WeView Verdict: Destiny

It’s safe to say that Destiny is a popular game, and it’s certainly brought WeView back with a bang as many of you have jumped at the opportunity to help deliver the TSA community verdict on the game.

Destiny is a bit of a controversial one, with plenty of people being hooked to the game and playing it every day, and then loads of others not knowing what the fuss is about. DJdustb falls into the latter camp, and “just cannot get on with it”. The reason for that? It’s apparently too repetitive, a common complaint among players:

You get a mission, land in the same spot, travel to mission killing enemies, get to mission kill more enemies, enter area where respawning is limited, kill a few waves of enemies while a computer is hacked. Mission completed. Repeat again and again.

I winced at Tony Cawley‘s suggestion of writing a million words about the game – as I’d have to read through them all and pick the response apart – but thankfully he kept it quite succinct, saying that while “it’s not without faults”, he’s “hooked” and has been for quite a while. It’s only really got that hook in co-operative play though, and Lieutenant Fatman believes the game should be avoided unless you’ve got friends playing, going in to call it “the most overrated game of 2014”.

JustTaylorNow left a bewildering comment which includes the word “friend” multiple times, highlighting that Destiny in much better when you’re not alone. PoorPaddy89 attributed the “addiction” to the fact that it’s an MMO. Tuffcub highlighted the Raid mode as the best part: “Six players doing the Vault of Glass for the first time, complete with tea breaks and everyone on headsets – you’d be very hard pushed to find a more enjoyable video game experience.”

“A hugely flawed experience that I sank over 150 hours into” said BrianC which is a really short way of describing the game well. Jikomanzoku echoed this opinion, stating that the game is “a highly flawed diamond, marrying easily the best FPS mechanics and weapons in gaming history to a very shallow and repetitive story.” Nocure-fd agreed that the game is flawed but described some parts as “utterly breathtaking”.

Dr-Davros acted as our love expect for the week and stated “if you want a relationship without arguments stay away” from Destiny. Esde84 agrees, with “too many arguments” happening due to this game. “Annoyingly repetitive, bland combat, bad voice acting across the board despite the stellar cast (likely due to a crap script and poor directing), no story.” said Kennykazey, who didn’t quite find that enjoyment which other people did.  MadBoJangles found that it was enjoyable with “great gunplay, loads to explore and do, new weapons/armour” but only up until level 20, where it became a “grindfest”.

“I really wanted to like this game. It looks great, plays great, sounds great… but it’s a hollow, somewhat pointless experience if you’re playing solo.” said JR., which is something that is starting to sound repetitive due to the amount of times people have said it… well, the verdict definitely fits the game at least! What kept TSBonyman playing was “the tasty presentation, a perfect shooting system, some nice locations and as someone who avoids online gaming”.

Foxhound_Solid states that you’ve to “look at the bigger picture” too see Destiny’s substance: from the gunplay to weapon selection or even the level design, Destiny truly excels in these areas. And, it’s constantly evolving, with Foxhound stating that the “finished product could be perfect”. “When it gets it right, oh does it get it right!” said PKMaxxx, backing up this point.

Saving perhaps the best – or at least the most well thought out and lengthy – until last, we had a comment from max who described Destiny as “”the biggest disappointment for me in the 25+ years of gaming”, with its almost nonexistant story, grinding missions which are extremely repetitive. The lack of matchmaking for Raids only makes it worse – maybe a few of you could join Max and let him see what’s arguably the best part of the game?

Although the community response may have seemed extremely mixed, there was a surprising number of votes for Buy It – 13 in total – and only five for Sale It, two for Plus It, and two for Avoid It. We’ve got FIFA 15 coming up tomorrow, but the poll has updated with new games, so you should probably get on that while you wait.

11 Comments

  1. Amazing how everyone can so clearly see the flaws in this game yet we mostly all still love it. Imagine if those flaws weren’t there? Would be the best game of all time, so here’s hoping they iron it out for destiny 2 in September 2016!

