To start I have to say that Destiny is a really, really pretty game. It looks for all intents and purposes fantastic. However the environment/world so far has been boring, extremely boring.
Environment
The maps and environments the players play in are seriously sterile and lifeless, the player can’t interact with it on any level whatsoever and nothing changes no matter how much time has passed or what happens. The best example of this is where you can see the Fallen and the Hive duking it out in the areas of the Cosmodrone. Sure they are fighting each other, in the same places however they do nothing else but give us something to shoot. You don’t see which side wins, there aren’t corpses littered around, you don’t see them disposing (or absorbing) their dead and because no one ever wins there are no effects on the environment.
Imagine the Fallen cleansing the area of the hive presence when they win while observing the toxic effect the hive previously had on the environment retreat as the Fallen become more present in the tunnels and set up a serious base of operations. Only to have the hive emerge from right underneath them in a surprise assault which defeats/displaces the fallen and watch the environment undergo another shift where the barnacles and green miasma of the Hive spread into buildings and the general area. Instead we have a few units that run out and shoot each other over and over again where we could have a wonderful, interesting and intricate cycle.
Also there is legitimately nothing to find in the environment except a chest or ghost here or there (and spinmetal) players should be able to scavenge things from dead guardians (not PCs), old supply caches, supplies guarded by enemies etc. There is none of that to be found here which makes adventuring/ killing never ending re-spawned AI’s unrewarding. Scavenging in this setting makes sense and for gameplay it fits in for exchange and glimmer purposes.
[spoiler]The use of only one unchanging map “for everything” should not occur. Ever. I really do hope we come back to earth and unlock even more areas to enjoy so we have some variety but for now we have been in the same map for many separate missions (and raid of sorts) going in slightly different directions each time. All of these missions should have really been clumped together namely finding the ship and the warp drive and finding the hive then activating the array. This would help improve player interest in going back to these areas.[/spoiler]
Lifeless
The NPC’s in this game are glorified vending machines or seemingly do nothing at all. They have exceedingly little substance with only a fragment of personality given in their dialogue, I have no reason to care about the various groups that have vendors in the game or their views as their missions consist of two sentences in free mode that involve collecting or killing things that have no impact on their dialogue, actions or environment. What you do is folded out of existence never to be heard again until you repeat that same mission [spoiler]and considering we just came back from the dead this is the perfect opportunity to allow the player to ask questions or inform us of these things while interacting with characters we will be seeing often.[/spoiler]
Your enemies have no purpose whatsoever. They stand around, looking around places for no reason and then defend them to the death like they are somehow important (none of them actually run away or escape). Killing on sight is ok for some but the Fallen are a hit and run race that are supposed to utilise agility to fight yet they stand out in the open most of the time and are not agile in any sense of the word (they can also scale walls really well but I have yet to see that actually implemented in their AI).
All in all these reasons kill any intention of going back to explore because you already know exactly what it will be like and know that it hasn't changed since you last saw it.
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8 RepliesLol no. Don't like it don't play it. They aren't going to overhaul the environment for the doucey minority.
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1 ReplyNot only is the world and environment lifeless, do is the "tower" guardians walking around or dancing themselves to AFK. Has made me think of this social hbu as anything but. My opinion they need to allow in game chat and maybe a few mini games in there. Like maybe racing (sparrow/ships) or like a "chess-styled" game or whatever just something to actually make me want to do stuff there instead of jumping off the railing to my death from boredom.
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2 RepliesI agree. The beta was a good time sink, but I'm not spending any money on this until it goes on sale for maybe 30.
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1 ReplyAgreed about the NPC's. Hopefully they are just dumbed down for the beta though. I could see that happening.
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1 ReplyAgreed. Im already bored of the beta, and thats a bad thing. I hoped for an action rpg ego shooter, i got an action ego grinder. I really hope they can do some mayor changes in the game, i mean, the gameplay is fun, just the environment is so boring, after a while you WISH to die.
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2 RepliesEdited by Lupin: 7/19/2014 8:15:26 PMIt is suppose to be barren its post war Russia wait for the full game to see what the full game is like
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Imma let you finish Destiny is fun and all but Borderlands is the best FPS with RPG elements game of all time!
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3 RepliesI agree with you on all your points. I am really concerned though that Bungie won't listen to a bunch of feedback.
