Destiny, Bungie’s epic, well-polished, and undoubtedly expensive online first-person shooter, has had a considerable number of criticisms thrown at it since the game’s release on September 9th. The most prominent of them being that its missions are repetitive, its story is barely there, and the fact there are Grimoire cards.
According to Reddit user, Acer1096xxx, and a variety of other online sources, some presumably underhanded happenings occurred in terms of Destiny and its associated content within the past year of development, including story re-writes, unused features and locations, along with the possibility that the unused content may be resold as DLC.
Take a closer look at the changes and read more details after the break.
Destiny: Not the Same Game as a Year Ago
Story Rewrites:
In 2013, Destiny‘s overarching narrative looked quite different from the one in the full release. Last year, the story consisted of Crow, the Traveler bringing the darkness, and different planet progression in general. All in all, a significant enough departure to warrant some questions. The departure of Joe Staten, Bungie’s lead writer (at the time), in late 2013 lends even more credence to the possibility of an altered storyline for Destiny.
Adding more fuel to the proverbial flames, a number of factions and characters who were shown in pre-release trailers, videos, ViDocs, et cetera, never appear in the full retail release of Destiny. The most glaring absence is that of Crow, a character or factions whose task was to expose both the Traveler and the Speaker for being responsible for bringing the darkness. Crow even appears in a video detailing Destiny‘s possible cut content, in a mission where players are searching for details regarding the Vex Gatelord on Venus. This mission actually appears in the game, however Crow is not a part of it.
A reference to “faction wars” appears in the aforementioned video (which can be viewed below), hinting at the possibility that certain bits of narrative were cut in regards to the Tower as well.
In regards to what Destiny‘s story was actually rewritten to…Grimoire Cards. Back in early 2014 (February, to be exact) Bungie hired an individual to write the majority of the game’s Grimoire cards in an supposed attempt to incorporate as much story and narrative to the Destiny lore as quickly as possible before the game’s massive launch in September. This may be a reason as to why there is no actual user interface for the Grimoire Cards in the game.
You can read a related quote below:
“Moreover, basic game elements were removed in the developer commentary for the gameplay show Bungie’s environment artist, Mike Zak, saying that the Hunter could have gained his weapons and armor through trade with other players or a kind of gambling. this is not implemented in the release version. The video was released on July 8th, 2013 on youtube. So the decision to cut these features out was made in the last year of a more than 5 year development period, which is very uncommon.
Perhaps the story is so lame and such a mystery because of all the changes during the last year.
He talks about the Grimoire Cards (which contain the story). on the Destiny forums on Bungie.com, a user, generalbattuta, says that the Grimoire story was mostly written and edited in one crazy spin very close to launch. On February 13th, 2014, he posted a thread in which he shared his excitement of being hired as a writer for Bungie in Seattle. this was 7 months before release.”
With all the above information and situational context in mind, Destiny‘s lack of story content makes more sense. As for Staten’s departure and Bungie’s decision to nix a large amount of story content, the full reasons are unknown.
Unused or cut features/locations:
In 2013, Destiny had a number of features and locations that are not present in the 2014 full release of the game. For example, Old Chicago, Saturn’s rings’ ghost fleet, Charlemagne’s Vault (among others, which are fully completed) are nowhere to be found in the retail release.
Using a recently discovered glitch, locations in Old Russia, such as the Jovian Complex, the Seraphim Vault, and Kings’ Watch are accessible, albeit locked away without mention. Because of this, it is a possibility that the Destiny‘s first 2 upcoming DLC expansions are already on the game’s disc, simply waiting to be unlocked by Bungie as paid DLC content for customers to purchase.
According to the above information, the Destiny Bungie is currently selling to gamers is not the same Destiny they showcased over the past year.
What are your thoughts on this information? Do you think that it is a legitimate concern for gamers around the world? Did Bungie really cut completed content from them game in order to resell it as paid DLC at a later date? Also, what can Bungie do to repair Destiny‘s reported problems?
Let us know in the comments section below! As always, stay tuned to GamerHeadlines.com for the latest in video game and technology news.
Source: Destiny’s subreddit
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