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Reddit: The gutting of Destiny's story
- Thread starter Imru al-Qays
- Start date
show me your skeleton
Member
i love that at one point early on you hear about an ancient AI called 'rasputin'. really cool, i thought, can't wait to find out about this, it's bungie's raison d'être... and then it's never mentioned again.
same as the lab or archive or something that you end up in. with the AI that refers to you by another's name. just so many dropped points.
destiny was the game that had the 'let's drag journalists across america for a video' reveal, wasn't it? christ.
same as the lab or archive or something that you end up in. with the AI that refers to you by another's name. just so many dropped points.
destiny was the game that had the 'let's drag journalists across america for a video' reveal, wasn't it? christ.
This is almost the exact questions that popped up in my mind after the game ended...
All in all, Destiny's story is utterly horrible and incompetently told and Bungie should be ashamed. They effectively wasted the first chapter of their new IP which should have set the narrative and tone of the series, but instead we got this unfinished, unimaginative and unsatisfying mess of a 'story'.
It's really sad to see a big and talented dev fuck up so bad, even missing the low bar they themselves set with Halo when it comes to story.
Lord of Castamere
Member
RIP derelict ship obiting Saturn I will always remember you ):
This and they also doubled in size. Aren't they close to 500 people now?
Krappadizzle
Member
*Tips hat.
Sodding_Gamer
Member
I think because this game didn't set any narrative, Destiny 2 will basically need to tread similar ground with Destiny 1 with a coherent plot for it to push it further. Like if they carry on with what they have already it will just confuse people further with Destiny 2. Unless most of those questions are answered from the get go. It's such a fumble for putting the base down.
I really hope they sort this out, as Destiny's premise sounds great, mechanics are solid and the world building is great. It's just mission design, story, and some baffling design decision keep in the way of this being good for me. I've moved on now and many of my friends have. And with some big hitters this winter I can see other people moving on quickly too.
show me your skeleton
Member
slightly aside from the story problems, i hate how the tower could be reduced to a menu and would have lost nothing. instead we sit through loading screens just to watch someone dance at you.
PuppetMaster
Member
One of the weirdest things in Destiny is that there are CURRENT day cars and vans On Mars and Venus.
I find it extreemly hard to think of a world where that is possible. They are building cities on other planets but still the cars look exactly like the ones we drive today???
If there are old junk cars on earth from hundreds of years back that is one thin. But on Mars and Venus?? There has to be some wack dev story that explains this.
I find it extreemly hard to think of a world where that is possible. They are building cities on other planets but still the cars look exactly like the ones we drive today???
If there are old junk cars on earth from hundreds of years back that is one thin. But on Mars and Venus?? There has to be some wack dev story that explains this.
It's a style that's supposed to be reminiscent of fantasy stories more so than your typical sci fi thing. But I hear you, it really could use some more unique names. You didn't list the Speaker, the Queen, the Awoken, etc.
Reminds me of how GRR Martin's writing drives me nuts. He does the same thing but everything, obnoxiously, has a color associated with it. The white walkers, the white cloaks the red god the red priest the gold cloaks the rainbow guard the blaaah blah blah
JinjoUnchained
Member
Sounds like a classic example of Scope Creep.
Missed this gem lmao
ValeYard
Member
Yeah, all these nouns, totally unbelievable. The Guardians, the Traveler,..., The Germans, The Allies, The Nazis, The British, The Americans, The Vietcong,... Who comes up with this unbelievable fiction?
I want to believe these random stories because the alternate is believing their staff writers thought whatever carcass of a story is left in the game was good to go and there is no way that can be true. Not even the worst writer would be ok with this miserable pile of voice overs and mumble jumble of script.
RubberJohnny
Banned
I remember seeing a trailer maybe in 2013 that talked of the player doing the Raid in the Reef and missions for the Queen as part of their gameplay session - things that are now locked behind a DLC paywall. Anyone got a link?
Remember when AAA stand for production value? ^^
I was quite prepared for a somewhat silly and shallow story, Destiny being a Bungie game after all, but it still managed to surprise me on how little they focused on the story and the world. I found it funny that the Last City on Earth and the bastion of mankind seemed to be doing totally fine without any threat from the different enemies in the solar system. The (playable area) is a spotless palace with all sorts of cool dudes selling trinkets and new looks for our desperate heroes - hell, they've even got enough resources to kit out each and every guardian with their own awesome starship(s)!
Ah and our desperate heroes don't really seem to be that desperate after all, as you only need like up to 3 of them to take back the whole solar system and the Ghosts can apparently just go dig up more from long lost graves when needed.
Are there any normal people around in the world anyway? Is every single person a Guardian now? If there are normal people left in the world, it would have been really simple to add some of them around the main hub and have them openly talk about their daily doings, instead of listening to some vendor talk about his new assault rifles and how he can upgrade them.