    • The stupid part is that most of these flaws are by design or pure neglect and could have been avoided quite easily. But I do not think they will be fixed in the current game and having to wait for a sequel to get flaws fixed feels like they are scamming me.

      I really want to like this game, but the repetitiveness is a huge deal-breaker for me. I do not have all the time in the world, it is quite limited in fact. I do not mind grinding if it doesn’t feel like grinding. But having to do the same missions over and over and over and over and over [insert infinite number of “and overs” here] again just for a chance to get that “currency” you need to pay for a level up is stupid.

      With more diversity/randomness, real matchmaking, less stupid limitations and a real upgrade tree this game could have gone from flawed to stellar. What the project leads at Bungie thought is beyond me, but they have lost a huge chunk of market share. I am sure they are very happy with what they have accomplished and are swimming around in their wads of cash right now, but they could have had so much more. And my respect too.

  2. Aw, balls. Was going to give my two pennies worth on this being that it is my most played game recently (& possibly ever, seeing as it has rarely left my console since buying it!), but was ill towards the weekend & didn’t get a chance to get on to write my bit. :(

    Oh well, being ill granted me a much wanted Gjallahorn from a random Legendary Engram received from doing strikes & a surprise Hawkmoon from a random Crucible match, so every cloud eh? ;)

    • meant to respond to it as well but I was too busy playing destiny!!! … once again Forest you taunt me with your gjallahorn and your hawkmoon comments!!!

      • I can assure you that any taunting is purely intentional – Just surprised at my RNG luck last week is all! ;)

        Although I suspect that Gjallahorn is less of a concern for you than Hawkmoon, as I know you have personally been after that one. I’ll gladly trade for an Icebreaker though! :)

      • … Or unintentional even! :/

        I just unintentionally made myself sound like more of a douche/brag! Empathy fail!

        Anyway, besides that, don’t forget that the Mythoclast (as well as some of the more useful original raid weapons that I have been after for some time) continues to evade me, as does Icebreaker, so I am not yet in the position I would ideally like to be.

        Still, gotta have something left to collect/a reason to continue running VoG I suppose!

      • You taunt me by unintentionally sending me pictures of your loot on my playstation. Then I do some inoccent browsing and there you are again in the comments boasting of your deeds. Tss.

      • Ok, that one I’ll give you. :)

        I was just shocked that something decent dropped after a crucible match was all. Plus I knew you wanted it, so I guessed you might be most interested… Or slightly narked.

        One of the two!

    • If your hitting the vault over the next four days give me a shout I’ve never done it before so feel like I’m missing out
      Not sure if your on my friend list my psn id is chucknorrislives

  3. Just looking on the app now to see the amount of hours i’ve put into this game. I’m guessing before I look it is something ridiculous due to how addicted I was and in some ways still am to it.

    336 hours!!! Wow. 236 with my Warlock, 55 with my Hunter and the rest with my Titan.

    This game has everything I want in a game. It had it from the start and it still has it now. Sure the flaws are there but I challenge anyone to get a game of this magnitude and scope to not have them. It keeps clawing me back even with the endless amount of gaming I need to get through I can;t get off it. I bought an Xbox last month and it hasnt been used anywhere near as much as it should have.

    The support behind the game is beyond anything I have ever played with patching and updating on a regular basis. Sometimes they get it wrong but they also get it really right.
    Raiding with a good crew is a fantastic experience and if you have trouble getting a squad together then head over to one of the websites that do it for you. Edit if you like fellas but i use DestinyLFG.com while I was on night shifts and met some really good guys from Australia and America to raid with. Sometimes you get some numptys but it gets you in the best part of the game.

    I’ve ranted on enough now I think and could probably go on for an age more. Safe to say this is my game of the year and infact my game of this decade. A shooter that actually works for gamers of all types. Buy it, Love it, Live it!

  4. Hands down one of the best games i have ever played.
    So it has floors but i have still clocked up over 300+ hours on all three of my characters and still return for nightfall and weekleys as well as raid runs every tuesday.
    I am well and truley hooked and expansion pass already in the bag.
    Bungie made an epic master piece that my friends and I love to pieces.
    A must Buy.

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