Legion: Gamplay

Posted on March 23, 2017 by Diversion Theory

As I stated previously, I’m going to be delving into the different aspects of Blizzards latest expansion to World of Warcraft. There are a lot of core changes and immensely different aspects of the expansion. Most of the changes are great, however there are some pretty massive negatives I’ve found in my time as well. In this section, I’m going to talk about the pure gameplay aspect of WoW: Legion.

Everything is fluid, the graphics are as crisp as ever, and spell details and animations have gotten a facelift as well. Typically, we only experience new looking animations and spells for only the newly introduced abilities that are added in each new expansion. However Legion marks one of the first times I’ve seen a major revamp to quite a large number of spells and abilities. Melee characters seem to have gotten the brunt of the revamping, as movement and melee swinging in general looks sharp and fluid. However, there are quite a few spells that have added little niceties to them, such as the Restoration Druid’s Efflorescence now having a little mushroom pop up in the center of the ground effect, and a little sound effect to go with it. Even standing still with your Restoration Druid Artifact weapon will litter the ground beneath you with flowers and other greenery.

The Efflorescence effect looks (and sounds!) very neat.

Aside from the visual aspects of Legion, which are amazing, the actual gameplay itself may be polarizing. Some people look back at the days where secondary stats such as hit chance, expertise, resilience, or armor penetration were plentiful, and sometimes mandatory, with fondness. However, I look back on the days where everyone was required to hunt for gear, socket certain gems, or otherwise pray to the itemization gods to raise a secondary stat to just the perfect number (Never higher, or it’s wasted itemization!) as a massive unnecessary road block to experiencing fun content.

Stats in Legion are simplified, and thankfully almost everything has multi-spec usage. For example, a piece of leather gear will include agility, and intellect as well as stamina and secondary stats such as haste or crit. The proper stat becomes active depending on your class and spec/role. This is a massive improvement and one of my favorite features of ‘modern WoW’. No longer do you have to feel railroaded into the spec that you begin to gear yourself once you begin first raiding and improving your gear, you can now switch specializations at will in any rested zone or area, and aside from most likely not having optimal secondary stats, you’ll be able to function just fine.

On top of the gear having stats for almost every specialization, a lot of the complexity to WoW’s backend is gone. The number crunching, and stat tracking is mostly gone for the average raider. What replaces it, however, is more grinding in the form of questing and dungeons. Since the beginning, questing and dungeons have been the main focus of the game up until the level cap, where the end game content kicks in. Sure, daily quests were around, but they never took very long and the majority of the game was raiding at set times along with your guild and then promptly logging off, or hunting for mounts, pets, or achievements. I actually found myself appreciating the refocusing of the game on to questing once you hit 110 in the Broken Isles.

Zones look amazing, and the lore impact of the new zones is profound.

In Legion, you begin questing at level 100, and at level 110, there’s a whole new zone that opens to you (you can reach it sooner, but still) where you have end-game focused quests. The Suramar and the faction named “The Nightfallen” that inhabit the zone give you a massive quantity of quests which reward you with gold, and more importantly Artifact Power. At the conclusion of the zone’s quest line you gain access to new dungeons, as well as an absolutely massive amount of Artifact Power. Artifact Power, being one of the most important things you’ll need to collect throughout this expansion to upgrade your new shiny Artifact weapon.

I’ll get to Artifact Power, Artifact Weapons, and all the Class Hall information later. However, I want to focus on how different gameplay feels in this expansion.

Each class and specializations most prized artifact is now yours… and everyone else’s.

Legion introduces a new system when you enter the Broken Isles, you can actually choose which zone to enter first. The zones in the Broken Isles actually scale with your level, so you can tackle any one of them at almost any time. In my experience, I only needed to complete 3 zones, and the dungeon quests that you attain at the end of the major chain in each zone to reach the level cap. However, your mileage may vary, and I personally like to complete every quest in the zone before moving on, while the main quest line typically consists of 85% of each zone’s total quests.

Your class hall is the main ‘sanctuary’ for each class in the expansion. Without getting too in depth on the functions, and benefits of the class hall, I’ll say that the general routine is to go to your Class Hall, start some garrison-style missions, and grab any new quests that have appeared since your last visit to progress your classes ‘campaign’ in the Broken Isles before heading back out to your current questing zone and going nuts for a while through the zone’s main story.

Each zone has quite an awesome and distinct plot behind it as well. From the Naga and Nightborne in Azsuna, to the Vrykul, and Alliance vs. Horde plot of Stormheim, each zone will really feel unique and hold your interest for the duration of leveling, and then some. Luckily, you’ll want to revisit each zone often for Legion’s new system to replace daily quests, called World Quests.

