So, this will be a long opinion post by someone who can't put their thoughts into words very well, but is very passionate about this universe (I also don't understand reddit formatting too well, so bear with me here). A lot of the points I'll be bringing up and inspiration are from two official Destiny ViDocs and my own experience
Pathways out of Darkness- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwOUi4JDC4o
Out Here in the Wild- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1OjUWw43co
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Between Destiny 2: Forsaken Weeklies/Dailies I've been playing a lot of D1and I just wanted to talk about changes I've noticed and what I think was done better or can be done better- mainly the look and feel of the game. Destiny and Destiny 2 are, without a doubt, extremely fun and very easy to sink hours into, but I'm more concerned with art direction in regards to armor, environments, music, and overall tone and atmosphere. Destiny 1, and more specifically, Vanilla Destiny did a wonderful job of identifying itself in the art department and giving itself a unique universe. As, I think, most of us can agree with, Destiny 2 was a huge departure from most of that, but I think we went slightly astray even before that as well. The largest offender will be Destiny 2 and it's two smaller expansions following it. The games seems to have lost it's identity, created by Destiny and the Bungie Old Guard who created it. We're missing guidelines/rules to keep the character of a Guardian classes, our music themes of D1, and an environment that tells a story- not only of our past and the Golden Age/Collapse, but of the dark corners our enemies exist in. Before I go further I do want to say that Forsaken is an incredible expansion, maybe the best in our universe so far and an incredible step in the right direction. It's the first to feel like an expansion of Destiny since Rise of Iron. With everything I have to say, however, I think the our loss of identity is going to be chalked up to a different art direction made by a new set of hands.
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Armor-
First I'd like to dive into armor. I think this was the biggest departure from the original game. Now, I main as a Titan, so most of this will be from that perspective, but from what I've seen, the other classes have strayed a bit too far fro their original guidelines as well. Way back at the Destiny GDC there was a video released about armor and the customization of our characters. It's a very long video with a lot of points worth discussing, so I'll link it below. Overall, the main look of our Guardians have changed. We went from guardians bearing the armor of post-collapse and City-made to armor that appears bizarrely clean and, in my opinion, uninspired. I'd also like to point out that our armor looking cleaner now doesn't seem to make much sense, considering we were already looking scrappy pre tower destruction by the hands of the Red Legion... You think our armor would be even more pieced together now. Anyways, within the video we are shown silhouettes of each class, some examples of armor, and some rules by which the creation of our classes must follow to give each a unique look and character.
• Within this video, we are shown silhouettes of our three guardians- the Hunter a symbol somewhat like the Women's restroom symbol. The Warlock, a symbol roughly in the shape of a triangle. The Titan, the shape of an upright rectangle. As far as Titans go, as we've seen a million complaints from, our silhouette looks much more like a T. By that, I mean, we have huge shoulder pads usually referred to as dumpsters and toilets. Now, I know that some people absolutely love these Warhammer-esque Titans, but I also know a lot of us preferred the look of the D1 Titans. I fall into the latter group, who preferred the Halo Spartan, less fantasy look of Titans. Now that we have these Shoulders and people like them, I do believe we should keep some within the game, but I would prefer going back to keeping them able to fit within the original silhouette. I don't know if the silhouette was changed so it was more easily identifiable in Crucible or if it's simply a change in art direction, I think the Titans of old were a better look. I'd also like to point out here that we did have some thick Titans without the unreasonably large shoulders.
• Also, in the video we are given a bit of a ruleset and a general outline of what each class should like. Again, I will be writing this from the perspective a Titan main. I do notice differences in the other classes, but I do not play them enough to give a fair critique. Please feel free to comment what you think about them though! this is all for discussion. Back to my point.. Titans are our cities defenders- our soldiers, our front lines, our walls. The general look for Titans described in the GDC video are Spartans and Knights. As a quick summary (I can't type as fast as I can listen..), they are mostly comprised of tight-fitting rubber suits, clad in heavy metal plates, wearing large pauldron like shoulder pads and sweeping visors, inspired by medieval and renaissance armor. Large thigh pads and boots are also a common trait. Their marks bear the symbols of their accomplishments, lineage, or allegiance- inspired by medieval knights. I feel that our D2 counterparts follow these rules much more lightly. In D1, I really did feel like a knight in a futuristic setting. In D2 i feel a bit more like Generic Space Marine 824. We've strayed away too much in Titan design, we've taken their identity and ultimately, some of the identity and character of the entire game. D2 Forsaken took a step in the right by adding some unique armor, but strayed away , still, from the original concept of the class. The best thing they did was add in the Prodigal set from Vanilla D1 that fit perfectly within the rules. Speaking off D1 armor, there are plenty of Legendary D1 vanilla sets that we only had for a year. Why not bring some of those back, if any?
