Home Gaming Destiny is great, but it is missing some tricks

Destiny is great, but it is missing some tricks

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This weekend was the first time I’ve personally been able to put a good couple of hours into Destiny and the game is truly phenomenal. Bungie has done something incredible here and I truly think this will be the defining game of the next few years.

But having said that I still feel the game is missing some things that will truly make it one of the great games of our age.  Hopefully Bungie will be taking note of what the community says and we can see these in the final game.

More Loot

The headline explains it all. After grinding out a win against that Spider Tank I was immensely disappointed to run up and realise that it had dropped almost nothing. Where’s our bajillions of weapons, armour, ammo and the like? A couple of clips of ammo and no weapons at all was a disappointing haul and Bungie need to take some queues from Gearbox here and make sure the bosses drop a ton of loot. It doesn’t have to be useful loot but you want to see some benefit from the big kills.

Last Hit Bonus

I can’t believe I’m saying this but I actually want Bungie to take a look at DOTA and steal their last hit mechanic. Not in the way that only the last hit counts – but for example: I was midway through a massive wave of enemies and my partner was taking out a wizard. The wizard was pretty much dead so I turned around, threw my knife half way across the map and killed it with one shot. I would have loved to get a little bonus for something like that. Even if it was something as simple as immediately recharging my throwing knife.

Change the PvP

The story mode and strike modes in Destiny are amazing. I’ve not had so much fun in a game since Borderlands 2 was released and I truly can’t wait for the game to be fully released. But the Player vs Player part of the beta is definitely nothing special. In fact I’d agree entirely with Geoff when he said if he wanted to play Halo multiplayer he’d have loaded Halo.

The gameplay is generic, the mechanics are entirely too similar to Halo and I really can’t see any reason why I would invest hours of my life into it. Bungie needs to take a step back and see what makes Battlefield and Call of Duty so engaging and try come up with something a bit more unique or honestly just drop the PvP mode entirely.

Show my character in battle

I spent a solid 5 minutes making my character only to find out that the only time you see them is when you are wandering around the Tower. Seriously I want to see my purple headed goodness running around in battle, it would make spotting your strike-team partners that much easier and is something I really can’t believe they aren’t going to implement.

Trophy Wall

This morning Darryn and I were arguing about whether I had killed a certain boss character or not. How is it possible that in 2014 we don’t have a simple trophy board on the Destiny App showing which bosses I’ve killed and the level they were at? I want bragging rights for killing some of those insane bosses.

More Story and Exploration options

Destiny is breaking new ground by attempting to make a game that caters for all the different types of gamers out there but at the moment single player gamers seem to be getting stiffed. I’m honestly expecting the retail game to have a killer story line to follow that branches out when I explore the large open areas. Why is that boss hiding under the ship wreck, there must be a reason behind that so tell me.

More Clan Integration

So we’ve got our local Lazygamer.net clan, join it here, but when I was playing on the weekend I noticed there is no way to see who else in our clan was online. You had to be friends with them before they’d show up in-game which totally destroys the point of the clan in my opinion.

If you are going to offer the ability to create a Clan then I want to be able to see what my clan mates are doing and even better would be to have a Clan room at the Tower where we could swap weapons and armour between members. At one stage I had 3 identical weapons. Why can’t I dump two of them into the Clan room for my colleagues to use if they want?

Cross Generation Play

Yes I know Bungie has said it isn’t allowing cross generation play (PS4 and PS3) because of the advantage that the PS4 players would have in PvP but why not enable it for the story, strike modes and raids? I can’t afford a PlayStation 4 yet but I want to play on the same strike team as them and Bungie has already said there is no technical reason stopping them from making this happen. So make it happen Bungie.

Conclusion

Don’t get me wrong, I’m hugely excited for Destiny to be released in September – but no matter how good something is it can always be better. So if you’ve been playing the beta let us know what you think of it and if you have any ideas that would make the game better leave us a comment.

Last Updated: July 21, 2014

87 Comments

  1. Rince&pop

    July 21, 2014 at 12:39

    Nice points. Though really don’t think a cross generation play is needed.