Anyway, even if the story is ironically the closest thing to an actual MMO-game, I'm having a lot of fun doing strikes and such with a couple of friends. The core gameplay is really fun, I just don't know how long it will manage to keep us playing if everything else is so lackluster.
Ah and our desperate heroes don't really seem to be that desperate after all, as you only need like up to 3 of them to take back the whole solar system and the Ghosts can apparently just go dig up more from long lost graves when needed.
Are there any normal people around in the world anyway? Is every single person a Guardian now? If there are normal people left in the world, it would have been really simple to add some of them around the main hub and have them openly talk about their daily doings, instead of listening to some vendor talk about his new assault rifles and how he can upgrade them.
Anyway, even if the story is ironically the closest thing to an actual MMO-game, I'm having a lot of fun doing strikes and such with a couple of friends. The core gameplay is really fun, I just don't know how long it will manage to keep us playing if everything else is so lackluster.
Captain Tuttle
Member
Great post, so disappointed in the story.
Get on this Keighley, find out what happened.
TheExecutive
Member
Something must have happened during development to produce such a shit story. Whether its this theory or not we may never know. From a game perspective it surely seems like a lot of things did get cut and in a very hurried fashion.
Basically how I feel. The more I play it, the more I appreciate the things Destiny gets right. Unfortunately, it all just lacks soul. Destiny feels like a studio trying to pump out a game with billion dollar franchise potential more than a project that is the result of passionate developers who like and appreciate games.
This reminds me of Red Letter Media's Prometheus review. :lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-x1YuvUQFJ0
PuppetMaster
Member
I actually think that is not fair at all.
I would say they bit off more than they could chew. This games problem was NOT lack of ambiton or lack of soul. Just missed on execution likely due to cut backs becauuse they had to hit a target.
cripterion
Member
Never fear, I'm pretty sure they'll introduce the story back, bit by bit with their planned DLC. It seems like they rushed this game or made a collective effort to make it as mediocre as possible. There was so much potential...
BudokaiMR2
Member
I could almost see that, but how could they miss out on simple stuff like adding matchmaking to the weekly strikes?
That is a huge QoL misstep for a game trying to be an MMO.
The entire point of dailies/weeklies in any MMO is to give casual players a quick fix
that rewards them quickly.
I know they are planning to patch it in, but something incredibly simple like that being passed over for launch makes me worry about the project as a whole.
Still enjoying my time with the game, though. The story is inexcusable though.
I didn't expect much as I don't really think Halo has as great of a story as some people
make it out to be. However, at least it was coherent and entertaining. Can't say either in regards to Destiny.
MrAndySchneider
Banned
This is perfect.
And yeah, I feel the same way. Didn't even finish the story. It's so nonsensical and tedious that I'm really annoyed by it. I don't *get* how the game is supposed to be played either.
For me it's the same gameplay loops over and over. I get a new story mission, I want to prepare for it and gain a level or two by going on patrols. Patrols are boring. Then I tackle the story mission, which are laughably easy because my level is too high - which makes them boring. There's no story to drive me forward, I just seem to be playing random, incoherent fluff. And the post level 20 endgame (or beginning of the game proper, really) is absolutely uninteresting for me. Also, I don't like PvP.
I love Halo and was really hyped for this. Hell, I even enjoyed Oni, and really like the old Marathon games. But Destiny really isn't for me, it's a very mediocre game.
buy teh haloz
Banned
There are actually a few normal people hanging out in the Tower. They don't do much though.
Spaulding
Member
Same goes for the Orbit? Why do I have to select "Set Destination"? There's nothing else I could do!
How did miss this post? Well played.
Thinking about the current game more it seems to me that at some point Bungie decided that their goal did not require a traditional FPS narrative such as Halo sported. Instead there would just be a classic MMO context setting framework (Traveler, Golden Age, Darkness and so on) that would provide an expansive yet deliberately vague sense of purpose.
Into this simple lightly connected plot "vignettes" could easily be inserted over the life of the franchise. Some would be short term and vaguely connected to the background context and others a triffle more directly connected to implying slow progression to the vague background goals (heal the traveller, push back the darkness).
I've come to the conclusion that to even try to analyse or rate the (technically weak ass) plot is a waste of time. The whole edifice is designed to allow Bungie and Activision to stretch out the franchise for as long as possible and as profitably as possible. It's designed to give context but little actual resolution. It's designed to allow them to sell DLC and expansion content easily and insert it into the context without much effort.
It's basically Bowser's got Princess Peach so get trucking and enjoy all the gameplay and one day, when it's deemed time - the actual chance to rescue her might be unlocked. Until then enjoy the journey and focus on the moment is the design philosophy of Destiny.
1.21Gigawatts
Banned
The game really feels like they canned a lot of content.
