I need to specifically point out that character progression in Destiny is fucking horrible. And considering the campaign is fucking horrible, I don't know what other reason someone could possibly have for playing this game. EVERY GAME I can ever remember enjoying had either an impactful, satisfying progression mechanic of some kind, or a good story/campaign that kept me invested in the characters and the things happening to and around them to distract from having been doing the same goddamn thing since level 1, or both.
Character progression/build needs to mean something in the game. In Borderlands games, you hit level 3 and you get your Action Skill. The Action Skills are generally hugely distinct abilities that can be used frequently enough that you don't forget they exist, and they change the nature of firefights and how you play the game. And then you can keep investing further levels into leafs on skill trees, some of which give some really game changing bonuses. Like Gaige and her Anarchy stacks, or her ability to restore shield on a kill at the expense of her HP, turning her into a tremendously fun glass cannon.
In FFXI, even though in the Golden Age, progression was slower than continental drift and I could cure cancer and then develop a cure resistant form of cancer in the time it took to get into an exp party, progression in a class continuously improved your character in that class in meaningful ways. Maybe you start as MNK, don't even get a weapon like the other starter classes do, and tear ass into West Sarutabaruta (<-Actual zone name, LCD was surely involved) to punch rabbits with auto-attacks until you rule the world. As you do, you notice notices in the chat log saying that your Hand-to-Hand (the combat skill used in bare fist attacks and with hand-to-hand weapons) is increasing. Once it hits level 10, you learn the Weapon Skill, "Combo." Now, once 100 TP is accumulated, you can unleash a three strike attack that is very powerful for the early game. Now maybe you can stop killing rabbits and fight something a bit less embarrassing. Now you can get a buddy and do Skill Chains with his WSes. And then you level Warrior to level ten and learn Provoke, now you can tank in parties to really roll in the exp. Then you unlock subjobs, which allow you to level other jobs and use some of their abilities while main jobbing other jobs. NOW you can get MNK to 30, sub WAR, and get Berserk to really pour on the damage 60% of the time. Then you get to max level, but not the end of the progression. You can exp up Merit Points, which can be invested in combat skills, physical attributes, or even class specific abilities and traits. Now your Samurai can merit up Store TP enough to get a native six hit build, so no more having to stack Store TP gear to get to Weapon Skills one swing sooner. OR you could stack ALL the Store TP gear and get a five hit build. You never stopped getting better in really noticeable ways.
In Mass Effect, you start out as frankly embarrassingly incompetent for the top of the human special forces. You can't even hold your fucking rifle steady to start with, and any powers your class might have land with about as much impact on enemies as tickling a grizzly bear with a feather duster. As you level up you get points to load into your ability to distinguish which end of the rifle the bullets come out of, you beef up the area of effect, potency, and possibly secondary effects of your powers, and by the time you hit Virmire you can snipe a Krogan's upper left testicle at 800 yards and shut down an entire platoon of Geth with a single Damping.
In Destiny 2, when you level up, you get points to invest into skill trees that don't really accomplish jack shit. Congratulations! You unlocked another grenade. And when I say "another grenade," I don't mean more grenade capacity, I mean another type of grenade you can switch to by opening the menu, that is on the same half a fucking day long timer that the OTHER shitty grenade was on. Yay! Now to unlock the other subclass with a turbo ability that isn't remarkably unique or effective, and is on a cooldown longer than a Presidential term!
But way, you say, you progress primarily through getting better guns. Sure. I can go grind up a new pulse rifle that is exactly the same as the last 20 pulse rifles I had, but with a SLIGHTLY higher number than my current one, which will make farming my NEXT pulse rifle that is functionally identical a little bit faster. Or I could get any one of dozens of essentially the same goddamn SMG, pistol, or assault rifle! Don't forget the special Heavy Weapons, that super cool shit like basic fucking shotguns or sniper rifles. Hope you enjoy the incredibly limited ammo!
Sure, Borderlands had a VERY similar pistol/SMG/shotgun/sniper rifle/assault rifle scheme, but even within those classes of weapons, at ALL LEVELS, there were varying gimmicks. Every Vladof weapon, even pistols and sniper rifles, have huge magazines and full auto fire. Every Jakobs weapon, even assault rifles, was semi-auto with small magazines, high damage, and never any elemental effects. Every Maliwan weapon had elemental effects, which might be greatly enhanced by particular characters. Every Torgue weapon fires fucking explosives. I can also throw more than one grenade every epoch. Even before getting into the Legendary weapons with potentially bonkers gimmicks (that might frankly ruin the balance of an actual MMO), I have a huge potential of options on how to do fun stuff to bad people, which is completely lacking in Destiny 2.
Even in FFXI, I could get weapons with distinct gimmicks beyond Higher Number. So that even though I'm just fucking auto attacking, stuff plays differently. I can get a scythe that critically hits every 13th swing (if that swing connects, anyway). I can get a great katana that "occasionally attacks 2-3 times" with a low damage rating, that effectively doubles my TP gain but halves great katana weapon skill damage, and PAIR it with Ranger as a subjob and a high damage longbow, and use it to fuel TP for full power Archery weapon skills.
I can't have any fun like that in Destiny. At all levels, the name of the game is Shoot the Things. All classes play essentially the same. They Shoot the Things. To the point that classes and character progression are entirely vestigial.
aurelius wrote:I could never get into Overwatch for whatever reason.
This is how I know you have objectively bad taste. While it had the unmitigated balls to charge full price for two multiplayer modes, Overwatch STILL HAD CHARACTERS I GIVE A SHIT ABOUT. They have a fucking medic that is so upset by death she charges into a warzone to revive the recently killed. That's immediately 100% more character than anyone in Destiny, except MAYBE that poncho girl that found you in the mountains (shows what an impression she left on me that I can't remember her fucking name), ever got. And EVERY character has distinctly unique gimmicks in how they play.
In fact, what pissed me off so much about Overwatch was not that it was shit, like Destiny is, but that it wasted excellent gameplay, a great look, and at least a handful of really cool characters on a puddle-depth multiplayer only game. If they had a campaign or co-op campaign mode, even if the premise and storytelling was as garbage as Destiny 2's, I would have bought the shit out of it and had a ball tear assing through story missions as Tracer or Not!Ghostrider.
tl:dr The things you like are bad and you are a bad person, and endlessly grinding a completely soulless task to watch some generic number slowly crawl up is why I have a job. I expect better out of video games I pay sixty fucking dollars for, especially when goddamn Starbound, for $15, is more engaging, diverse, and satisfying.
