Alright. I hit level 20 (and then happened to get enough gear for 21) the last two days. I've already said a lot of this in various threads but I need to get it all off my chest in one place lol. First of all, I want to make it clear:
I overall am very much enjoying the game. I do not regret my purchase. I am having fun with Destiny. Keep that in mind while I go off on this thing. Second, I think
IAmRandom31's post summed up a lot of criticisms I have of the game better than I could so I'll go over other points he didn't address.
- PvP
I've actually kind of come around on the PvP. During the beta and a number of games in to the full release, I think I actively hated it. So what changed? I wasn't really sure until I realized that it was my character that changed. Though the stats are leveled out in most of the modes, you're still bringing in stuff like better a glide, or customized supers, or different grenades, and I'm pretty sure the perks from your gear like faster reload etc. In other words, it's unbalanced as fuck a lot of the time. Now that I have access to all of those options, the balance isn't as big a deal, but that doesn't change the fact that I was mostly frustrated until I did. Add in the fact that supers are instant win buttons, Blade Dancers are OP, vehicle combat doesn't feel right because your options against them are very limited, and you get an annoying experience. Don't get me wrong. It can still be fun, but it can be so very damn annoying.
- Orbit
Why does Orbit exist at all? To look at your ship? There's nothing you can do in orbit that you couldn't do anywhere else, except go to another location. So why not just let you go to another location from wherever you are? If you don't want to allow that on the planets, why not just let you do it from the hub you already have in the game, the Tower? All it does is add another loading screen to a game that already has a huge loading problem.
- Grimoire
Why is this entirely outside the game? Why can't it be in it like Mass Effect's codex? There is no reason for this.
- Player Density
I think the amount of players on a planet is way to low at 12. I don't know what the perfect number would be. I understand you don't want to populate it too much or else there will be nothing to fight. But I can say right now, it's too low.
- Social Tools
My biggest problem with the game and my biggest disappointment. Bungie wants you to have a social experience with this game. They want you to meet new people and form relationships that will carry you in to the end game. So what do they do? Not include the most basic of social tools in the game and limit the ones that are there. I have so many problems with this that I need sub groups here:
- There is no reason to force a matchmade Strike Team to then have to join each other on a fireteam before they can chat. Are you worried about people screaming at each other all the time? You solved that a long time ago with a mute option.
- Furthermore, completely disabling chat in PvP unless you're in a fireteam also discourages community and socialization. Again, you fixed this problem a long time ago with mute.
- There is no reason the Clan roster shouldn't be in the game. The fact that right now in game, being in a clan amounts to a tag next your game and absolutely nothing else is absurd. There should be a list on the roster screen of your clan mates, and there should be options to flag yourself as LFR/LFS/LFF. Actually, there should be an entire Clan screen that does that which also has a bulletin board and messaging and TOOLS TO COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR CLAN IN GAME.
- Matchmaking should be available for Heroic Strikes and missions. These aren't Raids. They are content you have very likely already completed. There is no reason matchmaking shouldn't be there for these. It should also be available for the regular mission and patrol stuff as well.
- You should be able to flag yourself in game with the aforementioned LFR/LFG/LFF for all the random people to see. An quest icon should appear above your head so people walking by can notice it at a glance, and it should show up next to your name in the roster.
- Why oh why oh why does joining the fireteam of someone you're standing right next to, force you to go back to orbit and reload the map again? That's fucking ridiculous. I assume it has something to do with the way the game loads missions, but that's the kind of shit that should have been figured out prior to release.
- I'm back and forth on whether Raids should have matchmaking. I do think they should probably try the WoW model of having the option of a more casual, easier version of the Raid that people can matchmake in to. The thing is, if the game had half the tools I've listed, this wouldn't really be an issue at all.
So what we end up with is a game that I believe is fundamentally fun to play at it's core, yet actively works against it's main goal which is a social experience that is supposed to create and foster lasting relationships with people you randomly encounter during your adventures. I REALLY hope Bungie is listening to the feedback and decides to alter some of their philosophy to allow some pretty huge changes through patches. If we don't see some of this until Destiny 2, I will be pretty pissed. This game could be my new PSO and it is so close to achieving it with a number of tweaks and being able to recognize that makes it all the more frustrating how it fundamentally drops the ball in so many aspects. Especially when a lot of those aspects are within the scope of being patched in.