Expectations from within the industry (Destiny)

by Jabberwok, Monday, September 29, 2014, 16:07 (3949 days ago) @ Kermit

Frankly, a lot of Bungie's marketing campaign towards release made me feel vaguely hostile, and I'm not just talking about those horrible TV spots. The repetition of tag lines, rather than candid talks about the state of the product, got on my nerves, but maybe it just meant I was watching too many interviews.

More importantly, I think the main thing that made ODST a niche product was the story. Anyone without the context of the rest of the series, especially Halo 2, would have no idea what was going on. Personally, I didn't find the game to be too short at all. Though I can see how, if someone rushed through the night city areas, it would feel much shorter. The story definitely felt more lengthy and meaty than Destiny's to me. As for lacking Firefight matchmaking, maybe it was long enough ago that it could still get away with relying on local play (unlike so many games now which don't even have it).

I kind of saw ODST as a Halo 3 expansion, sold in a separate box because it was a full-length game (even if a bit short) with completely new content and assets. In that context, I thought it was pretty successful. Oddly enough, the voice acting was my least favorite part, even though I liked the casting choices.

Really? I enjoyed the voice acting. I thought it had the most relatable characters of any Halo game. In defense of the critics who complained there wasn't enough new in the game, many of the assets were not new, but I viewed that as a quibble.

I liked the characters and the script, I think. It's hard to explain. The voice acting wasn't bad, but I think I had problems with the way it was paced in game. The way it was edited and paced somehow wasn't gelling with what they were saying for me. I've noticed this in other games, too, though. I liked a lot of the Mass Effect writing, but there are some awkwardly long pauses between lines that may have more to do with how they construct scenes in the engine. Don't know.

It at least feels to me like there is a ton of new art in the game. Vehicles and weapons, a lot are unchanged, I'm sure, and enemies. But the city, especially at night, feels completely different from any of the other Halo settings. Well, I mean, New Mombasa in Halo 2, but that was a good bit different. I guess if they can deliver new story content, I don't really care about reusing assets, especially when it's the same engine, anyway.