This ended up playing like a mix between Halo and Borderlands, and this ends up being a very apt description.
Earlier this year in April, Gearbox announced that we’d be getting a Borderlands game set between 1 and 2, and a majority of the development would be handled by 2K Australia.
This ended up playing exactly like Borderlands.
So now that both games are out and are essentially in the same genre (shoot-n-loot if you have to pin down specifics) which one is better? If you go by this site, you have scores determining a numerical value, but there’s a finer breakdown and analysis that can be done between these two games. Each has strengths and weaknesses, most often in different areas, suggesting that future iterations could stand to learn lessons from each other.
On a side note, some might think it unfair to compare Destiny’s first outing to a franchise on essentially it’s third outing. I wholeheartedly disagree, as Bungie has proven itself time and again not only an incredibly capable game studio, but also must have played the first two games to some degree and either failed to learn lessons or made intentional choices to stand apart from the Borderlands series.
Widely agreed upon being the biggest weakness when looking at Destiny, this is exacerbated more-so when the Pre-Sequel arguably has the best story it’s ever had in it’s franchise history. Part of this has to do with a host of characters to draw from two games, as well as being able to position yourself as a narrative of a villain's backstory. Sure I get that.
Even ignoring all that, Destiny does a criminally bad job of presenting it’s own narrative. There is a vast amount of exposition presented in loading screens, making it incredibly easy to glaze over. Couple this with in mission story moments that always boil down to “scan this,” or “defend that from 3 waves of enemies,” and suddenly you’ve made the perfect game to play while you listen to podcasts.
Worse yet, there are no memorable characters for Destiny. Your Ghost will prattle on about your most recent “amazing discovery” that is amazingly vague, while your own player character does his or her best Master Chief impression. Pre-Sequel up’s the ante from it’s predecessors by retaining it’s same ridiculous humor and making the vault hunters more chatty than the past, giving you a better idea of their personalities. Athena is Stoic and no-nonsense. Nisha is cruel and a sadist. Wilhelm is gruff and an addict. Claptrap is just plain Claptrap.
If you’re not down for Borderlands particular brand of humor, that’s understandable, but at least their is distinct and definable characteristics to love or hate. Destiny is just bland, which is criminal compared to characters that Bungie is talking in the past (i’m looking at you Marathon AI’s)
Winner: Borderlands, by a mile.
Another personal preference area. Destiny firmly plants itself as being what we like to call a “Middle-gen” game, halfway between the 360/PS3 and One/PS4. Visuals look good for last gen and even better on the current, not necessarily blowing you away though. Still, there’s a substantially well realized artistic style here, coupled with a great audio presentation. The soundtrack plays well to the highs and lows of any particular battle, gunshots, energy blasts and melee hits all sound satisfying.
Pre-Sequel is starting to show it’s age. When put side-by-side, it’s indistinguishable from 2012’s Borderlands 2: same cel-shaded, comic-book look, canned NPC animations and pop-in textures. It’s not a bad look per se, opting for stylized over realistic visuals, but after so much content in two, it’s hard not to feel a sense of “been here, seen that.” Audio presentation can be somewhat hit or miss with a few bugs, and a “spacey” soundtrack that is mostly forgettable.
Winner: Destiny, if nothing else, it’s quite pretty.
If there’s one thing that Destiny has distinctly inherited from it’s Halo forefather, it’s the kinesthetic feel of the second to second combat, and for most, that’s high praise. In fact, that’ll probably be what draws most players back is just how much fun Destiny can be to play individual firefights. Even if the only addition to the formula is a distinct superpower, maybe some passives, enemies feel varied and animate well in combat. Floaty jumps feel just right you’ve mastered your classes particular vertical option. Couple this with some good multi-player and everything just sort of clicks once you're in the thick of it.
