Destiny [PS3,X360,PS4,XO]

[Brad Grenz]

I've been playing the heck out of the Beta since it launched last week. I've got a Titan, Warlock and Hunter all to Level 8. I'm on PS3, and despite looking a bit rough (especially those shadows) it runs really smoothly and plays great.

I actually love the UI. I think the pointer controls are immaculate and it makes it so easy to move from one section of the screen to another quickly without having to thumb across a bunch of selection boxes. And it's so much better organized and visualized than a series of vertical lists would be.

I should probably get back to playing Divinity, but I keep getting the Destiny shakes and going back into Explore mode, or to run the strike mission again. I got really obsessed with the Titanfall beta, too, but in that case I kind of got the game out of my system. Destiny seems to have enough story hooks and a focus on coop instead of competitive that I'm really excited for the full version.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Yah, I'm pretty much into destiny for co-op PvE, but what's with the 3 player limit? Seems an odd choice. 4 player is kind of the standard.

 

[Rangers]

I've been playing the heck out of the Beta since it launched last week. I've got a Titan, Warlock and Hunter all to Level 8. I'm on PS3, and despite looking a bit rough (especially those shadows) it runs really smoothly and plays great.

I actually love the UI. I think the pointer controls are immaculate and it makes it so easy to move from one section of the screen to another quickly without having to thumb across a bunch of selection boxes. And it's so much better organized and visualized than a series of vertical lists would be.

I should probably get back to playing Divinity, but I keep getting the Destiny shakes and going back into Explore mode, or to run the strike mission again. I got really obsessed with the Titanfall beta, too, but in that case I kind of got the game out of my system. Destiny seems to have enough story hooks and a focus on coop instead of competitive that I'm really excited for the full version.

I'm enjoying it a couple hours in. Level 3 I guess. Thing is it's been a long long time for me that I've gotten into any RPG. Missed Fallout, could not get into Mass Effect at all, missed Borderlands, etc etc etc. So maybe this game would be a good point to revisit that genre, I'm thinking. I know from reading comments I've barely scratched the surface of this game. But I can kind of already see the game's loop. And I at least think I might be willing to get into that loop for a long time in the full game.

I like that the leveling system is fairly easy to understand. And without tradeoffs, so I can just go "this armor is better" and equip it and rest easy. I dont have to think "well this armor is better but also heavier, do I want it?" I dont want too much complexity, I guess, really.


On the other hand I did feel like maybe the game is a bit soulless. But no game will obviously be perfect. Another aspect is I'm a bit wary of sinking a lot of time in knowing my Beta progress will be lost.

The game feels pretty linear, in it's own odd way too. Each individual mission so far seems basically down a corridor. Just a big, pretty, corridor that looks and feels huge. But I'm not sure I mind either, exploration has never been my strong suit. And it's a bit disjointed, think I saw a gaffer complaining about this, how the ship is basically your hub point for the missions. So you dont feel like you have one vast seamless world to explore, which is kind of odd for an RPG.

Oh, and it seems easy so far too. I am pretty much rushing enemies usually. By myself no coop. And usually I dont die almost ever so far.

Long story short, enjoying it.

Edit: Guess I am level 4 too. Sold myself short.

When I was level three I saw two missions available, one was level 3 mission and another was level 4. What would be the purpose of choosing the level 4 mission?

Also, is there any purpose exploring off the beaten path? Or should you just go straight for the objective markers?

 

[Ruiadas]

Played a bit of the XBone version last night. Right now my xbox is in my office and my PS4 is connected to my TV so my impressions could be a bit skewed. The stutter that I experienced in the PS4 version is not present in the XBone version at all and I actually think the XBone version plays a bit smoother overall but I haven’t played the PS4 version since the downtime where the stutter was apparently resolved. The biggest difference between the PS4 and the XBone version I saw is the AA solution. Whatever AA is enabled on the PS4 version is totally absent in the XBone version. At first I thought it was my 4k PC monitor having frame buffer problems with the 1080p signal (The monitor claims to have an internal upscaler for 1080p sources) but even after switching the XBone to my 1080p PC monitor the lack of AA, or at best weaker AA, was very noticeable. Aside from the jaggies, I actually thought the lighting in the XBone version was slightly better but could just be my PC monitors being better than my 7 year old TV.

Another interesting note is that I saw a LOT more people in fireteams together on XBone. PS4 seemed like mostly solo players with a few grouped people here and there, whereas almost everyone I saw last night was grouped (people running around in pairs/triples).

 

[Scott_Arm]

X1 is 900p for now. Maybe it's post AA that doesn't work quite so well at the lower resolution. I did think the line crawling was fairly noticeable. It'll be interesting to see how the 1080p final version compares to PS4.

 

[NRP]

Goddamn it, all this "It's plays like Borderlands + Halo" talk has convinced me to pre-order just to get in on some beta action.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Goddamn it, all this "It's plays like Borderlands + Halo" talk has convinced me to pre-order just to get in on some beta action.