Basically the whole story, a lot of features like trading, gambling and some of the customisation, parts of the world.
Everything that happens seems like it part of something thats missing.
They showed a player running around in the reef almost 2 years ago.
And now the reef can only be visited in cutscenes.
If this is true thats actually a shame.
Even if the story wasn't that great, it would have been interesting to explore the world and learn more. Meet a few characters, have the revelation that the traveler is actually bad, learn about that past in quests, learn about the different factions, rasputin etc.
The Ghosts dialoge was also pretty good when the first showed off the game, the same section in the game is pretty uninspired now.
Destiny could have been what Bungie promised, a real masterpiece, but for some reason the failed and something went wrong and they had to cut a lot of it and basically released just the foundation: the gameplay.
Basically the whole story, a lot of features like trading, gambling and some of the customisation, parts of the world.
Everything that happens seems like it part of something thats missing.
They showed a player running around in the reef almost 2 years ago.
And now the reef can only be visited in cutscenes.
If this is true thats actually a shame.
Even if the story wasn't that great, it would have been interesting to explore the world and learn more. Meet a few characters, have the revelation that the traveler is actually bad, learn about that past in quests, learn about the different factions, rasputin etc.
The Ghosts dialoge was also pretty good when the first showed off the game, the same section in the game is pretty uninspired now.
Destiny could have been what Bungie promised, a real masterpiece, but for some reason the failed and something went wrong and they had to cut a lot of it and basically released just the foundation: the gameplay.
I don't know what's sadder; the fact that most of the obvious questions are half-answered in the form of web-based Grimoire Cards, or the fact that despite having these threads of information, nothing is done with it anyway.
I'm having a blast with Destiny's gameplay; I enjoy the fundamental expericence, I'm probably addicted too, but as a person that loves deep naratives, and will spend hours just reading data and entries into a lorebook somewhere (I'm looking at you, Mass Effect), it seems utterly bewildering that Destiny shipped with that story. There is so much potential, so much hope.
Part of me thinks that the grand scheme of things is that Bungie are going to roll out free-updates that flesh things out and move things forward, beyond any paid DLC.
That's the naive, child-like part of me, full of hope and optimism, who has faith in game development and that all will be right with the world, where we can all sit round a camp fire and sing songs, and hold hands whilst rejoycing at wonders of the world.
The other part of me thinks Activision have got their claws in, ripping the vision of Destiny apart and placing it behind a paywall. "Let's get them hooked, and then charge them for any sense of satisfaction". Dangle the carrot, and enough of them will bite to make it financially viable.
Nothing would surprise me anymore, yet I'm part of the problem because I can't stop playing the damn game.
I'm having a blast with Destiny's gameplay; I enjoy the fundamental expericence, I'm probably addicted too, but as a person that loves deep naratives, and will spend hours just reading data and entries into a lorebook somewhere (I'm looking at you, Mass Effect), it seems utterly bewildering that Destiny shipped with that story. There is so much potential, so much hope.
Part of me thinks that the grand scheme of things is that Bungie are going to roll out free-updates that flesh things out and move things forward, beyond any paid DLC.
That's the naive, child-like part of me, full of hope and optimism, who has faith in game development and that all will be right with the world, where we can all sit round a camp fire and sing songs, and hold hands whilst rejoycing at wonders of the world.
The other part of me thinks Activision have got their claws in, ripping the vision of Destiny apart and placing it behind a paywall. "Let's get them hooked, and then charge them for any sense of satisfaction". Dangle the carrot, and enough of them will bite to make it financially viable.
Nothing would surprise me anymore, yet I'm part of the problem because I can't stop playing the damn game.
He meant Dinklage was playing one of the characters.
Every single Bungie comment on the story is hilarious looking back. They talked about being up there with universes like Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. When the game comes out they couldn't even get their quality up to Call of Duty standards. The modern warfare stories are infinitely superior to Destiny's. That's when you know you have absolutely failed.
Yeah, all these nouns, totally unbelievable. The Guardians, the Traveler,..., The Germans, The Allies, The Nazis, The British, The Americans, The Vietcong,... Who comes up with this unbelievable fiction?
Not a good comparison.
Using nondescriptive words (darkness) as proper nouns (The Darkness) is a little different than using geographic location as a means of describing their peoples.
This isn't just an issue of using the article "the" in front of something.
What makes it worse for me is that the game's title implies some sort of profound journey through an expansive galaxy and what we got was well, nothing. It feels incredibly poor for a developer with the pedigree of Bungie to call a game "Destiny" and then produce nothing of the sort.
I really think Destiny is an episodic game. There is a lot potential there if everything isn't locked behind a paywall. We have a lot of questions like just after a pilot episode. The mood is set, everything is now some grey. We don't really know who is the enemy and who is the friend.