World quests are among my favorite addition to Legion. They refresh in varying time frames, and tons of the appear all over the Broken Isles once you reach level 110. Each one shows you it’s time remaining before it de-spawns, and another appears, as well as its reward. It’s also a great way to gear yourself heading into heroic dungeons after you reach the level cap. There are even mini-raid-boss style world quests that you can use the in-game LFG tool to queue for. There’s no instant teleportation to the objective, but that would be going a little too far in the effort of convenience.

Just as in the Timeless Isles, the Broken Isles are littered with rare mobs as well, which serve as a satisfying distraction from a long session of questing. Rare mobs oftentimes reward gear that serve as major upgrades while leveling, and can have a chance to roll upgraded to epic quality as well. Almost all rare mobs drop order resources, which tie in to the class hall campaign, in a very similar way to how Garrisons functioned in Draenor.

The dungeons and raids in Legion are some of the best I’ve experienced as well. The dungeons are large, and have a wide variety of enemies. No copy pasting, or slightly different color re-skins of the same mobs here. Dungeon bosses offer interesting mechanics, as well as multiple mechanics not seen until attempted on Heroic, or Mythic difficulty, which offers some nice difficulty jumps as your gear and skill get better and better through the adventure throughout the Broken Isles.

The raid content at this point (Nighthold is the current raid tier), is absolutely top notch. The Emerald Nightmare raid offers complex mechanics, and lore-heavy content, which still being approachable enough at the lower raid difficulties for everyone to experience some truly unique and fun encounters. On higher difficulties, you’ll be having issues with some of these bosses well past the gear level for the raid, mostly if you run with people who like to underestimate encounters, as even small mistakes will almost always cause a wipe on Mythic difficulties. I feel, understanding common raid concepts, and understanding little mistakes can wipe a group is a pretty common sense statement, but you’d be surprised how many people still fail to grasp basic raid mechanics and priorities this late in WoW’s existence.

Raid hazards are dead simple to avoid even without mods. That doesn’t stop people from still having issues however.

The Trial of Valor comes immediately after The Emerald Nightmare in terms of tiers, however, at least on Mythic difficulty, Trial of Valor has some pretty intense skill requirements, and can give even Nighthold geared groups trouble if they’re not on their game. The final boss, and the overall feel of the Trial of Valor raid in general is pretty epic, and on par with some of the best content I’ve seen yet from Blizzard. I really have to admit that the raid content in this expansion so far have been absolutely stellar.

Nighthold is the current progression tier in Legion, and has adventurers facing off against Gul’dan himself as he attempts to open a portal to summon Sargeras himself into Azeroth. The raid is quite long, and offers very unique mechanics that I haven’t seen used before. There are similar tropes and reminders of Black Temple here, but taken to a whole new level, and on a scale that’s unprecedented except possibly by the Sunwell Plateau from The Burning Crusade. The ending itself, I’ll just say is… amazing.

The bosses and mechanics in Nighthold are among my favorite to exist in WoW.

However, even with the amazing raid content, I need to say that my absolute favorite gameplay addition/change in Legion are Mythic Dungeons. Taking note from Diablo 3’s Rift system, WoW introduced Mythic keystones in Legion. Essentially, after the Heroic difficulty, you can toggle a Mythic difficulty for any of Legion’s 5-man dungeons. Upon completion of any Mythic dungeon, you will get a keystone for a random 5-man Mythic dungeon. Keystones increase in difficulty from Mythic +1 to Mythic +Whatever you can accomplish. What I mean by that is that when you insert a Mythic keystone into the pedestal that appears on Mythic difficulty dungeons, you get a countdown, and a timer. If your group manages to complete the dungeon fast enough, you’ll receive 3 chests with 3 chances of loot after downing the first boss. If you get the 3 chests, you receive a new random keystone, but this time +3 levels higher than your last. Depending on how much time remaining on the clock, you can either receive 1, 2 or 3 chests. Or if you do not complete it in time, you will not gain any additional levels and your keystone will be depleted, until you attempt and complete that exact same keystone again, but this time completing it within the proper time frame, and ‘re-activating’ the keystone, and being eligible to receive loot from it again.

Completing a Mythic+ with as much time remaining is essential to upgrading your key (and loot!)

Mythic dungeons also add in affixes, similar to Diablo Champions, or Destiny Strikes. Affixes allow each dungeon to have multiple different mechanics, and keeps 5-man content relevant well past the end game, as at the higher Mythic+ levels, the gear quality is on par with Mythic raid content gear. On top of this, everything has a chance to upgrade randomly to Titanforged, or Warforged, increasing its item level even further than normal.

