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First Person Shooters (Games) Games

Early Reviews of Destiny: Unfulfilled Potential 93

Posted by Soulskill from the your-mileage-may-vary dept.
Destiny is a first-person shooter set in a persistent, online world. It was released on Tuesday by Bungie, the development studio behind Halo, and billed as a blending of console shooters and progression-based MMOs. Reviews for the game are finally trickling out, and most publications say it's merely average. (Though it's worth noting that the social and multiplayer portions of the game are difficult to evaluate in such a short timeframe, and like many MMOs, Destiny will continue to see active development.) Polygon's Arthur Gies reports, "Destiny doesn't look real, but rather, it looks like painted concept art, meticulously assembled and presented to you at all times. Instead, it's the suggestion, through Destiny's concept, its soundtrack and its visual presentation, that Destiny is big. That there's a whole universe out there to explore, a reality worth discovering. There isn't, though."

Jeff Gerstmann at Giant Bomb had a similar reaction: "There are cool little flashes of brilliance in Destiny, but a lot of it feels like a game designed by people who weren't sure what sort of game they were designing. Is it a loot shooter? Sort of, but the loot isn't very good. Is it an MMO? No, but you'll occasionally encounter other players out in the field. A story-driven shooter like the Halo franchise? Sure, if you don't mind digging through the developer's website to find those little bits of lore." The Escapist's Jim Sterling concludes, "Destiny exists in the shadow of multiple games, taking a little from each, and doing nothing truly remarkable with any of it. It's a prime example of how the nebulous concept of 'content' can be used to puff up a game without adding anything to it."
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Early Reviews of Destiny: Unfulfilled Potential More

Early Reviews of Destiny: Unfulfilled Potential

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  • "console shooter" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 13, 2014 @07:36AM (#47896471)

    There's yer problem.

    Speaking as someone who likes shooters, AND who likes consoles, console shooters are rubbish. There's a degree of control you can get on a PC with a keyboard and mouse that you'll never achieve on your couch with a console controller.

    It's just the wrong mix of controller and game, just like a mouse (by itself) would be a terrible input device for platformers.

    The right device for the right game. Consoles aren't the right device for shooters.

    • Re:"console shooter" (Score:5, Interesting)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Saturday September 13, 2014 @07:54AM (#47896529) Homepage Journal

      Speaking as someone who likes shooters, AND who likes consoles, console shooters are rubbish.

      If you are expecting them to give you the same experience as using a mouse, then they are quite rubbish. But they can be enjoyable, so long as they aren't trying to be both things. On the other hand, aside from the thorny issue of whether to mix PC and console players in multi (answer: no) it's often possible just to ratchet up the default difficulty for the PC. Halo was certainly a doddle by comparison on the PC, aside from segments driving vehicles where I found the difference to be negligible, but that didn't make it any more or less exciting (or the levels near the end any less boring.)

      A console is a fine place to present a shooter that's heavy on story. And if you don't like those games, you can just avoid console shooters and spare yourself a lot of wasted time- wasting.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Xest ( 935314 )

        Yep, I'm skeptical of anyone who claims console shooters are rubbish. There's a reason games like CoD, Halo, Battlefield, Gears of War and so on and so forth make by far the vast majority of their sales on consoles - people enjoy them, meaning they're not rubbish.

        Which isn't to say that I absolutely agree that if I was looking for ultra-competitive multiplayer (I still have fond memories of Quake 1 DM and TF that make everything since pale in comparison whether PC or console) then I'd look to the PC with a

    • Re:"console shooter" (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Skarjak ( 3492305 ) on Saturday September 13, 2014 @08:24AM (#47896605)
      I find that shooters which make use of vehicles a lot are actually better controlled on consoles. Twin sticks are superior to WASD + mouse for controlling tanks and such. That's why Halo made sense on consoles.

      • GTA V would be one of those, but the shooting aspect of it was never that tough with Aim Assist.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by GNious ( 953874 )

      Play your console-shooters using a mouse+keyboard then?