    Reply

    • Umar Fong Wong

      July 21, 2014 at 12:52

      I raise the same point but suddenly his points are nice and mine need pink hair. Biased ginger is biased!

      Reply

      • Rince&pop

        July 21, 2014 at 12:54

        Pah! Go cry me a Lightening!

        Reply

        • Umar Fong Wong

          July 21, 2014 at 12:55

          *sniff* you hurt me *snort*

          Reply

          • Rince&pop

            July 21, 2014 at 12:56

            Hehe 😉 Nah, I liked what you had to say, but like winding you up more. PS. Go on to twitter and retweet my demands for Martha to review the Kardashian game 😉

          • Umar Fong Wong

            July 21, 2014 at 13:02

            No I like him lol I dont wish that on my worst enemy!

          • Rince&pop

            July 21, 2014 at 13:04

            MWAHAHH! Now they are considering it, thank you twitter. my pleasure.

      • iAmWeasel

        July 21, 2014 at 12:54

        Of course.. you aren’t LG staff, you don’t know jack!

        Reply

        • Umar Fong Wong

          July 21, 2014 at 12:54

          *cries* what do you know! I hate you…waaaaaaaaaaaaah

          Reply

        • Rince&pop

          July 21, 2014 at 12:54

          Oi! You leave my pink-haired Umar alone! He’s written a few articles here, so he’s half LG half JRPG 😉

          Reply

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            July 21, 2014 at 13:01

            A JRPLG?

          • Rince&pop

            July 21, 2014 at 13:02

            That just looks like you sneezed Ha, Ha JRPLG!

          • Sir Rants A Lot Llew

            July 21, 2014 at 13:02

            Bless you

    • BrandNewDaddy

      July 21, 2014 at 20:07

      Why no crossgen? I won’t be buying a ps4 for some time but would still like to play with my brother in law…but again they say no cross gen play but they are letting us know that we can log in from a ps4 and play our chars from our ps3 game? How is that not setting up for cross gen play we are on the same servers!

      Reply

  2. Alien Emperor Trevor

    July 21, 2014 at 12:41

    You may want to see your “purple headed goodness” running around, but I’m fairly sure other people don’t. Wait… what are we talking about? O_O

    Reply

  3. Umar Fong Wong

    July 21, 2014 at 12:42

    More loot and would make exploration so much more better!

    And I wholeheartedly agree on your story point, I mean The Traveler and the lore Bungie is/trying to set up is extremely intriguing. I just pray that the story is more in depth!

    I would love the areas to be more fleshed out. Find some lone surviving human in the depths of some underground labyrinth perhaps. Side missions are pretty boring too, which will probably change in the full release. I was hoping for distress beacons that would’ve led me to some secret area with tons of secrets or lore tidbits. Nope…Kill a bunch of enemies and move on.

    Now is not the time to play it safe Bungie. The framework is there for something TRULY and utterly magnificent…Gameplay is good, it’s solid and fun. But now I’m ready to see if everything else about it will shine too

    Reply

  4. Pieter Smal

    July 21, 2014 at 12:42

    PC version – duh!

    Reply

  5. Sir Rants A Lot Llew

    July 21, 2014 at 12:45

    Maybe a PC version?

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief Saxon

      July 21, 2014 at 12:53

      Huehuehue SHADDAP

      Reply

      • Sir Rants A Lot Llew

        July 21, 2014 at 13:00

        lol

        Reply

  6. Umar Fong Wong

    July 21, 2014 at 12:46

    This is the type of articles needed now. We know it’s good. But enough with the endless praise. Lets raise the issues and hopefully they’ll listen to the communities so that Destiny will be all it can be

    Reply

  7. Hammersteyn

    July 21, 2014 at 12:46

    I agree for the most part but…
    Last hit bonus – What about those that do most work. In the beta you can join anytime just to get the final hit.
    Trophy Wall – If you and your mates were there from the start then everyone get’s a trophy. Heck someone has to revive my ass for punching the boss in the mouth
    More Story and Exploration options – They were out of big pineapples 😛 Kidding I agree.

