Could this Mobile Spin-off Save the Franchise? | Destiny Rising Closed Beta Impressions
My Thoughts After a 2nd Go-Round in the NetEase Spin-Off
My Thoughts After a 2nd Go-Round in the NetEase Spin-Off
Destiny Rising proves Bungie’s gameplay loop can exist and even harmonize with the strengths and weaknesses of the mobile platform. After playing this Beta, I can’t help but be excited for Destiny Risings release, and invite everyone to join me when it does.
I saw a meme the other day that said, “A real Destiny 2 fan ALWAYS speaks ill of Destiny 2.” After my 1200 hours in that game, more than quadruple the hours I’ve spent in any other video game, you could say that these days, I’ve fallen into that “bittersweet love” this meme is referencing.
What Bungie’s made over the past decade, has without a doubt, become one of my favorite game worlds to ever take part in, as I’ve participated as an active force in its live service plot. This isn’t to mention the countless mountains of positive memories I’ve created with friends through many of these experiences. But after all of these hours, and all the money I’ve thrown into the game, it’s hard to look at Destiny 2 and Bungie without being critical for one reason or another, because of something or other. With each new hour I throw at the game, that cynicism grows… Despite this growing ire I have towards its bigger screen cousin, I surprisingly have many positive thoughts on Destiny Rising.
A Little More Context
Bungie’s resources for Destiny 2, I felt, must have been completely exhausted to create the perfect finale to their ‘Light and Dark’ 10-year saga. The enjoyment I derived from that ultimate expansion rivals almost any game I’ve ever played. So, you can imagine my disappointment when Bungie revealed their lackluster roadmap for the game moving forward beyond this ending. By comparison to me, it felt as though they were putting the game on life-support. The lack of quality seasonal content felt like the result of the exhaustion of staff and resources. Playing the first of 3 ‘episodes’ after the conclusion of the expansion myself, seemingly confirmed this to me. From what I understand from my friends who have actively played since, the game still has had its ups and downs, perhaps not so negative as I had thought it would be, but is importantly in the end, more Destiny 2 to play. But what that turned out to be has not been very interesting to me, save it be for a few experiences.
I’m always happy to ‘answer the call’, and play the game with my friends, dabbling in snack-sized gameplay sessions for a dungeon run or two. But I’ve thought to myself that I’m done with Destiny’s single player experience. I figured, I’m finally burnt out. I’ve lived that solo-player gameplay loop for at least 600+ hours and don’t need more of it. With Bungie’s potential Marathon disaster looming on the horizon, I’ve even thought that perhaps I’m better off not being invested in the Destiny universe anyway. Because, what if Bungie does goes dark, from poor reception to Marathon, and Sony takes down Destiny 2 with them? It’s a sad thought. But if I’m done with the franchise, already basking in the glow of the good memories I’ve made, then a change like that wouldn’t affect me, right? Because I’m done playing this game, right? Totally burnt out from the single player experience, yeah?
Let’s Talk Destiny Rising
This is my second time playing Destiny Rising. Because of my growing Destiny 2 disinterest, I casually threw my hat in the ring for Beta access. When I got the acceptance email I wasn’t exactly thrilled to get access, but I love trying out Betas for games. The Alpha left me intrigued, and I wrote about my thoughts. But, I didn’t get to sink my teeth into it as far as I would have liked, and I was a bit curious as to what had improved. So I accepted the call, and downloaded the game. For the last 3 weeks since it has been live, I have been absolutely hooked. I didn’t miss logging in a single day. So what’s changed? How could a burnt out Destiny 2 player like me sink in 3 weeks worth of mobile game time playing more Destiny?
Destiny: Rising Closed Alpha Impressions and Review
Didn’t make it to the Closed Alpha yourself? Read my thoughts to see why I ultimately recommend it…thenamebrand.co
Catch my thoughts on the Destiny Rising Closed Alpha at the article here, and message me if you’d like the friend link to remove the pay-wall.
Before jumping in to extracting the answer for that question, I feel we might revisit my primary gripes from play-testing the closed alpha, to discuss the changes which may inform that answer. Those original negative sentiments were that:
The story was very poorly written.
Resources and their many types were so abundant you could spend entire play sessions managing them all.
The gacha system of obtaining characters has every negative you can think of from that type of system existing in this game.
So, the question is, did the Beta change my thoughts on any of these?
The Story
Perhaps the biggest surprise to my delight, was that the Beta did in fact include changes to the dialogue, and maybe even pieces of the story. The work that they’ve done here has been significant. So much so, that not only did it remove my disgust towards it, I actually ended up enjoying it. The changes in the writing were so great that it now aligns with how I perceive the quality of dialogue in Destiny 2.