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Edited by Strong Dawn: 7/20/2014 10:01:38 AMI do think there should be more environment dynamics that are created by the interaction of enemies with other enemy AI. It would certainly enhance the believability of the world. I would hope that in the 10 year life span of Destiny, efforts are made to do this with upgraded environmental interactions and changes, even to Old Russia as that would really freshen up exploration. But for right now, I think it's fine. I think the scope of this project is huge and fraught with potential pitfalls. But equally I think that Bungie can delivery something like that eventually. I think that what they have given us a pretty solid and convincing world with their Alpha and Beta and I'm enjoying the splendour of these environments even as they are.
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1 ReplyI agree, even some audio logs or books. Anything!
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Agree, fully
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1 ReplyThey can really add somthing extra to all maps like random treasure or random epic events.
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1 ReplyThey need to add NPCs into the environment which give out quests. I would also feel more immersed in the tower if the vanguards and shipwright had a bit of a part to play in the story.
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1 ReplyThe only thing i want is to have a heaps high level cap like 100 and then have massive bosses randomly appearing and having everyone fight it together.
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1 ReplyEdited by Pluvio: 7/19/2014 4:05:27 PMI agree they definitely could improve on this point. I think a good example is Dragon's Dogma or Skyrim where there's a wide array of wildlife and/or items to interact with around the environment. Instead of just entering an abandoned building there should be an NPC cowering for help and they give you an objective if you talk to them, or maybe there's a body of a person with a note on their corpse telling you how they were sheltering for help and perished. They've definitely tried, by adding the grimoire but you have to leave the game to read up on it. Which is why the information should directly come up on the app or in game when you discover it. They've also added flocks of birds and splishy sploshy water puddles, but what game doesn't have those? ;)
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2 RepliesSolution: Skags
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1 ReplyI have to agree with all of these points. Hopefully it's all a Beta thing...
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1 ReplyI completely agree, i love Destiny I have played through alpha and now beta a number of times but if they plan to keep this going for a long time like they have stated then these improvements need to come in, there's no where near enough things for us to return to the same place to do. I look forward to the release and will see where it goes from there.
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2 RepliesInteresting points raised. I wouldn't count on more environmentally changing events, as described by you between the Hive and the Fallen faction fights. It seems like it would require way too much effort to implement such changes, and the problem/issue of multiple players coming from different instances likely poses problems to networking I wouldn't understand at this time. Absolutely on the story piece though. I trust and hope that their will be more story with the full release in September, because right now it's weak sauce. Theirs got to me more than "Guardian, push back the darkness," and then leaving to go blast hog. I must remark that the Crucible map of First Light has fantastic atmospheric effect by having dead space men littering the stations. Awesome to have the environment tell a story all it's own at times - something that would be supplemented handsomely by pick-ups/other NPC interactions...!
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1 ReplyIt needs animals to fight. Crazy deadly future animals. Also more loot drops and glimmer
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1 ReplyOnce you get past the initial appeal of running around and exploring the open spaces, the cracks do start to show. After some hours, it began to feel like a bit of a chore to play. The world doesn't feel dynamic. Same enemies in the same places, fetch quests that require you to move and back and fourth between the same locations - or kill the same enemies, and no real interesting NPCs. About those bounty missions. How disappointing is it to have one task you with killing a particular target - which sounds a cut above the rest - only to slay it in seconds? I buddied up with someone, we traveled quite a distance to get to a specified Fallen Servitor, and he killed it before I even caught up with him. He was like '...That was it?'.
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1 ReplyYeah they should fix the si of the enemy's make them more interesting than just something to short at and some world intereactions are apreccieated
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I think they need to steer away from the FFX maps and go more to FF7. A larger more open world. With the level cap of 20 (30) I see the size of the levels to be a problem. Maby with future games include with the raise in level cap 50 (60) add more space. Africa , Europe , N & S America.
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1 ReplyApparently Earth is only like 4 or 5 zones big. Earth.....Thats Earth? Russia? How does that make sense?
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Yea I agree.
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Agreed, it's static, boring and predictable. Hopefully they can do more with the NPCS and add some dynamics to the environments. However they're off to a great start. The Tower has good ambiance with ships coming and going, the PA voices and the little snips of NPC dialogue do build the world a little. Old Russia is beautiful and the level of detail in the Cosmodrome is staggering.