I would say Borderlands is stronger in terms of the voice acting and the vibrancy of the world. Borderlands is just so funny and interesting. Destiny is safe and kind of boring (at least in the Beta). In terms of combat, Borderlands gets an edge for variety of enemies and crazy weapons. Destiny gets a bit of an edge in terms of balance and polish. In Borderlands you pick up a new gun and suddenly the game gets too easy. That doesn't seem to happen in Destiny. The range of the weapons vs the level of the enemies seem to be just right. Borderlands 2 is an A+ game. Not sure I'm quite that enamoured with Destiny yet, but it seems solid.

 

[Xalion]

In Borderlands you pick up a new gun and suddenly the game gets too easy. That doesn't seem to happen in Destiny. The range of the weapons vs the level of the enemies seem to be just right. Borderlands 2 is an A+ game. Not sure I'm quite that enamoured with Destiny yet, but it seems solid.

The weapon system took me a bit to get used too, and is not something I'm sure I like. Picking up a higher level gun does not usually increase the damage that a gun deals. The damage seems to be determined solely by the "impact" bar. I have had guns at level 1 that do as much damage as the best gun I have at level 8. Maybe in future levels that changes, but right now the damage itself doesn't scale.

What does change is your ability to hit enemies at all. If you have a gun with a rating of 30, the damage starts getting scaled down on enemies that are over level ~3. So the gun suddenly seems to be hitting for less. Replace that with a gun that has a rating of 64 and the same impact bar, and suddenly you are hitting level 9s for the full amount that you were hitting level 1s. I have a scout rifle that I use that has a rating of 64 and it hits level 1 and level 8 creatures for the exact same amount of damage that a similar rating 30 scout rifle I have hits level 1 creatures. The level 30 scout rifle won't hit level 8 creatures at all. It says they are immune.

 

[Scott_Arm]

The weapon system took me a bit to get used too, and is not something I'm sure I like. Picking up a higher level gun does not usually increase the damage that a gun deals. The damage seems to be determined solely by the "impact" bar. I have had guns at level 1 that do as much damage as the best gun I have at level 8. Maybe in future levels that changes, but right now the damage itself doesn't scale.

What does change is your ability to hit enemies at all. If you have a gun with a rating of 30, the damage starts getting scaled down on enemies that are over level ~3. So the gun suddenly seems to be hitting for less. Replace that with a gun that has a rating of 64 and the same impact bar, and suddenly you are hitting level 9s for the full amount that you were hitting level 1s. I have a scout rifle that I use that has a rating of 64 and it hits level 1 and level 8 creatures for the exact same amount of damage that a similar rating 30 scout rifle I have hits level 1 creatures. The level 30 scout rifle won't hit level 8 creatures at all. It says they are immune.

Interesting explanation.

 

[NRP]

I pre-ordered from Xbox.com. Are they supposed to email me a beta code? The details weren't exactly clear, and the online "live chat" support rep wasn't that helpful.

 

[Rangers]

Dunno about that, but if you want a Xbox beta code (actually 3) just preorder from Amazon and then cancel that preorder (easy as clicking a button, and they dont charge til it ships, so you've got weeks). They'll email you a code immediately. Once you put that in at Bungie website you'll get 3 codes. The only bad part (if you care) is they're locked all 3 to one platform, of your choosing. Also Amazon will only send you a code once, so you cant keep doing this and get more codes or codes for different platforms (I had to scrounge up 360 codes on my own, despite having two unused One codes)

It's free and could hardly be easier.

 

[Strange]

The weapon system took me a bit to get used too, and is not something I'm sure I like. Picking up a higher level gun does not usually increase the damage that a gun deals. The damage seems to be determined solely by the "impact" bar. I have had guns at level 1 that do as much damage as the best gun I have at level 8. Maybe in future levels that changes, but right now the damage itself doesn't scale.

What does change is your ability to hit enemies at all. If you have a gun with a rating of 30, the damage starts getting scaled down on enemies that are over level ~3. So the gun suddenly seems to be hitting for less. Replace that with a gun that has a rating of 64 and the same impact bar, and suddenly you are hitting level 9s for the full amount that you were hitting level 1s. I have a scout rifle that I use that has a rating of 64 and it hits level 1 and level 8 creatures for the exact same amount of damage that a similar rating 30 scout rifle I have hits level 1 creatures. The level 30 scout rifle won't hit level 8 creatures at all. It says they are immune.

I don't think there are any 64 rated weapons in the game that you can actually use at the moment. If there is it should be a LV9/10 one and we can't use them. I've leveled up all three classes to LV8 and according to my skills I'm LV15 (I have 14 skills), and after extensive leveling I'm pretty sure Bungie doesn't let us go beyond 14 skills at the moment.

LV8 green weapons, however do come at 57 attack and can be upgraded to 62 (consistent across primary, special, and heavy weapons)
The attack rating DOES affect how much damage you hit for, when you upgrade a weapon from 57=>62, there is a noticeable increase in damage of 5-10%.

Also, different weapons of the same class deal wildly different numbers. I have a sniper rifle that rate at 62 attack that deal ~ 1000 damage in headshots while the other one also rated at 62 attack deals ~1900.