    The powers seemed kinda samey. Smash the ground as a Titan and everything dies in the area around you or throw a fireball and everything dies in the area around that.

    Reply

    • Ragnar Lothbrok

      July 21, 2014 at 13:18

      I’m not sold on the final hitpoints idea. Why should you be rewarded for stealing my kill? You can get the kill on your score but points per hit works much better in my opinion. He who deals the most damage should be rewarded respectively.
      PvP didn’t work for me at all. When my team leader joined a PvP match I played one and left the team in order to go explore.

      Reply

      • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

        July 21, 2014 at 13:50

        That’s what concerns me as well, one of my pet hates in Korean MMOs is kill stealing. You put in all the work, in walks a joker with his staff. He wacks the mob, kills it, and the loot is his.

        Reply

  8. Morne Nell

    July 21, 2014 at 12:47

    Good points, I would add the ability to exchange gear and finds between friends the same as diablo. And the ability to customize and build weapons

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      July 21, 2014 at 12:47

      Agreed!

      Reply

    • Umar Fong Wong

      July 21, 2014 at 12:48

      more customization options. That would make PVP awesome. Custom builds would help balance PvP out

      Reply

      • Morne Nell

        July 21, 2014 at 12:56

        You did see there is serious customization for your character from level 20 onward? It is only the weapons that is not customizable. Although you will then buy a weapon and there is a serious skill tree on the weapon that develop over time

        Reply

        • Umar Fong Wong

          July 21, 2014 at 13:00

          There was a small tree in the beta yes for weapons which was really nice. I wouldn’t call it serious or huge though, but the weapons themselves like you mentioned could do with some customizing options

          Reply

          • Morne Nell

            July 21, 2014 at 13:07

            Did you inspect the weapons that is level 20? They had at least 8 upgrade circles underneath. You can go to the order for instance click on the weapon and then use the tri-angle to inspect.
            The lower level weapons only have one or 2 circles. If you can swop out between those abilities like you can do with the warlock grenade when it upgrades it will be cool

          • Umar Fong Wong

            July 21, 2014 at 15:49

            Dont think I inspected high level weapons. So it the weapon skills tree was that deep? Maybe I should scrutinize it a bit more. Might’ve been a bit quick to judge. It just seemed fairly simple. I’m used to an abundance of numbers and stats. so it was a bit lite

  9. Kensei Seraph

    July 21, 2014 at 12:47

    WHAT BLASPHEMY IS THIS!?!!

    And now to actually read the article.

    Reply

    • Cuzin_1t

      July 25, 2014 at 10:59

      Lol, exactly me.

      Reply

  10. iAmWeasel

    July 21, 2014 at 12:53

    My suggestion.. for starters make the guns feel more powerful.. for the most part they feel pathetically underpowered.

    Reply

    • nick

      July 21, 2014 at 14:37

      using a level 8 gun on a level 2 beast is a one shot kill, i think primary weapons are levelled enough to make it challenging but they could do with a lot more purple ammo

      Reply

  11. Morne Nell

    July 21, 2014 at 13:00

    I would also suggest that the sub class be tied to your race and not your main class.

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief Saxon

      July 21, 2014 at 13:01

      RACIST!

      😛

      Reply

      • Sir Rants A Lot Llew

        July 21, 2014 at 13:02

        You mean DESTINYist

        Reply

        • ToshZA

          July 21, 2014 at 14:19

          Those are the PC-only owners 😛

          Reply

    • Nikola

      July 21, 2014 at 13:07

      Totally as of this point race choice doesn’t do much other than appearance.

      Reply

  12. Kensei Seraph

    July 21, 2014 at 13:02

    Well I’ve requested an invite to the clan.

