Destiny 2: A Wish List of Sorts.
Are you still waiting for Destiny
September 9, 2014, Bungie officially releases Destiny to the world. It comes as no surprise as we approach the three-year anniversary of Destiny Bungie would announce Destiny 2. Back in 2009, years before Destiny had been officially announced,
in Halo 3: ODST there was an in-game poster of an orb, which we now have come to know as the Traveler, and a simple message… Destiny Awaits.
Flash forward five long years later and Destiny had arrived, or so gamers thought. Destiny had its birthing pains the same as any other new intellectual property would. Game elements Bungie had spoken of upon launch were missing or felt broken. The approach to fixing Destiny's larger problems at times seemed like less of a solution and more like a Titan shoulder charge to the gut. Today we look to the past and my future hopes for Destiny 2.
“seemed like less of a solution and more like a Titan shoulder charge to the gut. ”
Character Creation:
For gamers, character creation is the first real step in forming a connection to a game. It allows a player to fabricate their ideal representation of oneself within a new virtual world. Currently, Destiny has Three Race options; Human, Awoken and Exo. There are male and female choices available for all races. Moving on to faces, there are seven options for different face types, some skin color, hair color and marking options. Overall, Destiny's character creation is lacking. It is common to run into an exact clone of your guardian while roaming around the Tower or other social hubs.
The first red flag for me with Destiny 2 is, your character's appearance from Destiny will transfer over (provided your guardian has hit level 20 and completed the Black Garden Story Mission) leading me to believe Bungie will be putting little effort into the character creator of Destiny 2 before launch. Bungie stated there will be veteran honors for transferring your current guardian; however, I hope you can still get these but, be allowed to change up the appearance of your avatar, think Commander Shepard in Mass Effect 2.
I hope to see a ton of new race options, Fallen, Vex, Cabal or some we have yet to meet. Judging from the Destiny 2 poster, which currently only features humans, it is a safe bet we will not see any.
Looking at it from a graphics standpoint, your character's appearance not changing, gives the apperance Bungie will not be doing much to advance the graphical fidelity of the game. Do not get me wrong; Destiny is a beautiful looking game. However, the previous console generation held the graphics back. Just how much will the graphics change from the first game to the second? Only time will tell, and I hope I am very, very wrong about my assumption.
Story:
The foundation to any MMO-RPG is the story. Everyone was optimistic about Bungie delivering the story in spades with Destiny. Sadly, this did not happen. The story gives you little to care about and is convoluted at its best. Most of the world's lore takes place outside of the game on Grimoire cards, and this should not be too surprising as lead writer and cinematic director Joseph Staten parted ways with Bungie during development.
It was not until a year after release, the Taken King DLC, would offer improvements to the story, but not enough to add any great clarity to what exactly was going on. All we know is there was a great darkness, and the Traveler sacrifices itself to save humanity. Three years and we still have not discovered any more about the darkness or the Traveler.
My hope for Destiny 2 is an unbelievable amount of story. A story which has tension, drama and sets the stakes high enough to make players care about succeeding or failing a mission, beyond just the hopes of XP and loot. One of the largest missed opportunities in Destiny is a lack of connection with any of the NPCs.
Imagine your first few tutorial missions the guardian mentors joined you, shoulder to shoulder with Ikora, Cayde-6 or Zavala, blasting alien scumbags to bits! No one likes escort missions, but how about an elite badass showing you the ropes of what it is to be a guardian. It is a strong case for forming a connection when you have your life saved by your mentor, versus just talking to them as they stand around a table in the tower. The Destiny 2 trailer does seem to offer hope for a stronger connection to our mentors as we see the Guardian trinity rallying the troops.
“Imagine your first few tutorial missions the guardian mentors joined you, shoulder to shoulder with Ikora, Cayde-6 or Zavala, blasting alien scumbags to bits!”
Open World-ish:
If the foundation is the story, then an MMO-RPG's world would certainly be its frame. Imagine pulling the drywall off your house only to discover it was made from balsa wood and not oak as you had planned. Destiny touted as an open world game. However, it feels less like an open world game and more like a massive take on corridor shooters of yesteryear. Players fronted with endless menu navigation and load screens for simple things; joining friends, finding missions, turning in bounties waiting to be matched with fellow guardians for PVP or getting the next step in a mission. Very different from Bungie's first claims of game modes being designed to be seamlessly merged. The in-game areas are so far from being an open world Bungie does not even give provide you with a map of any of the playing areas.