And yes, attempting to attack targets that are above your level is a PITA. Try playing Strike LV8 with a LV6 character and find yourself having trouble killing the most basic unit - the Dregs.

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

Thanks to everybody for those explanations, but ...ugh.

I read about 10 articles on classes, skill trees, specials, abilities, leveling up, etc in preparation to play the beta and couldn't understand a lick of it before playing the game. After playing the game, a few of those things were put into context and helped me a bit - but only very slightly.

And the explanations above are just incredibly complicated.

I'm not sure how long the legs on this game are going to be, because the upgrade and leveling system is far more complex than Borderlands and I think the majority of the target audience for this game will go back to playing Halo or CoD or BF rather than deal with this level of complexity.

Even playing with Azbat last night, when it came to upgrading and whatnot it was kind of like "What the hell?" Just give me experience, make my character stronger and let me go kill more people. A few options and choices are nice because they give you an increased sense of "ownership" of your character. But when it gets to the point that you don't even really know the ramifications of what you're doing because the game mechanics are so foreign, it becomes a tougher sell.

Maybe things become more clear when you gain more levels and more skills and can figure things out better, but even Strange's comments don't make sense to me. He's level 8 but level 15? I'm not stupid, and I've read all those articles, and I've played around in the game for a couple of hours and I read what Strange wrote 3 times and I still have no idea what he's talking about.

 

[orangpelupa]

but it seems people love complicated leveling, ability, skill trees, etc. for example BF and CoD series getting more and more complicated every new series (much more weapon, more perk, more customization, more different stats, etc)

hopefully destiny also allow to be played without messing with the customization at all... so people like me that happily use stock level 1 weapons (or just pick up weapon what lying on ground) and get easily confused with customization still can enjoy the game.

 

[NRP]

Alright, got my beta access codes and I'm queued up on the XBone. Just have to DL it when I get home tonight.

 

[Scott_Arm]

You pick a class. Each class has a skill tree with active and passive abilities. You get a LB attack, a RB attack and a LB+RB special attack that you have to charge up. Other abilities on the skill tree are passive. It's exactly the same as Borderlands. Your abilities have timers that are shown on the bottom left corner of the screen.

The leveling and upgrade system are about as simple as it gets. It's very rpg-lite. You level up. You spend a skill point to unlock a new item on your skill tree. Different branches open up as you unlock new leaves.

Weapons, clothing have very simple and understandable stats (higher attack/defense is better, the other gun stats are standard for any game). You just compare them directly and pick the one you want. Green items, blue items etc are rare and have special stats. It's colour coded for rarity the same way old games like Diablo were and new games like Borderlands 2 are. You can upgrade some weapons or armour, and they'll have a few upgrades you can select that may require money or other upgrade pieces.

That's all there is to it. There is nothing complicated about it at all. It's maybe a shade more complex than Borderlands 2, but compared to an actual RPG it's about as simple as you can get. There is no crafting system, or weight restrictions. Upgrades are easy to perform.

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

Alright, got my beta access codes and I'm queued up on the XBone. Just have to DL it when I get home tonight.

Can't you download it now through xbox.com and have it all ready when you get home?

 

[Scott_Arm]

Can't you download it now through xbox.com and have it all ready when you get home?

Don't think so. Remote downloads through xbox.com or smartglass are coming in a future update, either August or September.

 

[NRP]

Can't you download it now through xbox.com and have it all ready when you get home?

Not sure. I already redeemed the code on Xbox.com, so hopefully you're right and it will DL automatically. We'll see.

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

The leveling and upgrade system are about as simple as it gets. It's very rpg-lite. You level up. You spend a skill point to unlock a new item on your skill tree. Different branches open up as you unlock new leaves.

But typically you gain a level, get a skill point and spend it. If that were the case, how does a lvl8 character have 15 skill points? Typically, in Borderlands for instance, if anything you get less skill points than levels - you don't get your first skill point until lvl3 or something.

And where does "training" come in? I figure it's something like Borderlands where you get better machine gun stats if you use machine guns more, but I'm not sure. Also, in Borderlands, it would tell you that you have killed 50/100 people using a pistol and at 100/100 you get +5 accuracy -6 recoil, etc. I don't see those same things here, but it looks like your skills do improve based upon how often you use them.

That's all there is to it. There is nothing complicated about it at all. It's maybe a shade more complex than Borderlands 2, but compared to an actual RPG it's about as simple as you can get. There is no crafting system, or weight restrictions. Upgrades are easy to perform.

I take it that you play "actual RPG"'s. The closest that I play are FPS's with RPG elements like Borderlands or Dead Island, and I certainly enjoy having those options over strict FPS's. But Destiny absolutely seems more complicated. If it isn't complicated, then it just isn't explained very well in the game then.

To Orange's point, no - I don't think you'll really be able to "ignore" the RPG elements and just go through the game with a great deal of success. And that is sort of what I'm worried about. Usually, games of this type are designed to reward players for smart use of the skill points and skill/class/weapon combinations. They are also designed to still be challenging to those who have mastered those interactions to really capitalize on them. That makes it more difficult for players who try to "just play" and not spend a great deal of time figuring out the actual mechanics.