A Thank You to Sony, Microsoft and Bungie for a smooth Destiny launch

GameZone's Matt Liebl: "Aside from maybe a few isolated incidents, this week’s launch of Destiny was about as smooth as one could hope for. I don’t know how many people purchased the game, but judging by the $500 million in day one sales and the record-breaking pre-order numbers, I’d assume quite a few. And ya know what? I didn’t think anything of it."

[brbobcat]

Been on the fence with this one. Good to hear the servers are stable, but how's the gameplay? Please, constructive advice only

[Riggans42]

Take it for what it is and don't expect the world from it and you might enjoy it. It isn't ground breaking. Just solid.

[admiralvic]

Living in the world of reality and not hype and unrealistic expectations, Destiny is the gaming equivalent of a TV show that thinks it's better than it actually is.

The story? While it might sound like trolling, I don't like saying Destiny had a story, as there really wasn't a definitive climatic moment to your journey. You just sort of putz around doing stuff for one reason or another until you finally hit the black garden in what never felt like the end point, but is the end point leading into one of those generic "you won the battle, but hey, there is still a war" statements. However, there is actually a lot of story / detail going on if you bother to take the card and read every card you unlock off Bungie's site.

Gameplay? The gameplay is relatively unchanged from what was in the beta / alpha, which isn't bad, just a little anticlimactic. Higher tier weapons and armor work largely like lower tier ones, just with different designs, maybe a few extra animations and such. Arguably the worst part of the games design is that you're practically forced to play the game a certain way if you want to progress.

Like I hit level 20 with relative ease in a day, but if I want to hit 21+ you need to find things with the light stat. The only consistent way I found to get these items was playing vanguard strikes, though there are probably other methods besides that. Beyond that, as you might be aware from the beta or alpha, a lot of other things are heavily regimented, such as you can only get 100 vanguard and crucible marks a week, so after a certain point it's better to walk away than constantly grinding for gear alone.

Despite all the negativity, it's still a fun game, it could just be a lot better or at least better accomplish its goals with some minor changes. I also noticed that as I leveled and did higher tier strikes, my drop rate seemed to get higher. Still unsure if that is correlation or causation, but I've remained relatively consistent at 7 or so items a strike. Other things, such as the strike bosses, are certainly geared towards teamwork and a good team can beat them with relative ease, where as 1 bad player can bring down the whole team (1 good player doesn't seem to be enough to save a bad team though).

Not a whole lot more to it that that. To sum it up I guess, the story is basically a 10 hour introduction to the game and from there you start your grind towards most interesting things. These things are not easily accessible and push you to just constantly grind and progress forward until you luck out and get something you want or can make better use of than your current gear.

[JoGam]

I heard Guerrilla Games new game is si-fi. If true, I hope they learn from the good and bad with Destiny and Killzone.

[Hanuman]

IGN's 'review in progress' is a pretty good read if you want to find out more about this game. Just wait for the reviews until you make up your mind. If you haven't bought it yet, you can probably wait a few more days.

[swice]

Destiny is a gamers game, not for the casual. You have to know how to properly play a Bungie game, and should have a decent amount of experience in other games, like Halo, Mass Effect, Borderlands, and Doom.

If you keep your expectations lower than most of the crazy people on the Internet, and understand what Destiny is trying to do, you will find some good new old-fashioned satisfaction. I'm enjoying this as a true next-gen GAME, not some multimillion dollar movie.

Also, head shots. Headshots. Headshots. Bungie style

[JeffGUNZ]

EXACTLY THIS @Swice

You have to know what you're getting before you jump in. If you're looking for a single player, quickly beat the campaign, your going to be disappointed. I have 9 hours 54 minutes into the game so far and I still only did a few missions on venus. I keep taking my time, leveling up, getting rare gear now (level 15 Hunter) and taking my time. It's about the gear and the guns. It's about building the best/strongest guardian in the game.

