I do believe TTK was a step up in story, as do most people. But that doesn't change the base game being a dreadful mess in the eyes of most folks. So with that said, if you ask somebody what they think of Destiny's story, you are most likely to be told either:
A. It is a poor story.
B. What story?
Neither answer does Destiny much credit. So why do people think the story is bad? Well, you'll probably be told about how the story is all in Grimoire Cards on the website which is bad, or that there's no character development... or really characters at all that are really involved in the story. But these are surface issues, whereas the underlying theme of the problem is so easy to fix it astounds me that the community, including myself, has failed to make the distinction for so long. ...Why? That three letter word is the very heart of the problem. 'Why.'
Somebody in the forums asked me the other day to explain why Halo: CE had such an amazing story. So I started thinking about what changed between Destiny and Halo: CE that made Halo: CE, a game where you were given very little information about things just like in Destiny, have a good story. Was it nostalgia? Well it was certainly a possibility I considered. But no, that did not end up being the answer. While nostalgia is important to take into consideration when determining whether [i]gameplay[/i] is good, it is not really that big a factor in saying why a [i]story[/i] is good. Why? Well, a story doesn't change quality over time. A good story has always had the capacity to reveal itself. So Halo: CE had a good story back then, and there are no real changes to story mechanics or story technology (note: Not a real thing, and that's the point) that can degrade that widely accepted opinion.
It is now that I would like to bring us back to that mysterious three letter word: Why? Am I asking why Halo: CE's story was good? Am I asking why Destiny's story was bad? No, neither. Instead the point of this question is... to simply ask why do we bother? And that's the crux of the problem: Why are we bothering? Allow me to explain.
In Halo: CE, we are gifted with a magnificent world and a magnificent universe. What is this Ringworld? Why are we here? Why are these aliens chasing us? What is going on? These are questions largely left unanswered. In Destiny, we ask ourselves... Why are we here? Why is this 'Darkness' chasing us? What even IS this 'darkness?' Why are we fighting worlds away from our own? Here, too, we are given precious little answers. Yet Halo: CE is marked as a great achievement in gaming narratives, while Destiny is scorned for its inability to entice anybody with its in-game narrative. So we're brought back again to: Why? Why is this? Well my friends, the answer is the obvious one I can't believe we never really expounded upon. The distinction between the games. The distinction in the very nature of storytelling. The distinction of... [b]why are we doing what we are doing?[/b]
In Halo: CE you are faced with an alien horde. Mysterious though it is, your objectives are clear: Escape with an AI so the aliens cannot destroy Earth. Save your people on this ringworld. Save your Captain. Stop the aliens from activating the superweapon. Stop your Captain from unleashing an unfathomable threat. Activate the superweapon. Destroy the superweapon. These are steps- goals- in each mission. your objectives are never confused. Your purpose is always clear. While the world around you changes (in part due to your own actions) and much of it is a mystery, you are fully aware throughout the entire game EXACTLY why you are doing what you are doing. There is no mystery in the actions of the Chief because they are fully explained. Given that we know our goals, the world around us never once develops into an irritating pile of questions, but instead a mystery we are slowly trying to unravel as we bumble around foolishly on our own. We don't know [i]why[/i] anything is happening to us in the game. But we [i]do[/i] know why [i]we[/i] are doing what we do.
Destiny. Mysterious world. Many questions. It certainly carries a similar mystical quality to it that leaves people wanting to know more. But instead of enticing us to discover it, instead it becomes frustrating because there AREN'T any answers in the game. On the surface this appears to be because the answers are in grimoire cards on Bungie.net. But yet again, this boils down to what we know about what we are doing: Why are we [i]really[/i] alive again? Why are we trusting everything we're told without any explanation? Why am I going planet to planet based on utterly vague information? Why is this Traveler so trusted that we dedicate our very lives to it? WHY won't you tell me about the great battle, Speaker, instead trying to garner sympathy by withholding important story elements and instead talking about children crying? So many questions. Some are touched on, but those and so many more are largely left unexplained. We have no context for our actions. We do not really know [i]why[/i] we go mission to mission. And that's the distinction between Destiny and Halo: CE.