-I also think our Marks have suffered greatly. They are plain and hardly bear any symbols. Even when they do, they do not stand out or are hidden by our current shaders (why do shaders apply so oddly this time around?) They no longer feel like we are bearing anything honorary on our person which is a shame. Our Titans should feel prideful! They also have some odd shapes compared to D. Overall, the Marks lack some art direction strongly present in the first game. Here's a link to a D1 wiki of of D1 Marks- https://www.destinygamewiki.com/wiki/Titan_Marks
D2 Marks- https://d2.destinygamewiki.com/wiki/Titan_Marks
-Another big part of D1 titans that I sorely miss and gave much of the character Titans had when compared to other Space Marines are the sweeping visors and swept-back helmets. There's not much to explain here. All D1 helmets followed this general shape, which only a hand-full of D2 helms have. It was really just more unique and added a bit more depth to the Titans.
D1 Helmets- https://destiny.wiki.fextralife.com/Titan+Helmets
D2 Helmets- http://destiny.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Destiny_2_Titan_Helmets
• Very brief general changes that I wanted to bring up were Shaders and cloth physics. Shaders, I think shoulder absolutely be consumable once discovered. They also apply strange this time around. Not only do they not apply the full spectrum of shown colors to armor, but they often cover up armor and mark designs and apply strange, sometimes metallic shaders to what should be cloth or materials that just aren't metallic. Cloth physics speak for itself. They are less natural in D2 than D1. My last point for armor, which is just a strong opinion; I found upgradable armor skill trees (and weapons) enjoyable and immensely satisfying. I wouldn't mind their return.
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Environments/Atmosphere/Tone-
• This section, as well as music, will be a bit more brief because, I don't know this as well. I would like to preface this by saying the map and environment designers are absolutely incredible and nail it every single time. I just disagree a bit with the direction. For me, the exploration in Destiny is about Golden Age, Post-Collapse ruins, and the Darkest Corners of our Solar System inhabited by strange monsters and enemies. I think D2 up until Forsaken missed both of these points. D2, besides Titan, never really has us explore any Golden Age ruins and never has us venture anywhere I felt were particularly dark or where I felt unwelcome. We should be scrounging through old ruins, recovering ancient tech that restores to our former selves, while also giving us the means to drive back our enemies. We should be partaking in Strikes and Raids into areas few have ever set foot in and even fewer have returned. In D2 we're mostly in the wilds and Cabal ships and bases. Now these maps are absolutely beautiful and wonderfully designed, but I don't think fit the world of Destiny or our objectives in Destiny. This all compared to D1, where these "rules" were created. Whisper of the Worm Forsaken has totally covered "Dark Corner, Horrible Monsters", while the latter added a new fantasy perspective that is certainly welcome. What I'd like to see more of is Golden Age ruins and "Dark Corners." Golden Age ruins should be reminding us of where we come from and what we're fighting for, while also providing us with answers and tech to benefit the Guardians and the City. A couple minor things I miss are Fallen Lairs and Hive Architecture. The lairs the fallen built within our ruins or within their own ships were always a joy yet intense to explore. As far as Hive go, I just think their environments on the Moon were much more interesting and inspired than the overgrowth we have now. I would LOVE to see these two combined, though. It would really help outline how horrific yet sophisticated they can be (they're my favorite enemy faction, so far.)
• Atmosphere and Tone really just took a big hit due to the writing in D2. As was posted constantly, our story took on a much more childish narrative that lacked the depth. mystery, and sometimes horror we knew from the first game. While, I think this particular section has fallen a bit since Vanilla (we'll never be able to replace Joe Staten), Destiny 2 went in the exact opposite of what we originally had. A big example here is the personality of our Ghost. Originally, he was inquisitive and intelligent, still sassy, but a bit more reserved. Now he really just acts like a child. The same changes were give. To nearly every character in D2. In D1 one we were stranded by the Darkness and trapped by several enemy factions, some of who were very dark in intentions and to their basic nature. But, we were heading back out into the wild, driving out our enemies, and recovering our lost worlds. It was dark, but we were hopeful. It was a great universe to exist and explore in. Forsaken has taken us back to the more mature tone we had to the original and it saved much of the game for me, personally. I would, however, like to see a return of some of the mystery and see it get just a bit more dark. One more point for this is that I didn't enjoy how some major lore characters were treated and that some previous events and lore seemed to be forgotten about, but there's been tons of posts about this and I think others have explained it much better than I would be able to.