Despite the fragmentation of the virtual persistent online world of destiny, although beautiful, it proves bland and lifeless. Something I hope gets a massive overhaul for Destiny 2. The world must draw you in and seem alive. NPCs should feel less like walking cardboard and more like actual people living out their lives. Bungie please take notes from Bethesda's Elder Scrolls games where one can follow the NPCs around for hours documenting their existences. The playing areas need to become massive open environments and provide space and motivation to explore them. Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto is another game things should be pulled from, GTA has a magnitude of in-game activities to break up the monotony of doing the same missions over and over again. The only option Destiny ever offered was a limited time access to Sparrow racing, oh, and a soccer ball in the tower. Joseph Staten while talking about the game before launch shared a story about in-game gambling for gear. While I do not think, it must be for gear alone, just offering several different mini games and actives will go a long way in creating a more believable open world, while also giving players more to do.
Ship Living & Space Combat:
Bungie has expanded the item vault capacity; it still is not enough for most hardcore collectors and hoarders. Players ships need to become their in-game home, allowing players to stash all their gear, both in the vault and some items on display, museum style. If Destiny 2 stays the course of the first game, allowing the player's ship to act as a social hub for fire teams and Guilds to interact in said ship would be a significant advantage to gameplay. Speeding up the overall process of getting in missions, turning in bounties, joining strike playlist or even the crucible. Adding space combat to Destiny 2 is a must, something that reproduces the greatness of Tie Fighter.
Guilds:
As it is right now in Destiny, Guild management does not even exist in the game. Guilds, like Grimoire cards, take place exclusively on Bungie.net. It is mind-boggling for a large scale social game to lack this and even worse for a so-called MMO-RPG like Destiny. Imagine how great a clan ship or space station would be to gather in. Bungie if you won't give players Guild ships at least provide them with a Guildhall. No? At the very least allow them to be formed and managed in the game, for the love of the Traveler, PLEASE!!!
Fire Teams:
No one likes to be the third wheel, and we all can agree that when you are stuck, four-wheel drive is the only way to go. If you thought a three-person fire team was odd, well it is. Okay, enough with the wicked witticisms. Let us see the fire teams bumped up to a minimum of four players and six to eight for the raids. I can understand having them at three for Destiny, a Hunter, Titan, and Warlock but the sequel must be larger. It would be great if we could get more than just three classes. Maybe Valve and Bungie should have a talk about the number three.
Item Diversity:
“Also, there will be a ton of loot -Cayde-6”
Destiny does have quite a bit of loot; however, the real problem with it is the lack of diversity. Most every item in Destiny appears as a reused asset of an earlier piece it also applies to enemy races in the game (cough, the Taken, cough.) Starships and Sparrows are some of the biggest offenders. Over the years of development and release, it has gotten slightly better. A game can possess an endless amount of loot. However, loot is only a motivator if it something in which a player wants. The only items in all of Destiny I wanted badly enough to grind for were the year one Dead Orbit Warlock set (which I got and then almost immediately became useless.) The Space Age Mariner and of course the Gjallarhorn. Sorry to bring up painful memories for a substantial number of you who sought the Gjally and never received one.
Raids:
There is not much to say on the topic of Raids which are the strongest components of Destiny or any game I have ever played. I hope puzzle dungeons bleed into more games. It still is not perfect, and the lack of matchmaking left many locked out of Destiny's best content and thus by proxy some of the most powerful gear in the game. With no handholding from Bungie, it pushed the Destiny community to work together both in the game and out.
PC, VR and Choices:
With Destiny 2 making its way onto PC, Bungie needs to give players more choices in how they visually consume the game. VR on all platforms that support it. Have the option to play the game entirely in first or third person as well as being able to control the field of view. Offering account duality across all platforms based on your Bungie.net account would be another massive victory for gamers and Destiny 2 sales numbers. PVE cross-platform play would be a loved addition to the game. PVP would still need to remain locked to specific platforms. It should be a safe bet Destiny 2 will be in 4k resolution to support not only PC but the PS4 Pro and the Xbox Scorpio once it is released.
Destiny was a game that I both genuinely love and loath. I write this as a wish list of sorts but also as a jaded, bittersweet love letter to prepare myself to say, Farwell. Sure, there are many other topics and wishes I could add but, to me, these are the weakest areas of the game and ones I hope get the most attention and improvements in Destiny 2. Gamers currently have around three months before the official release of Destiny 2. We still do not know much about what the second iteration has in store for our guardians and us but, what we do know is, more, Destiny, awaits.
