Thom Yorke

Haven't seen any mentions of Destiny. Anyone playing it?

I've been playing it a lot over the past few days and man, is it ever a polarizing game. I almost feel like there's more negative aspects than positive aspects, but there's still something so compelling about it that you keep going back to it. I'll give my thoughts on it on the PS4, which includes very insignificant spoilers.



First, the negatives:

- Horrendous story. There is honestly nothing interesting or unique about the story whatsoever, and it's all incredibly generic. You'll almost find yourself tuning it out after a while. The writing goes hand-in-hand with this. Whether it's during the very infrequent cutscenes or just hearing your ghost (your companion, similar to a Navi from OoT) talk to you during missions, everything is very generic, and the banter between your character and your ghost (voiced by Peter Dinklage, AKA Tyrion from Game of Thrones) is cringeworthy.

- Repetitive mission structures. Literally every mission is: fight through a ton of enemies to get to some alien computer; have your ghost hack the computer while you defend yourself against a massive wave of enemies; mission concludes with your ghost revealing to you some generic info about alien activity that will get you to your next mission of the same structure. The only change-up is that sometimes you'll have to fight a boss instead of hacking into some mainframe.

- "Small" Environments. At this point, I've unlocked 3 planets (Earth, Moon and Venus) and I actually don't think there are many more to unlock after that (although I believe they'll be updating it with more). Each planet looks beautiful, and is a decent size (although not really that big), but all the missions you do will have you going through very similar paths, and there doesn't seem to be that much to do in terms of side quests and exploring.

I think there's almost direct comparison to The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, if anyone who hasn't played wants something as a frame of reference in terms of a "feel" to the world. The hub/homeworld looks beautiful and has a ton of potential, but there isn't much to do there. And the different planets/regions are all unique from one another, but there's a ton of backtracking, not much to do for exploration, and it all feels very segregated, almost like it's not part of one big world, but different levels scattered throughout something that doesn't feel connected at all.

- Linear upgrade system, at least at the start. I can't say I fully understand the upgrade system yet, but outside of choosing a class at the start, there doesn't seem to be much differentiation between how players upgrade their characters at the start. The rewards are the same for all the missions for everyone, and there aren't many options for how you progress through the main quest (at most the'll give you 2 or 3 options for which "level" you want to do.). While there are a ton of weapons you can get as rewards, not much differs between them other than how much damage they do. There's still a lot of different "types" of guns (auto rifles, sniper rifles, pulse rifles, shotguns, rocket launchers, etc.), but it's not like you'll feel like you're getting a really unique item whenever you unlock something than something like, say, Skyrim makes you feel. I believe items like that exist in this game, but I haven't come across it yet.

- Diversity among vehicles. While I like the driving mechanics, there only seems to be one hovercraft vehicle in the game and nothing else. I thought there was a ton of potential for vehicles in this game, but it doesn't look like they're close to fully realizing that potential.

The positives:

- The gameplay is unbelievably satisfying. The controls are so damn responsive and it's just a blast to play. The different types of guns all have unique feels and attributes, and the jet boost mechanic you use to get around is a fantastic addition. Everything works seamlessly, whether it's switching between weapons, aiming, using grenades, or using your special ability. The point system that is used to assess how much damage you're doing keeps things interesting and makes facing stronger enemies something of a chess match to find their weaknesses. I have also never experienced any type of lag when playing, which adds to it.

It's also fairly difficult. You always have a lot of enemies coming at you at once, and a lot of those enemies take on a lot of damage; you realize pretty quickly that you should probably get really good at aiming for the head. You take on damage very easily yourself, and, while it's usually easy to get away when you're almost dead, it always keeps things exciting. While the AI isn't anything special, I think the amount of enemies you have to fight and the amount of damage they can absorb sort of makes up for it.

- Enemies. The diversity of enemies you have to fight is pretty incredible, and that goes for both your average grunts, and the boss-level enemies. It isn't just, "Oh, this thing is just the same as the other enemy except it can take more damage." While the enemies work on a level-based system so you do get that differentiation between the same types of enemies, there are SO many different types of lower-level enemies and all of them have their different abilities. You're constantly discovering different types of these enemies as you go as well. As for "bosses", a lot of them are very unique and the designs are really cool. They'll spring out of nowhere and you wonder "How the hell am I going to fight this thing?" I don't know why I'm comparing this to Skyrim, but this is something that was seriously lacking in that game, and something Destiny knocks out of the park.

- Co-op. It is really entertaining to play with other people, especially if you're mic'd. Not only is it great to work with other people when you're in some of the massive fights (communicating what enemies to focus on, when you're low on health so you don't both die at the same time, deciding if you should risk reviving your partners, trying to figure out the stronger enemies' weaknesses, etc.), but it gets so competitive between the team-members seeing who can get the most kills, or who can be the one to finally bring down some of the bigger enemies.

Also, the structure of how you can join and leave team-members is great. Moving between different teams, meeting new people to play with, and deciding to just go out alone if you want to is all very fluid and intuitive.

- Multiplayer. I have played very little multiplayer, but I still know that I do/will really like it. While you can still get some enjoyment out of playing it at a lower level, you basically have to be a higher level to really succeed. They actually don't let you play it until you're level 5, and when you decide to jump in for the first time, you'll be shocked at the pace and how overwhelmed you'll get. I've only played one type (sort of like capture the flag), but I know there are different modes you can do. The maps actually seem quite small, but that's a good thing as everything becomes so much faster.

- The feeling of wanting to progress. While I mentioned before that progressions feels sort of linear at the start, you still feel a need to really want to advance and progress your character. Everything is quantifiable and basically all of your equipment can be progressed. The competitive nature of the game also makes you want to keep going (everyone's level is posted above their character, and I mentioned before about how multiplayer works).

- Atmosphere. Despite lacking a compelling story and exploration, the environments look ****ing beautiful and usually have a really creepy atmosphere. The designs of some of the massive monolithic spaceships/structures look incredible, and both the outdoor and indoor level design is quite good. It can evoke a shocking amount of emotions for a game that has such a bland story and lacks things to explore.



Overall, I'd recommend it. It doesn't completely live up to the hype/promise, but it's entertaining as hell, and a blast to play.