Destiny - Negative reviews, all the same 'complaints'...

[ImpulsE69]

n/m pointless.

 

[Subyman]

Eh, I don't think the collective negativity from critics is from them "only playing a couple of hours." They even all held back their reviews for several days to play through to the end and try the end game, much more than the typical MMO review. IMO its the people that haven't played through to the end and tried a bunch of the end game stuff that don't understand the complaints.

Most of the complaints revolve around the story (which is bad) and the repetitive, some would say nonexistent, end game. Even the crucible has very few maps. For a lot it is a disappointment.

 

[Qbah]

The game doesn't change even in the end game. I have not done the 6-man raid, no idea where it is, but everything else is identical. Higher difficulty is just about more mobs or modifiers, like damage type X does double damage or melee does more damage or mobs never run. But the base for the game doesn't change at all. It is ALWAYS get to waypoint A , kill 3 waves of enemies, get to waypoint B, kill 3 waves of enemies, get to waypoint C, kill boss. Bosses have no tactic, just summon adds, so it's boss, adds, boss, adds, boss mission over.

So when you have seen the first location and gained a few levels, you've seen the whole game. It's just different colors around you and different textures on the mobs. Also, there are no NPCs outside the Tower. So everything you meet, you shoot.

EDIT: Forgot to mention... I play the game, cause I like to upgrade my characters and see how hard a game can get before something can't be beat. Even if harder means more mobs and HP.

 

[Veliko]

I'm enjoying it (level 25 Titan) but I'd say that the reviews are pretty much spot on.

The story/lore really is guff.

 

[DarkKnightDude]

It feels like there's nothing to do but grind. I've already just traded in my copy for something else.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Eh, I don't think the collective negativity from critics is from them "only playing a couple of hours." They even all held back their reviews for several days to play through to the end and try the end game, much more than the typical MMO review. IMO its the people that haven't played through to the end and tried a bunch of the end game stuff that don't understand the complaints.

Most of the complaints revolve around the story (which is bad) and the repetitive, some would say nonexistent, end game. Even the crucible has very few maps. For a lot it is a disappointment.

I've read a bit of IGN's impressions as they aren't calling it boring etc. They even said they have fun when they log in. The guy who reviewed the game on gamespot has admitted in the past that he doesn't like fps games. There is a problem there to begin with. Plus, with bungie announcing free content coming for this, you really cannot attach a score IMO. It isn't a game that is all on the disk, they are going to add more things. With games as broken as battlefield 4 at launch getting 8s and games with nearly no lag lots of content and servers that work getting a 6, its sad for the video game journalism industry.

The story is good, I don't know why people even think it's bad. It's much better than many shooters. It just isn't handed out to you. It's built up piece by piece and in the end will be a huge universe. The Grimoire cards on bungie's website have more info on the lore. Knowing there will be expansions and further releases in the franchise, I can see the building blocks being set in place. Maybe people are thinking of a singular game and comparing it to other single games.

In all honesty I think people today are impatient and that's too bad because the game will evolve over time. Bungie knows what they are doing.

 

[Lil Frier]

Nope sorry...even Halo has more lore they could explore. I don't care what game it is, 3 hours tells you nothing. Calling the MP weak is an excuse for you suck because it's not exactly like some other game.

If you guys really want to troll you should try gamefaqs or neogaf...it's too easy to call you out here.

LOL, "if you don't like it, it means you suck." That's some sweet, sweet fanboy logic. I fully admitted that I did poorly in my one round in there, but that's not the point. I mean, I did just fine playing Ghosts' online multiplayer, but I still hated it. I was pretty bad at Halo 4 during the early stages of playing it, but I still enjoyed it. Using skill to determine enjoyment is asinine, and it's evidenced by those times you go into a Halo or CoD lobby, only to find someone with 15,000+ deaths and a 0.5 K.

Just because we don't like your favorite new toy, it does not mean that it's a result of skill issues--correlation != causation. I'd probably get passably competent at the Destiny multiplayer if I got the game and figured out which OP weapon to use and the various multiplayer strategies, same as most every shooter I ever wanted to play the online multiplayer of.

