A TL;DR is at the bottom. [b]LACK OF PLOT[/b] Destiny severely lacks in the category of story. The rambling, incoherent and incomprehensible string of missions that we were presented lacks both direction and context. It's a simple grind through each mission, without any motivation to complete them in story-terms. Perhaps there's motivation to get the XP boost associated or acquire another piece of gear, but from a purely plot-driven view, there's little to nothing of value there. From the idle, nonsensical and outright melodramatic references to prior events that were never explained to the pitiful final mission and battle, it's a hollow experience. Overall, Destiny's plotline was a major letdown, and is bland and uninteresting. Why are we doing what we're doing? To stop the Darkness, of course. What is the Darkness? Nobody really knows. All we get to see are some of its minions, and hear vague abstractions about what it has done. What are we fighting for? Difficult to say, though Humanity is an easy (if uninteresting) answer. Alongside this, the light. What is the light? Something to do with the Traveler. What is the Traveler? We... don't know. That unfortunately summarizes a massive chunk of the trite backstory for the world. It's certainly arguable that the world Bungie has created is filled with depth and many intricacies we have yet to see, but they did an abysmal job at utilizing that universe. While here may be amendments to this in the form of DLC, the state in which the campaign was released is inexcusable. To improve, the first step is having more actual [i]characters[/i] and scripting to articulate the lore. Clearly define goals, and why we're doing what we are. There is no issue with mystery; but the entire plot should not be a mystery. We should have greater interaction beyond soundbytes of the Ghost, and occasionally the Stranger with supplements by Tower vendors. Maybe a friendly AI Guardian to fight alongside in a mission or two. Looking at the actual gameplay experience of the campaign, it holds up until the repetitiveness shows. It's so unrewarding to play, many times you're hard pressed to even want to kill the enemies, when you could simply run by them. Playing the campaign, from a utilitarian standpoint, is considered a boring and uneventful job. Ranking up a second character to level 20 is astonishingly dreary when contrasted with the first. Randomized spawns would help this, and combined with a compelling plot, would remedy it. In the end, however, Destiny's story is marred by vague abstractions, references to obscure events, and the pure monotony of its gameplay, and would be better off with more characters, dialogue, and articulation of what is happening, and why alongside minor gameplay alterations. [b]THE CRUCIBLE[/b] The Crucible is fundamentally flawed, primarily due to insta-super abilities and lopsided weapons balancing. There are other contributing factors to this however, such as heavy weapons and simultaneous kills. Supers are the core issue with The Crucible as it stands. It gives players an unstoppable, or at least, extreme, advantage in combat situations which they would normally not have. Other players are almost completely unable to respond when a Titan uses the Fist of Havoc in a CQB situation, or when a Warlock flings a Nova Bomb. Spawning with 1-shot ability that is extremely difficult to counter is at the core, unbalanced. Alongside this, weapons are uneven. Scout Rifles and Pulse Rifles are difficult to use in the face of Auto Rifles. Most of the maps lack major, long sightlines, and those that have them rarely see concentrated combat in those areas. Most places where the AR sees use now will likely hardly even be affected by that patch. It would be better to make modes both with and without Supers available. Alongside this, certain weapons should be buffed or nerfed, within reason. Simultaneous kills should be addressed so they no longer occur, or are at least reduced. The fundamental lack of balancing and sheer randomness denigrate the Crucible experience significantly, and it could use the removal of Supers and changes in weapon balancing. [b]WORTHLESS CUSTOMIZATION[/b] Why bother getting Iron Banner armor or Queen armor, when everyone MUST wear the same Raid Gear in order to reach level 30? What's the point in being unique, wearing faction armor, or anything, when in order to progress everyone has to wear the exact same set of armor? This is an outright failure of logic on Bungie's part. There is zero incentive to be unique, and all the incentive to be the same. Iron banner armor allowing 30 is a start, but raid gear is STILL REQUIRED alongside it. Having multiple, full sets of Level 30 armor seems to be the best choice. Associating this with factions (that have unique perks on each set) would