[ Note, 01/11/2014, 17:55 GMT: Destiny was given to me as a birthday present from a relative. ]
I had the fortune of being surprised with a copy of Destiny for my birthday recently, which rather came out of the blue for me, as I was originally planning to buy the game bundled with the PlayStation 4 with my own money later down the line.
Instead, I unwrapped the Xbox 360 version of the game (which suited me just fine), and I graciously and enthusiastically sunk my teeth into the game for the next few days. Unfortunately, for what the game had to offer within those few day in terms of an offline sense (yes, you can play Destiny without Xbox LIVE, as it turns out– just not its Strike and PvP aspects), I found myself incredibly frustrated with Destiny’s ending, and as a result its story as well.
The game cut itself too short, I feel, and it did so just as things were getting serious. Arguably, that’s what a “cliffhanger” does, but Destiny’s ending didn’t feel like a cliffhanger to me, it just felt unfinished. Instead of being excited for the continuation of its story via the upcoming expansions, I sat there–stunned–and assumed that further story content could found elsewhere in the game.
Nope.
So, then I wondered whether or not additional story content was locked inside Destiny’s online component. Despite my wishful thinking, I had completed all of the game’s story, all too quickly and without closure; there were no story elements to found behind an Xbox LIVE subscription (which, in a way, is just as well, because that would be just bollocks).
Destiny has a problem of not fully explaining itself in terms of its story; a lot of lore and story elements aren’t really touched on in-game outside of mere mentions and hints. Said elements are further expanded upon via the game’s Grimoire, but you have to go into Destiny’s companion app or Bungie’s official website in order to read them.
Some people are okay with that, and that’s cool, but I’m not okay with it. On its own, Destiny’s story is very barebones, and I feel it assumes player should already know certain parts of the lore in order to really appreciate certain elements of the story. Which is a shame, because a fair few instances in the game mention places, words or people that are delivered as something of importance, but without the added context (both during in-game and cutscenes) the gravitas behind these supposedly important mentions is lost; they’re just deduced to be important because they sound / are delivered as important, not because they are known to be important.
In my opinion, what Destiny could’ve greatly benefitted with in this regard is the inclusion of the content available in the game’s companion app. The amount of statistics, information and lore that’s detailed in the companion app just makes Destiny feel incredibly…empty, by comparison. I honestly question why it wasn’t also implemented in Destiny . I suppose the companion app is meant to be just that, a companion app, but it gets to a point–with me–that it becomes more inconvenient for the information to be locked to a mobile app rather than have it readily available in the game itself.
Not gonna lie, I am actually concerned about Destiny’s story and how it’ll last across the next decade. On a plus side, however, I do hear that the game’s upcoming expansions, “ The Dark Below ” and “ House of Wolves ”, will add to its story, specifically concerning the Hive and the Fallen respectively.
As the game’s life goes on, I reckon this is how Destiny will last throughout its 10-year period, through continuous expansions. As it is a shooter-MMO halfbreed, it doesn’t make sense to me to launch a direct sequel to the game two years later down the line when content can be added digitally–just like any other MMO, really.
Even with that in mind, I have to say that Destiny’s story sadly disappointed me. I mean, I get that the game excels in its PvP and Strike aspects, but those aren’t what I was looking to get into with Destiny –the story was where I was at since I first witness official concept art for the game two years ago. I really do hope the coming expansions add closure or a good continuation to where the base story leaves off at–and I seriously hope more gets added to The Reef than just a couple of cutscenes.