Oh, and you don't think 3 hours in ANY GAME can determine if you like it? I'm pretty sure hour 12 of Madden won't be different from hour 3. I rented a game on the original PlayStation probably 10-15 years ago, and I beat the whole thing in under 2 hours. I don't think that playing through it a second time would have changed my feelings toward it.

Having more story is not the same as having an issue with presentation. Halo obviously has more story to explore, and it's why they had the prequel (Reach), the in-between story (ODST), and why there will be future titles in the series. However, the big difference between the two titles, from a story perspective (to me) is that Halo presented you the story, then sent you off to complete objectives through combat. Destiny did it almost the opposite way, putting you in the combat, then trying to push the story on you mid-fight. It made it something of an annoyance to even have a story, because I was more interested in the combat than stopping behind a wall so I could hear what was being said over the gunfire.

Keep the mentality of "if you hate what I like, you're bad at it," though. It obviously applies here, and to everything in life.

 

[cmdrdredd]

In madden hour 12 would have you further along in ultimate team, so yeah it can be more enjoyable then. It is also a common tactic to write off a game that someone is not good at.

 

[Veliko]

The story is good, I don't know why people even think it's bad. It's much better than many shooters. It just isn't handed out to you. It's built up piece by piece and in the end will be a huge universe. The Grimoire cards on bungie's website have more info on the lore. Knowing there will be expansions and further releases in the franchise, I can see the building blocks being set in place. Maybe people are thinking of a singular game and comparing it to other single games.

The story isn't good at all, largely because there isn't much of one. The moment we get introduced to a newer, more interesting character - the woman - she disappears until the end of the game.

It's a sign of bad storytelling if I have to go to a website in order to get information on the story and the lore of the game.

In all honesty I think people today are impatient and that's too bad because the game will evolve over time. Bungie knows what they are doing.

Sorry but this is just nonsense, little more than a complaint about the youth of today.

 

[Lil Frier]

I've read a bit of IGN's impressions as they aren't calling it boring etc. They even said they have fun when they log in. The guy who reviewed the game on gamespot has admitted in the past that he doesn't like fps games. There is a problem there to begin with. Plus, with bungie announcing free content coming for this, you really cannot attach a score IMO. It isn't a game that is all on the disk, they are going to add more things. With games as broken as battlefield 4 at launch getting 8s and games with nearly no lag lots of content and servers that work getting a 6, its sad for the video game journalism industry.

The story is good, I don't know why people even think it's bad. It's much better than many shooters. It just isn't handed out to you. It's built up piece by piece and in the end will be a huge universe. The Grimoire cards on bungie's website have more info on the lore. Knowing there will be expansions and further releases in the franchise, I can see the building blocks being set in place. Maybe people are thinking of a singular game and comparing it to other single games.

In all honesty I think people today are impatient and that's too bad because the game will evolve over time. Bungie knows what they are doing.

I'll probably work through these comments out of order, but I'll start with the last.

I agree, the story will grow. It's why I've said I'll probably wait until the first 2 expansions and the base game get a GotY release for $60, then I'll consider a purchase. I didn't enjoy myself to the tune of a $100 commitment during the beta. Halve that, and I might jump in.

As for the story, I don't even know that the story itself is bad (the common complaint, it seems). It's more that there's a level of clichéd apathy (like calling the major threat "The Darkness"), with the main problem I had being just general delivery. I didn't feel like they presented the story properly, and it went in one ear and out the other as a result. It just didn't stick with me, and I didn't have any real care for what they were doing because they never really gave me a reason to care.

Now, obviously review scores are a total joke. Battlefield deserved a "TBD" on its score, with a note that an $60, unfinished joke wasn't deserving of a rating. That's not to say that whichever polished game you're referencing didn't deserve a 6, just that the reviewer of BF was incompetent, dishonest, or blind. Obviously, sending someone who doesn't like the FPS genre to review Destiny is a dumb idea, but not much can be done about that, from a reader standpoint (except for writing off the opinions of that reviewer entirely).