Best addition to 5-man content since… ever.

In Legion, there are many ways to get rewards, and the gameplay itself is polished, and refined to a point where quality of life, and difficulty are properly balanced. Mythic dungeons keep 5-man content relevant, even past the point where you’d normally be able to 2-pull an entire dungeon, and keep all the game’s content relevant into the end-game, giving players multiple pathways to the best gear, as well as some of the game’s best experiences in my opinion.

Next time, I hope to discuss the Class Hall guides, and the vastly improved plot and lore in World of Warcraft: Legion. See you next time!

Legion: A Love Story

Posted on March 16, 2017 by Diversion Theory

Well shit, here we go again. Let’s delve into another pit of soul-sucking despair that is the typical World of Warcraft expansion.

Let me clarify, I have a problem. I have a problem with World of Warcraft and my personality. I typically delve too deep into games at times, World of Warcraft just never has a rock bottom for me. I can never ‘finish it’ at least as I see it in my mind.

Legion is a pretty phenomenal entry in the World of Warcraft expansion pantheon.

To be completely clear, Legion is a pretty phenomenal entry in the World of Warcraft expansion pantheon. I’m going to tell you exactly why. But before that, a little about my experience with WoW.

Old memes die hard

In 2005 I first heard about WoW from a local GameStop employee while my best friend and I were looking for games we can play together. Back then we’re were only a few MMORPGs out there, and WoW was the newest and meanest of them all in some people’s views. Now, having been long time fans of Blizzard, essentially growing up playing Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft franchises, it was a no brainer. We walked out of the store with our fresh multi-CD-ROM copies of WoW and logged on.

I never stopped playing WoW. Like most people, I’ve taken breaks, sure. There was even the whole Mists of Pandaria thing, where I didn’t really play until the end of the expansion. However, for the most part I never stopped playing with the exception of a few months here and there. My focus however did change drastically. After Cataclysm, I no longer considered myself part of the “hardcore” raiding community.

Regardless, I’ve continued on and casually enjoyed all the features of the expansions since Cataclysm, occasionally dipping in to heroic or mythic raiding. Each expansion has had its positives and negatives, but that’s not what I’m interested in today.

Legion is the best expansion since The Burning Crusade.

There, I said it. The burning crusade was my favorite expansion, problems and all, and Legion just took the cake. Don’t get my wrong, Wrath of the Lich King will always hold a special place in my heart, but in this case, the advancements past vanilla and sincere longevity that Burning Crusade provided to the Vanilla experience can’t be beat; however, the utter revitalization and rejuvenation of the core gameplay of the series, as well as polishing and streamlining of useless or overly punishing mechanics that Legion brought simply go above and beyond any other expansion to this point.

For a decent amount of and plot and backstory for once.

For my next segment, I’m going to break up the different aspects of World of Warcraft’s latest expansion, and go into detail on exactly why I think it’s worth investing the time and energy, as the reward is just as sweet as it ever was.

Pokémon GO

Posted on July 13, 2016 by Diversion Theory

Seeing as Pokémon GO is taking over the world right about now, I wanted to talk about it and share my thoughts and experiences so far.

Everything from the Art style, to the Music in the game is absolutely stellar.

The Game is Amazing

However, the issue comes with it’s longevity in my view. It’s about a week or so in right now and I’m still finding the urge to open the app constantly, and check it for absolutely no reason. But how long will that last? Lot’s of people are already getting a bit fatigued with the novelty. Personally, I think that while there will be an expected (and mostly unavoidable) drop-off on the number of active players since the novelty (while amazing) will undoubtedly wear off, it won’t be nearly as bad as many other games experience.

The Pokédex gives you a lot to look forward to initially.

The true strength of the Pokémon franchise is it’s longevity, and nostalgia, in almost equal parts. While Pokémon GO taps into both in a pretty strong fashion, there will be people who completely stop playing once they’ve gotten ‘their fill’. The difference between this and what many other overnight hit games experience a few weeks to months after launch (The Division, I’m looking at you) is the franchise and the mechanics of the game.

True, Ingress came before, but the reason why Ingress doesn’t (and never had) the following of Pokémon GO is purely because of the franchise. Just as there are people flocking to buy and play Pokémon Red and Blue all over again for the hundredth time, people will continue to play Pokémon GO. The gameplay offered also has it’s own drawing power. Many people, myself included, haven’t gone for a solid walk around the neighborhood in many years; suddenly we find ourselves walking further than we have, for longer than we have, more often than we ever have as well. All of this, because there’s a Scyther somewhere nearby.