Our steps are logical in Halo: CE. We know why we act. Our steps are random and unexplained in Destiny, and that leads to frustration even though the worlds of both Halo and Destiny are so strikingly similar in overarching theme. But rather than criticize and leave it at that... is there a way to fix Destiny's story? Of course. You've probably already guessed. Just... tell us why.
In TTK, we know why we are going to Phobos. We SEE the Taken appear and we know why we are working to take down the Dreadnaught. We know why we need an invisibility power for the ship of Eris because the game SHOWED us what happens to those that are seen. We know why we need to be 'Ascendant,' because we were shown, and we are told what makes hive 'Ascendant' in the first place. We are told where Oryx is and we go find him. We know why we are trying to forge a sword- because we got it from Oryx's. Why why why why why why why!
We know answers in TTK! That's all Bungie has to do! They don't need to unveil all the mystery of the world. They don't need to change the flow of their universe. But they need to explain to us, the player, WHY we are doing what we are doing. Because THAT is what keeps a story from plunging down the toilet. THAT is what keeps a player entertained. And THAT is why Halo: CE had a good story, and why the base Destiny did not.
I sincerely hope Bungie follows the examples of their past positively, and I firmly believe they need to continue to work to improve their storytelling abilities to the level they had years ago. That is how they expand the world of Destiny to the point where it bypasses one of its greatest flaws. That is how they get players invested enough to actually discuss their story regularly. And that... is what we should all be hoping for. [i]Why[/i]? Well... I'll just hope you've figured that part out by now!
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Destiny's Story lies in the Book of Sorrows.
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Bloodborne did a better job telling it's story lol. Now that's saying something. I believe the original Destiny story was scrapped though.
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Did you but stock in the word, "Why?" I work with a guy who takes 4 paragraphs to get to a simple point on just about any topic, but he doesn't play Destiny so I don't think you're him. He does have a brother though, and I believe they both like burritos.
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As another post said, the game was chopped up and put back together with a different end goal in mind. It's clear to see that there was going to be at least some main objective. Just look at, The Shine of Oryx Mission. That was clearly intended to be as a stepping stone to The Taken King. Also, the mission where we find a shard of the Traveler. I'm going to assume that we were at first meant to find more to repair/heal the Traveler. I know it's been said over and over, but this is the reason. It makes the most sense and also explains why there are some story missions that seem like they would be an important part, but we never see them mentioned again.
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Your an uninformed idiot.The reason their is no story, is this is not the original gane.The original game was taken by it's developer and lives happly at microsoft.After he was notified the Bungie had decided to sign a contract with Activision, he said he was'nt going to let them bastardize his 10 years of work and quit.The game if thats what you wish to call it, that we play now, was throw together in a year and a half. Bungie brought in a writer thee months before release to create a story and put them on the grimmor cards. All of this can be found on the net, if you wish to look it up.
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The only story in destiny is in the cards and in taken king.
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Destiny is enticing. That's why people are still playing... or waiting for content. We all know the story was rehashed late in the games development. I feel the story is fine but still needs to get better. So we are brought back from the dead and told practically nothing... "That's the traveler" ..."ok" "There were many battles"- "uh-huh" "Nice ship" - "it's just cosmetic" We know they can't tell us everything. But instead of burying the questions we have with- "oh look, it's that guy... kill him." OK that was cool' now what about the -"oh crap guardian, that chic needs our help." OK now will you tell me about the -"now that guy with the sword you killed... his dad is hear to beat you up." Ok, now that I'm done with all that can you tell me... um, hello? Where did you go?" They need to tell us more. Grimore is back story. We don't need character development( though I will say cade-6 is a badass). We are the character. We need to know more about the traveler and more about the exo stranger. I did not know the awoken queen was so powerful... thanks for telling me. Why is eris being so creepy? I guess we need to be patient. Lame.
