I have spent a handful of hours over the past three days and just completed the last main story mission in Destiny. It took me until after going back to the Tower and then selecting a new destination when I dropped my controller and was dumbfounded that was the end. You do something to help the Traveler and then you don't even know what the effect is. You don't get any more information. The story isn't finished and I'm sure that more will be uncovered with DLC. And that's the problem. It's like buying a book and then on page 150 of 400 it is says, "buy the next book to see what happens next."

For a game that was touted as a GIANT, EXPANSIVE UNIVERSE it comes up very, very, very short of that. Playing the same general area over and over at each destination doesn't make for a riveting experience. You start at the same point at every destination, but each mission just takes you in a different direction, while making you go through some of the same areas. I understand why it's broken up so much because if you played this game continuously, without the loading screens and filler, this game would be even shorter than the 15-or-so hours the story took me.

Now onto my issues with weapons and gear. I am currently level 19, and I guess the soft cap is level 20. I have yet to see and legendary or exotic piece of gear or weapon, even though at level 18 the game told me I unlocked the ability to get legendary gear. Can you only get them from the Vanuard and Crucible? All the options I have at the Gunsmith, Cryptarch, and the Hunter Vanguard are basic, uncommon, or one rare weapon or gear.

A question for you all: What is the point of collecting materials on each destination? I have a bunch of items like Helium Filaments, Spirit Blooms, Spinmetal, etc and haven't needed them at all. I have only used sapphire wire (from disenchanting uncommon gear) once. And now I have three Mote of Light and apparently you need a shit load of them to get anything from the Speaker. Where do you get Mote of Light from? Do you get one from doing missions over again?

That leads me to Vanguard and Crucible points and ranks. They are both so outrageously "overpriced." You need to spend more time than it seems worth to get any of the items behind those currency walls. And after beating the game I don't see the point of grinding to get a new weapon just to use in multiplayer, which I don't see myself really playing much more of anyway.

After all the complaints I have I do have to say I enjoyed my gameplay time with Destiny. When you're not waiting for a loading screen or running around the Tower it's a fun experience. The gun play is satisfying. The different types of weapons are fun to use. And upgrading your weapons and gear can make some interesting differences in battle. And the story was interesting enough for me to want to dive into it more and understand this world, but that's not an option.

My final thought: This game is Halo as FUUUUUUUCK. It's mind-boggling that Bungie would stop doing Halo only to create a universe that could be re-skinned as a Halo game. I mean, C'MON! Ghost is Guilty Spark. Your character is a one-person army just like Master Chief. There is even a direct comparison of all the enemies in Destiny to the enemies in Halo.

@benmo316: I've noticed a big increase in getting rare gear from the crucible and doing strikes after getting to 20, afterall you need rare gear to further level up after 20. Drops from mobs on the other hand, I'm still getting a lot of uncommons and the occasional rare. Perhaps as you increase your level after 20, you get a better chance to get legendarys and exotics from drops.

Besides the actual vanguard and crucible merchants there are also factions you can "pledge" to at 20 by buying a cloak/badge/bonds. Once you pledge you have to do bounties to get a separate faction level and to get the legendary armor/guns of the faction you need a certain amount of crucible marks. 60ish marks for chest,leg and arm pieces and 100ish for the helm and I forgot how many you need for the guns. I already have 20 marks after some games in the crucible and I've grinded in other mmos for far longer than I think it's going to take for a full set from one of these factions.

I have a question though for others who are farther in, I've gotten those Strange Coins, but I don't know where to turn them in? Is there another vendor that's time specific or something?

@benmo316: I disagree regarding enemie variety. Sure some of the Fallen are kind of like the covenant, some of the hive are kind of like brutes and flood but what about the cyclops that shoots lasers or the shield the knights use or the teleporting captains or the floating eye things or the army of robots that teleports around or the etc, etc, etc...

Seriously, all these enemy types are fun to fight and they're way better than what 343 was able to come up with in the actual sequel to halo reach.

@whitestripes09: You can get a maximum of 100 of each type of mark per week so that's how they stretch things out.

