I’d almost forgotten how great Bungie campaigns used to be. (Gaming)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Monday, December 09, 2019, 09:22 (1902 days ago) @ squidnh3

All of this while playing through a well told story with great characters and a beautifully realized world.

I think there's probably some additional reasons why Destiny isn't quite like this, but one thing that would help would be difficulty modifiers. Being able to waltz through every mission without any sense of stress or problem solving isn't conducive to any experience.

I think that's a great point, and I totally agree... BUT...

I just replayed the entire Reach campaign on Normal, and I'm blown away by how impactful the story was, even with the relatively low difficulty. I'm a guy who has gone on and on about how stressful gameplay scenarios are a crucial part of storytelling in video games. I think the ability to make a player feel nervous and tense and exhausted purely through their in-game actions is one of the key things video games can do that other storytelling mediums can't. And yet, despite that, Reach's campaign still hits hard even when the gameplay experience isn't so stressful. And I think there's a very specific reason why.

The way Reach's story progresses is as an increasingly dire string of "we won that battle, but we're still losing the war" moments. Even if you, Noble 6, are kicking ass left, right, and center as you play through the campaign, the greater situation around you is going further and further to hell. I think this creates an experience where playing on a higher difficulty enhances the feelings of hopelessness and being overwhelmed, but those feelings still exist even when the player is stomping everything in their path.

Halo CE actually nailed the same formula. I think that's at least part of the reason why both campaigns are so good across all difficulty levels.