Destiny's ultimate Destiny - The Face of 2014

Alright, since almost before the beta, I've been a strong supporter of Destiny, as anyone who's raged against the game on Gamespot knows. I always said "Give Bungie a chance. They need time to get their legs on a persistent connection and work out the bugs before they start tossing content." "The story will come. They're not going to leave it dangling. They just didn't want it to be a flash in the pan." "The game will develop. They've got plenty of leads to go elsewhere with THIS iteration of Destiny. They don't need to crank out a sequel."

And so, I waited. I waited for Bungie to vindicate my faith in them. For the story they promised, the depth they said they had, and the extras I swore were coming. And then, The Dark Below dropped.....

And now, I strike my colors.

I wanted so much for TDB to be the restoration of my interest in Destiny. But the hard truth is, there's just as little there, as there is in the core game. I must now, reluctantly, join the many others who are tired of Destiny.

But Destiny does have a place in the gaming sphere. More than any other game, Destiny perfectly encapsulates what the year 2014 represents in gaming: lots of promise, lots of hype, that just goes nowhere. More than Watch Dogs, Titanfall, Beyond Earth, Unity or Advanced Warfare, Destiny nails every single mistake major AAA publishers could make. But it's not the negative press that doomed Destiny. It's just how little there actually is that's different. Technically speaking, Destiny's a fine looking and playing game. But for what was promised, the game is almost a quarter's shadow atop a giant pile of counterfeit bills. From the overhype, to the bugs, the lack of content, the connection issues, the hurried promises that went unfulfilled, Destiny IS 2014. The game itself will probably be eclipsed by the rumors of a sequel next E3, as well as other games. But this year, Destiny is what AAA brought out onto the new consoles: A whole lot of nothing, packaged and wrapped in the pretty colors of evolution.

@Khasym: it's a decent game, not for everyone though as it's an mmo

Agree but its still a great game. I just wish the story mode had been longer. Really though, if you want to level your character all the way up, youre just getting started when you finish story mode and the game changes dramatically once you hit level 20.

Sure, the game could be better but I could say that about every game Ive ever played (and I can go back as far the the original NES). Even still, I love Destiny and feel the entertainment value is well worth the cost of the game, TDB and whatever other expansions that come out between now and the release of Destiny 2.

Sorry for taking so long, but I was away for christmas.

I'm not a flash in the pan guy. I did play past the initial level cap. I actually enjoyed the game BEFORE the locating of Loot Caves or the rarity patching. And from the perspective of the base ideas of the gameplay(coop/competitive futuristic shooter) and it's execution, it's a good game. To be clear also, until I hear legitimate reports of a sequel, I'm not going to assume automatically that this was sequel-baiting.

But Destiny was supposed to be more. It was supposed to DO more. And it's not. it just isn't. I always felt that the story would be coming. That we'd grow to understand what Destiny was about IN the game. Again, I'm not talking Mass Effect or Baldur's Gate/KOTOR levels of story interaction, but a little more than "...I could tell you about..." or "I don't even have time to explain why I don't have time to explain...." was supposed to be coming. If you actually look at the game exclusive from the net, the TITLE makes no sense. Mass Effect's title came from a piece of the tech in the game. It was used, it was fleshed out in game. The Last of Us was admittedly a slightly broad title, but it's meaning is understood as you play it. Even games like Infamous Second Son and Killzone Shadowfall, have more in game relevance to their titles, than Destiny does.

From there, we move into the little ties that go nowhere right now. Alright, I understand that not everything can be dropped....wait, no, I don't understand that anymore. This game has spent years in development. It was helmed by a studio that has single-handedly redefined the first person shooter market. And they managed four vehicles? Only three of which are actually controllable, and only TWO of which can be used in game as a combat platform? The ORIGINAL Halo, had more combat ready vehicles at launch than this game does. Again, it's not that they came out BADLY. It's that the game doesn't have MORE of what it DOES have. If we could conduct space battles with our ships(which is a GLARINGLY omitted question in Destiny's world considering both Guardians and The Darkness have access to space craft) or have all vehicle fights in Destiny, that would be something. But largely, the vehicles are only tactically significant in that if you have one, you kill things faster. In Coop, it doesn't change the AI at all(mostly because the vehicles are limited to short vehicle only sections) and in Competitive, it's a race to find them and ideally steal your opposing teams' vehicle to dominate the map.

This is the Destiny that I've seen. A game that was sold to us as being way more than it is. Maybe terms were misapplied to it, but many of those terms, came from BUNGIE as much as the gaming press. And for good or ill, we ate up that press like candy. But, that is what 2014 was. The marketing teams and hype-mongers doing more to SELL a game, than developers actually MAKING it.