    Reply

  13. Nikola

    July 21, 2014 at 13:05

    Regarding the story I am sure there will be plenty more of it, It’s just beta and we only played 4 story missions so I think people are a bit over-reacting on that one as we don’t know much about the story. Regarding loot I agree but again loot should not drop like Borderlands that’s a bit too much, it should be earned by killing big bosses and completing more difficult challenges if the good loot drops from just any mob kind of defets the purpose of progression and putting time into strikes or raids in future. But yeah after killing a boss in a strike and it drops pretty much nothing is kind of disappointing Cross generation should be added simply so you have more people playing together which is the point of the game. Trading between players should also be a feature definitely. Also another thing I would like to see is crafting armors and weapons to have that option as well. And most important for me personally end game content like raids going and killing ultra hard massive bosses would be pretty cool and will insure that people keep on playing the game.

    Regardless a very good article especially the point made about anything can be improved on doesn’t matter how good it is.

    Reply

  14. Ryanza

    July 21, 2014 at 13:07

    Destiny is the new Halo. So Destiny is going to feel like Halo and play like Halo. Bungie has been doing Halo for so long, so Halo is what you going to get. As I said before, it takes more than a Master Chief to make a Halo game.

    ‘Bungie needs to take a step back and see what makes Battlefield and Call of Duty so engaging’. That doesn’t sound right at all and it’s not that time to promote the shit out of Call of Duty by telling us how wonderful it is.

    The beta for Destiny was shown off. Look for frames per second, the lag, the animations, the movement, the feel, graphics, setting.
    The beta is not going to be about loot, cross play, clan stuff, story, full customization options, ect.

    I’m not to fond about betas because it tends to put me off games. Like when I played the beta for Battlefied 3 and I like shot this one person for like 3 seconds and he just turned around and killed me and I never bought that shit.

    Reply

    • Nikola

      July 21, 2014 at 13:11

      I coudn’t disagree more Destiny other than pvp is completly different than Halo in any way. Battfiled and Call of Duty and two most generic boring games ever made all it is a single player story which you finish in few hours and then endless arena matches.

      Reply

      • Morne Nell

        July 21, 2014 at 13:13

        Agree with you and the reason I don’t like shooters but love destiny

        Reply

    • FoxOneZA

      July 21, 2014 at 14:24

      The fanboism is strong with this one…

      Reply

      • Ryanza

        July 21, 2014 at 14:39

        erm… I’ve said this before. I’m a fan of Halo 1, the whole game.

        Halo 2 upped the graphics which I liked and the double wielding needlers. That’s about it.

        Halo 3 meh story, best mulitiplayer in the series.

        Halo Reach showed how old the Xbox 360 was and I didn’t like the game nor finished it.

        Halo 4 didn’t even bother.

        Destiny not going to bother with it.

        I like Bungie because they always improving on their games, be it new engines or trying stuff out gameplay wise. Even this Destiny I see as an improvement.

        fanboism – I don’t know what you talking about. Sounds like Destiny hate to me but that’s fine. Seeing as Bungie always try to improve, I can’t show hate just yet.

        All I can say about Destiny is:
        Don’t support DRM

        Reply

  15. Alien Emperor Trevor

    July 21, 2014 at 13:09

    Well if they can’t allow cross generation play because of resolution why not cross platform between the PS4 & Xbone? Oh… wait…

    Reply

    • Gavin Mannion

      July 21, 2014 at 13:17

      Simply because they are different closed networks…

      And neither Sony or Microsoft want that to happen

      Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        July 21, 2014 at 13:18

        I know. That wasn’t the point of the joke ;P

        Reply

        • Kensei Seraph

          July 21, 2014 at 13:20

          Doesn’t stop it from being funny though.

          Reply

        • CAE9872

          July 22, 2014 at 07:55

          Looks like your comment sunk like the Titanic that time!

          Reply

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            July 22, 2014 at 08:18

    • FoxOneZA

      July 21, 2014 at 14:25

      These consoles are not computers. They can’t talk to one another 😛

      Reply

  16. Lardus-Resident Perve

    July 21, 2014 at 13:24

    Quick noob question as I have not been following this game. How “single player only” is this game? I am not interested in connecting online AT ALL. Not interested in any community. I want proper offline SP experience. Does this game cater for anti-social people like me?