Pre-Sequel by comparison is only a few steps behind Destiny, but it’s enough to still be noticeable. Some sections of the game can be woefully unbalanced, especially if you're underleveled, and that can be frustrating. You’ll also end up running into a few more bullet sponges than you would in Destiny, especially on higher levels. Couple this with the possibility of being able to build your character “wrong” and you have the potential to make the game much harder than it needs to be. Floaty jumps here on the moon also feel slightly anemic, but the butt slam is fun if utilized correctly
Winner: Destiny, just feels tighter.
Pre-sequel’s characters have taken the best ideas from past characters and created the most distinct character trees in the series history. There’s a sort of greatest hits list here with things like melee focus, tanking, minions, and healer that’ll bring all the RPG fans to the yard. But we’ve also hooked in more complex playstyles for fans that really want to get into the minutiae. Athena, for example can focus on lighting and fire elements initially, favoring quick fire weapons to help build damage stacks. Throw in a freeze weapon and you can freeze the stacks for some time, letting you build even more stacks. Great interplay with the game’s status effects.
Perhaps my favorite play style was combining Nisha’s “Law and Order” with “Fan the Hammer.” On one tree I’m all about tanking damage by building defensive order stacks, while balancing out occasional melee hits. This coupled well with the pure offense of the dual pistoleer style that would occasionally use melee hits to steal ammo and turn her action skill into an almost full shield regen. Hooray for synergy. Gun types are favored by certain trees. Shields, oz kits, class mods and grenade mods all augment your effectiveness to startling degrees.
In Destiny, your class is presented with 8 different tiers of choices, 3 in each that are mutually exclusive, all dictated by your character’s subclass. This is a very similar approach to how modern day WoW does their talent trees. The good news here is that it’s hard to screw up character progression. The flipside is that choices don’t always feel like choices, and some can be downright boring. A triple jump or a higher double jump? Yawn.
Worse yet is gear. Your line of thought usually ends up going “Well, I like to use my super, so I guess I’ll stack intellect.” This pales in comparison to picking class mods that can affect things like fire rate, max shields, specific manufacturer damage, or team cooldown rate. Couple this with a confusing endgame “Light” stat for over leveling, and gear just feels like a wasted opportunity. At least it looks cool. Skill trees on gear only slightly help to fill in the wasted potential of your character, and just feel like an excuse to grind once the main story is all said and done.
Winner: Borderlands, where I can customize a robot to pop out a pirate sail and cannons while the 1812 overture plays. Y’know, ‘cause that’s my thing.
A sort of play-off of character progression, Pre-sequel builds off it’s advancements from 2 with incredibly distinctive weapons based on randomly generated parts, coupled with manufacturer tendencies. After sinking some time into the game, you’ll know that Jakobs weapons play like Old West stereotypes, Tediore weapons are thrown away and regenerated instead of reloaded, and Maliwan is your best brand for dishing out elemental damage. Visually distinctive brands help to hone in on why weapons feel different from one another. Best of all, once all these tendencies are established, the game actively goes out of way to subvert expectations by offering unique weapons from quests and legendaries.
Want a shotgun that shoots it’s spread in a smiley face? You can get that. Or one that mouths-off at you every time you pull the trigger? Laser weapons that suggestively vibrate the controller like mad? How about a boomerang pistol that gets a mind of it’s own and jumps around and sprays bullets when you throw it? All of these wacky choices are just the tip of the iceberg. There’s nothing more fun than finding out what red flavor text means on a specifically named gun.
Destiny really managed to miss on making guns feel unique and special, one of the first things proposed to the press in the game’s pitch. In reality, only the highest tier of weapons, exotics, contain unique characteristics, and far too many of these are either more efficient or regenerating ammo. Worse yet, you won’t even be able to use the unique weapon affixes out of the box, as you’ll be forced to perform a substantial experience grind to get the weapon’s defining attribute. Until then, it’ll perform like most of your other weapons. Couple this with status effects that don’t really do anything other than take down certain shield types, and it’s not hard to feel gypped when you stand it next to Elpis’s armaments.
Winner: Borderlands, because this shotgun shoots snowballs! Cool!
