Half a billion in the making: Bungie's Destiny reviewed

Repetition is a funny thing. If I was to write this review and say everything twice (say everything twice), you’d quite reasonably think I was daft. And yet, we gamers tend to delight in the repeat performance. Destiny - Mulitplayer The usual suspects? We even affectionately refer to it as “grinding” – the system whereby …

[Destroy All Monsters]

Ded game?

What happened to Titanfall?

[0laf]

Re: Ded game?

^ My thought too

[Dave 126]

Re: Ded game?

The consensus amongst follow-up reviews seems to be that whilst it initially offered a fun and exciting take on PlayerVs Player FPS combat, there wasn't enough there to keep it interesting.

[Zot]

Re: Ded game?

Titanfall is 6 months ago already! It was getting old when MS did the Xbox One advert with that Breaking Bad guy going "Yohw!" in a stupid voice.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Ded game?

played it this weekend, it's okay - except the titans ruin the game as they're completely unbalanced (as in tier 2 and above players titan is vastly superior to a sub level 50 players titan in every way) and they're generally not fun to pilot.

There you can play for free for 48 hours if you've got origin.

[James Micallef]

Re: Ded game?

"To succeed it needs to maintain the volume of players currently battling upon its servers"

In a way this looks to me like the Facebook model... not spend lots of effort on good 'machine AI' baddies since you can have players match off against each other. Just as users putting their data online for free is what attracts other users to FB, it's having intelligent experienced gamers on board that make the platform sellable to other gamers

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Ded game?

>"To succeed it needs to maintain the volume of players currently battling upon its servers"

>>In a way this looks to me like the Facebook model... Just as users putting their data online for free is what attracts other users to FB, it's having intelligent experienced gamers on board that make the platform sellable to other gamers

I think that's how my local pub works, too. We buy the beer, but the real attraction is the 'content' provided by the other drinkers. Let's try it:

" it's having intelligent experienced pub-goers on board that make the platform sellable to other customers"

- yep, that works!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Ded game?

The game is almost as dead as its host console. Filling up backrooms globe-over

[h3]

I don't see why people want games like this.

RPG Elements in any other type of game ruin it completely. (Instead of the player getting better the game just makes it easier.)

Even more so Online. (Everyone should start out the same).

[toxicdragon]

I like RPGs and RPG elements, take something like prototype. I struggle against the enemys go away and do a few non combat side missions upgrade and suddenly everything I look at turns into paste, maybe its just I like being petty but I also like seeing my character grow stronger with the effort.

[Tom 38]

Why does the Moon have gravity?

All physical bodies with mass exert a gravitational effect on other physical bodies with mass. I guess your question is really "why does the Moon have so much gravity in-game?", to which the answer is "gameplay is crap without it".

[g e]

And air

Echoes from rifle shots and the Fallen's apparent ability to not need to breathe (maybe they don't though they must grunt somehow!) ;o)

[MJI]

Re: And air

They were terraformed by the Traveller

[Vector]

Re: Why does the Moon have gravity?

"... to which the answer is "gameplay is crap without it"

No, the real answer is: They were too lazy/short on budget/<insert excuse here> to rejig the physics for the different planets. The Moon and Mars would have significantly reduced gravity compared to Earth. Venus is close enough that you would barely notice (I think. Not like I've ever been there to try it).

Oh, and I don't think I've ever referred to grinding "affectionately."

[Dave 126]

Re: Why does the Moon have gravity?

>Re: Why does the Moon have gravity?

>>"... to which the answer is "gameplay is crap without it"

>>>No, the real answer is: They were too lazy/short on budget/<insert excuse here> to rejig the physics for the different planets.

With respect, Vector, changing the physics is very easy - it would just be the changing of a value. Bungie implemented low gravity in Halo 2, and mixed different levels of gravity within the same map in Halo Reach.

Basically, if your avatar takes a dozen seconds to return to the ground after jumping at 1/6 G, you can't control its movement easily: thus sub-optimal gameplay.

[IsJustabloke]

Re: Why does the Moon have gravity?