@benmo316: I'm not surprised since the story, mission design, and pacing seemed to be done by a 10 year old. I bought the game out of boredom, since it's been a painfully slow/bad year in gaming, the games I actually wanted to play got delayed until 2015, and the couple I am looking forward to are November of this year. So I went ahead and bought Destiny. Halo + Borderlands is an accurate description. Actually, Borderlands, which is barely an RPG, is more of an RPG than Destiny.The gunplay and graphics are good, everything else in Destiny (mission design, level design, loot, customization, powers of the classes, matchmaking, etc) is all mediocre to bad.

The Helium Filaments, Spirit Blooms etc can be traded in to the Vanguard Quatermaster for a Rep boost. I think it's 50 of one item per boost.

I'm pretty sure you get the Mote of Light from doing heroic strikes or raids.

The Vanguard and Crucible items are not meant to be easy for you to just walk up and get, you need to work for them. If that's not for you, it's fair enough that you feel that way, but that's why it's the way it is.

I agree with you on the story. It's a bad story and it's told in the worst way I've seen a game handle telling a story in a very long time.

@whitestripes09: The strange coins are currency for another shop that I guess will only be around on weekends? Agent of the Nine. That's what I read through wiki sites.

I have a personal theory about why the story went off the rails, because sort of the same thing happens to me sometimes when I need to write a brief:

My theory is that when Bungie spent all these years working on Destiny, they spent so much time with it that all the lore just kind of became old hat to them. When they went to write the story missions, they wrote them in a way that made sense to them, but forgot that the actual players didn't have years and years of working with the lore in the way they did. They probably didn't see the story as being weak because their minds were filling in all the blanks automatically. However, the rest of us don't have a grounding in the universe the way Bungie does, so we're constantly confused about what's going on.

For example, when you get to the Reef to talk with the Queen, she has those Fallen with her. That was a serious WTF moment for me, and is something that never really got explained, but when Bungie was designing the scene, it probably made perfect sense to them. I'm sure they were like "of course she has these Fallen with her, because of Random Lore Dump That We Already Know About Because We Designed the Game."

I have not had any legendary or exotic gear drop from just adventuring yet, but I just hit 20 and haven't done any of the raiding or high level strikes yet, so maybe stuff drops there. I do know that a vendor called "Xur" appeared in the Tower today as some sort of periodic event like the Iron Banner PvP stuff. He sells exotic gear in exchange for the "Strange Coin" currency.

Turning in materials will get you three things: (1) Vanguard rep. It's like 50 or 100 points for every 50 materials you turn in, (2) Glimmer, and (3) Vanguard marks, but only after level 18, which I think is totally lame. I made several turn ins before hitting level 18 and missed out on the Marks.

I would still collect them if I were you. Some of the gear I have right now requires a lot of that stuff for some of the upgrades. You'll probably need a lot of it for the late game gear.

You gets Motes of Light in two ways. The first is rare drops. The second way is by earning experience. Although you need the "Light" stat to advance past level 20, you still accrue experience past that point. Instead of a normal level, you'll get a Mote of Light. You can see how close you are by hovering over your level on the character screen.

As far as things being overpriced, I really don't think so. Vanguard marks in particular seem pretty easy to get. You pick them up from Bounties, material turn ins, and doing the daily and weekly missions that pop up. I picked up 20 tonight in about an hour and half without really trying. I honestly have more of a problem with being only able to collect 100 per week. If I want to play the game that much to gear up, I think I should be able to do so however quickly I want.

@benmo316: Nice review, and I think you nailed the good, the bad, and the confusing very simply and very well. Other people have answered your questions or highlighed what does wehat, so I'll just add that without help and experimentation the game is just not very good at explaining itself of how it should be played.

How do I know the story is over. There was no credits. But I don't see any new story missions. I got a cut scene and got a gun. But, everyone was talking about a terrible song. And there was really no indication the game was completed. I feel like they did a terrible job with that.

When you're in the travel menu, down the bottom right.