HOWEVER, I would say that you have to be able to assess the qualities (usually done through a score) with Destiny, despite the unfinished business it has. People want an idea of what they're getting themselves into for $60, and that's often something they want fulfilled through a number (Engadget tried to dumb their numerical ratings a while back, but they brought them back because they probably figured out people liked them). WoW: WoD is an expansion, and it will get a review with numerical scores. I'd imagine (and hope) that the Destiny expansions will get them as well, hopefully with explanations of things that got fixed and didn't.

Really, you said it yourself: the total lack of integrity within gaming journalism makes numerical scores almost meaningless on their face. That's why you never go to one reviewer, and you always try to supplement any "professional" assessment with the thoughts of the common person who has played the game. Point being, if they're ultimately useless, does it even matter if they get assigned to Destiny, despite impending changes/additions/improvements? The words used to defend the numbers are what will (hopefully) influence most people, with the number there for the lazy, for better or for worse.

 

[zerocool84]

Nope sorry...even Halo has more lore they could explore. I don't care what game it is, 3 hours tells you nothing. Calling the MP weak is an excuse for you suck because it's not exactly like some other game.

If you guys really want to troll you should try gamefaqs or neogaf...it's too easy to call you out here.

If a game, any game, doesn't pull you in in those three hours then no reason two keep playing. If they don't like it they don't like it.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Typically review sites don't hate on games (mostly). Out of the 15 or so I read, only one completely panned the game. The rest though like I said were favorable and fun to an extent, but not what they felt they had been promised and (maybe because of the known expansions) lacking overall.

For me, like I said in the other thread, it felt like Borderlands. Interestingly enough that is exactly what many of the reviews said as well. So now I feel a quite a bit less like a freak for saying it. Obviously tons of people loved Borderlands, I wasn't one of them. I actually played way more Destiny than I did Borderlands. The MMO aspect? Well, just not my thing either. I tried FFIX and ESO recently and again, while not bad, end up just being a grindfest with a bunch of temporary people smacking a boss. I think maybe the biggest reason these games don't appeal to me is because I'm way past the days of 'playing for gear'. Which..essentially is what this game is. I want a story that drives me to want to play a game. Not an overall kind of hint at a story. Bioshock Infinite was a very hyped game and I loved that game instantly (and I hadn't played 1 or 2 at the time). Slightly different games but they ARE both FPS.

Anyway, the moral of the story is those reviews are like that for a reason. There isn't some major conspiracy. This game had so many millions of hype marketing behind it, and it didn't live up to many peoples expectations. Most of the reviews mirrored what I felt about the game almost exactly (even though I played much less of it). That doesn't mean it's a bad game or they didn't enjoy it, but it's not any sort of second coming of Bungee. The game still (from what I heard) made it's money back first day..I just don't think people are going to be playing it for very long, but then again there are lots of people out there that like grinding for gear. (ala Diablo).

 

[cmdrdredd]

If a game, any game, doesn't pull you in in those three hours then no reason two keep playing. If they don't like it they don't like it.

Look at Last of Us. How many people thought it was boring but then after a couple hours more they called the best game they played on PS3 or 360? Not every game is going to show it's cards in a short time.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Really, you said it yourself: the total lack of integrity within gaming journalism makes numerical scores almost meaningless on their face. That's why you never go to one reviewer, and you always try to supplement any "professional" assessment with the thoughts of the common person who has played the game. Point being, if they're ultimately useless, does it even matter if they get assigned to Destiny, despite impending changes/additions/improvements? The words used to defend the numbers are what will (hopefully) influence most people, with the number there for the lazy, for better or for worse.

My main gripe isn't journalistic integrity as much as user reviews that read something like this. "Game sucks score 0" or "This game sucks on console x score 0" and the review for the other version is "This game was made for this console score 10". That and the non stop threads and posts elsewhere (not on this forum) that are obvious troll attempts. There are people who really like the game, obviously some people do not. It's not necessary to drop in a thread where people are discussing things and asking questions about the game and have a random comment like "I wasted my money on this trash I dunno why you guys play it."

