Destiny - my thoughts

So I'm about 6 hours into Destiny, it's been okay. A famous quote from someone at Bungie (which I'm probably misquoting) is that they strive for 10 seconds of fun and repeating that over and over. And the game succeeds at that. The core mechanic is fun and it feels right.

Unfortunately, the fun isn't all that the repeat over and over.

Echoing what undoubtedly every other publication has already said is that the recycling of content and the bland generic mission design within that content is a huge problem. The last game that so blatantly recycled content that I can remember was Dragon Age 2 and it got critically panned for it. 

Unlike other MMO's the game only has a few zones and these zones like an MMO spawn the same groups of enemies and the same locations over and over. Your few missions take place in between these random mobs. Everything you do gets you XP and sometimes loot (see below.)

And it is an MMO, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Not in the way that the game forces you to group but in a way that the game is simply a lot less fun without others. Don't solo this game, just don't do it. This isn't like Halo where you have groups of AI marines to back you up. Playing solo just makes you feel alone and the respawn mechanic actively punishes you for this. So why is there no open game mode where you can drop in to someone else's game or they can drop into yours. Not unlike Diablo 3. If you know your game is a miserable experience solo, what do you care that sometimes there is a level difference or that some people may have to play through a mission twice?

It's also a loot game, but the loot sucks. For all the examples out there like Borderlands, Diablo 3 and the piles of MMORPG's out there. How hard is it to design a loot system that actually encourages the grinding that your levelling structure demands? I'm level 8 but am still wearing level 4 boots as I haven't been able to find nor buy a pair of boots anywhere. ANY boots, better or worse.

I played a few matches of Crucible, it was hideously unbalanced. I stopped caring about it pretty quickly. This is not Halo's multiplayer, it's trying to emulate pretty much every other generic shooter out there. No tactics, poor level design and one hit kill weapons abound. 

Will I finish the story? Probably, if I can find people to play with. Will I uninstall this pretty soon afterwards? Very likely. Is this the game were were promised? Not by a long shot....

Update:

After a number of patches from Bungies side to improve the loot situation and finding a bunch of goons to play with I did manage to stick it out till hitting level 27 and indeed finish the story.

Now, mid November, as the torrent of games has started I've finally said my goodbyes to Destiny.

The Last Night

Got 5 minutes, like Cyberpunk and want to play something amazing right now?

Check out The Last Night at http://timsoret.itch.io/the-last-night

It's the best 5 minutes you'll spend today. Looking forward to the Kickstarter ;-)

Divinity Original Sin Review

Now I must admit, I wasn't part of the original Kickstarter on this one. As it was launched around the time I was suffering from a now common affliction called Kickstarter fatigue. 

In hindsight, that was a mistake. 

I'm about 12 hours in and enjoying myself immensely. The game is a breath of fresh air in a genre that seems to be obsessed with chasing wide open world and often forgetting to put anything interesting in them. In Divinity every part of the gameplay map servers some kind of purpose. From providing place to find a secret to an interesting spot for one of the games tactical turn based encounters.

And it are these encounters that are the highlight of the game for me. Taking the rich tactical options of games like Baldurs Gate and more recently the original Dragon Age and putting them in a X-Com like framework with actions costing a set number of points. Unspent points carry over to the next round adding an even deeper level of strategy where some spells and abilities require you to save some points from the previous turn. That's on top of an already very varied menu of tactical options.

I'm playing as a Ranger and Cleric. Which gives me access to a number of archery abilities, tens of special arrow heads from standard exploding and poisoning to steam and smoke screens. On the Cleric I get healing, buffs and the ability to cast a number of offensive spells. You're never at a loss for options.

Apart from the two "main" characters you can swap additional characters in and out of your party. Supplementing your two mains. Just for the combat, Divinity: Original Sin is worth the price of admission.

That doesn't mean other areas are underdeveloped, graphically the game looks better than most most higher budget commercial games and those graphics are backed up by some great sound effects, okay voice acting and the usual suite of fantasy music. Again, the battle music is the standout here which is good because some of the battles tend to last in the tens of minutes.

The story so far has been a bit slow going, taking me through a traditional murder investigation plot while funnelling me from area to area. While the game is essentially non-linear it's the enemies levels which in practice gate you from certain areas. There is simply no way your level 3 guys will be taking out that mob of level 5 Orcs without either a lot of luck or patience. Better try again when you've levelled up a bit. But the setup of the story is promising and I will certainly be playing more of it to see where it goes.

All in all, I recommend you pick this one up if you're a fan of classic RPG's and tactical battles. Those of you looking for an open world RPG or a more MMO like experience will not find what you're looking for here.