You even have to walk to hatch your eggs, which give you a chance to spawn some pretty neat Pokémon, including all 3 starters from 2 KM eggs.

The unique gameplay combined with the Franchise in general will give this game the lasting power it needs. Combined with some pretty lofty promises by Niantic for bi-weekly updates, and a to-do list which pretty closely mirrors everyone’s wish-list for the game, we have a game changer in the mobile scene on our hands.

The Pokéshop offers most of the game’s items as well as upgrades for sale.

Pokemon GO already comes close to Twitter’s active daily users on Android ALONE; people are posting pictures of dozens or sometimes almost a hundred people gathered in the common goal of playing Pokémon GO. Facebook groups have started to coordinate team gym takeovers, and people are experiencing a whole world that didn’t exist a few weeks ago.

How will this affect mobile gaming in the future? How can a free game, that’s not time gated, become as popular as Tinder, or Twitter overnight? Will Nintendo decide to release more top-tier names onto the Mobile space? Will we begin to see Mario, Metroid, or Zelda games released on Mobile because of Pokémon GO’s incredible success? I mean, I sure as hell hope so, but only time will tell. I think there’s a great opportunity here for Nintendo. Hopefully they think the same thing, and give us a game equally as fresh and exciting as Pokémon GO, for their other IP’s. The issue comes about with how long Niantic can keep people coming back, and how much Nintendo is going to take away from their Pokémon GO experience.

IAP are fairly contained, and not at all needed to be successful at the game. You can even earn coins through pure gameplay.

Will Niantic follow through with their promises, unlike so many other game developers out there? Will there be enough content for people to keep coming back daily, or even every few days? The game WILL experience a drop in interest one day, but how far will it fall?

If it falls too far, will it affect Nintendo’s potential future Mobile releases?

The way I feel about it, is that Pokémon GO will most definitely continue to be the most popular Mobile game, and retain a large percentage of it’s crazy initial user base. But the drop-off WILL be noticeable, and just like everything else, the media frenzy will fade with time.

It’s up to us as a community to keep the game going strong with dedicated theory-crafters, and a loyal community to keep not only Pokémon GO a thriving game, but to show companies like Nintendo, that Mobile should no longer be an afterthought. I’d suggest checking out a few subreddits dedicated to Pokémon GO if you’re interested, as they give me the same impression as Destiny’s subreddit gave me when it first started, hope. I’d suggest both /r/pokemongo, as well as /r/TheSilphRoad, each has a dedicated and loyal community that will be essential in keeping the game going strong in it’s later years.

What I’ve Learned

Even playing casually, it’s pretty easy to catch some awesome stuff. Visiting a major populated area, or a theme park helps a lot as well.

Since the game came out, admittedly, I haven’t been walking around as much as I’ve liked. But full disclosure, I’m halfway through level 13, I’ve completed about 1/3rd of the Pokédex, and I’ve exhaustively read every post regarding player experiences from those more experienced than me (and almost anyone at this point), as well as those who have put some time in to discover the ins and outs of the game. Here are some of my basic experiences:

Evolving too early can lead to having amazing Pokémon, that seem to be weaker than what a lot of people have at this point.

Don’t try to run before you walk

Starting out on my first day of Pokémon GO, finding a sweet Scyther on my first day, I was extremely stoked. No one at this point knew how things progress in the higher levels, and no one really knew what the BEST way to level, and develop your Pokémon was. Based off the information available now, it’s really not a good idea to try and do too much, too early. What I mean by this is at the early levels, don’t worry about preparing yourself for Gym battles at level 5, don’t sweat leveling up your favorite catches with stardust, and don’t go crazy evolving that Kakuna into a Beedrill. It’s best to just go for a walk and catch things. Explore the area around you, check out the cool Pokéstops.

There’s a lot to explore in the game (just not by where I work apparently), and the tracker at the bottom right can help keep you on the right path.

I’ve learned that at the early levels, and really anything before level 10, it’s almost a waste evolving catches, or leveling things to try and take down a Gym; while you can definitely do these things, you have to take into consideration how quickly you level in the game if you’re continuously catching new Pokémon and filling out your Pokédex. Every new entry in your Pokédex get’s you a huge boost of experience, and there’s plenty new to catch starting out from level 1. When you level up, you now have higher CP Pokémon available when you stumble across new wild ones. For example, those CP 10 Pidgey’s and Rattata’s you used to find, will start to creep up to CP 100 and higher. It’s believed that Pokémon CP is directly tied to your character’s level. Just as in an MMO where your gear is constantly replaced with better gear as your character get’s stronger, the same can be said for Pokémon GO.

