We called it Destiny, and its release changed gaming forever. Great expectations were set. A new type of MMO where looting and shooting promised to bring great delight. Time spent in this fantasy world could be boundless, and Bungie’s take on a Star Wars-like universe was full of possibilities. However, there was a looming Darkness. A Darkness that can be seen in all corners of gaming today. In our capitalist society, creativity and fun are sent to die in order to fulfill the monetary obligation that all developers and publishers must adhere to. Gone is the golden age of gaming, now Darkness infects most of gaming entertainment and gamers seek out the light. Does Destiny offer a respite from the Darkness? While the game certainly offers some bright spots for new and returning players alike, the short answer is a grim “no” and I would like to offer my opinion as to why.

Beginning a New Journey

Fresh off the hook from Microsoft, Bungie had grandiose plans on what their next IP would be. I fondly remember reading about their next big project in 2011 or 2012. Articles about their desire to produce a Star Wars-like universe where hostile aliens were commonplace, stashes of crystal blue gold were waiting for those who desired deep pockets, and white tigers joined you as a hunter companion.

Pre-release concept art

Destiny’s Release

When September 2014 finally rolled around, I was itching to jump into Bungie’s new universe. At that point, I was already a dedicated Halo player. Immediately, I felt engrossed in the world. The feeling of this game was certainly different from Halo. Not much information was divulged at the start, but I assumed that the answers for this story would come later.  Sadly, later never came.

The main premise of the game is that humanity entered a golden age of technology and “space magic” when a mysterious alien ship known as the Traveler arrives on Earth. Faster than light travel, artificial intelligence, long lifespans, and reviving the dead becomes possible through the power of the Traveler. Suddenly the Darkness, a mysterious ethereal entity that seeks to destroy the Traveler arrives in our Solar system. Guardians, warriors of the Traveler’s light, are chosen by small A.I. companions known as ghosts to protect the Traveler. That is where your story begins. You are discovered by a ghost and revived to help aid in the war effort against the Darkness.

Time after time throughout the campaign you are given little explanation as to the origin of the Traveler or the Darkness. That’s fine, it’s not an answer that is necessary in the first entry of a story, but look at the example of the rushed storytelling in the above screenshot. The writing continues to push the idea that you will get answers in due time, and then the game ends. Still unsure of why I needed to kill the final boss and what it means for the greater universe of Destiny. Adding insult to injury, the Exo Stranger pictured above returns to congratulate us on our victory…only to walk off without so much as offering her name. Our character doesn’t even question her or bother to get any answers at all. The story sort of shrugs, ends, and your three options are the endgame content, crucible deathmatch, or quitting the game. I chose to put the game down.

That first experience left a sour taste in my mouth, and I had no desire to pick the game back up until 2023.

Where to Begin?

While Kevin and I started our journey hopping into Destiny 2, I wanted to return to Destiny 1 and play the content that I had missed over the last 9 years. This meant replaying Destiny 1’s story and re-experiencing the disappointment. This time, however, it was a comical outing and I can say that with a laidback attitude and expecting the lackluster story, I enjoyed my time, if only for the excellent gameplay.

After beating the game once again, it was now time to dive into the post-release expansions. Sadly, neither Dark Below nor House of Wolves left much of an impression on me. The first expansion takes place on the moon to repel the Hive, basically space zombies. Your main foe is an entity named Crota, a demon trapped in a crystal who’s been very naughty and needs his glass house shattered. Eris Morn is your guide through most of this expansion. I’m still unclear as to the exact role this character has within the tower other than she used to be a guardian, and I’m not even certain if this is explained in the first game or Destiny 2. By the resolution I had no real interest in her story or her past experiences with the Hive.

The next expansion, House of Wolves, was so forgettable I can’t even recall the plot without opening a Wikipedia page. I can say that it’s the same thing for Rise of Iron. It delves a little into the backstory of guardians before the Traveler graced them with light. Beyond that it isn’t anything to write home about.

