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[BreezyLimbo]

Hahaha, wait--do enemies on hard/heroic difficulties in Destiny gain any new abilities or AI? Seems like they're just stronger and have higher health.

No they don't. They still even have the same leash-restricted AI they do in lower difficulties, case in point a level 24 heroic mission-
http://a.pomf.se/tpjsiv.webm

 

[KiefbladeMaster]

Hahaha, wait--do enemies on hard/heroic difficulties in Destiny gain any new abilities or AI? Seems like they're just stronger and have higher health.

Missions modifiers do different things, here's a list of them.

 

[KooopaKid]

I though the same, then I took a break for an afternoon... once the loot addiction fades, there is no much reasons to go back.

I really think a lot of people are forgetting about this element. I find the Destiny OT a little sad for this reason.

Uncharted 2 is far ahead of Destiny in terms of designing engaging encounters even without the set pieces. Destiny's failings are at a much more core level. It's frustrating that the narrative execution is getting the brunt of the criticism. With how solid the mechanics are, Destiny could've been great even if it was simply a progression of fun, unique, well presented moments. The real problem is that it has very few moments. The first mission isn't different than the middle, which isn't different than the end, which isn't much different than the Strikes. Layering an amazing story on top of Destiny wouldn't even begin to fix its problems.

Good post.

 

[Xinkwi-Xkuk]

How is he wrong? Super Metroid and Metroid are two different games. I'm not saying it's necessary to have a "thick and rich and buttery" story, but they kind of advertised that they did.

Vince is right. To this day, I enjoy games without an engaging story, Mario, Donkey Kong, Sports Friends, fighting games.

What makes our medium different than other mediums? ITS ABOUT THE GAME PLAY!

And for the redundant-boring retort of "But Bungie promised an amazing story"

Give me a fu(&!ng break!

Hollywood AAA script-writing and conversanal-script has arguably only been achieved by Th Last Of Us.

Who did you think was making this game?

That's right, it's Bungie. And you arguably got THE BEST DAMN FPS EXPERIANCE IN A DECADE!!!

 

[Flo_Evans]

We can have a massive debate about TLoU's gameplay.


But "little to no enemy feedback" is simply, categorically wrong.

I think we can save it for another thread, the main point was the gameplay was adequate to good to keep me playing, but the story really stood out as in another league compared to other games.

I said it when it came out, but it really raised the bar for story in games, which has always been rather cliche B-movie type stuff, but no one really cared as long as the game was good.

I loved TLoU. But I really have no desire to play it again. I actually started a 2nd run-through on the highest difficulty but got bored. I actually think it was a better game with way less ammo and resources but the combat was still not great.

 

[Jarmel]

Totally disagree. I can think of many UC2 encounters offhand that are completely unique to those points in the game and never repeated again. That alone gives it a huge advantage over Destiny which repeats the laziest kind of encounter- enemy waves while waiting for some arbitrary thing to finish- over and over and over ad nauseam. I really don't want this to turn into a ND vs. Bungie discussion, but the Uncharted comparison, at least for the 2nd game, is way off base.

Any of the Uncharteds are infinitely better than the singleplayer stuff in Destiny. It's an absolutely insane opinion.

 

[bananafactory]

Vince is right. To this day, I enjoy games without an engaging story, Mario, Donkey Kong, Sports Friends, fighting games.

What makes our medium different than other mediums? ITS ABOUT THE GAME PLAY!

And for the redundant-boring retort of "But Bungie promised an amazing story"

I mean give me a fu(&!ng break!

Hollywood AAA script-writing and conversanal-script has arguably only been achieved by Th Last Of Us.

Who did you think was making is game?

That's right, it's Bungie. And you arguably got THE BEST DAMN FPS EXPERIANCE IN A DECADE!!!

 

[DizzyCaffeine]

When IGN releases the review, I will read it with an open mind. But the fact that there's been a Destiny story on their site practically every day for the past 2 weeks does concern me.

 

[Psoelberg]

Now is the perfect point in this thread's timeline to say that I traded in Destiny for TLOU: Remastered and never looked back.

You made a good choice. TLOU has a greate story and very fun multiplayer.

