They were referencing the mechanical depth of the games as well as the facets of exploration, discovery, and challenge which are all fun to uncover socially. I think the level of difficulty in certain encounters will change depending on what type of mission you're doing, and where. Obviously the main story might be on a more forgiving difficulty curve so as to be accessible for the casual, solo player looking for the story experience, but I'm guessing that once you start traveling off the beaten path, you'll run into some nasty challenges. In a game like Dark Souls the player isn't really handicapped in any sort of way, they have access to all the tools they need to get through, unscathed if they're skilled enough. I'm glad to see that Bungie is looking at a range of games and incorporating some of their strongest elements into their shooter. The prospect of perfectly dodging an enemy attack so that you can blast him from behind with a weapon specific to his weaknesses while he winds up another attack isn't something common to modern FPS', where the goal is usually to just spray bullets at whatever's in front of you without any real thought. If anything, I'd say Dark Souls is the biggest inspiration to Destiny that isn't a shooter. You have this big open world that you're free to explore, co-op which you can engage in at any time, and from the looks of the new GI, a mix of different mechanics that govern movement, damage output and mitigation, and so on. The only thing I'm not seeing is a presence of counter-combos and blocking, something that usually doesn't translate well in first person gameplay. Dark Souls has a massive variety of viable builds with unique weapons and armor that all have their own strengths and weaknesses. You design a build based on your greatest strengths, but you can always keep your options open and switch up your gear to suit whatever situation you're in. I think it's also been mentioned in the GI that you'll be able to manage and respec your skills at any time, something you couldn't do in Dark Souls. What choices you're locked into haven't really been specified though. Bungie hasn't said too much about progression other than what's inspired these systems though, so who knows where all of this will go. Like Dark Souls I think Bungie is also taking a similar approach to who you'll match up with in co-op. Matchmaking may be specific to whatever range of levels your character is in. It would be awesome to be going off on a solo run to find three players ten levels under you struggling with an encounter, and you just sort of pop in and turn the tide. That's definitely something I'm looking forward to.