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Изменено (emp strqnding): 3/14/2016 10:02:52 PMyour massive post boils down to two easy questions really. then a harder one [quote]Why am I going planet to planet based on utterly vague information? Why is this Traveler so trusted that we dedicate our very lives to it? WHY won't you tell me about the great battle, Speaker, instead trying to garner sympathy by withholding important story elements and instead talking about children crying[/quote] I'm guessing you're talking about the stranger telling you to go to Venus. the reasoning is given by ghost as you fly to the strangers call mission. [spoiler]Our exo friend must have access to extraordinary methods to have reached out to us like that. The radio signal came from the jungles of Venus. something like that[/spoiler] someone contacted you from [i]jungles[/i] on [i]venus[/i] while you were on the surface of the moon, telling you to come find them after demonstrating your strength against the hive. warrants investigating, thank god we have a spaceship. second question is answered in the game's earliest cutscenes. the traveler is trusted because it's the foundation of the guardian's powers and the reason humanity could grow across the system during the golden age, living longer and flying further. it also returned you from the dead, so that was pretty cool of him. the last question isn't as simple, you don't really know his motive at that time. but he tells you that the last city is dying, and you can fight for it. and he wants you to stop asking questions and go help.
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Изменено (nomorbountisXP): 3/14/2016 9:37:29 PMI have the perfect response to you sir. READ THE GRIMOIRE CARD OF OSIRIS. It's like they wrote the thing for us. About us. In spite of us.
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Cause the rest of the story is on Pokémon cards.
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Too long. Bullet points would serve. I'll tell you why. Poor voice acting. No backstory. Saying the fallen are crawling on the city is not a backstory. No reason what the nexus is trying to do. The above point is all in grimoire. Which should just be extra details about everything. We don't know what we achieved. We killed Sepiks. We stopped fallen where we actually are driving them to be extinct (house of Devils) since we killed their prime. And we don't even know how important primes are if not for grimoire. What happened to the queen? Grimoire. No engagement for feels. Even though I don't like her. Most important point. Typical mmo story where you're a soldier no different than your kin then suddenly you're the hero of the world. This kills it.
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Bump... 100% true
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Изменено (smurfninja9): 3/14/2016 7:27:25 PMI enjoy exploring and shooting stuff up,doing raids with friends.I really do not care for story.If I want good storyline I will read a book or watch a movie.Other than that I am more than entertained with what the game has 2 offer.
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I could tell you about the universe of destiny but I don't :3 ~The Speaker
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We're alive because the Traveler finally took a page from the Darkness' book and created an army of it's won composed of it's own power: the Light. We exist solely because the Traveler finally decided enough was enough and tried to stand against the Darkness. The problem is the Traveler believed in a universe of peace and prosperity and had never created soldiers with the power of Light. The Traveler is so trusted because it brought us into a Golden Age of technology. Human lifespan increased, interplanetary travel became a thing, and science was advancing faster than ever. We want that back and the Traveler is really the only one who can help us achieve that again as most of the Golden Age knowledge was lost after the Collapse. This is also the reason for the Fallen attacking us. They want to regain their own Golden Age that they lost when the Traveler abandoned them to the Darkness. Even each faction has it's own reason with only the Hive being the true minions of the Darkness. The Vex are trying to turn everything in the universe into a Vex construct and erase any non-Vex entity from existence. The Cabal are trying to gain information on how to completely destroy Guardians (what it takes to destroy a Ghost) and stop the spread of the Vex as they are a nuisance to the Cabal as well. The Hive, as minions of the Darkness, exist to eradicate the weakness from the universe. The end state of the universe, to the Darkness, is one in which only the absolute strongest survive in never-ending battle. The Darkness hates how the Traveler allows even the weak to prosper. That's what makes them enemies.
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Изменено (SpaztikBubble): 3/12/2016 8:35:19 PMI don't think the story is bad at all. The telling of the story sucks though. Haha.