I have been known to think of grinding in an affectionate way but it's in an entirely different context....

[Oninoshiko]

Re: Why does the Moon have gravity?

Im glad you said this, Tom 38, because if you hadn't I'd have had to.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Why does the Moon have gravity?

"All physical bodies with mass exert a gravitational effect on other physical bodies with mass"

Sorry to be a pedant, but I hate seeing physics quoted wrong... Photons have no mass, but are influenced by gravity, so your statement should actually be a lot broader.

More like -

"All physical bodies with mass exert a gravitational effect on everything".

[bitten]

Re: Why does the Moon have gravity?

"All physical bodies with mass exert a gravitational effect on everything".

We are talking about a simulator implementing a pure Newtonian universe (making abstraction of Newton's view of photons etc.) So no gravity effects on light, scores, lives ...

[Tom 38]

Re: Why does the Moon have gravity?

Sorry to be an absolute pedant, but my statement "All physical bodies with mass exert a gravitational effect on other physical bodies with mass" does not in fact preclude physical bodies with mass from exerting a gravitational effect on other things, things that perhaps are not relevant to modelling a video game?

[Kraggy]

This review is at odds with several I've read, linked on Slashdot and other places, those were uniformly bad/dreadful and gave the game few good words at all. At $500M Bungie had better hope El Reg's views are more right that Slashdot's.

[Slacker@work]

A pretty fair review

Likewise I have read good and bad reviews - regardless I paid up and spent most of the weekend playing so IMHO...

1) I spent most of the time swearing at the screen or laughing like a maniac - not that bad a thing

2) swearing at the menu structure - it sucks! Character menu is really not intuitive and "in orbit" I just find annoying (you go to orbit, select destination planet, select mission and then select Launch - its too much clicking about). Worse when dealing with the various shops.

3) PvP is like just like all the others, repetitive but fun, running around fragging anything that moves - great stress relief!

It's engaging fun that doesn't need you to solve puzzles other than "OK how am I going to take down that boss now that I'm out of sniper ammo?".

Enjoy it for what it is.

[Dave 126]

Most of the mixed/negative reviews have focused on the perceived 'small' size of Destiny. Those reviews could well be premature, given more content (strike missions etc) is due to arrive tomorrow, with more to follow in the coming weeks and months.

This new content includes new environments and enemies. This isn't 'paid for' DLC (though there will be some of that down the line) but free to all players of destiny.

http://www.bungie.net/7_Destiny-Events-Inbound/en/News/News?aid=12133

[Steven Raith]

"Most of the mixed/negative reviews have focused on the perceived 'small' size of Destiny. Those reviews could well be premature, given more content (strike missions etc) is due to arrive tomorrow, with more to follow in the coming weeks and months."

Grrrrr!!!

"This new content includes new environments and enemies. This isn't 'paid for' DLC (though there will be some of that down the line) but free to all players of destiny."

Oh, that's alright then I suppose.

Does beg the question as to why it wasn't prepped for release day to quell any questions about size and scope though?

Steven R

[Dave 126]

>Does beg the question as to why it wasn't prepped for release day to quell any questions about size and scope though?

The idea is that people with play with friends as the story unfolds in 'real time' over months and years. That wouldn't work if everything happened at once.

I like the fact that Bungie aren't that fussed about reviews - plenty of people pre-ordered the game. People who were likely to buy the game had the opportunity to play it for several days during the public Beta test and clearly made their own mind up.

I'm not saying that it is perfect (it could be combined with Elite: Dangerous, for starters!) but it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

[tony]

So It's Generic Shooter 2014 8th Edition

From some of the hype I'd followed I was expecting a story to play rather than another '<Recent Film Character>18' & '<Garbl3d Rud3 w0rd>' running around shooting each other...

[Dave 126]

Re: So It's Generic Shooter 2014 8th Edition

Yeah, the story seems a bit sparse so far (though the world-building is extensive).

However, it might be too early to judge the story, since it is going to play out over several years, by means of additional missions and characters.

More non-player characters are said to start turning up in the Tower hub soon.

