Initially I wanted to make a post about Destiny a lot earlier but I have been caught up… in playing Destiny. And school. Been pretty much busy these whole time that any free time I get I rather use it to sleep.
It is your DESTINY
Anyway about Destiny, I am loving this game very much and I cannot exactly pinpoint why. Maybe it is the fact that it is addicting to try to get better gear, the interaction between other players, the challenge of harder missions or strikes. Or maybe it is just simply because the gameplay is very fun.
The main problem that I love the game DESPITE the fact that it has quite a number of very obvious faults.
First of all, the post-cap leveling system. How the leveling works in this game is that after a soft level cap of 20, leveling up beyond that requires gear with “light” in them to contribute to being higher level.
At first I thought this was fine, because it just serves as a method of allowing having a minimum gear rating for certain activities. Once I learned that the only way to get to level 30 was via raid gear, and that as of this writing there is only one raid gear, I realized that everyone in a particular class will look pretty much the same.
Initially I thought there would be a problem with the drop system being completely random. Sure there will be frustration that that guy who did not get a single kill at all in a multiplayer somehow managed to get a high rarity item for completing a PvP game while everyone else gets nothing, but I now feel it is just the case of these kind of situation being noticeable. At least you will not see an extremely lucky person rocking full rarity gear as you are limited to equipping only one exotic (highest rarity in the game) weapon and one armor piece.
When you do get an exotic (highest rarity) item though, it feels awesome. The guns generally looks awesome too
I also thought that tying level progression to pure random chance of getting the loot is a bad idea. It is. But there is a sure way to get to at least level 29 without relying on pure luck via the marks or tokens you can get in game for completely activities. If you managed to split your time between PvP and PvE, you can easily get to level 25 in two weeks. Upgrade these equipment further, and you can get level 27 without spending any valuable materials. That is a level above the required level for the raid in the game.
Not to mention every weekend there is a special vendor that sells the highest rarity items that give more light than usual. Upgrade these armor and you will get to level 29, good for the hard mode of the raid.
Xur is our lord as savior. Looks freaky though with those… things coming out from his face.
So is the random factor of this game bad? Maybe. But can it be mitigated almost completely? Definitely. Although getting to level 30 itself is a bitch as that relies on your luck of getting raid gear.
The one thing everyone can agree on that was bad though is the story, or lack thereof. This game has at least a decent or even good lore, but the story consists of mainly “Oh this just happen to happen so lets make this happen without knowing why the thing happened happens!”. (The word “happen” is starting to look strange now)
Characters pretty much go “I could tell you but… naaaah.” It gets so frustrating that the only reason someone should go through the story is to get to max level fast or get that weapon you receive for completing the story, which is at least decent for PvP but useless in PvE.
Looks awesome though
Talking about PvP, there are only 4 game modes and a few that is available every few weeks or so. For the 4 game modes have control, which is similar to Battlefield’s conquest, 6v6 Deathmatch, 3v3 Deathmatch and FFA Deathmatch.
As you can see there isn’t much variety here.
This game overall is one big wasted potential, but in the end, once you try the Raid, it somehow feels worth it. In contrast with the 3 player cooperative Strikes which usually have you defending against 3 waves of enemies and defeating a boss for each mission, the 6 player Raid actually feels unique and actually relies on teamwork to succeed. Too bad there is only one right now in the game, but another one is coming this December, although as a paid DLC.
In the end, the gameplay alone is enough for me to recommend someone to get the game but not at the full price as it is now. Maybe wait for a price drop or pick up a used copy, and you will have a very fun time in this game.
I personally have played this game for at least 170 hours.
Signing off
-Amir
PresidentPikachu 