My opinions on the beta were as follows. Ideally I'd hope Bungie would read my input, given that that's the purpose of a Beta. Realistically they probably won't, but I'll try to be helpful anyway. Comment if you agree or disagree...or whatever suits you...this is gonna be long: [b]PvE[/b] [u]PROS[/u] -The game in general was easily a 9.5/10. In terms of how much FUN this game is to play, it is completely unparalleled in my mind. This game is an utter joy to play, and continued to be, right up until I got kicked off 5 hours ago. -THANK YOU for not allowing interpersonal trade in Destiny. Trade makes loot less valuable to everyone, favors boring grinders, and makes 'trophy' items a joke. -It was incredible fun running around aimlessly just killing enemies in Old Russia, collecting loot, doing miniquests, and finding treasure. -The sparrow wins my 'most enjoyable vehicle to drive in any game ever' award. It was an absolute blast. -Each secondary weapon had a clear specific scenario for which it was to be used, and excelled when used correctly. -The variety of 'perks' on weapons and armor was more than I expected, and has left my head spinning with possibilities. -The strike that was available had a genuine skill requirement, something I very much appreciated. If you sucked, you died...a LOT. *cheering* -The autorifles, scout rifles, rocket launchers, fusion rifles, LMGs, and sniper rifles felt exceptionally balanced for PvE -Supers felt awesome. Everything about them was fun to use. [u]CONS[/u] (many of these are very minor things I just think could be tweaked) -Green engram drops were turning into white quality items at the cryptarch, perhaps this was because of the low level? It seemed both cruel and redundant given that white engrams already drop as white loot. I would also like to see blue and purple loot have its own colored sphere, perhaps it does, but I decoded a green engram and got a blue item several times, so I'm thoroughly confused. -The ammunition capacity for special weapons was too low, and the drop rate on the ammunition was too high. I felt like it could've easily been doubled and the drop rate halved. Many times I felt so wasteful leaving fusion rifle ammo on the ground that i'd just use my Nox Revus III for a while when it was less suited to the situation than my trusty Scout Rifle. -I felt like 4 rockets was also too small a number, several times I pulled out my rocket launcher and shot vandals just because I couldn't (in all good consciousness) leave a rocket or two on the ground. -Pulse Rifles were awful. The kick was ridiculous. It was better in literally every situation to just burst fire with an auto rifle. -Handcannons were even worse. I don't think I saw anyone use them seriously. The damage per second on handcannons was TERRIBLE, combined with an awful reload frequency AND speed AND accuracy AND range, they were not even a viable choice of weapon, in either PvP or PvE. They were basically an all-around inferior version of Scout Rifles...and trust me, I [i]REALLY[/i] wanted to like them. -Shotguns could use a miiiiinor increase to effective range. There were very few situations wherein a fusion rifle was not preferable to a shotgun. -The 'stop the target from reaching the checkpoints' events were nearly impossible. The enemies would sit around the spawn for a short while, and then just sprint off into the distance, leaving you with more time chasing than shooting, and would be gone before any lone player could even get bronze tier in many situations. -The spider tank legs shouldn't take LESS damage once they've been damaged, this almost felt like a bug, given that it was exactly half. [b]PVP[/b] [u]PROS[/u] -It was fun. Seriously fun. I loved every minute of it. I even enjoyed getting assblasted with nova bomb. The game felt solid, well made, and responsive. -The special ammo was common enough that if you wanted to go out of your way to get it, it would be there, but it was appropriately out of the way to acquire. -The heavy ammo system was WONDERFUL. I love the sharing system, and I like the spawn being announced to the combatants. -It rewarded skill without being too 'streaky'. The match was constantly being shaken up by supers and ammo/vehicle drops. I like that. -Snipers felt well balanced, a rare feat to be honest. -Fusion rifles were fun weapons that were just as good as the individual holding them. They were OP in the right hands, but the right hands were rare. If you sucked, your fusion rifle wasn't gonna kill anyone. Kudos for high skill ceilings, high skill ceilings are good. -The available gametype was a fun, unique spin on control gametypes, and I ESPECIALLY enjoyed Iron Banner. I played so much that I ended up with the legendary