Another aspect of character level and CP comes into play with the CP arc on each individual Pokémon’s status page. The arc will seemingly decrease as your character’s level increases. This is to show the additional potential to raise your Pokémon’s stats. However, this is a lot less effective than say, just simply catching a new Pokémon of the same species that’s already a higher way up it’s CP arc than the one you had before. Transferring the weaker ones for candy, and keeping the newly caught stronger one’s seems to be the best way to go.

What is currently unknown, is the relationship between Weight, Height, and Pokémon stats. On top of this, it’s suggested that you hold off on evolving Pokémon until you get to about level 10+, that way you can ensure high CP wild catches, and thus higher CP evolutions. But none of that is truly necessary until you decide to start attacking Gyms. But be warned, it’s typically not very easy to hold a Gym for longer than a day without the help of fellow team members; having said that, long live Team Instinct!

To Wrap Up

This game is special. Not only does it invoke tons of nostalgia from all of us around to play a brand new copy of Pokémon Blue or Red, but it truly adds something very fresh and exciting, not only to the Pokémon franchise, but mobile gaming in general. The art is beautiful, the gameplay is fresh, the music is spectacular, and overall the only negative I have about the game comes from unstable servers during the rolled out launch. What other games can say they have absolutely no issues during launch? Regardless, server’s are working a lot more stable the past few days, and it’s really easy to get lost (figuratively and literally) spending a ton of time in the game.

9.5/10

It’s been a while…

Posted on June 23, 2016 by Diversion Theory

Since I last posted a blog post…

About a year ago, I had the grand idea to switch my ecosystem entirely from Android (as I had been accustomed to for years) to iOS, and see how I felt about my nemesis OS after about a month.

However, things happened, I lost track of time, and I was actually extremely surprised with myself after my ‘experiment’ was over.

This post isn’t going to continue on to describe in gory detail everything I thought about iOS previously, and go in depth into comparisons. However, what this post will do is give you my current state of mind and let you know my plans for the future. (Of this blog, as well as my little iPhone experiment).

iPhones Are Pretty Cool

Yeah, you heard me. iPhones are alright in my book. Having spend the original month (ended up being about 4 months) using the iPhone 5S from the previous post, I switched back to my Nexus 6. I’ve used that Nexus 6 for the past year now.

The big issue I have with a lot of my fellow Android fanatics is their attitude and polarization when it comes to something so simple… your choice in gadgets.

As it stands right now, I love Android, even moreso than I did previously due to the phenomenal changes being added into Android N, as well as the new services Google is bringing forward into the Android Ecosystem. But more importantly, that doesn’t mean that I can’t also love iOS.

iOS previously was stale, behind-the-times, and an absolute mess for someone like me, who prides himself over being able to get tasks done within seconds, rather than minutes. The notification system iOS used prior to iOS 9 was almost ridiculous, rigid, and overall a subpar experience to the state of Android for almost 5 years now.

The difference is, today, as it stands, I FEEL as productive on any iOS device as I do on my favorite Android one. The feeling is all that matters at the end of the day. I’m not going to be all crazy and get into numbers, and benchmarks, because while I enjoy reading those ‘reviews’ on various journalism sites, they don’t really mean a whole lot.

Your Choice of Gadget Isn’t a Big Deal

It’s really just not.

It’s almost sad when someone tries to shame someone for using an iPhone because they’re utterly gimped in their ability to do various awesome things, or customize their device in almost limitless ways. But it’s also equally as sad to hear someone misguidedly make fun of an Android user for ‘being too poor for an iPhone’. In reality, people should use the device that allows them to manage the following in the best way:

Business
Social Life
Creativity

Some people put more value on some of those points, but honestly, that’s all that matters, and as of today, All 3 feel just fine on my Nexus 6, or on my iPhone SE.

I was recently inspired by a simple Reddit post I commented on, here is what I said:

“I’ve been pretty much equal on the Android support over the years. Super huge Android fan.
To be clear, that has not changed. However, I love switching to an iPhone every few years as the OS has really matured. I’ve owned an iPhone 4, 5S, and now an SE.
My last phone (I still have it and use it occasionally for it’s MASSIVE display) is a Nexus 6 on the Android N Developer Preview.
iOS, especially on a smaller device is a very fun experience. Customization is basically gone, but the battery longevity and overall polish to the OS are really refreshing.
Plus, if I really want to customize my device, I’ll use my Nexus 6 and go nuts with it. However, having been on my N6 for about 2 years straight now, iOS feels fresh to me.
iOS 10 also looks very promising as well, and will just further keep my device feeling fresh. I’m hoping on using my SE for at least 2 years now, while my Nexus 6 continues on as my media consumption/backup device.
Overall, I’ve always loved Apple’s hardware game, but used to despise iOS, nowadays it’s quite nice actually and things work very well. It’s nice to feel free to use whatever you like, rather than have some sort of misguided loyalty holding you down. Your smartphone isn’t a wife, it’s a device you use for pleasure, work, and general productivity. Use the one you like!”

