What Destiny could learn from Borderlands

Destiny released last week, although it left much to be desired by many of its players. I take a look at how Bungie could have made it better by taking a page or two from the Borderlands series.

13

Destiny has been out in the wild for over a week now reportedly selling over $325 million just in its first five days. Even though many players are enjoying it, there are some players who are completely frustrated Bungie didn’t create the first-person shooter, role-playing game hybrid of their dreams.

You know what similar game we barely heard anyone complaining about when it released? Borderlands 2. That’s why I decided to take a look at how exactly Destiny could learn from Borderlands 2’s example in regards to how to do a FPS / RPG hybrid the right way.

Loot makes the world go round

Loot is something everyone wants to receive in RPGs. If I dedicate my time to a game, I want to feel like I’m being rewarded beyond simply progressing through the story to learn what sort of evil deeds the villain is planning to do and how my character can attempt to stop them. I want a new shiny sword, armor that will have my enemies quaking in their boots and a cute little pet that I can nuzzle after a long day of slaughtering trolls.

Destiny’s loot makes players work hard for their gear, especially if you find yourself a level 20 where it feels nearly impossible to find loot droppings good enough to get you past the soft level cap. There haven’t been many games that use a loot-based leveling system, and that’s with good reason: it rewards those who play the game an insane amount of time over casual or those who can only dedicate a 1 or 2 hours per night.

Borderlands 2, at times, completely throws loot in your direction with nearly every Psycho you kill, every chest you open and every boss you defeat. This is an aspect of the game I thoroughly enjoy as I feel rewarded the majority of time I’m playing. And that’s what keeps me coming back for more. Instant versus delayed gratification. And in a time where we can’t be bothered with video clips that are longer than 15 seconds, instant gratification is something we all want.

You can’t beat a good story with memorable characters

Vault hunters vs Guardians of The City. Searching for the ultimate loot drop vs space mysticism. Claptrap vs Ghost. Borderlands has a more memorable storyline and cast than Destiny does as you really don’t interact with as many characters as you’d expect traveling across numerous planets in the Milky Way. Both games have you fighting across desolate lands filled with unique creatures and insurmountable odds, but Borderlands does it in such a way that every enemy you interacted with not only offered a suitable challenge, but they also were way more memorable. I mean - who could forget their first time coming face to face with a Psycho Midget? The enemies you face aren’t the only characters you’ll remember as Borderlands has quite the cast of unique and memorable NPCs and quest givers that you’d eventually come across through your travels. Angel, Dr. Zed, Mad Moxxi, Tiny Tina and more keep the momentum of the game going as each of them offer a fresh and unique look at the world of Pandora in their attempts to guide you on to the next challenge.

Class variety is the spice of life

At its launch, Destiny delivered a total of three core classes: Titan, Hunter and Warlock. Each class has their own subclass allowing players to branch out to experience additional powers and abilities. At their launch, Borderlands and Borderlands 2 offered four classes attached to a unique character, some of them not falling into what we consider “the norm” of character classes. I mean - how many games have you seen that have the option to play a “Gunzerker”? And yet after playing as Salvador, I fully understood what exactly Gearbox meant by defining him as a Gunzerker.

Even with the basic classes in Borderlands, each branched out into three subclasses. Sticking with the Gunzerker class example, Salvador could spend experience points into his Gunlust, Rampage or Brawn subclasses to give players either a mix of each subclass, or dedicate themselves solely to one. This variety helped extend Borderlands and Borderlands 2 replayability as players could come up with a ton of class combinations to either fit their play style or they could branch out and experiment, if they wish to do so.

Bungie is in it for the long run

These are just my immediate observations of the differences between what’s available at launch for Destiny, Borderlands and Borderlands 2. I understand Bungie is looking at the long term for Destiny’s success as they have already held some public events in the game and presumably will continue to do so in the coming months.

