfall and raid boss…. play an MMORPG and try to fight one raid boss the same way you fought and killed another…. I guarantee you youll die…. a lot
The funny thing about the 'MMO' thing, is that Bungie specifically said while it may have some similarities, it was never built as an MMO.
It was the gamers themselves who labeled it an MMO, then said it was a bad MMO….. lol
It's like me eating a beef sandwich and saying "this tastes like very bad chicken sandwich".
Let's be honest this game struggles to find its own identity. Whether they called it an MMO or not what they said it included, lead consumers to believe it's size and scope would be similar to an MMO. So we can debate what it is all day but in the end, what was said to be delivered, didn't arrive.
Another problem is that they keep advertising "explore the solar system". There's only 3 planets and a moon. And even those are limited in terms of exploration. There is no real "destiny" involved. Everyone follows the SAME path. Yeah there is the ability to differentiate in look and weapons but by that logic, I'm forging a destinyin Call of Duty. And maybe, that's the issue. Bungie's arrogance and belief that they are doing something so special even though it isnt new.
Hahahaha KidPresentable.
I've never seen anyone pick a part advertising or the name of a game as much as you just did. Well done sir.
Considering customer sales pay these guys wages, people who have spent their hard-earned on this should expect to be entertained with the game from the outset, not 20 hours later. The games a turd & Bungie are trying their worst to fan the stench by saying to those that have purchased it, "stick with it lads, it only gets better the more you grind". Average game confirmed from that dodgy comment alone.
No wonder the PC nerds are laughing about Destiny. Bungie, stick with Halo…
that wasn't hard to see coming honestly i thought it would get 50/50 reviews. yeah i think the community was over reacting to this though honestly it deosn't seem like its that bad but then it also seems like its just not for everyone which is to be expected every game that every comes out deosn't appeal to every one thats just a fact of life. cos i know certainly all games certainly do not appeal to me
happy gaming
I calculated the true unweighted average on Metacritic. Basically the average that doesn't make Gamespot's or Polygon's score worth more than say Ben's.
Of 31 critics it weighs in at just over 77 percent
EDIT: and we should all remember it was Gamespot and Polygon that kept The Last of Us from being as high as it should've been.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 9/15/2014 12:07:51 PM
It also has a fairly even distribution of scores. I don't see any outliers.
btw I feel the game is in the midst of an identity crisis. It reminds me of Rage (some guys nailed it for it's story or lack of RPG depth). It clicked for some. It missed for others. Hard arguments can be made solely based on your perspective from how other sole genre games compare to it. It's one of those hybrid things that is hard to define and easy to praise or hammer based on your expectations.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 9/15/2014 1:13:03 PM
They never said that the game only shines after 20 hours, just that it's a different game in respect to immersion. Sad when a website has to distort things to get more hits.
I think they're just saying that once you power through the main campaign there's still more to do. It's a way of circumventing Gamestop's $40 trade-in promo for it.
One game comes to mind as something more overly hyped and trashy compared to this game.
Titanfall.
I suppose the world forgot about that one eh?
Nope. Titanfall was more hyped as an Xbox One system seller with mega sales, but the game itself was always known as high speed pvp with a few great ideas put in. Respawn nor EA never hyped it as the second coming which is which is why critically the backlash was not nearly as bad as Destiny or Watchdogs. Out of the three, Titanfall is exactly as advertised, whether you like it or not, whether you've actually played it or not, is on you.
Last edited by n/a on 9/15/2014 8:25:33 PM
Yes I own it on PC, and it got its backlash, lackluster sales.
of course. everyone has a gaming pc now. titanfall didn't get backlash. it's got an 87 on metacritic. sales weren't lackluster just not as much as they were hyped to be.
Of course everyone should have a gaming PC. I'm first and foremost a console gamer. Preferably Playstation brand, but there are games obviously that don't release on that platform that I won't buy a Xbox for and well that is where my PC comes into play. 🙂 I don't care for Metacritic scores, the main thing is the game came and went like the wind and it sold lack luster compared to a lot games in it's genre. Yes Microsoft did push it for the Xbox, but that doesn't mean the game didn't garner a lot of hype during it's E3 presentations and what not. I remember everyone going nuts over how awesome the game was going to be because you could pilot big mechs and double jump etc etc. It was going to redefine FPS games. Heh, boy were they wrong. It was a multiplayer fest with no campaign and the whole package lasted a few hours. What a let down.
I never was able to read ANY of the reviews, or even early feedback on the game. The first time I fired up Destiny, was the first time I ever seen it, and 'heard' anything about it.
It was an awesome experience for me.
Seeing some of the reviews now, and reading up on how Bungie marketed the game, however, I might not have had as much fun then if I had seen and heard how Bungie, as well as the gaming community in general, was talking about this uber revolutionary MMOG that is Destiny.
Glad I didn't get "hyped" up about the game. I'm enjoying every bit of it now.
I never followed the hype either, so I had no high expectations going in, which is why I enjoy it, fact, at least where I'm concerned.
This is the greatest FPS ever made.