      There is nothing technical in the current and previous console generations that keeps you from using a USB or Bluetooth mouse in shooters. The game-developer might have decided to not support it, but that is a question of the game, and not the platform.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

      I always thought they should stick a trackball on the gamepad, or laser-tracking against a thumb perhaps. And more back buttons - fingers are wasted. Really, I think gamepads have got a long way to go and the current creators of them are rather narrow-minded.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        I had one of these. It made great use of the fingers: http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/188/retro-scan-of-the-week-the-most-complicated-video-game-controller-ever-devised

    • I'm definitely in the minority here, but I'm a avid PC gamer, believe in the PC master race, and haven't owned a console since Gamecube, but I'm considering going back to consoles JUST for FPS's. This seems asinine and I can hardly believe I'm considering doing it, but rampant cheating in FPS's now days that's being swept under the rug is horrendous. About the worst thing you have on consoles is mouse/keyboard dongles and modded lobbies. That's it. The PC FPS scene is a mess as far as cheat detection and ch

      • They really should allow you to use a mouse and keyboard from the getgo instead of going out of your way to buy dongles, people do it anyway.
        You can use gamepads on the PC, why not a mouse and keyboard on a console?

        Where have you been for the past 14 years, you don't need a dongle. Consoles DO allow you to use a mouse and keyboard, but as drinkypoo says, the question is whether the game supports it.

        The PS2/PS3/PS4 have USB ports for a reason. I have games for all 3 that have mouse and/or keyboard support.

      • If you don't know how to head shot one who is approaching behind a wall, then you should not complain about cheating.

        Obviously besides the skills, you lack basic knowledge about games, especially FPS.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      The 40 +/- 10 age group is full of people who grew up playing games, and still want to play games.

      But...we've played them all. We were there when the shooter was born, and when the MMO was born. We saw them all grow up and die.

      We are all looking for something truly novel, with the magic that Wolfenstien had and the "second life" feeling of WoW.

      And nothing on the market today lives up. Star Citizen looks like a noble attempt, but I remain skeptical seeing as how it is just a grander scale assembling of al

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ildon ( 413912 )

      Destiny's problems have nothing to do with it being on a console. If this exact game were released as a PC exclusive, all of its problems with gameplay, story, and end game content would be identical.

  • Call it what it is... (Score:5, Informative)

    by bl968 ( 190792 ) on Saturday September 13, 2014 @08:21AM (#47896597) Journal

    As I stated when I watched the first couple of people playing the game on twitch.tv the reviewers should call a turd a turd. Bad AI. Many NPCs were simply standing in the open firing 1 shot a second while allowing the players to shoot them with 10 in the same time frame. The entire goal of Destiny is to extract $60 from your pocket with very little care given to ensuring that you are satisfied in the end. I think that most serious gamers will walk away from Destiny in the first week, two at the outside; and be left feeling wanting.

  • That title needs work, for one thing (Score:5, Funny)

    by wonkey_monkey ( 2592601 ) on Saturday September 13, 2014 @08:24AM (#47896603) Homepage

    Early Reviews of Destiny: Unfulfilled Potential

    I'd have gone for a more confident title, for a start.

    • Re:That title needs work, for one thing (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 13, 2014 @08:48AM (#47896673)

      How about "Destiny: It turned out that it was better working for Microsoft than Activision, all our best staff members quit, oh yeah enjoy the game"

      • Don't forget they fired their award winning composer who'd been with them since Marathon (?) days & treated him bad while doing so - made me wonder what was going on over there at the executive level (and add a bit of apprehension for this game's release - which turned out to be warranted).

        I was ready for this game as I loved Bungie's releases previously (been with them since the Mac days), but the always connected part put me off (hate having to pay a subscription to Microsoft just so I can connect
        • Personally, I've been having a blast with it - On 360 no less. It's true that the actual size of the game world isn't actually as vast as the game's media suggests it is, but that doesn't change the fact that when I'm playing it I'm having a really good time. It's also true that the game play is a patchwork of elements from different genres that don't ever go definitively in any direction, and yet I find the game play experimentation that Bungie committed to totally refreshing. Despite the fact that the con

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          Don't forget they fired their award winning composer who'd been with them since Marathon (?) days & treated him bad while doing so - made me wonder what was going on over there at the executive level (and add a bit of apprehension for this game's release - which turned out to be warranted).

