Poll: Destiny beta impressions.

[Maeshone]

The game itself was pretty solid. It was almost enough to make me want to buy it. The problem I have with it is what it represents as a game.

Remember all the hate for XBone having to be always online? This game is forcing the exact same thing. There's no offline play. For anyone with a bad/no connection, you're never going to be able to play this thing satisfactorily.

Destiny and Titanfall were two of the biggest killer app/first wave titles for the new generation, and neither one can be played offline. If other games follow suit on the 'on-line only' play model, we'll end up with the same problems we would have had if the console(s) were still 'always on required.'

To HELL with that.

I think the main difference between the two is that one is a console, while the other is a game. MMOs have always required an internet connection, and Destiny is an MMO. Same thing with Titanfall. Titanfall is a multiplayer only game, it's kinda like complaining that you need internet to play Team Fortress 2.

 

[Batou667]

The friend who gave me a beta code described the gameplay as "Halo 4's Spartan Ops meets Phantasy Star Online". He was right on the money, and I found the game unappealing as a result.

I don't like retreading the same environments time and again in "different" missions. I don't like grinding, or loot-whoring. The Bungie influence was there, but after seven or so Halo games it feels stale and uninspired: Oh look, there's Guilty Spark. Here come the Active Camo Elites. Nice skyboxes. Perfectly serviceable gun mechanics. The story is silly Cataclysm / Chosen One / It's Dangerous To Go Alone Take This / Space Wizards / Party Bromance fluff that ticks all the rule-of-cool boxes that have existed since Star Wars.

I'm sure plenty of people will have a blast with Destiny, but it struck me as something of a highly-polished turd. It sets its sights low and delivers very well on a few key points - nothing wrong with that, but the pre-launch hype promised excitement, exploration, freedom; a genre-breaking and genre-redefining experience with the same kind of gravitas that Halo CE had. Playing the game, the initial optimism fades, the sense of wonder dissipates, and you readjust your expectations as you realise it's a good game, possibly even a great game, but not a fantastic game. You realise that a lot of level geometry is copy-pasted. Airwalled sections put the kibosh on exploration. You don't actually fly the ships, they're essentially just colour-coded keys to unlock higher-level missions, and their appearance acts as a loading screen. Tenuous smoke, tarnished mirrors.

It's familiar territory, and in jaded old gamers like myself, familiarity breeds contempt. I'll pass.

 

[sXeth]

Hand cannons? I didn't think those could be strong enough to one shot you. Rockets are understandable, since they're rockets and heavy ammo is hard to come by. Snipers and shotguns have their permissible one-shots as well. But I'm not sure about handcannons.

Rifles have never killed me in one shot. But, I have ran across some people using rifles that kill me extremely fast. There's some wonky stuff going on with the weapons in PVP that needs to be looked at.

If they start on your head with the auto-rifle, its effectively instantaneous how fast you drop, was what I was getting at.

Hand cannons are trickier. First off, there seems to be two varieties of headshot. One where the auto-aim pulls it in, and a "true" headshot. The latter does 2-3x damage. There's also range penalties that come into play on weapons. The short of it being, that if you get into the hand cannons range and they catch you properly, it will one hit kill.

Or Iron Banner, where you can hypothetically run into any one hit kill. The Golden Gun also can work for group clears in Iron Banner, since you can use the penetration level upgrade, which I'll concede starts giving it a versatility edge for sure.

 

[Vuliev]

I only managed to get a few hours in, but overall it's a resounding "meh." I honestly expected a lot more from Bungie.

The introductory cutscenes are nothing but cliches ("The Darkness"? Seriously?), and the voice acting is woefully uninspired. I was hoping it might pick up once the game actually got going, but no, the story continued to slide. "The Fallen", "The Hive"--I mean jesus. A far cry from "alien Covenant of religious fanatics bent on destroying humanity because fuck humanity."

Story aside (even though that's pretty hard to do):

Aesthetics are solid, I really like them--unfortunately, for the same reasons I like MS2013 and Windows 8 aesthetics. Those aesthetics are just too sterile to create an engaging world, and what's worse, the graphics look like sandblasted shit on my PS3. I'm not blowing money on a 5th-gen console just for Destiny or any other title just to get graphics, especially not when Bungie could have just done a proper PC release. I usually try to look past graphics, but when your game looks like ME1 did seven goddamn years ago, it's unforgivable. I gladly took the hit for Dark Souls II on the PS3--not a chance for this.

Gameplay is solid, but unremarkable. Better than Borderlands, if only for the fact that you have more than one proper ability. I like that headshots reduce the CD of your ultimate, and that the ultimate's power is proportionate to it's CD. Crucible is entertaining, but honestly, Halo 4's combat is still better (which is saying a lot.)

As it happens, I downloaded EVE Dust 541 at the same time, because it was free and I was curious--and Dust blows Destiny out of the water. It's free, has better graphics, won't disappoint me with it's story because it pretty much doesn't have one/doesn't care if you don't care, the combat is more engaging, there's a hell of a lot more customization, the tech trees actually give you reasons to specialize in things...and I've only played it for the same amount of time that I did Destiny.

I've noticed that some people aren't happy with the always-online bit, and even though it's not an issue for me, I do still agree with them. If you charge $60 for a game, then the single player must always be able to stand alone, "interactive world" be damned.

Seriously Bungie, you guys fucked up. You've pretty much squandered a lot of your reputation with me, for what one random dude's opinion is worth. If Destiny 2 is good, I might consider it just because you guys made Halo. But if it's terrible, then oh well--you've made your mark on gaming.

 

[CGAdam]

If other games follow suit on the 'on-line only' play model, we'll end up with the same problems we would have had if the console(s) were still 'always on required.'

To HELL with that.

I think the main difference between the two is that one is a console, while the other is a game. MMOs have always required an internet connection, and Destiny is an MMO. Same thing with Titanfall. Titanfall is a multiplayer only game, it's kinda like complaining that you need internet to play Team Fortress 2.

I never played TF2 or any MMOs, either.

I'm just... not exactly 'concerned', but really dislike the fact that two of the biggest early releases require an online connection to play. And with Destiny, there is literally no need for it. It's a first person shooter in the Halo vein, why does that NEED to be online only? They've got a plot, they've got an effectively single player campaign, why make it always online?

The trend goes further back, too. Halo 4, Spartan Ops. A whole other game separate from H4 itself, online play only, even if you're soloing it. Portal 2, two DLC packs that require online play. Then you've got the Call of Duty series where the story campaign keeps withering away with every iteration. Titanfall was just an extension of that philosophy, and they figured now was the right time, given the new console generation.

Whatev. That's my nickel's worth. Hope y'all actually getting the game enjoy the hell out of it, but I'm out.

 

[Sack of Cheese]

Played the beta on my PS3, and it was awesome. There were no noticable lags or slowdown at all.
I was gonna get it for the PS4, but after some consideration, a PS3 version doesn't sound like a bad idea.

I love the gameplay, but the guns are too unimaginative. It felt a lot like a lovechild of Halo and Borderlands, but with less gun variety. There's no skill trees at all, making going to upgrade menu almost redundant. Raids are fun with three players involved, although I did encounter two guys who stood idle to get exp from my fighting during an instance of Devil's Lair run.

Public events were super fun I wish they were more common. I only ran into 2 events during around 7-8 hours of the Beta.