Taken King

The penultimate expansion was by far, not just my favorite expansion from Destiny 1, my favorite piece of story content from the Destiny series. I adored Taken King so much because it was a simple story that was easy to follow with clear stakes. You are introduced to Oryx, the father of Crota who looks like he walked into Destiny straight from Devil May Cry. Right away you are shown the power that Oryx wields by destroying an entire fleet with his ship.

You’re tasked with acquiring a piece of cloaking technology in order to sneak past his ship’s defenses, board his vessel, and commit regicide. While the story follows a simple path, I think this works to the expansion’s advantage. For a new player like me, having a clear villain who presents tangible consequences to the universe made for a bit of excitement. The gameplay for this expansion is shaken up a little bit by introducing “taken” enemies. They consist of the normal mobs of enemies previously encountered in the main game, but are made more aggressive and with a neat glow effect to draw your attention to the enemies that Oryx has subjugated with his command of the Darkness.

You’re encounter with Oryx at the end of the story involves a tense battle of him blasting the players with projectiles, teleporting around the arena, and introducing you to the business end of his sword. It was challenging, exciting, and I can say that it was probably the most unexpected boss fight that I’ve encountered thus far. The fight didn’t feel like a one-trick pony ordeal — Oryx had various tricks up his sleeve to keep this fight tense. I would’ve gladly appreciated this DLC to be the end of my Destiny 1 journey. I’m sad to say, that at least for me, it’s all downhill from this point.

Destiny 2

Finally, we returned to Destiny 2and, at first, it was a breath of fresh air. Destiny 1 had a few gameplay issues that I felt were smoothed out or improved on in Destiny 2. The frames were a crisp 60 fps, Bungie expanded abilities to each class including defensive, grenade, and melee attacks. These changes were a welcome improvement from the simple grenade and melee passive from Destiny 1. Supers were expanded upon new and interesting subclasses were added under the main Solar, Arc, and Void classes for each guardian. To top it off, the game sported some modern traversal mechanics that have become standard in modern shooter games. Things such as clambering and sliding remove annoying instances of missed jumps and screeching to a halt every time the player needed to duck. However, with the good changes that come with modern shooters comes the bitter taste of modern game design. There is a looming shadow of microtransactions and an endless selection of annoying ads that you’ll see throughout Destiny 2. Ads begging players to download various expansions, dungeon keys, emotes, skins, gear, and other useless junk. Certain items can be obtained by playing the game for free with the use of bright dust, but if you want the easy path to obtain certain items and get more rewards out of the battle pass, you better be ready to cough up some silver.

Story

Now this was easily the most shocking thing to me coming into Destiny 2 as a new player, the original story is gone. No, I’m not kidding. Originally Destiny 2 shipped with a story about a Cabal leader who invaded earth and attempted to shackle and destroy the Traveler. However, you or anyone else may feel about the original story, it was the core of Destiny 2’s release. It has been wiped out, and to the best of my knowledge, the reasoning behind it was due to bugs, an overwhelming amount of memory dedicated to the story, and desolate planets that only new players were visiting. Rather than rework the story and tighten up some of the gameplay issues that may have stemmed from the bloated content size, Bungie instead opted to remove the content with nothing to replace it. Consequently, a new player is dropped into the exact same first mission from Destiny 1, then afterward you are dropped off at the tower with little idea or direction as to what content is available to you. It is astounding to me how unfriendly this game is to new players. World of Warcraft did an excellent job of easing new players in with a starting area and gradually allowing players the freedom to experience the world at their discretion. Likewise, Star Wars Old Republic refined on this and gave each class their own unique single-player story. The game gradually opened up to you, but you had a character driven story to anchor the open world content around. Players had a structured story and were free to remain as close to that anchor as desired, or they could venture off into the galaxy at their own pace. Without Kevin’s help, I easily would’ve been at a loss as to where I should even begin.

