Destiny: FIN

[tnman]

I did the mission on Earth last night that says you get a heavy weapon upgrade, only I, er, didn't. Anyone know why? I need a rocket launcher!

[Uzi]

Go to the tower?

[Sng]

Yeah level 26 is a bit hard isn't it?! I assume that means it's six player?

[Dave White]

Tasty

[jonamok]

Spawny

[Dave White]

yeah totally

[Stanley]

I do hope that the critical reception to this (and a few other high-profile games so far this gen) is indicative of a desire from game reviewers to be taken more seriously by getting rid of the practice of handing out 9s and 10s like they're nothing.

On the traditional "big budget game review" scale, I think this is being treated unusually harshly. On an actual, proper review scale I can't have too many complaints, even if I am enjoying it more than most.

I haven't seen any reviews. What's it been getting?

[V3zna]

I haven't seen any reviews. What's it been getting?

It hasn't been getting anything. Going by Metacritic there are hardly any reviews and understandably so.

[Stanley]

That's what I thought.

[Harsin]

I think rather than reviews, more respected sites are posting impressions and so far they're being unusually honest for a big budget AAA game that's been marketed to the moon. Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if they all give it 9s and 10s, when it comes time to assign a score, while the text reads more like a grudging 'It's alright, I suppose'. That's happened enough times in the past.

[NecroMorrius]

The guardian review is pretty much bang on.

Anyway I finished the campaign last night. All in all it's hard to say how I feel about the game. It's not really what I want from a Bungie shooter, not really what I want from an MMO and not really what I want from an RPG. And yet the strange combination of genres, even despite the laughably samey missions and the scarcity of content, has me hooked. The expansions absolutely need to add a large new area each. If the first expansion hits and it's merely new lines of dialogue for Dinklebot to mumble while he shoots blue lights at a door you've been through 100 times, I'll be annoyed.

not sure yet/10

[jonamok]

Metacritic around 80% at the moment, but it's mostly extreme scores from low-rent sites. However, it does give scope for the big boys to drop an 8 or even a frisky 7 on it. I doubt it will break 85% when all is said and done. It should of course, it's awesome!

[mechamonkey]

There's a review thread on NeoGaf showing a few scores

[Harsin]

Incoming!

So the other PvP playlists that were listed in the beta are limited time things only? Not really happy with that. The base PvP is pretty meagre and vanilla (capture the points, deathmatch, team deathmatch and team deathmatch but with smaller teams. With the scarcity of content in that mode I don't think they can afford to be walling extra stuff away arbitrarily).

[NecroMorrius]

I like the idea of temporary gametypes. They were good with this stuff in Halo 3 and Reach weren't they?

[Eighthours]

I have one big problem with this game so far - the narrative is so disappointingly underdeveloped (I've only done the Earth missions, but I haven't heard from anyone that it suddenly gets compelling in this regard). I can understand the difficulties in balancing the story elements in a singleplayer campaign when you also have to cater for what is essentially a quasi-MMO shooter - it would be easy to break the fiction by assigning too much importance to one character if you want to maintain the illusion of a massively populated world - but I'm sure they could have done much more, considering that all the Guardians have to do exactly the same missions anyway, which already breaks this line of thought. While I love the act of shooting bad guys, the art design, the atmosphere, the sound design and the music, Halo was a more satisfying solo AND co-op experience in terms of having a narrative that always felt like it was going somewhere (even if it was far from perfect), and it never felt like everything was broken by having 4 characters all doing Master Chief's story at the same time. It's truly baffling how inept the storytelling is, and the less said about the voice acting, the better. It's like we've jumped back to the early 2000s in that regard.

Hell, just as a tossed-off idea in terms of having a 'hey, convince everyone they're really important without breaking the fiction', Terence Stamp could be nefariously telling ALL the Guardians who come to him that they're the secret chosen one or whatever, and there could be a reveal later down the line that he's talking bollocks.

I do love the gameplay, though, and the upgrade system is compelling. It's an almost brilliant game for me so far, with the story being the one massive blind spot. I have yet to do any Strikes, so I'm really looking forward to them. Am Level 7, so will jump in as soon as I level up one more time. Anyone around Level 8 free for some Earth Strike action after 10.30pm this evening?

[Harsin]

I like the idea of temporary gametypes. They were good with this stuff in Halo 3 and Reach weren't they?

Halo 3 and Reach had a LOT more variety in their base PvP mdes to start with though and the limited time stuff tended to be limited to more esoteric wacky modes like griffball and golf.

[Spacehost]

Got my first R@R3 lootz last night, a 130-point Scout Rifle and some gauntlets that make me impossible to beat at Go. AWW YEAH

[Shook]

I don't understand that post at all.

[p1nseeker]

What time do these special events tend to go live? Hoping the 3v3 crucible stuff is ready for me when I get home later. Just hit level 20 last night and thinking I'm under levelled for that raid.

[Rain Birds]

I think rather than reviews, more respected sites are posting impressions and so far they're being unusually honest for a big budget AAA game that's been marketed to the moon. Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if they all give it 9s and 10s, when it comes time to assign a score, while the text reads more like a grudging 'It's alright, I suppose'. That's happened enough times in the past.