Better writing is good and all. But NetEase pushes the narrative envelope further than Bungie at times through acts of ‘spectacle’. One example: by showing the power of the guardians, like Lord Saladin leaping on top of cabal ships with his flaming hammer, taking them down. You’ll also play out unique sequences, like riding passenger on the back of a Pike, shooting enemies that are chasing you and another guardian character down. At another point, you’ll obtain a unique and temporary, powerful set of abilities for plot reasons. NetEase has spent resources to let you engage with its plot and characters in one-off sequences of unique gameplay or lively cutscenes for added ‘cool factor’, and it goes a long way to establish the world and characters they’re building.
Even on some average missions, you’ll get to spend quality time with other guardians as a part of your fire team and by comparison to Destiny 2 that of itself is a spectacle. Lord Radeghast is a new character created by NetEase, and initially they do introduce him as a typical, stationary quest giver as you might see around The Tower as Destiny 2 does now. But as you interact with his character and actually see him on the battlefield, fighting alongside you, and you can see how powerful he is. A similar respect I have for some characters in Destiny 2 only happened because I’ve read or listened to the lore, to know they’re powerful. To each their own, but I like this new approach of ‘showing’ more than ‘telling’ in Destiny Rising much better.
The ‘show’ approach extends through to other characters as well. For example, you meet one character through the story and as he describes an event that happened to him, the game lets you play as him, through that event. Other ‘character quests’ will see you similarly control these guardians (that you might obtain through the gacha system) through small action packed story lines as well. It helps establish their power and presence in this new game system, while letting you test their abilities and loadout, which overall as a concept, feel very well-thought out. You may not be the main character in Destiny Rising, but the perfectly balanced trade off is being able to participate in the histories of MANY characters. This in turn allows for some excellent world building, and gives you a reason to care about all of these new faces, and is of course to the gacha systems benefit.
Resources
The resource system appears to be largely unchanged from Destiny Rising’s Closed Alpha. There are still what feels like a million different items that are needed for their one million corresponding actions. But what I did find this time, is that resources were abundant enough that I didn’t need to hunt them down as feverously as before. I’m thinking they might have increased the rate at which you earn all of them… Except for one.
Lumina Leaves are the resource you need to draw characters out of the gacha system. In the closed alpha, I earned enough to draw both of the temporary mythic characters. It also was enough to get the required amount of Ikora duplicates needed to max out her skill tree (you’ll be familiar with this type of thing if you’ve played gacha games before, more on this in a minute). This go-round in the Closed Beta? I upgraded Ikora twice (of six times), and pulled one permanent mythic character. No scythe wielding goth girl for me this time. I got a handful of other characters, and while cool to try them all, it made powering up characters that much more difficult, as duplicates are to a degree required. In that sense I was quite unlucky, to the point where I beat out the majority of players on how many different characters I had (top 4%!), which does not bode well for me in the full-release. Of course, as a gacha, your mileage may vary as you bargain with the RNG gods.
Like I said, overall, the resources didn’t bother me so much this time through. When I did run out of something, it was not difficult to find out what activity dropped that resource, and you can even immediately queue into whatever activity that may be as you’re inspecting that item, which is very convenient. It’s still a bit of a downer that there are so many resources, but it’s feeling much more like a minor gripe in the Beta, as compared to the Alpha.
Gacha System
Collecting characters is still a complete pain in the rear, as you might expect. Unfortunately, the gacha system infects this game like a plague, and among other negative things, introduces my least favorite concept from it. That being, the idea that you may not play as your favorite character, due to random chance.
Ikora is a fun to play character. I knew that when I played the closed alpha and had her skill tree completely unlocked. But in this closed beta, I wanted absolutely any other character to try. Just to see how the build-crafting might change for them. How the combat cadence would be. Anything. But I pulled duplicates of Ikora the most. So, can you guess who I played most frequently? Wolf, because the story missions give you a lot of materials for him…
But the character I played second-most? Ikora. Random chance deemed it so, and that was that. This is very similar to the gripes mentioned in my ZZZ Review. What will be frustrating for many people, myself included, will be finally getting a character out of the gacha system and subsequently not being able to use them in high level content. You can over-spec the character to meet the light level for some activities, sure, there are 3 other aspects of the character that can help you do that. But at the end of the day, if you’re not getting duplicates for your favorite character, you can forget about bringing them into Destiny Rising’s master level content. Which is many hours down the road of course, but it’ll sting all the same.