I rarely trade in games, but I'm thinking about doing it with Destiny - there are so many games coming in november that I want.

 

[MisterAnderson]

Why in the world did Bungie say that each planet in Destiny was the size of the entire Reach map?

Were they going out of there way to set people up for disappointment?

 

[bananafactory]

When IGN releases the review, I will read it with an open mind. But the fact that there's been a Destiny story on their site practically every day for the past 2 weeks does concern me.

I listen to a lot of audio/video from people who work at IGN - editors and such - and they basically always say they just give people what they want. People are craving Destiny content so they are pumping out everything they can about it. I really don't think it has anything to do with Activision handing them cheques.

 

[IISANDERII]

To be fair we have no idea how much of the inevitable, copious stream of DLC also got planned & created in that period.

Imagine if they held back content so they could sell it off as DLC? If people get wind of that, it'll be a meltdown of biblical proportions.

 

[Impala26]

Vince is right. To this day, I enjoy games without an engaging story, Mario, Donkey Kong, Sports Friends, fighting games.

What makes our medium different than other mediums? ITS ABOUT THE GAME PLAY!

And for the redundant-boring retort of "But Bungie promised an amazing story"

Give me a fu(&!ng break!

Hollywood AAA script-writing and conversanal-script has arguably only been achieved by Th Last Of Us.

Who did you think was making is game?

That's right, it's Bungie. And you arguably got THE BEST DAMN FPS EXPERIANCE IN A DECADE!!!

Alright Bananafactory, I declare you winner of the thread for this.

 

[Anton Sugar]

Why in the world did Bungie say that each planet in Destiny was the size of the entire Reach map?

Were they going out of there way to set people up for disappointment?

I remember when BF3 was yet to be released and the maps were hyped as the "biggest ever in BF".

And then those maps ended up having your spawn hundreds of meters away from objectives that were all in a fairly close radius.

Map size is used disingenuously by a lot of devs as a selling point.

 

[Synth]

Vince is right. To this day, I enjoy games without an engaging story, Mario, Donkey Kong, Sports Friends, fighting games.

What makes our medium different than other mediums? ITS ABOUT THE GAME PLAY!

And for the redundant-boring retort of "But Bungie promised an amazing story"

Give me a fu(&!ng break!

Hollywood AAA script-writing and conversanal-script has arguably only been achieved by Th Last Of Us.

Who did you think was making is game?

That's right, it's Bungie. And you arguably got THE BEST DAMN FPS EXPERIANCE IN A DECADE!!!

Those games you listed generally present unique challenges throughout each of the levels you play through. Comparing the level Design of Destiny to a Mario game is hilarious.

If you find Destiny to be the best FPS in a decade, then I'm happy for you. I can't understand how you can feel that way... but I'm not gonna stop you lol.

 

[NullPointer]

Why in the world did Bungie say that each planet in Destiny was the size of the entire Reach map?

Were they going out of there way to set people up for disappointment?

I think their definition of 'playable space' evolved over time. That may have had something to do with it, and am also pretty sure they walked that particular Reach comparison statement back.

 

[iJudged]

Vince is right. To this day, I enjoy games without an engaging story, Mario, Donkey Kong, Sports Friends, fighting games.

What makes our medium different than other mediums? ITS ABOUT THE GAME PLAY!

And for the redundant-boring retort of "But Bungie promised an amazing story"

Give me a fu(&!ng break!

Hollywood AAA script-writing and conversanal-script has arguably only been achieved by Th Last Of Us.

Who did you think was making is game?

That's right, it's Bungie. And you arguably got THE BEST DAMN FPS EXPERIANCE IN A DECADE!!!

 

[Morrigan Stark]

You're going to get wrecked for this and you should.

Uncharted 2 absolutely demolishes Destiny's mission design and encounters. The train sequence alone in Uncharted 2 is leagues, absolutely leagues, better than anything in Destiny. There's the notion that the train is actually traveling through a real life place due to the changes in the background, the platforming mechanics give the player a good deal of freedom in how they approach fights, the holy shit factor when you have the helicopters come at you, and finally the fantastic art design on the level as a whole. There's the blizzard fight after the trainwreck which is fantastic due to the player's LOS being obscured. There are multiple puzzles through the use of the game that give it a good amount of diversity and help with the pacing, the limited use of stealth in some of the missions, and half of Nepal is bloody golden.