    Reply

    • Morne Nell

      July 21, 2014 at 13:25

      It definitely does, but with at least one friend it will be even better 🙂

      Reply

      • Lardus-Resident Perve

        July 21, 2014 at 13:31

        LoL, “exotic dancers” do not really play games!

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          July 21, 2014 at 13:38

          They don’t play “videogames”

          Reply

          • Sir Rants A Lot Llew

            July 21, 2014 at 14:09

            unless that’s the “preference”

          • Hammersteyn

            July 21, 2014 at 14:16

            You think they would, I’m so lonely :'(

    • Morne Nell

      July 21, 2014 at 13:27

      Aslo remember you connect to an online server so even if you are one in some instances the game will group you with one or two more people to do the job better

      Reply

      • Lardus-Resident Perve

        July 21, 2014 at 13:31

        So always online? Like Diablows? Then it is an auto pass for me. Learnt my lesson.

        Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      July 21, 2014 at 13:41

      I think you will need to have internet at least. I couldn’t find any offline modes. Not that it matters much, I mean it was tons of fun. Some mission sure you can play offline and alone too. Plus if someone randomly drops in it’s not like they can kill you as with GTA. They can only help you. Think of it as playing FPS but with strangers and the best part being that you need to help each other not compete/kill each other.

      Reply

  17. lG

    July 21, 2014 at 13:34

    I felt that PvP on the moon base felt alot like Unreal Tournament, especially the vehicles. Which I actually enjoyed alot. Only issue I had was to realise I am not playing Battlefield 4 and that when I use a sniper riffle I didn’t need to compensate for bulletdrop and and movement, just aim and shoot. They can atleast have me track a player before shooting, otherwise it will become a snipe and run game.

    Reply

  18. Grant Nicol

    July 21, 2014 at 14:15

    Feels exactly like HALO in PvP ? Really guys? Are we gonna say that every military shooter feels like COD or BF? Its pretty much a space FPS of course their will be similarities. I hated HALO but think this is pretty dam amazing.

    Also not fan of the last hit points, the player who does the majority of the work deserves the most loot/exp for me.

    Reply

  19. nick

    July 21, 2014 at 14:19

    I’ve had huge network problems with this beta. I was getting kicked out ever few minutes with errors fly, lion or bee. couldn’t finish any pvp games. last night i tried switching from EoP to wireless and hey presto all working. I actually enjoy pvp just not the big map. Otherwise I love this game, after playing wolfenstein it’s such a relief to have all the modern features. It levels really well. did anyone else find the long tunnel underground with invincible enemies?

    Reply

    • Morne Nell

      July 21, 2014 at 14:24

      Yip, there is an area with enemies so tuff you can’t beat them at all. Even when you are level 8, they still have ???? above there heads.

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        July 21, 2014 at 14:28

        It’s Beta, we aren’t allowed in there yet.

        Reply

        • Morne Nell

          July 21, 2014 at 14:35

          Think the game will play that way forcing you to come back later when you are stronger.

          Reply

          • Hammersteyn

            July 21, 2014 at 14:38

            Much stronger. Level 20 gear gives you over 200 defense while level 8 still hovers in the 40’s at best

      • nick

        July 21, 2014 at 14:29

        when you land on earth you are facing a shelter with steps that go down to some of these things

        Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      July 21, 2014 at 14:28

      I sure did, ran like a mother after my rocket launcher didn’t do any damage

      Reply

  20. ElimiNathan

    July 21, 2014 at 15:00

    100% disagree about the PVP, had a blast

    Reply

  21. Francois Knoetze

    July 21, 2014 at 15:13

    personally I am going nuts about the game. Same with expecting more loot. I was really expecting a heap of stuff to be dropped with the bosses and also more loot chests. Also, as much as I like using the Ghost to nav please give me a map that I can open on the fly to check the area out instead of guessing where I have and have not been.