Trolls will troll but I think there are two types of people talking about this game. Firstly some people didn't follow it close enough so they didn't know what to expect, they just went off the advertising hype. Setting themselves up for disappointment. Secondly other people followed it and played through the beta etc. They knew what they were getting.

 

[cmdrdredd]

The story isn't good at all, largely because there isn't much of one. The moment we get introduced to a newer, more interesting character - the woman - she disappears until the end of the game.

It's a sign of bad storytelling if I have to go to a website in order to get information on the story and the lore of the game.



Sorry but this is just nonsense, little more than a complaint about the youth of today.

I disagree about the story. I think it's fine. Games have had far less storytelling in them before, games like Demon Souls come to mind. It almost tells you zero and just drops you in. Everything must be inferred and discovered by you.

Gamers are pretty impatient. More so today than I can remember. Everyone is all "hurry up and let me kill stuff". That's why CoD was so popular and it's why companies started offering microtransactions and doing promos for "xp bonus weekends". There's a good number of people who want everything in a hurry. This game has some grinding, anyone who played it will tell you. We had a beta that would tell you that as well. Calling it boring, repetitive etc is odd to me after we've had this info for a while. As I've said before on other threads with all the videos and info and even a public beta, if you still don't know about the game it's your fault for not researching. Plus it's an fps, what do you do in an fps game? Shoot stuff over and over.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Trolls will troll but I think there are two types of people talking about this game. Firstly some people didn't follow it close enough so they didn't know what to expect, they just went off the advertising hype. Setting themselves up for disappointment. Secondly other people followed it and played through the beta etc. They knew what they were getting.

This here is how I know you're just being fanboi-ish. (besides throwing out 'troll' every other post because you don't agree). Every review I read were people who played the beta (and sometimes alpha). They knew exactly what they were getting. We realize you like the game, get over the fact that people don't. Your comparison to TLOU is a good example because most thought TLOU got better, while they didn't think this game was any different from the beginning to the end.

 

[Subyman]

I've read a bit of IGN's impressions as they aren't calling it boring etc. They even said they have fun when they log in. The guy who reviewed the game on gamespot has admitted in the past that he doesn't like fps games. There is a problem there to begin with. Plus, with bungie announcing free content coming for this, you really cannot attach a score IMO. It isn't a game that is all on the disk, they are going to add more things. With games as broken as battlefield 4 at launch getting 8s and games with nearly no lag lots of content and servers that work getting a 6, its sad for the video game journalism industry.

The story is good, I don't know why people even think it's bad. It's much better than many shooters. It just isn't handed out to you. It's built up piece by piece and in the end will be a huge universe. The Grimoire cards on bungie's website have more info on the lore. Knowing there will be expansions and further releases in the franchise, I can see the building blocks being set in place. Maybe people are thinking of a singular game and comparing it to other single games.

In all honesty I think people today are impatient and that's too bad because the game will evolve over time. Bungie knows what they are doing.

I think BF4 changed the perception of the critical community. They no longer want to reward companies with decent scores for partial releases. The reviewers can't review potential, or DLC packs that will be coming out sometime in the future. They are given a disk and reviewed it. Right now, the game is a little thin on content especially considering what was advertised. I think it says even more that the servers were rock solid, but they still didn't find it a lasting experience.

I think you may be giving them too much slack. Almost all the reviews said the foundation is great, but what they did with it is very lacking. I'm sure Destiny will be great in a year or so, but right now, its really thin on content.

Giant bomb gave it a 3/5, Jeff is a huge FPS fan. Polygon wrote a decent piece too from two different perspectives, one was an online gaming guy and the other a FPS guy. I think the reviews have been pretty consistent with their qualms.

I know you bought your console specifically for this release, so you'll want to get the most out of the game and that's fine, but to say people are impatient for wanting a complete experience for their $60 on a game that's been in the works for 5+ years is a bit much.