Destiny has absolute shit on Uncharted. Most of the mission designs are rudimentary at best and insulting at worst. It would be faster to count the missions not involving wave based enemies while Dinklage hacks something. Puzzles? What's that? Most of design is Ghost interacting with something while you shoot everything in the face.

And we're not even getting into the Last of Us which has pretty good stealth mechanics and shooting mechanics as well. Both of which really give the player a lot of freedom in how they approach scenarios while also building tension.

Come on.

Good post, agreed entirely except about the puzzles, they're generally too easy to really be considered a strong point. Still, easy puzzles are better than none, especially if the game has nothing else to make up for it in terms of variety of gameplay, so when comparing to Destiny (which is already a baffling comparison from Dax [edit: sorry, seems it wasn't hers initially, I take that back], to be honest), yeah, it wins hands down.

And the gameplay in TLoU is excellent, WTF. The strongest aspect to it is how it gives you so much freedom during encounters. You can try to brute force your way through with combat (usually at heavy cost), or try full-on stealth, or simply run past enemies, or a mix of all of those, depending on the particular situation and/or your preferred playstyle. The mechanics are all precise and solid too.

 

[PnCIa]

Destiny is compared to Uncharted and TloA, we have come that far i guess.

 

[BokehKing]

Irresponsible to do what they've been doing since the beginning of game reviews? Publish a review of what is in the box so the consumer can make an informed decision? You're simultaneously covering for Bungie and making the reviewers out to be some evil conglomerate out to get them. Stop.

Last I checked, no other console game is like Destiny, so the responsible thing to do is not be the first person out the gate with a controversial score "blah blah there is nothing to the game"

Yes because they have yet to get the full experience

I'm out before the 'spin team' arrives

 

[Jobbs]

Uncharted's encounters are subpar, on average. There's nothing in Uncharted 2, in terms of the quality of its encounters, that ranks better than anything in Destiny – or even meets it halfway.

I haven't touched the games in a while, but the problem with Uncharted was little-to-no enemy feedback, the shallow difficulty increases (if I recall, an increase in difficulty just added more health to enemies), and a lacking in how many enemies to place in a certain encounter.

These same problems leak into The Last of Us and contribute to that game's poor gameplay.

I find the comparison of Destiny to TLOU in single player content to be at once shocking and humorous.

Destiny is a mindless shooting gallery where each boss is effectively the same thing with a different skin and a different arena. Some enemies you shoot in the head, others you shoot in the stomach. That's about it.

And it's good at being a mindless shooting gallery and at times pretty fun. But you're, in my opinion, wandering into the realm of comedy if you suggest TLOU is no better.

 

[BeforeU]

Vince is right. To this day, I enjoy games without an engaging story, Mario, Donkey Kong, Sports Friends, fighting games.

What makes our medium different than other mediums? ITS ABOUT THE GAME PLAY!

And for the redundant-boring retort of "But Bungie promised an amazing story"

Give me a fu(&!ng break!

Hollywood AAA script-writing and conversanal-script has arguably only been achieved by Th Last Of Us.

Who did you think was making this game?

That's right, it's Bungie. And you arguably got THE BEST DAMN FPS EXPERIANCE IN A DECADE!!!

I dont know what he is saying. Someone please translate

 

[Synth]

so when comparing to Destiny (which is already a baffling comparison from Dax, to be honest), yeah, it wins hands down.

This was actually my fault tbh. I dropped Uncharted's name (referring only to Uncharted 1) to demonstrate a game that'd be significantly worse with no story or set-pieces.

I didn't think it'd override all other discussion.

 

[RedHotChimiChanga]

Hey guys, remember, it's Polygon. Destiny will be 9.5 in 2 months.

 

[JCizzle]

Everyone knew the raid was going live Tuesday. The reviews released pre-raid became obsolete on Tuesday.

Why though? They intentionally made the raid for a very small number of people to experience, it shouldn't be much of a blip for reviews IMO.