My point is that both my devices can live in harmony, and hating the iPhone without ever using one, or using one 5 years ago and writing them off entirely, is a huge injustice… to yourself mainly.

Allow yourself the freedom to play with ANY device you think looks cool, don’t feel some sense of fealty to a company, a brand, or an ecosystem. Having spent almost 6+ years purely on the Android ecosystem, it’s really not very difficult (Not difficult at all) to live on Apple’s ecosystem simultaneously.

In Closing

I’m planning on a new post to come eventually. I want to explore more in depth the actual differences between Android an iOS I’ve experienced. Yes, we see tons of posts, and articles about that very topic and trust me, I’ve read almost all of them. But there’s still something that each of those posts are missing, and I’m going to find it.

See you soon (This time, not in a full year!)

-Christian

Bias, and you; or, “How to effectively hate the competition.”

Posted on June 17, 2015 by Diversion Theory

So, for anyone who knows me, it’s obvious that I’m firmly seated in the Google/Android camp. I’ve been a fan since the original Droid released on Motorola, and I have the latest and greatest as of today. However, it wasn’t always this way. I actually used to be an Apple connoisseur! Back when iPhones were in their 3G generation, and MacBook’s weren’t just for hipsters, I loved Apple. I owned Apple computers mainly, and I vigorously defended my computer’s merits to Microsoft fans. What changed my mind?

Well, let’s take a step back for a moment. In this post, I want to introduce my next project. Having last used an iPhone 4 on Verizon for about a month back in 2012, it’s been quite a long time since I’ve used an Apple phone. Do I still rage on about how under-appreciated Android is as an OS, and how superior it is to iOS? Yes, of course I do, however, most Android fans who act the same way have never even held an Apple phone.

I firmly believe that in order to truly have a justifiable bias, you have to be familiar with the ins and outs, the benefits, and the negatives, of the thing your claiming is inferior. So here’s my plan: In my next post (in about 2 weeks from today) I will live with my shiny new iPhone 5S. I will use it primarily, and have no more contact with my Nexus 6 on Android M. After about 2 weeks, I will make another post giving an honest unbiased review comparing the two OS. On the device I’m using, I’m on the most current and updated version of iOS (8.3), and no hardware based features will be included in my review.

Let’s see what happens!

Destiny

Posted on September 17, 2014 by Diversion Theory

I remember when I was younger and I heard about a game called Halo. It’s almost impossible to tear the name Bungie away from the Halo franchise, even if it’s being head by another entity since Halo 4 came out. Halo and the games that followed would redefine the console shooter genre, and for good reason. Bungie put a lot of heart and detail into the Halo franchise and it showed. I remember how much fun it was as a kid getting splatters on Blood Gulch in the Warthog, or trying to impress my buddies with my sweet driving skills. But, as we all grew up, so did Bungie; constant reimagining, expanding on what the community loved, and tons of updates helped Bungie win numerous awards, and break records with their games.

Now, in 2014 Bungie moves on to a new IP. Destiny is a first person, shared-world, shooter-rpg. However, for every person trying to describe the game you’ll find a new analogy or comparison to another game or genre. Popular comparisons include Borderlands, Diablo, Halo, or just about any game imaginable that includes RPG mechanics, or shooting in general. The issue I have with this comes down to expectations versus reality.

I tried my best not to read into previews or anticipation for Bungie’s new IP. I treated Destiny like a whisper, a rumor which if repeated would vanish leaving you with some awful Call of Duty clone. In this, I consider myself lucky, because it seems to me that a large portion of the people giving Destiny 6/10 reviews, or calling it a complete failure and generally having no fun with it, stem from those who ravenously consumed every snippet of rumor leading up to Destiny’s release. There are legitimate criticisms of the game, as with every game ever made, but to dismiss Destiny entirely is clearly deliberate pandering to the community of hype beasts which rather feed into every rumor as if it were reality, than form their own opinions from the game.

For example, take a game such as Diablo 3. I love Blizzard (generally), and they always make good quality games with great replay value. However, at launch, Diablo 3 was pretty lackluster. The story itself was pretty bad, not to mention short. The Inferno difficulty was shockingly hard for how low the drop rate was, and the Auction house (not so) arguably ruined what made Diablo fun. Despite this, the major gaming sites reviewed it between 8-10 out of 10. As expected, user reviews are much lower, ranging in the 6-8’s.