I’m also aware Bungie will be releasing additional downloadable content that may offer additional character classes, subclasses, weapons, locations, etc. That’s why I was careful in comparing what Bungie and Gearbox Software have delivered in their titles at their launch, although I certainly could have gotten into the staggering amount of post-launch content Borderlands and Borderlands 2 received.

Destiny’s future depends on its post-launch content, end-game raids and public events. End-game raids is certainly new territory for Bungie, but when it comes to post-launch content and public events, their previous experience with the Halo franchise should speak volumes as to what they could potentially deliver in Destiny. But if Bungie took notes from what made Borderlands and Borderlands 2 so successful, maybe Destiny’s review scores wouldn’t have been lower than we all expected.

Senior Editor
From The Chatty
  • reply
    September 19, 2014 10:45 AM

    Daniel Perez posted a new article, What Destiny could learn from Borderlands.

    Destiny released last week, although it left much to be desired by many of its players. I take a look at how Bungie could have made it better by taking a page or two from the Borderlands series.

    • reply
      September 19, 2014 11:05 AM

      I'll always bet on Bungie than I would Gearbox. Bungie at least has proven themselves to be consistent. Borderlands 2 was lazy and derived.

      • reply
        September 19, 2014 11:08 AM

        lazy and derived and a fuck ton of fun to play

      • reply
        September 19, 2014 11:20 AM

        I wouldn't call B2 lazy at all, the voice acting was pretty damn good, and the art direction is also pretty damn great.

        • reply
          September 19, 2014 11:29 AM

          I thought it was a great game. My only issue with it was there were too many side quests that did not scale with your level in difficulty or rewards on the initial play through.

          • reply
            September 19, 2014 11:43 AM

            Agreed. I lost interest simply because of overload and waaaay too much backtracking.

          • reply
            September 19, 2014 7:56 PM

            secret: beat the game without doing any sidequests. then all sidequests upscale to 51 (or higher if you have the dlc stuff) ... then beat them and get the uniques at 51.

      • reply
        September 19, 2014 11:43 AM

        Eh, your average Bungie fan would probably note that their games had a steady decline over their life cycle.

        • reply
          September 19, 2014 11:44 AM

          Eh? Reach was Bungie's last game, and it was phenomenal.

    • reply
      September 19, 2014 11:48 AM

      What Destiny could learn from Borderlands?
      Answer: Fun, no requisite farming (unless you wish it), a higher level cap, a base game with MUCHO content, Loot drops that matter, comedy....the list goes on.

      Yeah, Destiny has MUCH to learn.

    • reply
      September 19, 2014 12:02 PM

      Setting up player expectations for rewards from a boss and possibly not delivering based on RNG sounds like a pretty egregious design flaw on Bungie's part. I think if you removed all the white and green loot from BL2 (which I never pick up anyway) you'd be getting loot drops about as often as you do in Destiny, but you're still getting them consistent with your expectations.

    • reply
      September 19, 2014 7:41 PM

      [deleted]

      • reply
        September 20, 2014 12:03 AM

        BL2 fixes many of the issues with the original. It has a natural protagonist from the start who is a great bad guy, the enemy types are a bit more varied (no more soldiers, but a good mix of rush vs tank types) and you get encouraged to deal with fights in different ways thanks to how some enemies react to location damage.

    • reply
      September 19, 2014 11:59 PM

      I'd also have mentioned the music. Destiny seems to go for space opera but because the game fails to make the story interesting each big musical piece just feels overblown and pretentious. Whereas BL2 has some nice ambient music and when it's appropriate delivers a good action track (like on top of the dam).

      Also the UI. Comparing loot is fast in borderlands and you get to see it while it's on the ground. Destiny is like a half assed loot card game.

    • reply
      September 20, 2014 12:03 AM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      September 20, 2014 12:06 AM

      One extra thing: DLC. You say it might make the game better, but if it's not free then it shouldn't really atone for the base games flaws. Though I get the feeling that they have left a lot out purposefully to charge for it later to 'complete' the experience.

Hello, Meet Lola