Just some thoughts, good and bad, about current Destiny. (Destiny)

by Korny , Dalton, Ga. US. Earth, Sol System, Friday, March 15, 2019, 09:09 (2098 days ago) @ cheapLEY

Destiny has me hooked again, so here's a random collection of thoughts after playing since Season of the Drifter started. Let's get the bad out of they way first, so that I can focus on the good.

-The power grind feels completely broken, now more than ever. There's two new things to do, Gambit Prime and The Reckoning. You cannot reasonably play them without leveling up by playing a bunch of old stuff we've been playing for months now. What is there to gain by increasing the level cap every season? It adds nothing to the game, as far as I'm concerned. The only single time I can think of in the entirety of Destiny where increasing in Power was a compelling experience was during Forsaken, when we first got to the Dreaming City. Every step felt dangerous, like we weren't really supposed to be there, and we gradually powered up and could go farther and farther and more confidently. Nothing else in Destiny has ever made watching arbitrary numbers go up a good experience. I got an invite last night to do The Reckoning Tier II with Malagate and few others. I wanted to do it, but I was still in the 650s at the time, so I couldn't do it. It's really frustrating being locked out of playing activities with friends because Bungie doens't think I played the right shit.

Yeah, supposedly that's bugged, and shouldn't be as grindy as it is (according to Bungie anyway, but they can say anything to placate the hordes). An upcoming patch should once more alleviate that. I think they just want the no-lifers/streamers to struggle as long as they can before they hit the cap and whine about content again, and then they'll make it easier for the rest of us.
Still, seeing stuff drop that doesn't boost your light level is disheartening, because it's just another roadblock to the fun stuff.

-I'm still bummed at the lack of armor. What happened to vendor refreshes?

On the one hand, the recycled weapons and loot are a good thing (Service Revolver is back for those who like it for some reason), on the other, it continues to highlight the skewed priorities of the 700-person team they have working on the game, if they give us almost nothing new and interesting to chase other than armor that only works in one area of the game.

I wish they'd bring Year 1 armor back. I didn't grind for those ankle warmers to watch them become completely obsolete a single season later.

That's really it for negatives. Now the good!

-Gambit Prime is really fun. I really prefer it to normal Gambit (which is also much better now). I haven't played the new map yet, but I'm excited to tomorrow!

Indeed. They didn't flesh it out as much as I would have liked, but Prime is so much fun, especially as an Invader, because a lot more strategy is involved (unless you use a Machine Gun). Real great stuff.

-The Reckoning seems like it has potential to be cool. I'm eager to power up and actually jump into the higher tiers.

I'm also eager to try the higher stuff, if only because the Tier 1 got boring real quick. That said, since I'm only about 651, I'm not eager to grind Light Level just for access to the potentially fun stuff. Seems like I have no choice though.

-The new lore stuff is incredible. The combination of extensive lore books and reworked missions with new, unique dialogue is a really smart way to handle this sort of stuff, I think. It's short and simple, but I think the Allegiance quest was absolutely fantastic. It really exceeded my expectations. I hope we see more stuff like this going forward. The Aunor pages are great, and the Drifter tapes were really cool. The implications of what's going on are really interesting. I love getting into the more political side of the Destiny universe. I do hope there is a real consequence to that choice, at some point. The only real bummer is that neither Zavala nor Ikora acknowledge the quest at all. As much as I love their voice actors, I really wish they would do the Cayde thing and recast them with people that have more availability and can come in more often to make them more active characters. As as side note, if you haven't, turn in Vanguard tokens for new lore stuff from Zavala, too. I've only got a couple so far, but they're neat little situation reports about different things from around the system. Really great stuff.

This is where I'm less-inclined to agree. Lore isn't story, and the Allegiance stuff feels more like piecemeal lore, with the significance of what lore you get being tied to an early choice. Ultimately, it won't go anywhere. It's going to be an event that ends with the in-game status quo being exactly the same as it always was.
But I get it. Lore is cheap, quick and easy when compared to fleshing out the actual story or player investment/impact. Dressing it up and slapping some rewards on it is a smarter way to present it, but it's still just lore.

Either way, I think this is all steps in the right direction for Bungie. It'll take a while to crawl out of the pit that they dug themselves into, but there are sparks of fun again, which has me hopeful. I want to see what this Nine thing is with Xur today...