[tlougotg]

Ive played Halo maybe once and it wasnt that serious to go back too and i really didnt play Borderlands, Mass Effect, Doom or any of those games and i assure i didnt need to play any of those games to play this Bungie game properly or enjoy it to an extent. This game isnt groundbreaking and is kind o generic and repetitive in nature. Nor does it have a big learning curve, youll get it as soon as you play it for a little so idk what your going on about lol needing experience with Bungie games.

On that note Destiny is like a 7.5 imo and has solid gameplay but its really repetitive and over hyped. This in no way imp will be even close to a goty contender.

[swice]

@lou

"Ive played Halo maybe once and it wasnt that serious to go back too and i really didnt play Borderlands, Mass Effect, Doom or any of those games"

That's my point. That's probably why you aren't enjoying yourself as much, because you have different expectations of the game. Destiny is generic in the sense we've seen this type of gameplay before, but it expands on it and requires that you know what you're doing in order to get the full experience. This is a game of skill and proper ability/equipment management.

No you don't HAVE to play the other games, but having some of those experiences under your belt will make Destiny easier to understand and more fun to play

[UnwanteDreamz]

You got to lvl 20 in a day? Been playing since the release only lvl 11. Do you work or go to school?

[its_JEFF]

@swice & @JeffGUNZ GEAR & GUNZ! It's about the LOOT.

[DefenderOfDoom2]

reply to brbobcat question /// From someone who loves FPS campaigns / I think the gameplay is great ! The battle scenarios are very fun and somewhat challenging . I wish DESTINY ran at 60fps like WOLFENSTEIN NEW ORDER . But they do throw a lot of enemies at you , and the shooting and lining up enemies, is pretty good . I think that it is cool that random players come in and out of your game . Now i have played 6 story missions and to me it a FPS grind type game . Which i enjoy very much . If you are looking for EPIC STORY GAME, i do not think you will find that in DESTINY . But if you enjoy shooting all kind of enemies and you like getting armor , weapons , power upgrades ect. Then i recommend playing DESTINY . I hope this helps.

[3-4-5]

* Gameplay is awesome.

I usually find a nice balance of doing a Story Mission, then 5-6 Crucible matches, then Side Patrol Missions & then a strike.

Then I'll do another Story mission, crucible,ect....

It keeps the pacing fresh and allows me to experience the entirety of the game without rushing through it all.

I LOVE this game. Some may not.

[MonsterChef]

Games as good as you let it be, this Gen I have a feeling that media sites are hyping every game to be this earth shattering revolutionizing game that needs to change things, forgetting that a new game just has to be fun to be good

[JoGam]

To be fair, Destiny had its own legs. It wasn't the media who hyped it. Bungie is the creators of Halo and is a great studio. So when we heard they were creating this new game and all the fun facts we just assumed it would be great.

[MonsterChef]

You do got a point there, I like destiny it gives me my halo gameplay that I've missed since I went with Sony exclusively this Gen.. Single player is fun to play with friends is the story telling deep? Well when you play the last of us every other games story just feels hollow to me but still really enjoying and the scenery is beautiful, love this game

[DanielGearSolid]

Most of the media actually wasnt to big on Destiny until that beta

[GUTZnPAPERCUTZ]

Game launch was smooth as butter, game itself runs smooth as butter. Thanks Sony, MS and Bungie :D

[UnwanteDreamz]

Agreed, great job. I've had zero issues from day one. Impressive given the popularity.

[Eonjay]

All those articles (literally dozens) predicting nuclear fallout were completely wrong.

[RAFFwaff]

Oh my God. Get a life. Clickbait. Oh, 'thank you mr. microsoft, mr Sony, blah blah'. Embarrassing.

[Imalwaysright]

Agreed. Why are people thanking them for basically doing their job without screwing their paying costumers? That shouldn't be something to be thankfull for, it should be the standard.

[radiantmind]

Not smooth for me and a large group aswell. Getting disconnected from game world when ever someone else joins, getting beaver and leopard and centipede error codes . Game is unplayable. Just go search the bungie forums and see how widespread it is.

[LordMaim]

Unplayable? What have I been playing for days then?

