Always connected (Destiny)

by BeingU, Thursday, July 24, 2014, 14:09 (3786 days ago) @ Cody Miller

I'm similarly feeling like the "always connected" aspects aren't that much of an improvement compared to what we get in a vanilla FPS.

Phoenix_9286 talks about how magic it is to have your friends just drop straight into your fireteam. That could already be done in a vanilla FPS (don't know why they typically want people to be in the lobby for new members to join). I see this as nice "polish", but after the novelty wears off, it's going to be a minor thing.

Grizzlei talks about camping an area for an hour, killing random mobs between Public Events. I'm happy you found this fun, but this is what sours Exploration mode and Public events for me... they happen about every 30 minutes, and the rest of the time I'm just killing time waiting for the next one. The more traditional Story and Strike missions I find much more entertaining, because they at least set up interesting set-pieces to fight my way through. (And I'm finding those less interesting than other FPS games, but hoping it gets better...)

I think before trying the Alpha and Beta, I was hoping that Exploration mode would be more fun in terms of random sandbox fooling around (GTA is probably the best-of-breed for that), and that the random missions would be more interesting. The random missions are boooooring. For some reason I can't put my finger on, I do find myself drawn to completing the Bounty challenges.

But back to the "always connected" shared world. Before the Alpha and Beta, I was probably thinking of Fallout 3 / New Vegas as approximately what Exploration in Destiny would be like. A large world with a sparse population, lots of hidden things to discover and interact with, and enough of a simulation of NPCs with different behaviors and agendas to make it feel like a living world. Instead, Destiny Exploration feels liks a sub-par mission with mobs kind of clinging to their spawn area.