Though I've bristled at the repetitive areas, I will give Destiny credit: so far, I haven't had to grind for experience. Not even a little. The quests may retread familiar ground, but that has had the side-effect of keeping me steadily on-level the entire time. I can always find a new mission suitable for my current progress, without going back to old ones.
At least, the mission hub claims it's on-point for my progress, which isn't strictly accurate when it comes to strike zones. Last night I attempted a level 12 strike zone with a couple of random players, and even though I was actually level 13 we failed miserably. We might have had better success with more communication--all three of us were playing silently without headsets, after all. But regardless, we barely dented the overpowered ogre, and after the first attempt my heavy and secondary ammo. I ultimately abandoned the raid altogether, after seeing the boss shrug off my regular bullets like they were spitballs.
It might have been nice if checkpoints were to save the current status of your character too. I can imagine strike zones are going to continue to be challenging as I approach level 20, and even with a coordinated team it will be hard to mount a second attempt after we waste all of our ammo and special abilities on the first one. At that point, what can you reasonably do? Grind the minor enemies for ammo, dying all the way, until you have enough to give it another serious try? Or quit out and do the mission over from the start to reach the hard part?
One thing I do know: once I reach level 20, I'm going to go back and lay waste to that strike zone boss, out of sheer spite.
The strike zone was a nice temporary respite from the self-serious story. Halo's story had a tendency to set a grim tone, but Destiny is that notion on steroids. It's probably worth concluding at this point that Bungie simply doesn't have a knack for lore. Its presentation is top-notch, and some cutscenes are truly thrilling or funny. The underlying events, on the other hand, could not be more bland and generic. The Traveler, the Awoken, the Darkness. For some reason, dime-store sci-fi and fantasy always repurposes regular words into proper nouns. I have to imagine if we actually discovered other races, we would call them something new.
Maybe that's the nature of the MMO beast. After all, the story is basically a magic trick meant to convince the millions of players that they're the unique chosen hero. It's an easy way to support massive amounts of enemies and similar quest types. And to be fair, we know Bungie has some bigger plan in mind. Activision's deal is across multiple games, so maybe the story will hook me as it keeps moving along through the entire series.
For the time being, though, it's all just so dull and overwrought. I care so little about the story that I almost wish I could just turn it off and experience my rollicking space adventure on my own terms. Strike zones and all.
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Shacknews
replySteve Watts posted a new article, Destiny Diary #3: The Grind and the Glory.
Our progress through Destiny continues, with an ill-fated raid, a promise of revenge, and way too much lore.-
Raids aren't out just yet. But yeah, strike zones are difficult and long! Raids will be even longer and harder than strike zones :)
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I might have just met that Ogre. Was it the one on the Moon? If so myself and two other players at the level 12 or 13 range took him down, but it was a long fight. I completely agree about the story, however. I really don't pay attention to it. If they release it in the form of a graphic novel I'll read it then, but in its game form I couldn't care less.
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It WAS in fact the ogre on the moon. And if this whole story were, I don't know, "The Adventures of Moon Ogre" I'd be much more invested.
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