So what you really are saying is to not buy the game and be patient to wait for it to get better.

 

[ImpulsE69]

So what you really are saying is to not buy the game and be patient to wait for it to get better.

So is that, after $240 it will be SOOOO worth it? :biggrin: I think he's more trying to justify the purchases to himself. Anyone talking bad about it makes him feel bad about spending the money. Telling people they are stupid trolls and impatient isn't going to change peoples opinion about the game.

I do feel the OP's topic was relevant though because I was surprised to see all the mediocre reviews as well. But after reading the reviews and many of the comments associated with them, it became apparent I was not at all alone in my thoughts on the game.

 

[Lil Frier]

Agreed on both comments, to an extent. Yes, the Metacritic trolls that give a 0 are stupid, but you'd hope no one actually pays them any attention. Going into a discussion and either positively or negatively commenting on the quality of a game with no explanation is dumb, because it offers nothing to the discussion (the reason so many of my posts end up excessively long). Yes, going in and saying "waste of money, it's bad" is a useless comment, so is something like, "best game ever, if you hate it, you just don't get it and you suck."

Also, there is a big level of impatience with people now. Yeah, I'm guilty of it at times, but there's also a point at which grinding becomes excessive. WoW doesn't make it TOO bad when leveling, but they did a really bad job of overdoing it in Pandaria, which let them hold back content for way too long (leading to yet another broken promise about more content, faster, and a shorter lull between expansions). Borderlands throws a billion weapons at you across several types of ammo and fire rate and such, to the point it's almost overwhelming to even compare them. They also give you WAY too much ammo, to the point that there's no reason to have patience or precision in a gun fight (except maybe with SMGs).

Destiny, on the other hand, seemed to take it to the other extreme. The beta wasn't TOO bad on withholding loot as a whole, but I found one cache in the 2-3 hours I played. Initially, that's not horrible, but when people then say it's nerfed a bit from that (maybe I was just unlucky?), it makes a luck-based loot system harder to tolerate, and it can lead to greater PvP imbalance when 1% of the community has the top tier of weapons, while the rest have to go in and get kicked upside the head (not something I experienced, just a potential concern I have with infrequent loot drops and gear tiers). I know that it sucked in WoW when you had to clear a raid every week just to not get the gear you need for 3 months, only to then have it drop as soon as an improved piece of gear released for the next patch.

The issue I have with Destiny's repetition isn't the shooting though. I've played enough shooters to be fine with it. It's the uninspiring landscapes, which feel cramped and bland by the standards of an open-world(-ish), social shooter. As much as they don't want it to, Destiny gets pushed like its an MMO, but it doesn't have that feeling, in terms of player interaction or world size. It'll obviously grow over time, but the loading screens between missions is something that sucks, as it just how segmented the population seems to be in the game.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I think BF4 changed the perception of the critical community. They no longer want to reward companies with decent scores for partial releases. The reviewers can't review potential, or DLC packs that will be coming out sometime in the future. They are given a disk and reviewed it. Right now, the game is a little thin on content especially considering what was advertised. I think it says even more that the servers were rock solid, but they still didn't find it a lasting experience.

I think you may be giving them too much slack. Almost all the reviews said the foundation is great, but what they did with it is very lacking. I'm sure Destiny will be great in a year or so, but right now, its really thin on content.

Giant bomb gave it a 3/5, Jeff is a huge FPS fan. Polygon wrote a decent piece too from two different perspectives, one was an online gaming guy and the other a FPS guy. I think the reviews have been pretty consistent with their qualms.

I know you bought your console specifically for this release, so you'll want to get the most out of the game and that's fine, but to say people are impatient for wanting a complete experience for their $60 on a game that's been in the works for 5+ years is a bit much.

So what you really are saying is to not buy the game and be patient to wait for it to get better.

I had a PS4 previous to Destiny's release. I got a PS4 on launch night. I simply bought the white one. I was buying Destiny anyway. I have no problem with the game right now. I find it as complete as any game that relies on you to get better gear and doesn't really end.

