Okay, I’ll go ahead and admit it: the Destiny hype train ran out of steam pretty rapidly after release. To be honest, this wouldn’t be the first time this year that a game slated to be a huge genre-changer ended up less than expected (Watchdogs anyone?). However, truth be told, I actually think there’s a good deal of hope for Bungie’s latest IP; provided they aren’t afraid to make a few quality additions. Some of these are pretty small, while a couple of them may take some phone calls. In any case, here is my list of what I believe could pull Destiny out of its post-release funk.
Let there be plot!
*Minor spoiler alert: first paragraph, “Sadly” sentence*
Okay, one of the biggest let-downs of the entire game had to have been the story. Bungie had all the puzzle pieces set out in front of them: decent voice talent, beautiful graphical design, a brand new universe to do whatever they wanted in, and the fact that they created the entire Halo trilogy and the tapestry of story therein. Sadly, what could have been an epic tale of guardian and ghost facing the forces of the darkness and prevailing against all odds turned into just popping bullets into faceless villains until the Traveler “started to heal”. Come on guys! Where’s that old Chief and Arbiter fighting against the Covenant level of intricacy and heart?
Like I said though, all is not lost. The characters they have still have untapped potential. Between the Awoken, the Vanguard, and the various factions within the Tower, there’s more than enough major players to kick off a decent political struggle even in the midst of all the darkness-stopping. On top of that, enemy factions could also receive some fleshing out. Some of the best moments in the Halo Trilogy’s story were when the inner workings of the Covenant were revealed to the player. From what can be gleaned from the Grimoire cards, all the enemy factions have a lot of depth to them. All it would take is showing that depth in-game. Give us a Fallen Captain making a monologue while his troops approach our guardian’s position, have a Cabal Centurion yelling orders to his legionaries as we assault his outpost. Give us some sense of the conflict other than “they’re shooting at me, guess I better shoot back”!
Patrol Missions: Make them Mean More!
Now that story’s out of the way, let’s get down to one of the bedbugs within the actual gameplay: patrols. Really, aside from the occasional public event, exploration gets old way too fast. One of the worst contributors to this, by far, is the busywork that is patrol missions. Typically, these amount to just go here, shoot this, collect x amount of y, etc etc. While no gamer is a fan of busywork, this can be counterbalanced by a decent enough reward. Currently, however, this could not be further from the case. Bounty missions aside, all a guardian gets from completing patrol missions is a small bit of vanguard reputation and (if under level 20) a measly amount of experience. If a game is going to throw boring repetitiveness at the player, the reward has to at least be worth the effort.
How Bungie could go about fixing this has two fairly simple options. Number one, add more to the reward pool. If Bungie can make killing twenty fallen dregs over and over again worth the effort by adding some glimmer, a few engrams, or more exp/vanguard points then it wouldn’t be so bad. The second possible solution (and a more interesting idea in my opinion) is have the amount of patrols done affect the world more. They could implement something where the more players accomplish the patrols, the more challenging enemies just appear in the world or have it directly relate to how often public events happen. There’s so much that could be done to remove the ho-hum of the current patrols’ setup and it would take very little on the programming end.
Speed up the Vanguard Ranking!
For any multiplayer RPG, one of the big make-or-break moments is the endgame. Once a character has reached max level, all that is left is the dungeons, occasional special events, and (of course) finding the most awesome gear to equip and show off. Only problem with Destiny: Legendary gear sits behind one more leveling wall and it requires an abysmal grind. I am of course talking about the Vanguard Rank. Upon reaching level 20, a guardian’s level no longer counts on how much experience they’ve acquired, but by how much “Light” is in their gear. Light is essentially a measuring stick for how much more a piece of armor pushes a guardian’s overall ability past the level cap. Now this wouldn’t be such a big deal if certain parts of the game, specifically high level strike playlists and raids, weren’t stuck behind a level 24-26 recommendation. Of course, players can ignore this and try to tough it out with their level 20 character, but I can attest from personal experience how often one dies when their level is two or more less than prescribed. All in all, the slog to Vanguard Rank 2, the level at which legendary gear becomes purchasable, ends up being just playing the same strikes over and over again; which can turn one of the most enjoyable parts of the game into just more busy work.
Finally: Surprise Us!
This one is a no-brainer for a developer like Bungie. They’ve made some great games in the past and filled said games with more than enough to keep us hooked, some of which we weren’t expecting. Not only shouldn’t Destiny be any different, but it has the most room to do so. They’ve stocked the tower with three different joinable factions: the New Monarchy, Dead Orbit, and the Future War Cult. Why not make a special playlist in the crucible for grudge matches between them? Also, they’ve given every guardian their own ship. Why not pull a Halo: Reach and make high-orbit dogfights a thing? Get creative Bungie! You’ve gotten people to buy Destiny, now make it worth the $60 and PS Plus/Xbox Gold accounts! This kind of thing should be child’s play for a development team like this! Let’s make it happen!
Well, that’s my list. How about yours? Feel free to leave a comment below with what you’d like to see added to Destiny within the coming updates.
For more info on Destiny, check out Bungie.net.