    But thanks to the beta I upgraded to the limited edition. couldn’t let that steel case and leather bound book not be in my possession

    Reply

  22. Sageville

    July 21, 2014 at 15:13

    Some of Gavs points are relevant, but given that it’s just a beta, can we assume that the missing elements aren’t still to come…. I reserve judgement.

    I will agree that boss loot needs to be more rewarding/visible.
    Last hit bonus? I don’t care or need this.
    Trophy wall? Surely that is the intent of the Grimoire?
    I think Cross-gen play is a nice idea, but seriously, it is just a very nice “bell or whistle”, it’s not needed, I wouldn’t want them delaying release for that.
    The PVP was awesome, granted I was never tainted by Halo so I can’t complain about it being too “Halo-ish”.

    Oh, and I do think the loot table may need tweaking, based on Iron Banner event, as I now have 2 x Timur’s Lashes (Legendary)

    Reply

    • Sageville

      July 21, 2014 at 15:19

      I now have 2 x duplicate legendaries, so maybe the loot tables need work…

      Reply

      • Morne Nell

        July 21, 2014 at 15:30

        how did you get that!!

        Reply

        • Sageville

          July 21, 2014 at 16:32

          After Iron Banner PVP event you sometimes get given loot, I’m not sure what criteria is used for loot allocation, it must have something to do with how awesome you are – must be the only explanation…

          Reply

  23. Corey

    July 21, 2014 at 15:24

    PvP is probably 80% of why I play games.

    So…..yes…it should exist. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean its a useless part of the game. I think Destiny PvP looks pretty interesting and good.

    We don’t need more Battlefields or Call of Duties.

    I like games that it actually takes more than one or two shots to kill people.

    Reply

  24. DarthDiggler

    July 21, 2014 at 16:17

    Bungie need to take some queues from Gearbox here and make sure the bosses drop a ton of loot.

    I think this is a terrible idea. Far too many games are bloated with loot that loot overall loses it’s value and is just fodder to create materials for crafting.

    This is especially annoying if you are farming for 1 item. If bosses drop lots of items it becomes harder to get that 1 item.

    Reply

  25. DropinBombz

    July 21, 2014 at 20:54

    i really hope this guy doesnt play. i can hear it now..

    Reply

  26. Deano

    July 21, 2014 at 21:03

    I have to say the PVP may look Halo but it plays completely different.
    I’m decent in HALO multiplayer, but seem to be sucking big time in Destiny PVP.
    I need more time to get use to some elements.

    Otherwise fantastic game. And rather leave the PVP, you don’t have to play it if you don’t want to that’s the best part in Destiny. You can decide which way and what modes to play.

    Reply

  27. AlecJ

    July 22, 2014 at 03:53

    Good article. Absolutely agree that PvP was super disappointing. It just wasnt fun. It will need much more carrot before i get hit with that stick again.

    Also, the classes are virtually the same. Other than their individual specials, which are still very similar, i didnt see any difference in them. Maybe at higher levels that changes?

    I do want to end by saying, i greatly enjoyed Destiny and would be playing if it wasnt down for maintenance tonight. I love the story stuff and the strike missions are challenging and hectic. More loot would be nice, though.

    Ive enjoyed the exploration and the hidden goals of finding the dead ghosts and golden loot chests.

    Its problems havent reduced my excitement for the full game.

    Reply

  28. CAE9872

    July 22, 2014 at 07:56

    Excellent – so when I get to play the finished game I will hopefully have the finished article!

    Reply

  29. Wraith

    July 22, 2014 at 13:21

    To all my fellow PS4 peeps, what headset are you using with your PS4?

    Also, is it possible to use a standard PC headset (2x 3.5mm jacks) on a PS4?

    Reply

  30. Tony Boicourt

    July 24, 2014 at 04:48

    I think the PVP is great, we’ve only tried 3 maps and 1 game mode thus far, as far as the mechanics it seems like a good blend of Halo/Modern military shooters.

    Reply

  31. Polar15

    July 30, 2014 at 09:32

    No to everything you listed.

    Reply

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