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#feedback

Edited by Calris: 12/21/2014 4:01:08 AM
155

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, and Why I Quit Destiny

I would like to share my thoughts on Destiny and why, ultimately, I decided to stop playing... I really enjoyed Destiny - a lot. It was the only game that was able to pull me away from Dark Souls after only a few hours of play. The graphics are sublime, the combat system is smooth, inventory management is a breeze, and the leveling system for the character and equipment felt very rewarding - it was worth investing time because you got tangible benefits. With so many option to gather materials and glimmer (missions, patrols, bounties, strikes, raids) the grind was even enjoyable. Add to that the Grimoire levels for weapons and characters, I could grind for materials, glimmer, and Grimoire simultaneously. Destiny was the reason I bought a PS4 - my very first console (I'm nearly 40 - a hardcore PC gamer to the core). Being my first console, I had no online friends to play with. The strike matchmaking is a thoughtful way of allowing 'noobs' like me experience the multiplayer aspects out of the box. Despite not including team chat out of the box, multiplayer strikes were a lot of fun. After joining a few facebook groups and getting a decent number of friends in my list, multiplayer with chat via PS Parties bumped the enjoyment factor up a notch or two. By this stage, I was well and truly hooked. I settled into a groove - do the daily bounties and heroic story as often as possible. I made sure I did the weekly heroic and nightfall on every character every week. I raided as much as I could. It was all a lot of fun. But then I realized a few things, and Bungie did a few things, and the clan did a few things that sucked away the enjoyment of the game... [b]Leveling and Armour[/b] Leveling from 1-20 has a very good effort equals reward system. The mission completion bonuses, golden chests, bounty leads, etc. make following the story missions very worthwhile. But then you hit level 20 and this all goes out the window. At first you languish because you don't have enough Vanguard Reputation and/or Marks to buy any decent gear. So you grind away aimlessly until you hit your 100 Marks/week limit (unless you do Crucible to get 100 Marks/week there - but that's another story I'll discuss below). So it's 3-4 weeks of grinding before you have purchased a decent set of armour (unless you got lucky or took advantage of some obvious oversights - see below) After you get some decent Legendary gear, you then have to upgrade it. No qualms there, but you need Ascendant Materials to do so. OK, Daily Heroic and Public Events can get you materials - but again it's luck based. The number of times I have been aching for Shards to only have the Daily and Events drop energy was infuriating. So I end up grinding Vanguard Marks to purchase armour simply so I can dismantle it for Shards. Think about that for a second... The Vanguard don't just give armour away - it's too valuable. You need to 'earn' the good gear. How do you think the Vanguard feel watching you rip it apart in front of them? It simply does not make any sense that the Vanguard would sell you armour and give you no means of upgrading it apart from buying more (which is desperately needed by other guardians) and reducing it to scrap. And to rub salt into the wounds, the number of times I have had a legendary [b]Armour[/b] engram drop, only for it to turn into 2x Energy is astounding. It simply does not make sense. And then there is the Strength/Intelligence/Discipline stats. At the end of the day, you really couldn't care to much about them because you had to 'chase the light' - any other stat on armour was irrelevant. I first I thought the light-based leveling system was innovative and interesting. Now I think it's completely broken - emphasized by the changes made for the DLC [b]Weapons[/b] Up until the DLC, I had no complaints about weapons (apart from the aforementioned materials issues). I like the 'one exotic only' rule which matches well with the Legendary Raid weapons. Fatebringer/Praedyth's Revenge/Corrective Measure is a great combination that allows me to swap between Patience and Time or Truth as the need arises. Of course, if I raided more I might have also found Hezen Vengeance which would have given me even more flexibility. Then the DLC came out and my feelings changed... First Bungie dropped the requirement to need Ascendant Shards on Exotics and instead requiring an Exotic Shard for the last upgrade. Then, and oh boy does this hurt, Bungie realised that Exotics would need to be bumped up a notch to compete with the Dark Below Legendary Weapons. [b]BUT[/b] in order for the player to 'bump' their Exotic (oh, except for the Vex Mythlocast because anyone lucky enough to be in possession of one should be lucky enough to get a free bump) they have to: * Wait for Xur to turn up * Buy an Exotic