@sterling said:

I think Bungie has made it pretty clear that adding more story stuff is a part of their "10 year plan". I mean, one of the characters in the 'ending' cutscene basically looks at the camera and tells you that this isn't really the ending cutscene before booting you back out to keep playing. I think part of the problem is that they didn't feel the need to tell a complete story, since they seem convinced that the '10 year plan' content is going to flesh all that out.

Ya but how do you know that is the 'ending cut scene'? I mean, it has to be, because it is. But it doesn't feel like it. And they did a shit job at making it actually feel like it. It just boots you back to orbit like every other one. It doesn't feel like an ending to this game. So I expected to find another story mission. And you are correct with the 10 year thing. The story spread out over these games with very little in each one. But that is a huge problem for me. And I am not sure I will buy another Destiny game. I was just about to post the below in another story topic. But I'll just post it here now instead.

My biggest problem with the story, is it feels like they didn't even try with it. For example. When you get to The Reef, and you meet the queen and her brother. I was an Awoken, or am an Awoken. Yet they didn't acknowledge this. They just referred to me as 'it', as if they didn't know what I was. I looked exactly like them. I am one of them. Which was really odd, and just made the whole thing fall apart. After this I didn't care what was coming in the story. To me this is lazy on their part. They let you choose to be this type of race, yet they didn't write anything for this encounter.

The entire game, or story part of it, to me just feels like the first chapter of the story, game. Not a full game, and not enough story for a single game. As in there should be so much more in this game. But they turned that into this super short chapter for this game, and there will be another super short chapter in the next game. Because they expect you to buy it to continue the story. But there is NO STORY! I think they did an absolute terrible job. Imagine if in Mass Effect, after you get your first squad mate after the citadel, that that was just the end of the story for that game. That is how this feels. And if that is how Mass Effect was, no one would have bought the second game.

I mean you get these vague drops of story all leading you to help the traveler. And this whole thing takes like what, 6 hours? If you just did the story mission to story mission, there is no way it takes that long. And then when you do, its over. It all felt like it was building to something, and then it doesn't. I know they expect people to play this for the online co-op aspect of it. But they didn't market the game like that. I just very disappointed with the whole thing. I mean I like the game play. And I will probably play a little here for strikes and raids. But overall I agree with most reviews. The game is just mediocre at best.

dumbfounded that was the end.

I just beat it felt this way as well. I knew it was the last boss due to seeing it in a Gamespot video. I was surprised I was already there. There was little to no story to that point and the boss itself was easy and pretty much no different than fighting the normal guys you've seen roaming around other parts. And then you beat it and that's it. Nothing to say afterwards. I have some other missions still to do so maybe they will shed a little light on what's going on but, ya, it left me pretty empty.

Basically, I'm feeling the reviews are definitely justified if not generous. I'll probably just keep playing MP though but not sure how long I'll stick with the game.

edit: Just read above about an ending cutscene. Didn't get a cutscene after I beat the boss. Strange.

I have no interest in PVP, I did find Strike missions more my cup of tea even if they came off as sadistic on normal difficulty. I'm still not interested in the armor sets, even if it's going to be for Raids.

On a side note, I just found the whole Grimoire cards......is this really suppose to be helpful? Like seriously, I'm reading up the queen right now...... nope not helpful at all.

I like Destiny strictly from its presentation. The graphics and audio are awesome. I was disappointed w/how empty the world is, especially the Tower. It's this huge place, the last human city, and you don't do much except buy overpriced things for your guy. It reminds me of Fable, where you could buy tattoos and clothing to little effect.You want me to spend 2,000 glimmer so I can wear an orange robe or some COD'esque callsign that has no effect on my stats, damage, or abilities?

Although the missions are repetitive, I enjoy that, but I found the final mission on Venus to be quite cliched and underwhelming, and when you return to the Speaker, after saving the world, he says thanks and have a nice day. No cutscene, leveling up or access to anything new.

Destiny is a work in progress. Bungie has learned a lot from it and still has two more releases, plus the DLC. Despite my complaints, I think Bungie did well and will build upon the potential of Destiny in years to come.

P.S. Tyrion Lannister as Ghost = mistake, I could just see him reciting his lines w/all the enthusiasm of a guy going to the electric chair.