As far as drops go Friar, they get more abundant when you get higher leveled. I have pretty bad luck on rares though. Most of the better stuff will be rewarded through strike missions, crucible, and merchants for the vanguard, crucible, and factions.

 

[sze5003]

I've just learned people expect a lot now a days. I think the game is fine besides being repetitive in grinding, but that's just me because I often play alone and take a long time to level up. The beta gave way more gear and drops than the full version. Since we don't have everything open from the beginning, most are saying all the daily and weekly events including raids happen after level 20.

Not sure how others play but my only way is to grind to reach a high level before being able to do the harder missions. I have no problem with the levels either, being an fps I'm not sure what would be different had they made everything open and interactive.

 

[Lil Frier]

I think you may be giving them too much slack. Almost all the reviews said the foundation is great, but what they did with it is very lacking. I'm sure Destiny will be great in a year or so, but right now, its really thin on content.

I feel the same way, that the basics of the game (quantity of abilities, gunplay mechanics) are really solid, they just aren't used in a game I find highly enjoyable. I'm sure that this game has that Borderlands quality where playing in a group increases entertainment, but not everyone has a group to play with consistently (for the record, I don't find this game to be all that much like Borderlands, beyond some basic aspects).

 

[Lil Frier]

As far as drops go Friar, they get more abundant when you get higher leveled. I have pretty bad luck on rares though. Most of the better stuff will be rewarded through strike missions, crucible, and merchants for the vanguard, crucible, and factions.

Thing is, there's still part of me that wants the game. I hear too many people talk it up to think it's as bad as the worst comments say. I think that they biggest thing holding me back is the lack of a group to play with. My brother-in-law is still playing his 360 and has yet to get a One. My online Halo friend is in college and doing schoolwork, so he's not getting anything until The Master Chief Collection drops. My cousin isn't playing his 360 anymore or getting a One, instead mostly playing PC games. My longtime friend from school is in the Navy now and doesn't play stuff all that much.

On top of all of that, while online gaming has become the biggest "feature" in gaming over the past 6 years or so, anti-social gaming seems to thrive. People online never use mics (a big problem with playing objective-based game types in CoD or Halo). It makes getting a group together in a game like Destiny harder to do, because it's so rare that you really meet people in-game anymore.

I'll get this game someday, but probably not until my brother-in-law has a One and the Halo 5: Guardians beta is over, since there will probably be a winter lull from the end of that beta in mid-January to the release of Dying Light. Hopefully a GotY Destiny with the expansions is out by then. Otherwise, I'll wait until the summer lull and see what's what then.

 

[Veliko]

I disagree about the story. I think it's fine. Games have had far less storytelling in them before, games like Demon Souls come to mind. It almost tells you zero and just drops you in. Everything must be inferred and discovered by you.

Demon Souls is a completely different type of game so it doesn't work as a comparison.

Gamers are pretty impatient. More so today than I can remember. Everyone is all "hurry up and let me kill stuff". That's why CoD was so popular and it's why companies started offering microtransactions and doing promos for "xp bonus weekends". There's a good number of people who want everything in a hurry. This game has some grinding, anyone who played it will tell you. We had a beta that would tell you that as well. Calling it boring, repetitive etc is odd to me after we've had this info for a while. As I've said before on other threads with all the videos and info and even a public beta, if you still don't know about the game it's your fault for not researching. Plus it's an fps, what do you do in an fps game? Shoot stuff over and over.

This is just a mishmash of unrelated tedious points. That you're trying to say it's the customer's fault if they find the game a let down is incredibly odd and I don't know why you feel the need to defend the game so much.

 

[cmdrdredd]

That's the major problem with the game, or rather with gaming. People are online but never use a headset with a mic or they just mute everyone. Being able to communicate in Destiny helps a lot. Things like "Watch the door to the left, I'll go up top" helps because in harder missions you can get killed easily from enemies coming from an area you didn't expect them to. Some nice touches like the game adding echo effects when you are inside a structure or cave are in place as well. The game does ask you to build a friend list which some players are unwilling to do.