Here, let me show the difference between a bad game and a disappointing one.
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Year: 2014
Played on: Xbox One
Also on: PS3, PS4, Xbox 360
Developer: Bungie
Publisher: Activision
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ME AND MY F@#KING GUN
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Date posted: November 9, 2017
PREMISE
NOTE: MOST OF THIS REVIEW IS BASED ON THE “VANILLA” VERSION OF DESTINY. NONE OF THE DLC IS COVERED- IT IS THE VERSION THAT WAS AVAILABLE AT LAUNCH.
So your a pretty big company, now! You started off making unrated gems likes the Marathon series of games and the Myth, and went on to make one of the most influential shooters of all time- Fugitive Hunter: War on Terror! I mean, the Halo franchise. (Sorry, I get my 6th gen shooters confused sometimes.) So what do you do afterwards? If you say make another Halo sequel, no. How about you blow 500 million dollars on a new franchise? One with robots, and explosions! Yeah, everyone likes those things! We have 500 million lying around- lets do it!
Destiny is the brainchild from Bungie and Activision- two companies who either innovated or completely screwed first-person shooters, depending who you ask. It is, of course, a first-person shooter that takes place in the far, far, far future. You play as a guy who has been awoken by this giant jawbreaker in the sky called the Traveler, who insists you become a guardian, someone who protects said Traveler, and the “light”. You then go around to different planets doing very tasks, along with other players, as the game is very multiplayer centric- in fact, you could call it a lite-MMO, or as Bungie called it, a “shared world shooter”. Funnily enough, this is kind of the game’s biggest problem, but I’ll get to that later.
The hype for this game was insurmountable! You could not go anywhere, gaming related at least, to see someone or something talking about this game! With a budget of 500 million, its no surprise you couldn’t! Also unsurprising, that my cousin, who was 12 at the time, used his hard-earned birthday money to buy a copy of the vanilla version. Boy, was he ever disappointed…
Don’t get me wrong. Destiny, is not a bad game at all. However, given the budget, the developers behind it, and the hype surronding it, Destiny should of been a better game. Instead, we get a loot-treadmill of sorts with end and post-game content that is the definition of insanity- doing the same things over and over again, and thinking, somehow the game is going to reward you.
PROS
There is a lot of good things to say about Destiny actually! First off, the game looks great, especailly for an early XboxOne and PS4 title. It was one of the few games that actually looked “Next-gen” so to speak. This is backed up by its retro-future aesthetic that is clean and polished. A lot of the enemy designs are pretty cool as well, especially the Vex and Hive, the former being cold and mechanical robots while the latter feels demonic and doom-like.(The game, not the concept)
Next good thing is the gun-play. Its from Bungie, so you know they handled the gun-play well. Everything in the game feels fantastic to use- you got assault rifles, laser weapons, shotguns, hand cannons- all have great feedback and are solid as f@#k. Adding to this the “bloodless carnage’- you can pop enemies heads like cherry tomatoes, and watch their souls escape from their bodies- makes Destiny’s gunplay extremely satisfying.
The music of this game is also worth noting- the Halo composer, Martin O Donnell and Michael Salvatori did an excellent job. I don’t think there is one piece of bad composition in this entire game! Shame what happened to him…
So your looking at this saying “Wow! How could this game be a disappointment?” Well, strap in my friend, where in for a bumpy ride!
CONS
From the get go, you could tell that something was wrong. It seemed, that Bungie, or Activision had been leading gamers on. You see, there were a lot of things missing it seemed, from the vanilla release of Destiny. Many people actually found unused cutscenes from previous trailers as such that are simply not in the game. Well, that was until more DLC came out, anyway.
Truth be told, Activision did not sell players a full experience. Instead, they sold him a sort of “try-me” version. Afterwards, you could be the expansions if you wanted to more. In other words, early adopters got the shaft-if you wanted more Destiny, you were going to have to pay for it! This graph, which shows only the story missions for all of Destiny and its expansions, shows just how little content the base game had.
In the simplest of terms, Vanilla Destiny in a incomplete game, where in order to get the full experience, you had to pay for it. That means that if you bought the game for $60, you would eventually have to pay anywhere from $40-$60 more, meaning you pay at least $100 for the full experience. And no, that doesn’t come with a “Happy Ending”.
Thankfully, you can get what is pretty much a “GOTY” Edition of the game for a mere 30 to 40 bucks, but makes sure to buy a new copy- its just vanilla Destiny with a download code. God, I hate when game companies do that shit!
The worst part about Destiny, for me anyway, it the post game content. You see, the devs expected you to run though the same missions again and again so you could get some meta-currency and upgrade materials. This meant you had to play a lot of content over and over again, just so you can get one piece of armor that gave you slightly better stats. It just didn’t feel worth it. Why get better armor, if all you could do was do the same missions over in over, unless, you know, you ponied up more dosh for a change of scenery?
I guess I’m just tired of DLC and Microtransactions and such. What ever happened to just buying a game and getting the full experience? Why do I have to feel like waiting for a “GOTY” Edition to come out, so I can get my money’s worth. I ask myself what happened to the game industry, but that much is apparent to anyone anymore. Greed, plain and simple.
Back to the game once again- The story also took a hit. You have characters who tell you they have no time to explain the lore or whats happening! You build this interesting sci-fi world, and you put all the lore into stupid little cards to read offline? Are you kidding me? Imagine if Tolkien decided that all of LOTR’s lore could only be read on his blog. I feel this is exactly what this grimoire card shit is!
Regarding gameplay, some have issue with the repetitive mission structure as well. You’ll find yourself going to something mechanical, have your ghost scan, and then you’ll have to protect in an arena style bout. Since the gunplay is so good, I really didn’t think it was that bad, but you know, to each his own.
There. I think I covered just about everything disappointing about this game.
FINAL VERDICT
Destiny is not a bad game, but for early adopters like me, it was certainly disappointing! Even after all the patches and DLC, it still has its problems. Hopefully, most of these will be fixed when I play Destiny 2, but from what I heard, its the same old story, same old song and dance, my friend!
If you want to experience Destiny, then get the latest version, new. Used copies of the vanilla version go for dirt cheap, but keep in mind that you are NOT getting the full experience! Hopefully, you are not as disappointed I was when I played it. The Destiny experience is just “Okay” as a whole.
Agree? Disagree? Good! Leave a comment about how terrible my taste is in the comments below!
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