There’s not much contest in this category, Destiny is just doing more. A healthy amount of multiplayer modes and maps at launch was very appreciated by most players, and the drop-in co-op for the game is absolutely sublime. Getting back-up from a fellow guardian when you need it the most is still one of the greatest experiences this game can offer. It may be Destiny’s most impressive and understated feature. The only thing missing is a lack of proper co-op matchmaking, especially for larger events in the game such as raids.
On the other side, Pre-sequel isn’t doing anything wrong per se, but is just utterly bland as a multiplayer option. Competitive gameplay is still reserved to 1-on-1 duels in the world (though one would imagine this would be a nightmare to actually balance as a team game) and matchmaking is just functional for co-op. For both, the best way is to play is with friend.
Winner: Destiny-competitive edge with impressive drop-in tech.
It’s at this point that I need to quote the tagline of a great cinematic masterpiece of the our generation in order to sum up this topic:
“Whoever wins...we lose”
-AVP, 2004
There’s a lot left to be desired with both games when it comes to reaching the level cap, or even the process of meeting said cap. Recycled content is a crutch that both games end up leaning on. What’s more interesting is the different methods that each game employs, and how both end up falling short.
For Destiny, the expectation is that you’ll most likely end up finishing the story before you hit the first regular level cap of 20. After that, you can gain the remaining experience by replaying other levels, possibly on harder difficulty levels. After 20, you’ll need to get gear with the aforementioned “Light” statistic, the sole purpose of which is to go above 20. Why would you do this? So you can replay story missions and strikes on harder difficulties and get better gear. The only piece of content exclusive from being potentially replayed is the singular raid available at launch. Oh well, at least there’s multiplayer. Otherwise you’re stuck rep grinding for factions, possibly hunting for exotics.
Borderlands manages to suffer a similar fate. Your first playthrough of the main game is going to land you somewhere between level 25 to 30, with the cap placed at 50. From here you can finish up a side quest, but you’ll be expected to start up “True Vault Hunter Mode” which starts the campaign back to the very beginning, with enemy levels scaled appropriately for your last levels. Well, as best as they can be managed. Scaling for weapons and stats for the second playthrough are such that if you aren’t on level with the content, you’re in for an exceedingly rough ride. What can you do at level cap? Fight a level 50 raid boss that has a lower level variation as well. At least you have more skill points to play with. A few extra quips from Tiny Tina for playthrough two are worth a chuckle if you don’t absolutely abhor her.
Winner: Neither
Seriously guys, make better endgame content.
For many this will come down to a matter of personal preference.
If competitive multiplayer is your game, then there’s a chance that Destiny will end up catching your interest. There’s a healthy amount of maps at launch, yet the game types on display are lacking. Deathmatch, large team point control, small team point control, or free for all. Classes and weapons don’t really feel varied enough in the long run however. Starting up a new character makes this even more apparent, as you’ll be missing combat options available to you on your other characters. Even when you do gain these abilities, it’s unlikely that your playstyle will be incredibly different.
Borderlands fares slightly better when choosing a different character to start up, if only relying on how differently characters are designed. Coupling this with the series Badass ranks gives a slightly better incentive to head back to Elpis with a new hunter of your choosing, since your account will be gaining stats for everyone to use. You’ll get a few different joke responses from characters as well.
Winner: Kind of a tie honestly. Like Multiplayer? Destiny. Want different playstyles? Borderlands.
While this breakdown does have each game winning and losing an equal number of categories, my hope is that tone in the topics comes through. For the most part, in the areas where Destiny excels in, the Pre-Sequel isn’t far behind. Conversely, where Destiny fails, it does so in spectacular fashion. Worse yet is that these are areas that are business as usual for the cel-shaded shooter, and it’s anybody’s guess how Bungie didn’t manage to shore up these failings before everything was said and done.
So review scores still stand at least for me. Pre-Sequel feels like a slightly better value when it’s all said and done.
Destiny Review
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Review
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