          The problem is Activision. That's the problem with Activision - they are all about the money, and even Kottick's admitted to it. And they've already forced Bungie's hand - it's presumed Activision put pressure on Bung

  • When I first heard about this game I was thinking, "Oh, someone's going to try to do a more successful Defiance"? Defiance being the sci-fi MMO shooter based on the Syfy TV series of the same name. I played the Destiny Beta, and it's basically Defiance.with faceless master-chief-ish characters. It wasn't equal to Defiance during the beta and I was wondering how they'd get it done in time because it wasn't "ready" and needed more work. I actually told someone that "unless they put a lot of work in it, yo

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ildon ( 413912 )

      Because not enough people have played Defiance for them to get that reference/analogy.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

      A more successful Firefall is more like it.

      • /me googles. Ah, it's Windows only, thats why I hadn't heard of that. Unlike Firefall, Destiny and Defiance are cross-platform.

  • I was getting ready to buy this and a PS4. Then Hulu glitched out and played the extended trailer three times every commercial break. Now I hate Destiny and don't feel all that great about Immigrant from Zeppelin. Could someone please publish a scientific paper assuring advertisers that people respond negatively to repeated ads? Christ.

  • Shades of... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by yoshi_mon ( 172895 ) on Saturday September 13, 2014 @11:48AM (#47897411)

    This game smacked to me of Titanfall marketing. And appears to have delivered the same level game. Nothing bad but not anything near the level of hype that the marketing inspired.

    But the marketing DID deliver the hype level sales and that is all that matters to the publishers. So while the culture of pre-orders based on marketing hype that is backed up by paid for "reviews" exist this cycle will repeat.

    • I was fooled once with titanfall. Glad I didn't buy into this one. In fact the free beta was so lacking in fun that I deleted it the same day. Much like I'm now deleting all the spam emails I receive from them, apparently having clicked OK on some marketing consent thing somewhere along the way.

    • When marketing accounts for a greater than 50% of the development costs (One figure I read said $180Mil and $100Mil on top for marketing) then yes, there's going to be huge hype of an average game. What happens when the marketing budget is tiny compared to the development costs? You get a cheap, great game but it might take a bit of searching to find it (Example: Terraria and many many other indy games)

    • did the marketing lie? did it show content that doesn't exist? gameplay that doesn't exist? how were you fooled?

  • I bought the game when it came out (digital download, who needs line ups or EB?) and I agree with the reviews.

    I play FPS on both console and PC so ignoring the argument people like to have, which isn't the issue, the game is lacking. The thing is it actually has a lot of potential, and I really want to like it, but its just.. Boring. If they had of had more variety of quests, a real open world, any sort of story, and public match making for campaign it would have been a lot better. A shame, really.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by iONiUM ( 530420 )

      I should mention I have it for 360, and really appreciated they made a version for my old console. I refuse to upgrade, and I guess eventually I'll only be able to play PC games.

  • Warframe for PC and PS4 is a much better semi-mmo shooter (although I most frequently play with just a sword) than Destiny. The updates are good, the new missions are interesting and the challenge is high. Its also free to play.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

      Warframe is coming out on XBONE as well afaik.

      Though it's a bit closer to third person shooter version of diablo than MMO. But honestly, if you want a proper warframe with all the pretty graphics, you have to have a decent PC with nvidia card in it. Harware physx particles for skill effects are pretty.

      • How is first or third person relevant to its MMO status?

        Have you watched the game played on PS4? The graphics are quite impressive. The framerate is smoother, which would be nice, but not enough to do a PC upgrade and force myself to run Windows.

        cf. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] for a graphics comparison

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

          They had to cut down on graphics on PS4 and XBONE. And obviously remove hardware physx. PS4 is about as good as PC on medium settings.

          You video shows early gameplay with no fancy elemental effects or visually impressive skills in play and the in-game trailer. A pretty bad comparison even if you choose to ignore the whole "youtube video compression makes comparing graphical fidelity impossible".

  • it looks like Mass Effect. I thought the commercials were for a new ME game, because they looked so much like a Quarian and a Turian out with a human.
  • I've never felt so alone in a multiplayer environment. This game is without a soul. I finally went into the 2nd Strike mission and felt like the other two people that were playing alongside me were actually playing the game "with" me. I sort of wanted to say thanks to them. No real way to do that. I can't remember their handles they were too complicated. Would have been nice to group up with them again for some regular missions if they wanted. Just like other first person shooters on the console I wa

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