I wanna talk some about Destiny. I hated Destiny after the Beta which was related to the story, and I'll be talking a bit more about that below, but first some positives...
Strengths of Destiny:
- Supporting character voicework by greats such as Nathan Fillion and other famous celebs
- Land speeders!
- Hand Cannons! Kills with one shot! Satisfying precision kills.
- Different AI scripts and enemy design create dynamic encounters. Shoot and kill a floating 8ball that uses pink lasers.
- Boss fights can be really cool.
- Environments are so pretty. Venus Hot Springs! Craters on the moon! Etc.
- Lots to do and frequently updated!
- Cool co-op experience. Matchmaking for raids and strikes.
Weaknesses:
Story is blah! Go around! Do stuff and get obstructed from doing that stuff by other things! Kill other races because you're the "light" people and they're the "darkness". Very little critical thinking ("Uh, guys, should we really be doing this much genocide...?"). There are at least two or three scenes where you shoot aliens who are praying. There's at least one character who is a reformed "Fallen" and this guy has no problem with you killing every one of his people that you encounter.
Sidenote: The Fallen have like six arms and could totally fuck you up with six guns if they wanted. Your character is so OP versus other lifeforms.
It'd be more convincing that there was a threat to humanity if your homebase was ever attacked. Instead, it more smells of Cold War paranoia, preemptive strikes and containment. History has taught us that no nation is categorically evil and Bungie's earlier Halo games feature alien races as playable characters after you've been slaughtering them. It's surprising that looking at the other side isn't more prevalent here, but maybe this will be covered in later expansions.
I feel Mass Effect handled "Human Privilege" much better than Destiny. In Mass Effect, humanity is the upstart and one of the most evil characters (The Illusive Man) is human. Here, your human character is a massive death-dealer and unquestionable in that capacity. Kinda like the Judge Dredd of the galaxy.
Another thing about your character. He/She/It (because you can be a robot with a shiny forehead) is revived from centuries of death-sleep, and gets right back on that killing game with little questions. Again, critical thinking is next to nil. Destiny would fit with the silent protagonist trope except your character also talks during movies and has a paper-thin "badass" personality. Other story characters aren't well developed such as the queen and her brother who are hostile and arrogant. They send you to near certain death, and your character shrugs, "Sure, I can do that." There's also a mysterious stranger who tells you to go places and you follow without second thought.
Liberal Arts education must be really rare in the future.
Your Ghost companion is sometimes really vapid (e.g. "I wonder how all this stuff looked before the Collapse" -> no, you don't you mindless automaton), and sometimes really insightful/humorous (e.g. "Remember when ______ was our biggest problem. A lot has changed" when you go through a recycled environment and see a destroyed boss).
In sum, there's generally a mushy story in Destiny with some occasionally engaging parts like the character who is trapped in the cavern of the dead for several years and is kind of a prophet foretelling the return of a great enemy. Also, the wisecracking Nathan Fillion, as a space robot rogue, is hilarious. Lance Reddick reprises his role as the "no-nonsense" boss, so you could see Nathan Filion as a more charming space McNulty. The head of the PVP arena is Morgan Jones from AMC's The Walking Dead. So, the celeb game is strong.
Final Thought: Isn't gravity different on other planets? No, not in Destiny.
Mars Should (g)et Bigger,
Leonard Bogus Jonathanson
