This shit is about to get real. I’m feeling the feels this morning. I couldn’t even muster up enough rage to write Why It’s Sexist Vol. 3: Where Are the Statistics On That? which will be coming next week. This week I want to talk about one thing and one thing only: Destiny.
Destiny is all I think about. I think about it right when I wake up. I play until I can’t keep my eyes open at night. I get little butterflies in my stomach when I log on and see Destiny is there. My heart skips a beat when I hear Peter Dinklage (the narrator/your ghost) whisper in my ear. You know what? I’m in love. I’m in love with Destiny.
Destiny has faults. It’s occasionally repetitive, though it doesn’t necessarily get old. Sometimes you want the familiarity of particular nooks and crannies, something safe to go back to over and over. I have faith that as we grow older, Destiny will continue to evolve. While it will still have those same, familiar maps, it will grow and change and get new ones as well.
Destiny also sometimes tells boring stories. It’s not that its unoriginal (all games have unoriginal stories), but it lacks any kind of meaningful story linked to the action. You’re killing bosses, going through some underground caves or whatever, but it seems like it’s not tied together. The mechanics are amazing, don’t get me wrong. The gameplay is damn near flawless. Destiny has you fighting through mobs to get to an end-point, it has waves coming at you while you protect something, and sometimes it’s completely exploratory. What you’re actually doing has PLENTY of variety. But there lacks an overall sense of purpose and mission. Which is ok, I still love it.
But most of all, like a long-distance relationship, you can’t always be with Destiny. It’s only on the console, and the game is at its best when you’re playing with your friends. I love the way they do online co-op. It’s fun, easy (well, easy to party up and such, the levels are hard as crap sometimes), useful to be partied, and the talking/party mechanism is great. Unless you mute yourself without telling your party members like a jerk (sorry guys), then it seems really stable. But you still need to wait for folks to be on to get the most enjoyment out of the game. I know folks for whom WoW died after their friends stopped playing. I totally get that. I feel like I’m cheating on my Destiny buddies if I play without them. When I do play without them, ‘cuz I need a little taste, it’s aimless.
I haven’t been this in love with a game since I first started playing WoW. Sure, I’m at a different place in my life that doesn’t allow me to devote as many hours to Destiny as I did to WoW, but that same pull is there. And basically since WoW I haven’t felt that same pull, that inexorable urge to constantly be playing. I’ve desperately missed that feeling. Oh I get it now and then when something new comes out and promises to fill that void. I felt it a long time with Dungeon Defenders, even longer with Civ V. But Destiny, I can tell, is going to be a more satisfying game in the long term. The love I have for Destiny isn’t the “shiny new!” kind of love. But one of sustainable, mutually beneficial happiness. Oh I want to play right now!
So this I plead to my Destiny friends: play with me tonight? Let us live life!