7//10 from GameCentral.

http://metro.co.uk/2014/09/12/destiny-review-the-final-verdict-4866002/

Person doing the reviewer at videogamer.com says he'd have returned the game by now if he'd purchased it.

I'd expect the final Metascore to end up somewhere in the mid 70s, which implies that it's a terrible game by usual big-budget review standards. I disagree with that, but we'll see if reviewers have grown up.

[Dave White]

I think this whole too cool for school approach, with the slow reveal and the likes is going to bite them on the arse, joe public wont give a toss that a helmet that looks exactly the same as the other 28 they've unlocked offers a 2% reload increase. its going to pass most people by. Im all for the unlocks and the likes but everything looks and more or less feels the same as base weapons.

As people have commented when in a strike on a high difficulty the game is absolutely amazing fun, a tense and white knuckle fight until the end, like horde mode on PCP. And im sure people enjoy the scout stuff, but for me its about as inspiring as unblocking a toilet, and really shows the games flaws. Even the most banal fetch quests in RPGS offer something worthwhile, Dinky saying he'll contact the tower upon completion is pathetic.

the new stuff that unlocked today generates a random strike, and mine was one ive done 5 times albeit with more enemies but it's still all too familiar. Difficulty doesnt compensate for a lack of variety.

These next content drops are going to have to be something extra-ordinary

[Timmo]

I'm surprised more hasn't been made about the bullet sponge enemies. 'Hard' mode seems to mean little else than non-grunt enemies take a hell of a lot of bullets to drop. I understand different weapon types drop different coloured shields quicker, but when it's so difficult to swap primary weapons in the middle of a firefight I don't understand what they're trying to do.

[Eighthours]

I think the base game is there, it just needs a fuckload more variety. I have no idea how it didn't come up as a major problem that pretty much every story mission ends with Dinklage hacking something while you fight off waves of enemies. Maybe Bungie had to lock the content way early in order to make their already delayed release date.

I think the reason the story stuff depresses me is that the CG intro was spectacular in terms of visuals and editing and atmosphere. I wonder if Bungie even did that bit themselves.

[Graham S]

I'm surprised more hasn't been made about the bullet sponge enemies. 'Hard' mode seems to mean little else than non-grunt enemies take a hell of a lot of bullets to drop. I understand different weapon types drop different coloured shields quicker, but when it's so difficult to swap primary weapons in the middle of a firefight I don't understand what they're trying to do.

Have other members of the fireteam equipped with other colours?

[p1nseeker]

I'm playing this game in the style of that live action ad. Running around with a couple of mates, dealing out banter and trying to kill enemies in the most stylish way possible and having fun. TBH I couldn't care less about the story, never thought much of the story in Halo to be honest.

This is the most co-op fun I have had in years and I'm loving every minute.

[Uncle Nasty]

The game is so splintered and confusing that I'm wondering if it's some kind of mashup of multiple projects, none of which were finished. It just feels like an underdeveloped FPS, a barebones RPG and an MMO with less to do than Playstation Home. None of it makes any sense, it's a complete mess with no cohesion.

Such a shame as the combat is classic Bungie, but the rest of it is genuinely some of the most poorly structured and non-sensical garbage I've endured for years.

I can easily see Edge slapping a 6/10 on this. Fucking shame.

[Sng]

Yeah the missions are very samey but there is the odd gem amongst them. I'm hoping that content is just the basics and the real fun starts when the Strikes kick off. Will find out in a few days I suppose.

[V3zna]

I'm playing this game in the style of that live action ad. Running around with a couple of mates, dealing out banter and trying to kill enemies in the most stylish way possible and having fun. TBH I couldn't care less about the story, never thought much of the story in Halo to be honest. This is the most co-op fun I have had in years and I'm loving every minute.

I just drop into games of people on my friends list that are near my level, stay a while and move on. It's fun, there's lots to shoot and you need to play as a team, more or less. I'll be on tonight, Saturday night and a lot of Sunday. You can't ask for more that that.

I've played a lot of mmo's over the years and they are tweaked and updated constantly. You'd suggest Bungie will constantly be balancing Destiny on a weekly basis right now.

[Captain Kelsten]

High level gear doesn't look different enough to low level gear. Part of what makes these kind of games cool is how amazing high level players invariably look, which in turn makes you want to find whatever gear they're wearing and get it too, driving you to keep grinding and playing the same content, so you can also look cool. If the only difference is the stats on it, no one will give two shits. It's as much about looking increasingly awesome as it is being increasingly powerful.

The actual gameplay - or more specifically, the gunplay - is immense. So satisfying, so fun. But all the stuff around that - the mission types, the mmo aspects, the tower, the classes, the races...it all seems half finished and that's a shame, because you can see and feel that there is an amazing game waiting underneath it all. It reminds me a lot of Diablo, and not just in gameplay, but in that when Diablo 3 was first released it was lacking, but two years down the line, a few patches and an expansion and it's an absolutely brilliant game. This feels the same - barebones, but with something there that just needs more time - something you shouldn't have to say about a game that's been in development for as long as this has.