Diablo 3 on Metacritic.

Take another example of Borderlands. I enjoyed playing Borderlands on my Xbox 360 when it came out. It was fresh feeling and had a great premise to it. However, I quickly got bored with it, as 90% of the loot (one of the game’s major draws) is absolute garbage, and the game’s ‘quest’ system being the same fetch/kill quests we’ve all done a million times, the pretty mediocre story didn’t help at all either. Despite having major flaws the game still scored in the 8’s between all the major critics.

Borderlands on Metacritic.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to say Diablo 3 and Borderlands deserve lower scores. I think they were scored fairly accurately based on their flaws and issues. Borderlands definitely doesn’t deserve a higher score, and Diablo 3 at launch didn’t deserve anything higher than an 8/10 either. But take the knowledge of those two games and try to relate it to Destiny.

Gameplay screenshot from Destiny.

I went into Destiny knowing very little. I knew it was made by Bungie, I knew about the RPG mechanics a little bit, and I knew that there was PVE and PVP available. I went in to Destiny with an open mind, and no pre-conceived delusions of grandiosity. What I found was a sharp, well detailed shooter that, while it has it’s flaws, never come close to ruining the fun.

Destiny has among the best first person shooting gameplay there is available today on consoles. It’s tight, responsive, and almost gives off that feel of ‘dancing’ as did Halo. I recall how much fun it was to jump around, and weave in and out of cover throwing grenades and taking out enemies with pop shots one by one until only I was left. This is true for both the Halo games of nostalgia, and Destiny as well. Bungie makes one hell of a shooter. The fact is, gameplay is of utmost important in a game that focuses on killing thousands of enemies and hunting for ever improving weapons and gear.

The skies in Destiny are gorgeous.

Graphically, Destiny is absolutely gorgeous. If you haven’t read up on the work Bungie did creating a real, dynamic sky for each portion of the game rather than a typical skybox, you really should. It’s immediately apparent how much more immersive a game becomes when the sky is alive with meteors streaking across the moon’s sky, or debris falling through the deep blue and white atmosphere of Earth. Simply put, Bungie has outdone themselves creating beautiful immersive environments in which to brutally slaughter multiple species of enemy in.

Speaking of immersive, just try not to be amazed at the wonderful soundtrack Bungie’s Marty O’Donnell and partner Mike Salvatori created for Destiny. Whether you’re deep inside a cave on the Moon keeping an eye out for the glare of the Hive enemies, or speeding across the sandy surface of Mars, dodging Cabal fortifications, there is always a perfectly suited musical accompaniment to go along with it.

The game is basically split into two parts, player versus environment, and player versus player. The PVE content of the game revolves around the basic story missions which take you across Earth, The Moon, Venus and Mars to combat the growing threat of ‘The Darkness’ which is poised to strike The Last City of humanity; the last Humans and their offshoots (Exo and Awoken) strive to heal the Traveler and restore their place among the stars. This is the basic outline of the plot of Destiny, this story is also the biggest source of contention between critic and fan alike. The story is also where I share in some criticism, but not for the widely held belief that it’s simply too short.

The destination selector in Destiny.

The story in Destiny is presented very vaguely, which surprisingly I enjoy. It came off similar to how Dark Souls presents it’s lore, hidden, but available for you to delve into if you try, mainly via Grimoires which you collect from killing enemies and playing the game. The story length itself clocked me in at about 7-8 hours of game time to complete, which is about average for shooters. I recall beating Metal Gear Solid 2 in only about 8 hours anyway and I thought the story was phenomenal. My main issue with Destiny’s story missions involves the type of missions you undertake.

I was fully immersed in my struggle to fight back the enemy and complete my objective to aid the last of my kind save us all, but after a while it all boils down to the same thing. Almost every mission involves scanning a place or thing with your Ghost companion (think Wheatley meets Guilty Spark) and defending it until he’s finished. It’s paced well, and the progression of enemies is satisfying, but in reality that’s really all you do. Even if the story was intended as a sort of tutorial into the mechanics of the game, would it have been too difficult to include some of the ideas popular in the Crucible (PVP) aspect of the game but against the environment? Imagine having to capture a relic and slug your way through enemies trying to prevent your escape for a mission, or a puzzle here or there even?

Your Ghost.