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Story-wise, the initial plot is just plain confusing: -You wake up on a destroyed Russian overpass, presumably dead for who knows how long. No explanation how you got there, or why you're not a skeleton/rusted Exo. -Led to believe the Fallen are humanity's true enemy along with the darkness. -No whoops, changed our mind. Now the Hive are the real enemy. Fallen are still bad, but Hive are worse. -No, wrong again. Now the Vex are the real REAL enemy of the light. -Oops, our bad. Now the Cabal are the actual bad enemies. For real this time, promise. -After a number of trips hopping from planet to planet (and moon), you now go into the Black Garden, where oh look, guess the Vex are really working for the Darkness. -Finally, you come face to face with the Heart of Darkness to see. . . a big black ball of goo floating in the middle of a broken hoop doing absolutely nothing. Oh and makes you fight large Minotaurs and more Vex. -"You have destroyed the Heart of Darkness, the Traveler can heal, out future is bright, etc." And for your heroic deeds of saving Humanity, you're rewarded ONE WHOLE MOTE OF LIGHT. Oh and a lvl 16 blue rifle. Add to the fact that neither of the four enemy groups are affected by the Heart's destruction and come up with even greater threats (Oryx, Crota, Skolas, Atheon, etc.) you wonder what was the point of even destroying the Heart. It was just floating there. Yeah, the initial story was not well executed.
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as a lore fanatic I'd like to say that while they don't [i]have to[/i] explain how their universe works, it would certainly be a nice thing to do and would make me very happy.
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So you think the story is bad because you haven't beat the game yet .... Good job
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Destiny had a well thought out story and a full game but management decided they didn't like it and chopped the game into the mess you have today. Most likely to create DLC.
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Изменено (Cheeziemac): 3/11/2016 9:30:12 PMI like this post. Reading something with good grammar and punctuation is so much more pleasant. Thanks for doing that!
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Whew, great read. Took awhile. Well thought out though. And I'd like to say one more thing about it... [spoiler]thanks for the good grammar and punctuation[/spoiler]
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That's dumb. "Get the AI. Save your captain. Start the superweapon. Stop the superweapon" isn't any better story than "raise the array. Stop the Hive from capturing Rasputin. Get a stealth drive. Defeat the Cabal generals." Neither of those is [i]story[/i] so I'm not sure what you intend to accomplish by even bringing them up, let alone comparing them. Like you said, the question you have to ask about the story is "why?" But not "why am I in this library on Venus," because the obvious answer is "to investigate the Vex conflux, to which the Stranger has led me." Awesome! Great story! ... Except it's not. It's not [i]story[/i] that you went somewhere and shot robots. So what is the story there? Well, why were the Vex there to begin with, and why did the Stranger want us to investigate them? The game doesn't explain this.* You show up on Venus and suddenly the Vex show up and start shooting at you. You kill them all and the Stranger shows up to [i]still not explain[/i] why you're there. Then she disappears in a hurry and you don't see her again until the end of vanilla. You go talk to the Awoken to follow up on a tenuous lead, and when you are flying in to Venus for the next task, Ghost exposits: "During the collapse, the Vex turned Mercury into a machine planet within days. They would have done the same to the other planets if the Traveler hadn't stopped them." This is where you get a lot of people saying "Destiny has no story" and the like, because they can't put two and two together without a five-minute cutscene and forced dialogue between two characters with some kind of awkward chemistry. Those two sentences aren't the story. Those two sentences are [i]part[/i] of the story. And the thing about "parts" is that you have to put them together for them to be useful. There are other parts you can plug in here: - the Vex are at least one of the threats that the Traveler sacrificed itself to stop, which probably explains why there is no Vex presence on Earth or the moon. - the Stranger and her apparently hidden organization has intelligence about the Vex strategy, and a common goal in stopping them; but not the resources to combat them directly, at least not alone, and reason not to fully ally themselves with the City and the Guardians. - the Collapse was likely not caused directly by the Vex, if they didn't convert Mercury until the Collapse was already underway. This agrees with other evidence regarding the arrival of the Hive, Fallen and Cabal, which indicates that they also arrived in numbers only after the Collapse. So we get a hint of what the Collapse wasn't, if not what it was. I could continue branching out, but the branches themselves branch and I'd be here for days typing. My point is, the story (even in its butchered form) is full of depth and potential for depth to the point that the average gamer these days can't get it because it takes too much thinking. The story of Destiny goes well beyond the simple "shoot the bad guys because they're bad," and the only real 'flaw' in it is that it's not dumbed down and handed to us on a platter in baby bottles." Sure, it could be better, but it's still miles ahead of even the expectations of the tween whiners that can't possibly fathom a story told in words instead of movies.