 

[MaximusPayne]

Uncharted's encounters are subpar, on average. There's nothing in Uncharted 2, in terms of the quality of its encounters, that ranks better than anything in Destiny – or even meets it halfway.

I haven't touched the games in a while, but the problem with Uncharted was little-to-no enemy feedback, the shallow difficulty increases (if I recall, an increase in difficulty just added more health to enemies), and a lacking in how many enemies to place in a certain encounter.

These same problems leak into The Last of Us and contribute to that game's poor gameplay.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

This was actually my fault tbh. I dropped Uncharted's name (referring only to Uncharted 1) to demonstrate a game that'd be significantly worse with no story or set-pieces.

I didn't think it'd override all other discussion.

Oops, fair enough, edited my post. Still, I think she's the one who brought up TLoU, which is all kinds of lol.

 

[MormaPope]

Destiny is compared to Uncharted and TloA, we have come that far i guess.

And to think some people shit on my head for mentioning Halo 4 and comparing it to Destiny and vice versa.

 

[Laekon]

After finishing the single player part of this game I wouldn't recommend buying it. The ending was so poor I didn't think it was over. It's super repetitive and there is really no story to it. Going to trade it in this weekend while I can still get most of the value back.

Wait till a year till an edition with all the expansions come out before buying if you are not buying solely for the PvP.

 

[INTERNET]

Vince is right. To this day, I enjoy games without an engaging story, Mario, Donkey Kong, Sports Friends, fighting games.

What makes our medium different than other mediums? ITS ABOUT THE GAME PLAY!

And for the redundant-boring retort of "But Bungie promised an amazing story"

Give me a fu(&!ng break!

Hollywood AAA script-writing and conversanal-script has arguably only been achieved by Th Last Of Us.

Who did you think was making this game?

That's right, it's Bungie. And you arguably got THE BEST DAMN FPS EXPERIANCE IN A DECADE!!!

Don't you hate pants?!?

 

[Jarmel]

Good post, agreed entirely except about the puzzles, they're generally too easy to really be considered a strong point. Still, easy puzzles are better than none, especially if the game has nothing else to make up for it in terms of variety of gameplay, so when comparing to Destiny (which is already a baffling comparison from Dax [edit: sorry, seems it wasn't hers initially, I take that back], to be honest), yeah, it wins hands down.

And the gameplay in TLoU is excellent, WTF. The strongest aspect to it is how it gives you so much freedom during encounters. You can try to brute force your way through with combat (usually at heavy cost), or try full-on stealth, or simply run past enemies, or a mix of all of those, depending on the particular situation and/or your preferred playstyle. The mechanics are all precise and solid too.

Yea there are issues with Uncharted. The puzzle design and platforming are two. However that's because the games are already at such a high level that players want the absolute best. Destiny's missions and encounter designs on the other hand, are subpar on almost every level even just in comparison to Bungie's previous games.

 

[Muffdraul]

I'm genuinely surprised that "Destiny has better gun combat than Uncharted and TLOU" is causing so much controversy and static. It's the simple truth.

 

[BeforeU]

After finishing the single player part of this game I wouldn't recommend buying it. The ending was so poor I didn't think it was over. It's super repetitive and there is really no story to it. Going to trade it in this weekend while I can still get most of the value back.

Wait till a year till an edition with all the expansions come out before buying if you are not buying solely for the PvP.

This is activision game. When have you ever seen a COD game with all its expansion packs? Even 8 year old COD game still selling for 30$ lol and without any DLC.

And you think next year Destiny will be out with all the expansion pack for cheap price.

 

[Caja 117]

I dont know how can you campore a Third person Shooter with a First Person shooter in terms of gameplay

 

[Zornack]

I'm genuinely surprised that "Destiny has better gun combat than Uncharted and TLOU" is causing so much controversy and static. It's the simple truth.

It has better gun combat in that shooting shit in destiny feels better than shooting shit in TLoU but the encounter design and gameplay are worse.

 

[Ken]

Uncharted's encounters are subpar, on average. There's nothing in Uncharted 2, in terms of the quality of its encounters, that ranks better than anything in Destiny – or even meets it halfway.