be a great way to add variety to play style, and aesthetic. Allowing each set of Raid Gear (VoG, Crota, etc) to reach whatever the max light may be could add variety to PvE armor. [b]BLAND ENDGAME[/b] Nightfall strikes are recycled campaign missions with artificial difficulty increases. Players are already familiar with the playspace, the enemies they face, where they will face them, and strategies for it. There’s no figuring things out or intuition in it. It’s just another monotonous grind to the end for random rewards, which might bless you for your efforts, or bless you for your lack thereof. It would be better to bump up AI intelligence greatly and AI HP/DPS marginally. Farming upgrade materials and ascendant materials is also a nominally fun-devoid experience. Walking in circles to loot chests for limited amounts of materials is a mindless march going nowhere fast. It just takes time that could be spent elsewhere in an idle sequence of actions. Ascendant materials are largely the same; there are consistent ways of earning them, though randomness again plays a factor. [b]LOOT SYSTEM[/b] Random number generators are both frustrating and unfair, in many respects. Those who fight hard, play with zeal and dedication may not earn anywhere near what a player with no drive, no skill will. It’s random; and that’s the issue. Players who have atrocious games of Crucible are oftentimes still rewarded higher than their teammates who capture objectives, support each other, and gain a positive KDR. The player who joins at the end of a strike receives an Exotic while the player who grinds through the entire strike receives a blue engram. Is that fair? Randomness inherently leads to unfairness. It’s like gambling; it’ll keep you coming back, and that’s why so many people play Destiny with such commitment. They just want better gear, and think that the RNG system will bless them the next time for sure, though it rarely does. Sadly, Legendary and Exotic engrams have a magical tendency to give you loot for the incorrect character class. It would be better to patch this out, especially given we can store engrams, it would be far less frustrating to receive items for the correct class and be able to swap characters to assure the desired outcome. Ultimately, the RNG system is addictive but unfair and outright frustrating, and would be better factoring in gameplay performance when giving rewards alongside assuring gear for the proper class. [b]XUR AND EXOTICS[/b] Exotics are, as the name implies, nominally rare. This proves untrue in practice, but they’re still the least-seen class of items at the core. There are two major ways to get exotics; RNG rewards from Nightfall strikes and the Raid, or by using Strange Coins to buy them from Xur, who appears every weekend. Oftentimes, those who are given them by the RNG feel as though they are special and have achieved something by getting the random chance in their favor, only to be upset when Xur sells their item and ruins its rarity. It’s safe to say that those who grind for strange coins and buy their exotics have earned them. But what’s to be said for those who gain them via RNG? In the end, it’s simple chance, and it’s much easier to justify buying them from Xur rather than getting them by pure chance. The issue with Xur is that he makes exotics precisely -not- exotic. Hordes of people own the SUROS, Ice Breaker, Red Death, etc. A solution is to reduce the frequency of Xur's visits, or better yet, make Xur sell exotic bounties (assuming slight reworks, maybe focusing solely on PvE for some, PvP for others). That will reduce their frequency and encourage more unique gameplay, and add variety to already existing missions. [b]RECYCLING OF MISSIONS[/b] Replay after replay, with arbitrary changes in enemy health and damage dealt. The worlds are massive, the enemies varied, but we only get stagnant repetition over and over. Perhaps there will be more released as DLC, but that seems oh-so-scheming and inconsiderate to fans. But, ignoring this theory, and examining what we have, the Queen’s Missions weren’t unique, Iron Banner is Crucible with level advantages disabled, and Strike playlists are absolutely abysmal. Spawns and AI intelligence should be affected by difficulty, with spawns slightly randomized for maximum variety, perhaps with more aggressive posturing on higher levels. Enemies that are smarter and better positioned are more frightening than enemies which have greater HP capacity. [b]TL;DR[/b] Destiny is flawed in the aspects of Story, Crucible, and loot system. The recycling of missions and monotony of repetition in gameplay leads to an uninteresting and ultimately uninspired experience, all of which can be improved upon. _________________________ This concludes my rant. Feel free to agree or disagree.