[Shrimpling]

As a Borderlands fan I have some questions about the loot system

Have they fixed some of the bad parts of the Borderlands Loot system?

Specifically when a bad guy drops a gun in an online game does everybody get their own copy of the gun or is it a race to see who picks it up first? Shared loot is why I rarely played borderlands online. Some git would join your game wait for you to kill the boss then high tail it with the loot.

Also for the vs multiplayer if somebody has a much better gun than you and you manage to kill them can you pick up their gun? If you can pick it up do you get to keep it after the match?

[MJI]

Re: As a Borderlands fan I have some questions about the loot system

Loot is per player. One fix over Borderlands.

[Brenda McViking]

RE:Loot system

They have fixed it, yes - to the point where only you can pick up your weapon drops. However, it's completely random as to who drops what - certainly not a case of kill a boss to get a good piece of kit - "stuff" is just as likely to be dropped by a tiny minion which you can accidently kill with an unaimed spray of bullets, rather than a Tank which will take 600 seconds of sustained machine gun fire from 3 players to down.

I must admit I was hoping for more of a Skyrim length main quest as opposed to an average shooter like, say, Far Cry, Halo, Half Life, but it's a fair story, if a little short.

I've not played Player versus Player yet - certainly it was a lot less fun in the Beta than it is in Titanfall, but the game is good fun if you have 2 other friends to play it with, in the "single-ish" player mode.

Overall, I'd give it 7/10, so far. There is a lot more they can (and hopefully will) do with it to bump it up to 8. (and to give you an idea of my ratings, I'd give Skyrim 8/10,. HL2 ep2 9/10, Max Payne 3 4/10, Halo 7/10)

[Shrimpling]

Re: RE:Loot system

Thanks for the replies, sounds like I will be picking it up on pay day!

[Slacker@work]

Re: As a Borderlands fan I have some questions about the loot system

re: PvP kills

Sadly no, in fact there are no pick ups at all in PvP that I have seen; but good performance - not just for number of kills but doing it stylishly gets you random kit at the end of a bout (e.g. I got some shiny blue armour for taking out a Titan with a thrown knife...)

[Gene Cash]

Story?

From what I've heard, there's absolutely no story, no background, and no real reason to run around shooting things other than "for the hell of it" - is this so?

[MJI]

Re: Story?

There is story, but it is poorly explained in game, I think you are supposed to log into the game site with your PSN account and find it there.

[Dave 126]

Re: Story?

The story could be a slow-burner. After all, Bungie are trying to create a 'shared world', for people to co-operatively explore together over months and years.

It's all spelt out in Bungie's contract with Activision: 3 major releases over the next decade (i.e Destiny, Destiny Part 2, Destiny Part 3), and 3 main dollops of paid-for DLC for each major release. That's not including the DLC content that is included with your purchase of the game.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/22/activision_bungs_bungie_with_unprecedented_ratings_based_bonus/

Given the above, I'd be surprised if the story made much sense from the first week's gameplay. It would be like judging a sci-fi book's plot from the first few pages.

[MJI]

Enjoying it

Still only on the Earth and Moon, trying to level up, keep doing random missions for XP and Valour points.

Quite a lot of my friends list are on it.

The ability to save random players is good, as are the special events.

The maps are pretty big and complex, I still get lost in the Russia map.

A pop up map would be nice, one you earn like in Borderlands 2.

Now as to its single player longevity, hmm better than quite a few games, but less than a good RPG eg Fallout 3/NV, and it still is not as good as Borderlands for fun. 3 classes, 3 species, 2 sexes.

Co-op is good if they do not run off while you are looting.

Writing is OK but nowhere as good as say Naughty Dog.

Solid 7/10 game.

Enemy AI is not great, Most places you can hide behind cover, they respawn quickly for farming.

Inspirations I have found are looting and fire teams, Borderlands. Drop in co-op Journey, general feel Starwars.

[Dave 126]

... I've only spent a few hours playing it, round at a friend's. I don't thinkl he's done much else for the last week. Generally, it plays great. A solid first-person shooter.