Shadowkeep

There were a few expansions and seasonal pieces of content I had missed due to jumping into the series so late. Bungie didn’t bother to keep the content around, outside of the grimoire, so I can’t speak about those pieces of content. Shadowkeep re-introduces the Darkness in the form of pyramid ships that you’ll eventually learn are being led by Destiny’s Thanos equivalent, the Witness. You once again team up with Eris Morn to construct gear that will allow you to bypass the creepy pyramid’s defenses in order to learn more about its purpose.

Sad to say, the end of the DLC offers little in terms of explanation or revelation. Eris got her team of Guardians killed and they haunt her in the form of red spirits. Inside the pyramid you encountered an entity which took the form of your character. This is the Witness. However, when this DLC released you were given no explanation as to who this entity was or what they wanted. If I had been an avid Destiny player at the time of this expansion’s release, I would be angry—I was furious that I wasted my money on this content. Disappointment wasn’t far behind, once again I’m getting strung along in a story that seems to have no direction has failed to invest me in this universe.

Beyond Light

The next piece of content we tackled was the Beyond Light campaign. We’re introduced to a new villain, (whose name I had to look up because the game was not clear), Eramis, and her use of a darkness power called “stasis.” This is the first time a new subclass is introduced in Destiny which allows you to freeze and block enemies.

The story isn’t very impressive, the villain isn’t interesting nor does the game change or add anything dynamic other than the introduction of the new subclass. You’ll be running around Europa collecting shards to feed into another pyramid structure. Once all the pieces are collected, stasis is unlocked for the player to use at their discretion. Sadly, this DLC was ultimately forgettable.

Other Campaigns we have yet to play

As of the publishing of this post, we have yet to finish Witch Queen and Lightfall. Please stay tuned for a follow-up post on these expansions.

Criticisms

If you’ve been keeping up with this content, then it’s no surprise that this game series isn’t my favorite. It’s mostly been a slog, particularly Destiny 2. I have criticisms ranging from story, gameplay, pacing, direction, and Bungie’s overall attitude toward developing this series. Before I jump right into my issues with this game, I thought I’d be constructive and talk about the things I like the most with this series.

Positives

I try to be fair with the content I consume and Destiny has some real potential as a series. While playing I must give credit to Bungie for some of their design decisions and achievements. My favorite thing about the Destiny universe is the aesthetic design. It’s a creative mix between fantasy and science fiction. I think it doesn’t always balance this element in the proper ways, which I’ll discuss later, but it’s pleasing to the eyes and I can easily say it’s one of Destiny’s unique charms. The armor, weapons, vehicles, and enemy design all look unique but not too out of place to be foreign to this universe.

Another positive feature of this game is the music. Marty O’Donnell shined in Destiny 1 as it’s composer. The current music writers have continued to compose interesting pieces of music depending on the environments you explore. I don’t think the tracks are individually as memorable as the Halo series, but they fit for what you happen to be doing during your sessions. Epic scores are appropriately placed during clashes with powerful entities and invasions. The quiet moments are filled with silence and creeping strings. It really brings each scenario together and Destiny would be a much weaker experience without the excellent score.

Negatives

Here’s where I must be frank my experience with the games was not pleasant. Without a friend to go through this with, I would’ve put this game down right away. Since I have so many issues, I believe it’ll be easier to list them out rather than drone on without any sort of structure. Let’s begin, right at the main issue I have with this game, the story.

I. The Story

To quote Redlettermedia, “The biggest problem is the whole story and the way it was told.” From the start of Destiny 1 you are given little explanation who you are once resurrected. Nothing about your past life is revealed and the main character has no interest in digging into their origin. You’re then greeted by a bunch of characters you don’t know who stand around and discuss things that THEY have knowledge about but you as the audience don’t. This is a problem that is prevalent throughout the series. Much like the Jedi in the Star Wars prequels they discuss things that they are privy to, but the audience has no clue who or what they’re talking about. This game talked about how the Traveler brought a golden age to humanity, but how exactly was that accomplished? The traveler seems to a piece of alien technology, but how did humanity acquire all this technology and knowledge, yet they still don’t know the purpose of the Traveler or exactly HOW it even works? It seems to be able to terraform planets, but how or why is never given explanation. It’s the central focus of the entire Destiny universe, it’s on every splash page and advertisement surrounding the game, and nobody knows what it is, how it really works, or its true purpose.