ship, and had to buy myself the long flowing cloak from Saladin. -The maps in general were just well made. The lines of sight were as good as I've come to expect from Bungie multiplayer, and the spawning system was nearly flawless... [i]especially[/i] when compared to some other recent titles *heavy intentional coughing* [u]CONS[/u] (mostly balancing issues) -Scout Rifles felt extremely underwhelming at close-medium range, making them largely useful only at ranges where a sniper rifle would be viable. The DPS was just too low to keep up with autorifles, which were generally not overpowered, it felt more like everything else was UNDERpowered. -As in PvE, handcannons were absolutely useless and Pulse Rifles kicked too much. I saw 1 handcannon throughout the entire Beta in the crucible. I also saw a few brave guardians with pulse rifles, but the vast majority using them got thoroughly stomped. -Shotguns could use a boost to range, in most cases they did less than 20% of hp at as little as 8-10 feet of distance. -Golden Gun was by far the worst super in PvP. The likelihood of only getting one kill with it before it timed out, or getting killed while it was active, was extremely high... whereas the nova bomb and the hulk smash were guaranteed kills or even multikills in many situations. I would like to see the activation animation take less time on Golden Gun. The other supers have activation, and then simultaneous aiming and destruction, Golden Gun takes activation, THEN the aiming, and THEN the killing. Having tried nova bomb in PvP I can say this with absolute confidence. (not to mention that hunters have a relatively long super recovery time) -I felt like it was too easy to be sniped out of a Pike, particularly from the side. [b]Little additions I would've like to have seen:[/b] - I don't believe that strength, intellect, or discipline should have hard caps. I think that the soft caps are enough. If you manage, somehow, to collect a strength gear set for your hunter, by God you should be able to throw a knife every 5 seconds. If perhaps that is too much, I think the cap should be increased a bit. I managed to exceed that cap for my Hunter's discipline at level 8 whilst still wearing white quality gloves. -The weapons/armor vendors in the tower sold junk, and I mean seriously junky junk. Perhaps they should be more like a gamble, where you pay them and receive any random weapon/armor piece, as though you had just gotten a drop in the wild. The cost should be appropriate, of course. -I would like for 'green' engrams to always be 'green' items, likewise for 'blue', 'purple', and 'yellow'. In addition, I think blue AND purple items should be discoverable from level 1, there's no sense in delaying the joy of finding a high quality fusion rifle until level 10. If a level 1 legendary is acquired, what's the harm? You have an excellent weapon for a few levels and then it's gone. DON'T STOMP ON MY DREAMS BUNGIE... (I'm fond of them) -I also felt like there was room for more types of weapons, perhaps in future expansions? Some examples... Primary: "sentinel beam" like laser weapons Special: slug shotguns Heavy: railguns ...anyway, I think that's it for now. I could've written a 20 pager for you, but I should stop before I hurt myself. [b]EDIT: Wow, I just came back to check this, thank you for all the replies! I'm going to start reading through them and responding to a few I suppose. Discussion is the key to progress, after all. Ideas from other posts:[/b] -A map for explore mode (Pretty much everyone). I agree that this would be extremely helpful. I had far too much trouble finding The Rocketyard. - Item enchantments (Chino Gaming). This would be nice. Some method of applying additional hardware to a white item in order to transform it into a green item, or even further beyond that, such as 'reforging' a green item to have different properties. -Aiming down sights shouldn't immediately cancel airborne momentum (Schattenjäger). This was particularly a problem on the Venus crucible map. If you attempted to jump towards the island next to 'B', and tried to shoot while still in midair, you would fall to your death. This made the happy little island a deathtrap. -Vehicle Hijacking (Unholy Abyss). This would help, I'm not sure if this is the solution, but it's a start. I understand that this may be impossible at this point in development. -Warlock's bonds seem underwhelming, and almost unnoticeable (JUNEBUG5050). This may be due to the low level as well, but Ideally I'd hope they'd be something you could actually show off. Currently, I'm almost certain that nobody save the Warlock in question would notice their bond. A solution might be as simple as some minor particle effects.