The world building appears to be extensive, but not much story has been told (so far). This should be no surprise, since there are many hints that the story will be influenced by players ( players can't yet align themselves will any of the human factions).

The whole Tower thing seems to be designed to do far more than it currently does - as if it has been designed for more content to be plugged into it a later date.

The menu system is a little odd - it uses a cursor to make selections, as if Bungie were using a mouse in development and not gamepad.

[Dan Wilkie]

Warframe?

It sounds to me a lot like Warframe?

[g e]

Warframe - big value for money by comparison?

£48 for Destiny - not that I feel it wasted, mind you, level 20 already, etc, but entertaining enough. Glad I didn't pay for the fat £85 version though! About 20-ish hours into it.

However I've clocked over 400 PS4 hours on Warframe - it's free. I still really like it even though it's become a bit of a grind now, and paid only around £15 into it for some of the things that need 'platinum' currency to acquire. Warframe doesn't really have much story as such, not in the sense of Destiny, but there's a great many ways to kill things and a lot of missions to do and many character classes ("Warframes" which are your battle platforms/suits) with a large variety of special abilities from defensive to offensive, plus hundreds of mods for your weapons/warframes/companion units.

Easily worth a download. If you like Warframe then you'll likely like Destiny (if you've not got it and wondering about the purchase) and they're different enough to be able to keep both going. Destiny is more immediately accessible as a game, Warframe is pretty hard on noobs till you get some rank into your gear which doesn't take too long.

Oh, and if you try WF, go with Mag or Volt for your starter 'frame, imho ;o)

[Anonymous Coward]

6 vs 6? Call me when you have at least 16 vs 16 (and to be honest I'd not pay till you reach 64 vs 64)

[GregC]

sigh

Let's see...

(Another) FPS

Massively multiplayer

There you go, two things that are guaranteed to put me off a game. I know I'm in a minority here but I can't stand 1st person shooters, and for me gaming is most satisfying offline and solo.

I know, don't buy it then - and that's fine. It's frustrating at the moment though, there is a definite shortage of games that I'm interested in.

[Dave 126]

Re: sigh

>I can't stand 1st person shooters, and for me gaming is most satisfying offline and solo.

Bizarrely, Halo started off life as a Real Time Strategy game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN9vO_gRzoI

[RainbowTrout]

Re: sigh

"gaming is most satisfying offline and solo"

That's also how I prefer to play video games. That said, I have had fun getting to level 8 without the need to form fire teams of enter the Crucible so "single player" is possible. The issues I had on Sunday with needing multiple attempts to log in were a tad annoying.......

[BongoJoe]

So, it's like Dust 514 but with knobs on?

[Anonymous Coward]

MMOFPS

Let's agree on its genre, ok? Massively Multiplayer Online First Person Shooter. I know it is irrelevant, but I like to nag people about it. It's got guns and the looking-down-the-barrel POV, coupled with grinding, stats, equip customization...

Thumbdowns barrage in 3...2...1...

And I hate playing FPS without a mouse, so I won't comment on gameplay until it comes for PC, with mouse targeting, at a decent price. Same goes for GTA V.

[Anonymous Coward]

Destiny gets massive bonus points from me for being a game you can comfortably play through, compete in multiplayer, and enjoy all the content, whilst having a job and life.

'Only 20 levels' is a big thumbs up from me after the precedents set by COD/BF that require hundreds of hours to unlock all the content and be competitive.

Bravo Bungie, more please.

[O RLY]

My first thought when reading the title

Was the film "The Guard" with Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle and this scene about cocaine values

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzoNUp9myqM&t=8s

[Pypes]

My $0.02

Feels like Halo, if you took 2/3rds of the enemies off the map and added co-op matchmaking. Gameplay "feels" good, but I really can't see where $500M went, unless 90% of that was marketing budget.

[brokensocialsteve]

Bought PS4 with Destiny

After being a Xbox acolyte for years.

Played Destiny - looks nice, a bit boring. In the meantime bought The Last Of Us Remastered. Not touched Destiny since...

[BoB91210]

I really dont get the massive hype behind this game and i actually find it extremely repetitive and dull