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Of note: as I interacted with the gacha system in the closed beta I noticed there were far fewer rewards, and much more glimmer. In the closed alpha I obtained skins for characters, different sparrows, ghost shells, ornaments of all kinds, the works. This time? Glimmer, glimmer, a few resources, and more glimmer. With the occassional character. One or two mythic weapons thrown in too. With the reduced amount of times I could draw for characters, this ratio felt cruel. I had over 500k glimmer for most of my play time. It was a bottomless pile. As if I kept the hoard of it in the glimmer heist public event. It felt bad. But that’s what this virus of a game system brings. Gacha means pain for the players, money for the devs, no matter how you slice it.
So why then… Did I keep playing? I’m largely burnt out on Destiny 2. I hate the gacha system. Some of the resource gains are a total joke. Sometimes, I’m not even playing a character I like playing as. What’s the big deal? Why not stop and focus on playing other games?
Destiny Mobile Good?
None of this would matter if the game wasn’t connected to the Destiny universe and beyond that, nobody would care if it didn’t feel like you’re playing Destiny… so it’s great that it does. Everything from game-feel, gun-feel, down to world design, feels exactly like a mobile version of Destiny should, if Bungie were to make a mobile version themselves. Because of this, and you might not like this fact… It’s loads of fun. Abilities in their solar, arc, and void forms feel powerful and in-line with their big-screen counterparts, weapons feel great to use, and the activities are just as thrilling and enjoyable as anything Bungie has ever created. Even the Gambit-like mode is good, I mean, come on. NetEase has cooked, and it’s a scrumptious meal.
Perhaps the biggest draw is not just that it feels like a Destiny game should, but that this framework has a near complete foundation of “new”. One large sprawling campaign against the backdrop of two entirely new areas to explore, with a handful of fun major activities, and a few enjoyable minor activities (did somebody say sparrow racing, fishing, AND Gwent??). The scope of it is big. Just as big as an expansion to Destiny 2. I’d argue even larger than some of those. It feels impossibly nice that around every page turn of the campgain, I find something new to discover and sink my teeth into.
Is a ‘new’ Destiny game all it would take to rekindle my hunger for the franchise and return to play something made by Bungie? It reminds me of all the talk the community has had about the possible future of a Destiny 3. Regardless of what your opinion may be, in playing Destiny Rising it’s very clear that a sequel concept would work for me. Would I stick around and play it for 10 years after it releases, maybe not. And maybe Destiny Rising will lose its appeal after a month or two and I’ll feel the burn out then as well. But as a proof of concept for a potential Destiny 3 game, I can say that it would absolutely work for me. I’m sure other players feel the same. But I digress.
Arguably my favorite part about Destiny Rising is that the game respects your time. I played it the most at home of course, but unlike the closed alpha, I booted it up and played on breaks at work. When the activities are only a handful of minutes it’s easy to just open up and do your daily mission or some strike. It’s also very respectful of queue times in most activities and will provide you with competant NPC teammates after 30 seconds in the lobby. If you’re not a fan of NPC’s as teammates — would you believe me if I told you there’s no more waiting in orbit? You can go off and complete story missions. Or fish. Or do whatever you want while queuing into an activity. NetEase respects my time and doesn’t allow me to waste a single second of it if that’s not what I want, and I think that alone is game changing.
A feature I tried this go around — keyboard and mouse controls. I emulated the game via BlueStacks on my PC, and I have to say that the controls are 1:1 with its Bungie counterpart. No frame drops. Ran and controlled smooth as butter. I put a lot of time into that client. As an added bonus, I got to test out cross-save, so when I’d shut down the game on my computer in the morning, I could pick up on my phone during my break at work, then continue in the story or activity right where I left off soon as I got home. It’s magical and just works. It is incredibly convenient, more so than I think anyone is anticipating.
I could go on and on about my positive experiences, so much so that I’m compelled to save them for an official review video when the game finally releases. If you’d be interested in that, please be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
Conclusion
Destiny Rising’s appeal of newness and discovery may not last for long, and could very well lead me to being burnt out on the Destiny franchise even further beyond I am now. So, why am I playing? There’s a bunch of reasons, of course, it’s very multifaceted. The biggest thing is simply that the fresh air from all of these new NetEase created elements… is nice. Some are incredibly fun too. Not everything is an innovation, and some of the systems are deeply flawed, like anything related to the gacha elements, or the microtransactions. But it’s arguably a great start for a spin-off game.
Ultimately, Destiny Rising has allowed me to come back and continue to enjoy this universe on a much smaller scale, through breaths of fresh air. For now, that’s enough. I’m very much looking forward to its release, and can’t wait to give it an official review. I certainly invite you to keep your eyes peeled for that.
Thanks for reading.