Shard for seven Strange Coins(*) * Trade in their exotic (which may have been fully upgraded) for ~7000 Glimmer * Bounty Bounty Bounty to get the new exotics XP up * Spend glimmer and materials to upgrade the new Exotic * Buy another Exotic Shard for seven Strange Coins(*) * Perform the last upgrade All for a 10% boost to damage output. (*) Or you could dismantle an Exotic - but just about all of us already did that to our spares to get the Ascendant Energy. Which brings up ANOTHER plot-line problem. Exotic Weapons are the most sought-after weapons in the solar system. They are so rare the the Cryptarch would sell his soul for one. But nope, we turn them into scrap in front of his face! It is obvious that these two 'tweaks' where not planned prior to the DLC. These significant change the economy of the Destiny universe. Exotic shards could have been implemented on day one. Honestly, I think Exotics should still require Ascendant Materials for each intermediate upgrade, and Ascendant Materials PLUS an Exotic Shard for the final upgrade (or maybe the Exotic Shard for the 'killer feature' like Invective's Ammo Regen) Bungie claim they took ideas from MMO's in making Destiny (while not actually making an MMO). Well I'm sorry Bungie, you forgot the ONE key problem ALL MMO's suffer from - Mudflation [b]Enemy AI[/b] Not implemented. Really - it is not implemented. The Fallen - OK, these guys are stupid. I can accept they have really bad AI The Hive - Thralls just go crazy for Guardian blood but just stop at the top of the stairs The Vex - Ruthless, evil beyond evil, will do ANYTHING to destroy the light (oh, except follow a near dead guardian as he runs for his life - Um, they can TELEPORT!) The Cabal - Military masterminds, blow up planets, have an impenetrable exclusion zone, Don't appear to be able to communicate with each other. Never heard of flanking maneuvers. [b]Uncommon, Rare, and Legendary Ships, Bonds, Cloaks, Marks, Emblems, Shaders[/b] Why? They serve no purpose other than 'Oh look at me, I spent a fortune on this real pretty bond'. So basically, vanity becomes king in the Destiny universe. Um guys, we are fighting for the survival of the human race. Don't you think that maybe, just maybe, we should be focusing on stuff that can turn back the darkness? There are so many things about the game that simply do not mesh with the story. These are the painfully obvious ones. [b]Economy[/b] I mean money, not how the dev's have squeezed an amazing amount of detail from the limited processing power of the XBox and PlayStation... So first we could trade materials for Vanguard marks - that was really useful because I could grind out some materials, trade them in and buy a flash new suit of armour. Sweet :) Now we can only trade marks for materials - I have over ~400 Spirit Bloom. I would have loved to be able to trade them to get some of the new 'Light 33' Vanguard gear. I know players with over 100 Strange Coins and Motes of Light. I've only ever spent Motes of Light on Exotic Engrams from Xur. Huh, wait up a minute... Xur covets Strange Coins above all else and it is obvious he ain't to fond of the light. Why is he selling stuff for Motes of Light? Is he bribing the speaker? I would have thought that Motes of Light might be used to imbue stuff (stuff being armour in this case) with, um, light maybe. Think about it for a sec - After level 20 a Guardians needs Light to become more powerful. But he gets light from upgrading armour. Sure, there might be light in Ascendant materials, but doesn't you light level go up even if you do an upgrade not requiring ascendant materials? And Exotics - they now increase light without ascendant materials. It simply does not make a scrap of sense. Motes of light should have been there to imbue armour with light! You get a Mote of Light every time you 'level' after level 20 (and randomly every now and again). It would make sense that a Guardian would be responsible for assigning the Motes of Light they have to the armour they use. It brings in a stronger RPG element - the player needs to make some hard decisions - but those decisions matter! [b]DLC[/b] The DLC was the final straw for me. I was lucky enough to get enough raid armour to get one character to level 30. The other two were steadfastly stuck at 29. Within a week of getting the DLC I had replace EVERY PIECE OF ARMOUR on my level 30 character and SCRAPPED the VoG armour for shards. ONE WEEK. And if had of been a bit more motivated, I could have upgraded the exotic helm and been level 31 - IN ONE WEEK. Oh, and then Eris gives me a mission that ultimately results in a pair of Light 33 gloves - I already had a pair, so they got scrapped. I don't mind putting in effort - but to put in as much as I did only to find out I could have done something else with all that Destiny time (other games, some coding, whatever) and spent ONE WEEK for the same result. Well, that's a bit insulting.
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