Today marks the five year anniversary of Destiny 1’s release on September 9, 2014. It’s hard to imagine it’s been that long already, as it seems like just yesterday I was strolling into the Cosmodrome or the Moon for the first time, but yeah, it’s been quite a journey.
If you follow my work, you know I’ve grown attached to this series like no other, which is why I have a practically daily Destiny column at this point, with no end to things to write about at any given time. Today, on the five year anniversary, I thought it would be fun to go and take a look back at my original review for Destiny 1, to see what’s changed, and what’s stayed the same. You can read the whole thing if you like, but I’m going to carve out a few select excerpts here for examination.
This review was not like most reviews for Destiny 1 which came out in the days before and after launch and the game infamously got a bunch of 6s and 7s from major outlets. I waited all the way until the end of October to write my review, which ultimately was an 8.5 out of 10, though obviously scoring a game that has changed as much as Destiny is kind of impossible. Hence why all those 6s and 7s feel so silly now.
So, let’s take a look back:
“To sum up what I’ve been saying for weeks now, Destiny succeeds because it has something for everyone, and is hopelessly addictive on every level. I’ve almost never seen a game connect with an audience of fans and critics who have such a wide variety of tastes. The staff here at Forbes all have extremely different preferences in games, but I’d be shocked of any of us have sunk less than 50 hours into Destiny to date.”
Fifty hours? What noobs! But yeah it’s kind of eerie just how well the first part of this holds up now, and we forget how quickly Destiny was able to assemble a passionate fanbase despite its early issues. I still do think it has something for everyone and has one of the best communities in the business, all these years later.
But it’s not all roses:
“Trying to puzzle out Destiny’s story is an exercise in frustration, as you’re only guided by an unenthusiastic AI voiced by Game of Thrones’ Peter Dinklage, or rare side characters who say outright that they don’t want to explain things to you. For any sort of in-depth lore, players are forced to turn to the Grimoire, a series of microscopic journal entries that go deeper into the world of the Guardians and the struggle between the Traveler and the Darkness. Some entries are pretty great, but they’re text-only, hidden far away from in-game dialog trees or cutscenes. You can’t have an actual conversation with a single NPC in the game, and what cutscenes there are in the game, they’re so painful to watch, another common complaint is that it’s impossible to skip them.”
While I think Destiny has gotten better over the years in storytelling, I think it’s only been in increments, and it still remains one of the biggest problems in the series. Dinklebot is gone, but the problems from this era remain. The Grimoire is in the game now, but it maintains its position as where all the “interesting” story stuff lies, while there are far fewer examples of interesting storytelling happening in the course of gameplay itself. Things definitely improved with big expansions like The Taken King and Forsaken, but I think most Destiny fans would agree there’s still a lot of narrative work still to be done.
“There’s also a lot Bungie gets right about gear, despite a few lingering issues. Diablo 3 famously launched as a loot-based game with absolutely garbage loot, which was one of its biggest shortcomings. Destiny may have a few struggles with interesting gear, but the design of the weapons and armor you find are absolutely stunning, the best I’ve seen in any sci-fi gaming universe, and the guns in particular are diverse enough where you will get attached to specific weapons. Legendary and Exotic guns are more often overpowered than underpowered, as it should be, and many have very interesting unique modifiers that liven up combat and make you feel truly powerful. This is less true for armor, as Legendary armor is usually just a flat stat boost, and Exotic armor may have one cool skill or gun-based modifier, but you’re only allowed a single item from that category at all times. It’s a far cry from most RPG-style games where the interaction between your loot and your skills is a constant pursuit of synergy. Only a tiny bit of that is allowed here.”
I am a little surprised I was so keen on Destiny 2’s loot this early, but I guess it was better than I remember, and I do recall being impressed by a number of exotics (though I didn’t even have Gjallarhorn at this point). It’s interesting now to look at just how long we’ve been complaining about armor and its lack of presence and relevance in the loot game, something that is pretty much just now being fully addressed five years later with the total rework of the armor system for 2.0. It shows just how long this has been a problem for the game.
“The priority list for Destiny going forward is clear, and it’s proven it’s the type of game that can adapt to criticism based on the changes to loot and gameplay already. Establishing a more compelling narrative is a must, as is diversifying gameplay in modes other than the Raid. But outside of those two big issues, the sky does seem to be the limit for Destiny. Mechanically, visually and conceptually, it’s nothing other than phenomenal. It just needs to focus on a few more lingering problems before it can reach its true potential as the series everyone dreamed it would be.”
While narrative issues remain, we are certainly miles better than we were at vanilla launch in that regard, and yes, there have definitely been more raid-like mechanics inserted into countless other Destiny modes by now, which I guess were my primary two problems at the time. But I like to think that I was pretty accurate in my assessment of the game and its future potential, given where we are today. Destiny continues to evolve, but it’s hard to say that it hasn’t lived up to its promise these past few years especially. And for many more to come, no doubt. Here’s to another five years, and the fact that there will be another five years is not even a question in my mind at this point.
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