We will have to pay DLCs to become legend... As much it saddens me, I really think that in the end Destiny will be a masterpiece of sci-fi with many fans that are waiting for the next piece of story Bungie will give us. (Like right now, it begins)
We will have to pay DLCs to become legend... As much it saddens me, I really think that in the end Destiny will be a masterpiece of sci-fi with many fans that are waiting for the next piece of story Bungie will give us. (Like right now, it begins)
Yeah, all these nouns, totally unbelievable. The Guardians, the Traveler,..., The Germans, The Allies, The Nazis, The British, The Americans, The Vietcong,... Who comes up with this unbelievable fiction?
Except when you do a story about these factions they have actually characters. The story is not about The Allies. The Allies are backdrop. It's about Private Ryan, Captain Miller actual characters with interesting thoughts and motivations and stories. That's the problems with Destiny all of those nouns don't become anything at all. The Speaker has no internal life and no discernible motivations. You have no motivations. I mean really the only character in Destiny is Rahool and he has a very clear motivation: trolling you.
Destiny is a world populated by extras.
LoveCake
Member
Maybe more of the story will come out in the updates/DLC Bungie did say that this was a long-term game & they had lots of things they are going to add.
I am not sure the story is that much more involved than HALO really, after all that evolved with each release & you didn't get that much of a background in the first game, i think Bungie have tried to deviate from the same formulaic FPS by adding in some leveling & RPG features & also the co-op play.
I think Bungie have tried to make Destiny different & ok the story is not up there with the best, far from it in-fact but, there wasn't & still isn't much background to Doom or Quake.
I don't think there will be many FPS style games with story & background that are up with FFVII or Half Life etc.
I am not sure the story is that much more involved than HALO really, after all that evolved with each release & you didn't get that much of a background in the first game, i think Bungie have tried to deviate from the same formulaic FPS by adding in some leveling & RPG features & also the co-op play.
I think Bungie have tried to make Destiny different & ok the story is not up there with the best, far from it in-fact but, there wasn't & still isn't much background to Doom or Quake.
I don't think there will be many FPS style games with story & background that are up with FFVII or Half Life etc.
I wonder if they will fix it going forward or if they've decided that Destiny needs a story about as much as WoW does, it's not really important it's all just about keeping the pigeons playing.
(I'm struggling to stop playing myself)
(I'm struggling to stop playing myself)
The whole story reminds me of red letter media asking the same thing about prometheus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x1YuvUQFJ0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x1YuvUQFJ0
Im going to have to say no. The story elements are weak as a whole, not structured as episodic content.
A good example is that two major plot characters dont even acknowledge my character is an awoken. Even my awoken character questions this. Very amateurish and painfully hard to watch during cutscenes.
For sure there could be some truth to the fact that the story was changed when Joe Staten left Bungie last year, but most likely what they showed in 2013 was nothing but placeholders anyway, like Crow saying gunslinger stuff and such on the Cosmodrome instead of being the Queen's Brother in the Reef for example.
But the themes and the lore still stands. The Traveler draws in darkness and the Exo Stranger seems to be a good girl even when she's "not forged in the Traveler's light" like all Guardians, yet she still seems to have the same advantages as your guardian.
A likely scenario rather than Bungie being evil, is that when Staten left, lots of plot ideas were left unfinished and Bungie then intentionally made the plot simpler so it didn't fully explore certain themes and characters, like potentially the Speaker being a fraud. It gives them the time to think things through for Destiny 2 where they'll inevitably need a new writing team for the most part, and chances are they're gonna change the concept a bit since they're not Joseph Staten.
And for the love of god, stop using the "500 million dollars!" argument when you complain about the lack of content in Destiny. A Bungie rep already said before the release, and I quote (with paraphrasing) "Activision has put 500 million into to this project, and they know what those money went to, but the actual game development cost was nowhere near 500 million."
But the themes and the lore still stands. The Traveler draws in darkness and the Exo Stranger seems to be a good girl even when she's "not forged in the Traveler's light" like all Guardians, yet she still seems to have the same advantages as your guardian.
A likely scenario rather than Bungie being evil, is that when Staten left, lots of plot ideas were left unfinished and Bungie then intentionally made the plot simpler so it didn't fully explore certain themes and characters, like potentially the Speaker being a fraud. It gives them the time to think things through for Destiny 2 where they'll inevitably need a new writing team for the most part, and chances are they're gonna change the concept a bit since they're not Joseph Staten.
And for the love of god, stop using the "500 million dollars!" argument when you complain about the lack of content in Destiny. A Bungie rep already said before the release, and I quote (with paraphrasing) "Activision has put 500 million into to this project, and they know what those money went to, but the actual game development cost was nowhere near 500 million."
Doesn't QA only check for glitches and general performance? Say what you will about Destiny, but it's definitely a very polished game.
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