This issue also extends to the characters. Zavala, Ikora, Erin Morn, and Cayde-6, do little outside of standing around the tower offering bounties, quests, and basic NPC dialogue. I know people like Cadye-6, but I think that’s mainly due to his witty writing and Nathan Fillion’s charm. I can’t bring myself to care about him or any of the other main characters, or villains, in this universe. I believe this issue is the mistake of Bungie jumping right into an MMO series without any context for this content. Part of World of Warcraft’s success was that it was already an established series before the MMO. There was an excellent trilogy to set up the world, the factions, and the characters before the world opened to the fans. To use another example, imagine if Marvel never made the Iron Man movie, or Thor, or Captain America and decided to jump right into Avengers. Even though comic book readers might have prior knowledge of these characters, and even if the movie was the same as its release, casual audiences would have little clue as to what was happening. Who is Tony Stark? Why does he have this suit of armor? Where did Thor come from and why is he so handsome? Why is Chris Evans the best character? The lazy storytelling, constant earpiece exposition, and lack of real stakes is the reason Bungie fails to pull in a more casual audience. I don’t know who the Witness is and why should I care? Why should I, the player, give a damn? Perhaps if these characters went on missions with the player like Halo Reach, or even if you had a more personal experience with them outside of “quest giver” then I might grow to like these characters.

Speaking of Star Wars My favorite MMO must be Star Wars the Old Republic. It handles this issue in an intelligent way. Alongside the wider narrative that your character is placed in, there’s also a grounded and personal story for each of the 8 protagonists of your choice. You can take part in the universe at your leisure, or you can play from beginning to end like a single-player game with a story that centers around your character. As the Inquisitor, you must serve under Lord Zash and the story never strays too far from that. As the Smuggler you must retrieve your ship that your backstabbing associate stole from under your nose. Each story is unique, engaging, and memorable. I cannot say the same for Destiny.

II. Buried Lore

This goes together with the story and lore. When Destiny first launched there was a lore system called the Grimoire. This functioned as extra explanation and context for story content. It acted as a codex of sorts for the Destiny universe, so what was the issue? The Grimoire wasn’t in the game. You had to go to Bungie’s website under your profile to read about the lore that you unlocked ingame. That is beyond ridiculous, and it’s unacceptable when other games have handled this much better. Compared to the Mass Effect series, which had a fully narrated codex where all the supplemental information was stored in the game menu. The important story pieces were presented front and center to the player, but if you were ever lost or just wanted to learn more about the universe, it was right there for you to listen to or read. It’s my favorite codex in a series. I’d spent a significant amount of time in the codex learning about the various cultures and how the Mass Effect fields functioned. Destiny offers nothing in comparison. The Speaker even teases in Destiny 1 that he “could” tell you about all the events leading up to your resurrection, but he doesn’t. The main character doesn’t even seem to care or press him on the matter. They just shrug, accept it, and move on with the game. I can’t attribute this to anything else beyond laziness. If Bungie isn’t going to try and invest me in this expansive universe they created, then neither am I.

III. Not User-Friendly

I already discussed how the main campaign of Destiny 2 was ripped out of the game. So besides being lost within the story, the game itself is by far the most unfriendly user experience I’ve ever encountered. Without the main campaign or some kind of story structure you are given little direction.

There are also far too many game mechanics to follow. Armor can be enhanced at a certain point but the bonuses aren’t well explained nor did I ever feel like they made a real gameplay impact. Leveling up in this game isn’t really a thing, rather it’s based on your total gear score of the weapons in your inventory and your armor pieces.

