I want the whole cake not a piece...
This is going to lead into my next point (maybe 2) a bit, but a huge design flaw in Destiny was the desire to slowly drip out all of the game. I don't know if they figured out early in development that they didn't have much content, but everything felt like they put it behind a dam so that they could control the release. This goes for loot, the level system, the shards, the crucible and bounty leveling, the crypto guy, etc. Everything was so slowly drawn out. I think this mechanic worked for a while, but after the first couple weeks on level 28 it just becomes frustrating. Like trying to suck a tapioca pearl out of a bendy straw.
I would love to see them open this up a little and not be afraid of people powering through this. Man even as I write this I realize this kind of stretches to all of my points in this post. It definitely covers the next 3, but it also covers stuff from my last post. I think they lacked depth in the game, story and what not, so they put wall around everything. This is very similar to a free to play game philosophy. You make a game free but if you want to slow drip to go a bit faster you make them pay. I think the flaw though is this is not a free to play game, but rather a "full" $60 release. I think the over archer problem with this game was lack of depth... plain and simple. If they fix that during the next game I am in, if not I think we will have a repeat experience.
Less stuff more depth...
This point just got bumped up so I could talk about it now. The game was so wide and vast that I think it caught a ton of audience members. This was also mentioned in my second post. I think this game was everything to everyone (sorry Everclear), but the biggest issue is the lack of depth to any one genre. In attempt to make this point quickly... I think they need to pick a smaller net and try not to hit every genre of game. If they would have focused on making a solid MMO this game could have been great. The next game needs to focus on the PVE and maybe as a later feature they can add PVP. I don't think the story suffered from lack of ending, but rather a quick ending. I don't think the classes/characters/races were the overall problem, but they lacked depth and development. All of these can be summed up by the need of more focus. Hell I think the argument could be made that even PVP didn't feel complete. Where was the capture the flag? Where was the odd ball? Where was the different maps, or voting system, or in game chat, statistics, tracking, etc? They suffered from trying to do too much with too little of time. If they focus down and do what they know I think this game will be amazing!! (PS don't stop reading there is more)
Reward me next time...
One of the more shocking and frustrating things about this game was the reward system. I don't know if I have ever experienced a more broken system. Everything was random. From beginning to end, the loot system was broken and is still to this day broken. There were multiple jokes about the crytark in the early days because you would bring a purple engram to him and you were rewarded with a green. They fixed that aspect of it, but then the drops were so random. I remember doing the earth strike and getting purple drops... What the hell why am I getting purples on earth and greens on mars. I feel that once you hit level 24 greens should cease to drop for you. And then they decide to punish you for doing a mission on level 28 by not giving you anything for finishing the mission. And forget if you decide to help your friends finish a weekly strike that you had already done. If you did this you get absolutely... dick. Oh and what is the reward for doing good in crucible?? Well nothing really because even that is random. So why not just grab your controller jump into a lobby and from time to time move your character around. TOO DAMN RANDOM!!!
In the next game they need to fix this. I read a post on the bungie page that mentioned some kind of bonus for leveling up with the Cryptark. This would be a small percentage where the likely hood of a engram giving you something good would be increased. I also think that greens that drop should automatically turn into money because what the hell are you going to do with one of those. But I also think that if you do a max level strike you should only see purples or yellows dropping. No more blue and green bullshit. As a final note on the topic I think that if you are going to keep all the greens in you should be able to combine them in a slot machine style where if you have ten greens to trade in you have a 20% of a yellow, 30% of a purple and 70% of a blue. If you trade in 5 blues its like 30% yellow, 40% purple, and 30% a crap ton of plant or element or something. And you could even do it with purples and it gives you a guaranteed yellow or something. I dont know at least it puts the power in your hands and gives you a reason to collect bullshit weapons and armor. Either way they need to do something to fix this system.
Extra!! Extra!!...
Everyone remembers when they got that Raid level ship for completing the raid and unlocking what ended up being a brown turd. Why did brown end up being their favorite color... hell for that matter what was even the point of having the ships really. Bungie put these little things in the game that overall had no purpose. I love little cosmetic touches to games, but 3 cosmetics that don't do anything is annoying. The hunter cape was cool at first, but later on when you have the cape you want and you get yet another cape you wonder what is the point. Now if they had bonuses associated with them that would be different. The same can be said about the ship, ghost, and sparrow.
In Destiny 2 I hope to god they figure out a way to make the character bonus armor useful. As well as a way to make the sparrows different or more fun. And hell I hope they have either more ships, ship shaders, or a way to earn ship builds so you can customize your own ship (this would work on the sparrow as well). I also hope they do something with the ghost. As far as I can tell there are 2 different ghosts available. I personally would love a British ghost. Either way they need to amp up the extras that are found around the world.
Loading screens, Travel, and cut scenes...
You know what... this one barely needs to be touched. I have bitched a lot so a quick list. If you played the game you know what is wrong with these things so here are my hopes.
- Loading screens - Way too many loading screens and they take forever. Add a mini game or the ability to do something in between. Hell add a different animation and maybe that would help
- Cut Scenes - The cut scenes were fun the first time through, but just about made me want to gouge out my eyes the second time. You know what would have made this more bearable would have been different stories per class or the ability to skip them.
- Travel - Part of the reason any time you jump on you end up spending 1 hour to do a handful of bounties is because of the travel. If I want to go to the tower why do I need to go to space first. Why not just click on the tower and have us sent there. That literally goes for all travel. In the menu there should be a way to pick your destination and to just go there. This is a huge flaw and hits the depth issue.
Man what can I say that has not already been hammered into you. At this point I feel I have made my point on the flaws of the game. I loved this game and it had its claws in me, but a couple months since release I have traded it in and I am onto the next game. I remember before release they were talking about a ten year game... what does that even mean? This was a game that had(has) huge potential but fell short for being too ambitious. I hope they fix even half of these issues for the next run and figure out what they really want to do with the game. Five years form now when the next game releases I will probably be writing another post similar to this one. Hopefully shorter and less complain-y...
As a final thought, why don't they talk to another one of their parent companies partners... The most successful MMO to date is WOW and they are both working for Activision, open up that line of communication and that will make this game a million times better.
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