What. I've never played Uncharted but I find that hard to believe especially when most Destiny encounters, and every Strike boss, are peekaboo gunfights against bulletsponges with zero visual feedback on progress interspersed with add phases.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

I'm genuinely surprised that "Destiny has better gun combat than Uncharted and TLOU" is causing so much controversy and static. It's the simple truth.

You may want to re-read the posts, because it's not about gun combat, it's about encounter and mission design.

 

[Ingueferroque]

After finishing the single player part of this game I wouldn't recommend buying it. The ending was so poor I didn't think it was over. It's super repetitive and there is really no story to it. Going to trade it in this weekend while I can still get most of the value back.

Wait till a year till an edition with all the expansions come out before buying if you are not buying solely for the PvP.

But.. what did you expect? This isn't a game to play to 'finish' it and to expect a satisfying story finale. It is designed around the gameplay itself, and the multiplayer options.

You did not enjoy the gameplay?

 

[BipolarBear629]

I just reached a point today after playing where I realized there is no point in playing. I play the same missions and maps so I can get better gear to play the same missions over again?

 

[Synth]

I'm genuinely surprised that "Destiny has better gun combat than Uncharted and TLOU" is causing so much controversy and static. It's the simple truth.

"gun combat" isn't really the same thing as "encounters" though. You can have worse core mechanics and still put them to much better use than a game that does the opposite.

Take the first Super Mario Bros. See that goomba you stomp at the beginning? Imagine that was the extent of the game's encounter design. The core jump/stomp gameplay remains unaffected, but the game would be shit now as a result of the lacking encounters.

 

[Muffdraul]

You may want to re-read the posts, because it's not about gun combat, it's about encounter and mission design.

The encounters and mission design in Destiny are 100% gun combat, so that's pretty much as far as the comparison can go, being that Destiny is the subject and the other two are mentioned only in comparison to it.

 

[KooopaKid]

I just reached a point today after playing where I realized there is no point in playing. I play the same missions and maps so I can get better gear to play the same missions over again?

Why it took you so long? At what point did you realize you were not having fun anymore?

 

[Jarmel]

The encounters and mission design in Destiny are 100% gun combat, so that's pretty much as far as the comparison can go, being that Destiny is the subject and the other two are mentioned only in comparison to it.

And that's why the mission designs are dogshit.

Oh and the gunplay in Destiny is only better than UC1 and UC3. UC2 is right up there in gunplay.

 

[Synth]

The encounters and mission design in Destiny are 100% gun combat, so that's pretty much as far as the comparison can go, being that Destiny is the subject and the other two are mentioned only in comparison to it.

I don't really think you get it.

Would it help if people used Halo's encounters instead?

 

[Muffdraul]

Oh and the gunplay in Destiny is only better than UC1 and UC3. UC2 is right up there in gunplay.

/jlawok.gif

 

[breakfuss]

Yeah, I agree the gunplay is better than Uncharted/TLoU. As long we're strictly talking about shooting and nothing else, lol. The melee in Destiny is also quite satisfying.

 

[Jarmel]

/jlawok.gif

UC2 on just shooting mechanics is one of the best TPS.

 

[NullPointer]

I'm genuinely surprised that "Destiny has better gun combat than Uncharted and TLOU" is causing so much controversy and static. It's the simple truth.

Of those games Destiny is the only one that will literally pull my cursor across the screen because the aim assist is just that strong. Its annoying, especially when fighting Cabal that will jetpack up near you and drag your reticle away from your currrent target - or even on fast mover enemies like Cabal psions or running Fallen, where the reticle seems to de-magnetize/repel when those guys are in full sprint.

Let me turn off the aim assist and I'll call the gunplay one of the best. With it on, its too automatic, or you can just keep thinking you're just that damn good with the hand cannon ;p

 

[Muffdraul]

UC2 on just shooting mechanics is one of the best TPS.

Yeah, I get it. You love UC2's gun play, I don't. Let's move on.

 

[TemplaerDude]

Last I checked, no other console game is like Destiny,

I'm out before the 'spin team' arrives

You did your own spinning there, bud. In a thread filled with hyperbole on both sides, the "DESTINY IS TEH UNIQUEZ" probably got the biggest guffaw out of me.