Each menu is also a complete mess. From the store, to where certain screens are located between two separate menus, experience bonuses are buried beneath more menus 3 screens from where it would make sense to put them, it’s a nightmare. Every vendor has quests, dailies, and level up. You can collect loot chests from leveling them up, but you collect the chests from a weird place on their menus, I didn’t even know they were collectable until it was pointed out to me. Expecting a new player to know figure these systems out without a guide is an unrealistic expectation.

This game is in desperate need of a menu facelift.

IV. Poor Progression

Another reoccurring issue that I have with this game is its poor progression system, or lack of one. Most role-playing games, RPGs, usually have some sort of leveling system with skill trees. From my research, I learned that this game previously had a leveling system before it was removed and the current system implemented. Now to level up and get new skills, you must acquire glimmer and spend the money at a vendor to acquire your desired skills and abilities. This does not present a satisfying sense of progression. RPG leveling is addictive because of the satisfaction of a level-up animation with the knowledge that you’re now stronger than you were previously.

When you can hoard glimmer, then dump all that cash into a vending machine to get the abilities you want, it robs the player of that important sense of progression.

V. Lack of Class Identity

A Youtuber, I Hate Everything, has discussed this topic in his many videos on Destiny. Bungie chose to take a very open-ended approach to classes in the game. Most class-based systems in RPG games will buff and restrict characters in certain aspects depending on their class. This is usually accomplished through stat difference, weapons restricted to certain classes, or which skills certain characters may acquire. These rules are similarly applicable to Dungeons & Dragons, the godfather of all RPGs. The reasoning behind this design is to ensure that all players and characters have a distinct role to fill in the gameplay. The mage is the long-distance magic caster, the thief is stealth focused with a high degree of luck, the warrior gets into the middle of the fight with armor and a broadsword etc. Bungie took a different approach, there is a class system but the restrictions are less binding than in most other RPGs. Their reasoning was to free up player choice. Do you want to be a beefy character who uses sniper rifles? You can do that! Would you prefer to be an agile character who can get up close and blast enemies with your favorite shotgun? You can do that! What about a void tossing wizard with a desire to wield the biggest rocket launcher you can find? You can do that!

While this system seems inviting by offering players many different choices for tailored gameplay, it’s a double-edged sword that comes at a cost. Each class lacks a strong identity in gameplay due to this design. Sure, Titans get a few abilities to keep them alive a little longer, Warlocks specialize in powerful spells, Hunters are a high damage-dealing class who’s mainly focused on high-priority targets, but they lack an identity that truly sets them apart from one another. Each class has the same grenade functionality, each has a melee ability, a class ability, and a super. Yes, there are some differences between the classes such as armor strength, healing pools, and some abilities to trigger familiars or turrets. Bungie in some instances differentiate the classes with their abilities, but it doesn’t go far enough for me. Nobody fills a special role, gunplay styles are too similar, and the game rewards staying back and picking off enemies rather than getting up close and personal. The classes in this looter-shooter function too similarly and they lack distinction which can hurt teamplay and replayability.

The Borderlands series offers a similar gameplay loop as Destiny, but each character/class feels distinct and fills distinct roles in teamplay. Take Zero for example; In Borderlands 2 he fills a unique role among the four original characters. His main ability is throwing out a decoy while he goes invisible, but each tree drastically changes his playstyle. The skills on his green tree are all focused around long distance shooting. His red tree focuses on quick executions in melee combat. Finally, the blue tree is a mix of the two with some elemental and support skills. Each tree offers a new experience with each character, and it can offer different benefits depending on your preferred playstyle, whether you’re playing alone or in a group, or maybe something quirky for experimentation.

I want to stress that I don’t think every looter-shooter needs to play the same way or have the same mechanics, but the system in Borderlands offers a more unique and rewarding experience for new and returning players alike. Skill trees in Borderlands can also be geared toward rewarding players who use a particular weapon with a certain tree, like Salvador and his tree that focuses on the use of pistols. This leads into my next topic.