Luckily, the story missions really don’t scratch the surface of what Destiny has to offer. They provide an easy (if somewhat lame) ramp up to the difficulty you’ll face doing Destiny’s version of an instanced dungeon MMO players would be familiar with. Strikes are found generally one per planet you can visit. Each strike contains 2 bosses, a mid-boss and a final boss and a bunch of ‘trash’ mobs along the way. Each one has it’s own story and provides awards ranging from reputation with the game’s factions, bonus experience, or marks also used for the game’s factions to get access to the best gear in the game.

The Vanguard option from the Map also lets you join matchmaking for varying difficulties on Strike missions as well, making it very quick and easy to join. However, this is where the difficulty jump occurs. Where the story missions served primarily to get you from level 1 to 20, the Strike missions serve to show you how you’ve barely started. You can do Strikes at the level they become available which varies per planet, but doing Strikes post 20, with difficulty modifiers activated, becomes an entirely different game. Strikes actually require teamwork and cooperation, and mindlessly mow down hordes of enemies suddenly turns into hiding and carefully choosing your moments. This offers the bulk of the challenge in Destiny, letting you fight some of the hardest bosses in the game.

This need for coordination makes it necessary to form ‘Fireteams’. If you attempt to enter a strike, you’ll get matchmade into a Fireteam automatically, but you’re free to make and join them at will. Fireteams allow you to voice chat with your team members, and because of this, generally do better on challenging content. This brings me to another issue I have with Destiny, the Fireteams and voice chat.

Destiny’s Strike missions can be pretty difficult.

While Destiny allows voice chat between members of a Fireteam, it does not include any kind of proximity based, or any other type of voice chat. I feel this is a huge missed opportunity. I can appreciate the style of communication reminiscent of Dark Souls, but with a limitation of 3 emotes bound to the D-Pad, some form of proximity voice chat would have gone a long way to add immersion while easing the communication barrier greatly. It’s semi frustrating when I come across another player that seems to be going the same way I am, and my only options are to spam-invite them to a Fireteam. Why can’t I just ask them if I’m close by? Another simple change I’d love to see would be the invite process in general. Inviting a player to a Fireteam should be as simple as getting a small popup showing who invited you, asking if you’d like to join; giving you a Yes option, and a No option. In the middle of a live environment with enemies spawning constantly, it’s a little inconvenient to go into your menu screen for every invite.

Destiny’s Crucible can be a lot of fun.

Aside from PVE, the Crucible allows you to take on a traditional shooter multiplayer challenge. There are various game types such as team deathmatch, or free for all, and some interesting limited game types such as the Scavenger game type that was up just recently. One cool thing I’ve noticed is how frequently Bungie introduces new game types, and hosts events with bonus exp etc. Another interesting feature of certain Crucible playlists is the ability to compete with others despite their level and gear difference and have it feel completely equal. This is honestly a very underrated feature, and it adds a lot to the accessibility of the game. Each gun carries over it’s individual stats, such as reload speed, magazine size, upgrades, etc. but the difference is equalized between level and weapon damage. Sniper rifles all generally get one shot kills from headshots, and a level one shotgun will kill someone in one shot point blank just as easily as a level 20 shotgun. This allows each classes abilities to truly shine, rather than making it all about who found the best weapon.

The last thing I want to touch on is about future content. Bungie has committed itself to a 10 year plan with the Destiny franchise. That means we’ll continue to see updates, support, and new things for Destiny as it continues to evolve. The game already includes areas we know will be opened up (The Reef) and areas that are obviously meant for more. On top of the 4 races of enemy, each having their own tactics, weak points, and variations, we can expect the updates and DLC to add variation of environments and challenges as well. Destiny’s first raid zone, ‘The Vault of Glass’ has opened recently, and if its to be taken as an example of what’s to come, we can safely say that Destiny is a great game. To play 30 hours of a game, not even step into the raid content (opened only days after Destiny was released) and write up a click-bait pejorative review is pretty shallow, and quite frankly insulting to the gamers who deserve honest balanced critique.

Speaking of click-bait…

Maybe I’m crazy, but when all the major gaming critics say the same things with little to no difference, I think that’s an issue. A game review is akin to reviewing a piece of art, and while I believe some art can be awful, Destiny is by no means awful. There’s a large degree of interchangeability between the low reviews of Destiny, where has the individual opinion gone? Where is the sense of personality of each reviewer? I’d rather not feel like Gamespot, Polygon, IGN, or any other entity is giving a review, I’d like to hear the personal opinion of the writer behind it. Game reviewers should act less like ghost writers, and more like gamers. I think I’ll step back from the gaming industrial complex for a while and just focus on playing games.

	I made a thing &… on Pokémon GO
	Mr Belushi on Destiny
	MonsterMashie on Destiny
	David Velardo on Destiny

Diversion Theory

Gaming, technology, and fun.