[radiantmind]

I'm not saying that everyone is having this problem. I'm sure the majority of people can play just fine, like you. But there is a large group affected by some network error that is making it unplayable. I'm happy that you can enjoy this game, I really love it, but I am one of those affected . It is across all platforms and it is unknown as to why it is happening. I really hope it works itself out, because again, when it does work it is brilliant.

[dennett316]

Just because YOU didn't experience problems, doesn't mean they don't exist. Quit being so defensive.

[LordMaim]

@dennett316: Just because YOU think I'm being defensive, doesn't mean I am.

[--Onilink--]

the only known issue that i know was for people of certain college campuses, and bungie said they were already working on a fix.

Other than that, any issues seem to be in a very small %

[Kivespussi]

Finally some positivity. The game is good, could use some solid 60fps but other than that and the repetitiveness (which is ok since the game is pretty fun with friends) the game is really fun

[SliceOfTruth888]

maybe the people going "WHERE IS THE 500 MILLION?!?!" are realizing the 500 million price tag is server stability because its not cheap

[Dirtnapstor]

You need to go back and reread what the 500 million number is really about...

[qwerty676]

it did, which is surprising.

i heard there was a sparse problem with psn but that seemed pretty limited and overall it all went well.

[Letthewookiewin]

Absolutely!

[mrpsychoticstalker]

What about those problems on psn?

[LordMaim]

What problems on PSN? I've been playing for the past couple days solid with no issues.

[n4rc]

Been kicked to orbit mid match a couple times, but other then that its been solid

Really loving this game now.. Its crazy.. Was iffy after the beta, was unimpressed replaying those missions in the final game..

But now that I'm cruising along at level 13 and on Venus, this game is awesome!!

[Spotie]

But everybody said PSN couldn't handle it...

[jahfen83]

Agreed, I was expecting disaster.

[DefenderOfDoom2]

I think their is nothing wrong with saying THANKS!! I am getting sick of articles looking to complain , just to get people angry !

[dennett316]

What a doormat attitude that is. Why shouldn't someone complain when a product isn't up to snuff? Are you nuts? You don't have to blindly accept any old thing that's thrown your way, and you'd do Bungie a disservice if you did. They need constructive feedback, they'd welcome it, it's how they'll be able to improve things and make their games better.

[ShowGun901]

good attitude dude! i agree, launch day ran smooooooth! me and a few friends hopped on and played till 4am with 0 D/Cs and no lag! good job bungee, keep it up!

also, doom and gloom articles get more hits, get used to it LOL!

[g-nome]

I like it , my daughter likes it , and no issues so far , what more can you ask for?

[dennett316]

You shouldn't be thanking them for what should be a bare minimum requirement. It says a lot that standards are so low for these kinds of launches that someone would actively thank a developer for doing what they're supposed to be doing anyway.
I don't thank manufacturers when my products work...they're supposed to work. If they don't, that's a problem that needs to be rectified and complaints need to be made.
Only gamers feel the need to excuse stuff like the Diablo 3 fiasco, where people couldn't play their legally purchased copies of the game, while the pirated versions could be played fine.

[ShowGun901]

realistically, the online section really doesn't get to stretch its legs until you REALLY put it under pressure... which is why destinys beta was so extensive! they did their homework!

just because a game doesn't run perfectly day one, doesn't mean its a terrible product, as long as its fixed quickly. now, when the issues are present months later (BF4, im looking at you!) thats when you really have a complaint...

its not like a stove or dishwasher. online connectivity is undependable and unpredictable by default. anybody who says they could have ruled out ALL contingencies before launch doesn't know a thing about running these kinds of massive data centers...

[tlougotg]

I personally have not had one issue with the online component at all and ive been playing it since launch. Usually with fps games like COD, BF, theyll be a %hitload of issue. I didnt have issues with KZ either when it launched.

[LilTallBoy]

"Destiny was about as smooth as one could hope for"? No one at any university can even play the game! Do some research before you say how great a launch was when a large group of people on Day 3 still can not even get past the title screen.

[n4rc]

That's all on the university isps.. Tons of games get blocked by school Adkins trying to lock down their network..

Bungie may be able to work around it for them.. But its not their fault or responsibility