VI. Checklists & Playing the Your Way

Destiny has a daily quest system. You walk up to certain vendors, take out usually 4 daily quests and attempt to finish them in order to level up with the battle pass. My issue with this system is twofold. First, these daily quests feel more like chores and something to reach for. It’s a grocery list of killing X number of enemies with X weapon, etc. This can lead to forcing players to use guns they may not want to, serving only to turn in quests. Turning in the quests does nothing other than to earn some trivial rewards and experience into the battle pass. I’ll admit I’m biased because the battle pass means nothing to me. Often, I find that a battle pass is a poor substitution for real progression or career tracking. The rewards in the pass I don’t find very interesting or compelling and paying for the upgraded pass I feel would rob me of that feeling to a greater degree. Too many games like Overwatch, Halo, and Battlefield, have chosen in recent years to abandon their career tracking, progression, and unlocking of cosmetics in favor of placing some of these elements behind a battle pass. Frequently, these passes are a grind to complete, filled with junk, and for the average gamer not enough of a good reason to complete it. Currently, with Destiny’s Season of the Deep, it is a weapon ornament, a skin to change the look of a particular gun. If you have the paid season pass then you get an extra 2000 bright dust to spend in the shop. I don’t feel very rewarded on accomplished when I feel like I’m just purchasing store items instead of feeling like I really did something special.

These systems are draining, and with so many companies copying this model to shuffle people into the online store, it gets old and I feel like I’m working a second job. Gone are the days of completing the Vidmaster Challenges in Halo 3 and ODST for a chance to unlock the highly coveted Recon Armor.

For any who remember, there was a set of armor that was withheld from Halo 3. This armor, known as Recon, was exclusively used by Bungie employees. On rare occasions they would hand this armor out to certain content creators and Halo pros. Fans continued to request that the armor become available for all players to wear. Finally, Bungie implemented a way to acquire the armor, the Vidmaster Challenges. These challenges were a series of brutal Xbox achievements that all had to be completed in both Halo 3 and ODST to unlock the armor.

This presented a real, tangible challenge for dedicated players to overcome. And the reward was an exclusive piece of armor which carried all the bragging rights associated. A battle pass, a shop, and seasonal unlocks take away the achievement of earning pieces of gear that truly allow you to stand out from the crowd. Why tire and waste my time grinding for an arbitrary piece of gear when I can spend 15 dollars in the shop to look awesome?!

Final Thoughts

Destiny is a game with much potential. I’ve written this experience and my criticisms not because I want to see the game fail. I wrote this because I want Bungie to do better, because I know they’re capable of it.

Recently at the Game Developers Conference Justin Truman, a Destiny 2 General Manager, admitted to how Bungie has shifted gears from making quality content to content that will keep players engaged. You heard that right, quality doesn’t matter and keeping players addicted is the main priority. Rather than make content and a game world that is fun, they want to you to be addicted and keep coming back for more. In the same conference, Justin explained that Bungie recently changed their longtime motto of, “We make games we want to play” to, “We create worlds that inspire friendships.” I don’t even know what the hell that means. Friends play games together that are fun and, if quality isn’t your goal, then how can you expect people to want to play your game? This goal is misguided and I believe it sends the wrong message to the game developer community. Fun doesn’t matter, in a profession where FUN is the sole point of playing a GAME.

This is the real problem with Destiny, not the nitpicks or certain design decisions but the major problem. The game wasn’t designed for someone like me, it’s designed to be like heroine, wanting you to come back for more. The funny thing is that even if this type of game design appealed to me, so many other issues prevent me from getting immersed in this game to begin with. I think on some level Bungie understands this dilemma, and I think that’s part of the reason they’re launching their new Marathon game. It’s just another outlet to keep players coming back and grinding out whatever asinine battle pass system they’ll inevitably shove into that game too.

My honest feeling is I don’t care for this game, it sucks for new players. There are better games out there and hopefully, with enough time and failure, Bungie will course-correct or else some other new developer will do that job for them.

See you starside, and thanks for reading.