• I think I'll just add enemies to this section too. This will also be pretty brief.
-The Fallen. Their new designs are think are even better than the original, though I'm not much of a fan of the purple coloring, but that's a minor complaint. I like the the new enemy types and what they add to confrontations and I think they look even more like the pirates they were meant to be. Great job here.
-The Hive. Again, the new types are great. My main complaint is that they don't look as spooky or alien as they used to. The textures aren't as decayed as they used to be and they're missing some of they strange growths and random knives(?) they had on them in D1. Kinda miss the Knights having eyes, myself. The Hive as a whole are great, though. Can't wait to see what Savathun and Xivu Arath are up to...
-The Cabal. I've never been a huge fan of these guys myself, but they are much better this time around. They are much more fun to combat and they're really just a lot more fleshed out now and I'm glad we got what we did with them. I found Ghaul and the Consul's perspective on Guardians, the Traveller, and the Light really interesting. They were a better part of Vanilla D2.
-The Vex. They're great this go around. Their environments are beautiful and I enjoy that some of the enemies only shown in previous Raids have shown up as regular enemies. Great job here as well.
-The Taken. They are what they are. I love them and I hate them. Their new lore is great and I'm really excited to explore this new direction they've been Taken. Ha.
-The Scorn. Wow. What a great new faction. I love their design; how they're a bastardization of the Fallen and maybe even us in some ways. All types are an absolute joy to fight and each scenario is dynamic and fun. The Barons were all fun Boss fights and were very well fleshed out and have some seriously interesting lore. Awesome addition to the game!
- Overall, the enemies have been just as great as before. The only damage here is the same as Atmosphere and tone. All were hurt by the writing, but have mostly been saved by Forsaken.
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Music-
Last, I'd just like to touch on music. Much like Staten for the writing, we lost a lot of Destiny's identity with Marty's departure. I think a lot of the newer OSTs are amazing, but we're missing some of our original themes and tunes, especially now, this far into D2. While I think all of the music that comes from Salvatori and friends is amazing (seriously, you guys are awesome), we're losing some identity by forgetting about some of the original music (which some was brought back in Forsaken.) My strongest opinion here is that "Guardian" should always be the opening theme. This feels like our theme song and very perfectly sets the tone of Destiny. The same with " The Tower" should always play when you first load into the Tower, then have the other tunes play. The new OSTs have some incredible new songs like Keep of Voices (Holy shit is this track amazing, one of the best in the game), Once Upon a Time in the Reef, Shell of What Was, and many, many others. I feel as though some can be considered generic fillers, so I propose bring ing back some of the oirginal Vanilla tracks as well as some of the Taken King (I could listen to The Awoken forever) tracks and cut out some of the filler in the future. This way we can keep our main themes while having new themes for the expansions. Also, major props for the two songs used in the Whisper of the Worm quest. My main point here is just that we need a singular identity for the game musically. All the new tracks are great, we just need a few constants, especially Guardian.
Here's a link to a playlist with all D1 & DLC music. It has all composer credits listed in the description of each video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USzlcxkGAeM&list=PLRcUzKzhf8b7ugh2L4bjjt2PLXsTHJ1Lm
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So, now it's 2a.m. and I'm very tired and need to get some sleep before work. I'm sure I missed some of the points I wanted to bring up and this whole thing is probably much less coherent than I wanted it to be, but I was just wanting to voice my opinion and hopefully drum up some discussion. Maybe even Bungie will see it. Just want see some of Destiny's
identity return and become more of the unique place it had originally set out to be. Anyways, please comment on this so we can discuss anything. I've got no one at home to nerd out with and I'll always take pointers on how I write. I know a lot of new people have their hands on the game and a lot of the Old Guard are gone, but I just want to see this game live up to the dreams discussed in the original ViDocs I posted at the very beginning.
Edit: added more to some points I had forgotten when typing it up originally
Submitted September 24, 2018 at 09:17AM by AtheonsEpilogue https://ift.tt/2OJgXgf
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