I was going to update and talk about Sony's press conference (I went to the live event at a local movie theater) & then Nintendo's conference, but Sony gave all live viewers an alpha code for Destiny on THURSDAY, sooooooooooo, I played the ever loving SHIT out of it.
The game is so good.
I'll list my gripes first of all:
Peter Dinklage really phoned it in, in some of the dialogue. I don't know if it was intentional or not, but it sounded more like it was "so bad it's funny" you'd hear in a more satirical game, but Destiny seemed to really take itself seriously. Not a major issue, as the story is pretty damn good aside from that. Also, it's pretty fucking weird seeing Tyrion fucking everywhere.
The open world exploration is.. boring. I mean.. It's exactly what you'd expect it to be in this kind of game. I'll explain: When you aren't doing a story mission or strike mission (essentially a raid) you can choose to just explore the world. There's loot to find and things to explore, and there are missions you can accept in the field to give you something to do, but it's mostly just an empty world filled with constant waves of enemies. It was nice to have it during the Alpha test, because I was trying to grind up my weapons once I hit the level cap, and I'm sure during the full release it'll be more interesting, with atleast more people and areas to explore.. but I mean.. there's really not much you can do with a "here's the world, go explore it" type thing. Not in the kind of game they're going for, atleast, and that's fine. It's nice to have the option, at the very least. You also get random events in the open world, where you and other players can show up to complete an objective. In the Alpha it was primarily defend a location, kill a very strong version of an enemy, or take down a boss, all within a time limit. Again, something I'm looking forward to toying with during the full release, but I'm not setting my expectations too high.
Now, on to the good stuff: which is everything else.
The customization isn't exactly mind blowing, but damn, there's customization to begin with. You get to choose between 3 races, a few hairstyles which were a bit too modern for my liking, but I understand where they're going with it, tattoos, makeup, face editing, more or less a toned down version of your character creation in Mass Effect, to give you an idea. It was glorious.
The story was a bit cliche, but still so good, because who doesn't love space post apocalyptic shit? The world is blown to shit but our technology is still so advanced someone from modern days would probably have an aneurism trying to turn on their phone. You only got to play one mission, but I really like where the direction the story is taking, and the overall tone of it.
The loot, oh the glorious loot. At first I wasn't sure that enemies even dropped loot, because most of the loot I had found was in containers I discovered while exploring. Bungie is taking a quality over quantity approach, in which you still get trash items, but you get less items overall, and the ones you do get, will likely be an upgrade. You can either find a straight up item, or a "engram", which you have to take to a NPC in the Tower (your central hub) to "decode" it. In the Alpha, I found green & blue items (green = uncommon, blue = rare) and they're so good. The rarer items have unlocks.
The rarer items have unlocks. I just had to say it twice. The green armor I wore had special abilities that I could unlock as I gained exp on my character, like faster reload speed, increased recharge for grenades, that kind of stuff. The guns (I only found green guns in the demo, unfortunately) had a damage increase, and then 2 additional scopes you could unlock for your gun. You just had to keep using that item, and it would unlock it for you. I heard that the blue items had additional unlocks, like ammunition types, barrels, things like that. I really, really want to get into the full game and just indulge myself.
My favorite part of the game, though? PVP. The crucible is basically Halo. In the Alpha, there was only control points, but when you get into the PVP, it's just so good. I spend about 26 hours playing the alpha (I had to work most of the duration of the alpha, unfortunately) and I'd say about 20 of that was just PVP. It's just so good. In the PVP, all of the characters and gear are scaled up or down to a set level, so that having a super gun won't give you an advantage over someone who doesn't have it. That could be a turn off for some people, but there will likely be an "unlocked" free for all mode where anything goes. For competition's sake though, I really enjoyed having everything be on the same level. The Titan and Hunter are basically the top two PVP classes, because the Titan is bulkier and his super is great for clearing the control points, while the Hunter has the best jump, a throwing knife, and golden gun is actually pretty good in the hands of a skilled player.. especially when you know you're going to be bumrushed. The Warlock gets the short end of the stick, by having a meh jump, and his ult is long range, but you can pretty easily kill a warlock out of their ult before they get it off. Of course in PVE, Warlocks are amazing.. and we can't really judge these classes based on alpha, at level 8, before side classes are unlocked.. but for now, I definitely know I'm going to be a hunter. It's just too good to pass up, especially for PVP.
Overall, I fucking LOVE Destiny, and I cannot WAIT for it to come out. I'm pre-ordering it and sending in my PS4 for repairs soon, so I'll be ready for the Beta. It seriously cannot come quickly enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment