4/10 - mediocre and without direction
It might hold me over till the fall, but it's definately overhyped. I knew that and told people and was skeptical about buying it that it felt shallow. I ended up using all my bing rewards from the last few months to justify the purchase. I think the Borderlands comparisons are fair. It plays a lot like it. In all honestly, I am not a fan of Borderlands. I liked the first game, and felt the second did nothing to really innovate or refine over the first. The main difference was western to steampunk and the average gun in Borderlands 2 actually felt nerfed or weaker. I absolutely hate the grind and stuck in mud feeling playing this style of game which is why I have never attempted an MMO. I know Borderlands is known for its story, but I don't see it and it comes off stupid more than funny to me. The characters just felt sort of crap compared to anything else in the genre: Ghost in the shell, Cowboy Bebop, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Bladerunner to name a few. I honestly feel Borderlands story is overrated in itself, and Destiny is 10x more bland than Borderlands. I think it's going for some Dark Souls or MMO style storytelling and it feels completely flat.
The similarities in gameplay are striking (and bad)...AI stuck in mud, very stupid AI at that's only trump card is overpowered damage or bullet sponges, grinding for gear, and BS repetitive point A to point B. Borderlands has the big edge in side missions. The patrol and vanguard missions are probably the worst part of Destiny. At least Borderlands attempts to make them unique even though they are very similar they use different areas of the world or a different NPC. Destiny lacks NPC characters besides voiceovers from vendor guys at the Tower. The voice over reminds me of Titanfall's campaign or spartan ops in Halo 4. It feels cheap.
The classes and abilities in themselves are about on par with Borderlands...Bladedancer is one I find enjoyable. However, it's nothing mindblowing and very similar. The level cap is only 20 with light stat bringing you higher...rumors are at 30 because raid go into the low 30s and you would think that you will always be underleveled by a couple just to keep the end game engaging. The only thing it adds to this shoot and loot genre is a little better customization and more weapon mod choices. It's like attachments with sights and magazine types and perks. I only wish there were more tiers. It's definately a good idea and improvement over the standard loot system, but needed to go further to meet my standards. The guns are okay, but there is not enough variety. I have not gotten to legendaries or exotics so the jury is out on the quality of top tier gear. The game is suppose to be fantasy mixed with sci-fi, but sci-fi clearly outweights any fantasy influence. They should have had some crazy magic based weapons or swords (there is a sword mission, but that's the only time you get to use it all game).
The social elements are weak. Dance is cool, but they need some other useful emotes. Instead of wave it should be like a arm calling you over or saying follow me. There is no proximity chat or public chat despite people asking for it 100s of times in beta. Bungie doesn't want people to bully others and ruin the experience they say. Thankfully people are still complaining at launch and Bungie will likely be forced to implement this in a near future update or deal with a shitstorm of angry customers. Also, the raids do not have public matchmaking (something only known if you follow forums) so you better have five no life friends to play with....this reminds me of the pain in Halo 3: ODST and setting up endure. Bungie's reasoning was that people won't communicate or work together enough in public matchmaking citing WOW. That's wrong, and a better comparison would be COD zombies which had complicated puzzle elements involving teamwork with four players. I did all the easter eggs in matchmaking multiple times. Setting up Endure or Vidmasters in Halo was annoying even with friends and only four people. This is way more complicated and annoying than Borderlands.
I feel like I might have missed some things. I mean this game has a lot of negatives for me. I was not a huge fan of Borderlands, but I was a pretty big fan of Halo. I wanted this game to be great, but didn't expect it to be perfect for me. I just wanted it to be decent. This game is extreemely disappointing to me. It's not the worst game I ever played, but its extreemely overhyped. I'd put this right next to Halo 4 and Titanfall. When Bungie left Halo i'd thought I'd get a good Halo with 343i and a new good IP with Halo. Instead I got two half assed attempts...As for this genre, Borderlands remains the better game, but I won't be getting pre-sequel at least at launch. I do hope Borderlands steals the weapon upgrade mods and system, but that's about all that Destiny did new. The cosmetic stuff is cool because I do find grinding for reputation an okay thing (like prestige in COD or armor in Halo). It's just not enough for stale gameplay and a universe that feels bland).
On my own personal scale Destiny would get a 4/10. 6.5/10 is average on my scale. This is my opinion, and I can rate it how I want because I'm not a journalist. If you like Destiny or any of the other games I criticized just realize that before getting mad. I often get a lot of replies from people crying that I don't enjoy what you do. Just be happy I'm not one of those idiots giving it a 0 on metacritic.
