Destiny Expansion I: The Dark Below Preview

Damn you limited edition bastards. I only got the Sparrow since I had the normal version on pre-order (they sold out of limited edition's before I could change my order). The Sparrow is nice, I like it. The quick braking isn't anything special but you can't expect much out of it. It's not like these things can fight in battle so it's kinda worthless.

Meh, I'm underwhelmed right now but that's only because I've just been doing the same crap we did in Alpha and Beta. Starting when I get on next I'll get to start doing the Moon missions after the one we got the play in Beta (hit level 8 before I got off yesterday, don't know if I'll play anymore this week or hold off till my days off again next week). Might have to hit up The Devil's Lair for better gear as well (gear drops have been abysmal for me in retail, no where near as good as what I was seeing in Beta. Wonder if they tweaked that a bit before release or if they just increased drop rates for Beta). Plus I'm extremely curious to see what the Strike on the moon is (still grayed out for me, hoping that changes after I clear the next few story missions).

Watching some of the live streams that were going Tuesday I'm really looking forward to some of the moon missions, they look freaking spectacular and challenging (more so then when we experienced before). Someone even commented that Venus sucks like all hell (which I look forward too). Sadly most people were streaming Crucible so I didn't get to see much outside of that (which is honestly pretty boring, I'll probably only do it for the Trophies associated with it).

I agree about the underwhelming part. I feel like I'm grinding these initial missions because of how much I played the alpha and beta. I'm looking forward to new missions so I can see something I haven't yet. The weapon drops are much less frequent. I got my first shotgun at level 4.

The AI seems improved. If stronger enemies like a captain or wizard looses their shields they will dodge and fall back to cover to heal while other enemies keep you busy. I did a level 4 mission while on level 3 and I was getting my ass handed to me solo. Luckily I leveled up and got my golden gun in the last fight of the mission and finished it.

I've noticed that too. Knights are throwing their healing shield up more often as well especially after taking a critical hit from a Sniper Rifle or a Rocket Launcher. Kinda glad they did this seeing as how they didn't dodge as much in Beta and made them feel like easy enemies to kill even though they're higher up the food chain.

I finally got a Sniper Rifle worth using before I got offline last night (the Gozen, same one we had when beta ended). Sadly it's the only green weapon I have and I still haven't had a chance to use it (I logged shortly after getting it). I've been seeing a lot of people with blue gear running around on the Tower at levels 15 and above so we probably won't be seeing any of the good stuff till around then (sadly, hoping that Devil's Lair will have something good).

Also, is it me or is this game just a little to freaking easy when it comes to leveling? I ran into a level 23 while I was grinding out a level on Earth last night and I've heard from those random streams I've watched that there are already people who have maxed out there levels and I believe they've also maxed out how far you can go with the Mote of Light level up option. This worries me a little as if it's this easy to hit max level with a days worth of playing what the hell do we have to look forward to until the expansion stuff comes out? I understand Vault of Glass is supposed to keep us busy for hours on end but it's only a matter of time before a group gets through it and posts walkthroughs online making it easier for the rest of us to get through it (well if we can find a group of like minded individuals to get through it, going to be hard to find additional people to take this on). I honestly don't want to get stuck in the old MMO formula of grinding out instances for better gear only to sit on my hands until something newer and better comes out and I really don't want to get stuck doing Crucible for something to do until we get those newer options.

On a side note we should really put a clan together in game so we can represent. Was thinking about it last night while surfing the Bungie site (plus there are a few trophies linked to doing Strikes and Raids as an entire clan group). Just something to think about.

Thats cool. I didn't even notice the clan options yet. Leveling up does seem too easy. I only have 1 hour 12 minutes into the game and I'm already a level 4. But it has been flowing pretty smoothly for me in terms of the campaign. By the time I got to a level 4 mission I was still a level 3, so i should have grinded a bit to get a level up, but I figured I'd get it in the mission which happened like in my last post. If I had to level up repeatedly between campaign missions I'd be annoyed tho. Maybe it is a good balance and the initially leveling up to 20 is really just the base level everyone should be at to enjoy the game. I say this because I played the hell out of Guild Wars 1 and even though that game had 3 different standalone expansions, they never increased the level cap past 20, yet the game was great and always presented challenges and new skills to unlock.

I have a feeling that there are alot of ppl like Battlefield Colonials playing Destiny. It wouldn't surprise me if half the user base jumped right into multiplayer as soon as they hit level 5 and have played almost nothing but crucible for 24 hour stretches at a time. They probably hit level 20 in the first night and never even played the 4th campaign level yet.

I just checked and it looks like Destiny is doing a kind of GW1 approach. You can max out your level at 20, but you won't even be close to getting all your skills unlocked at that point.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2014/09/11/life-after-the-level-cap-in-destiny/

And this is interesting.. I don't know if this is a glitch or a feature, but according to a reddit thread, if you hit level 15 with one character, you unlock the subclasses for all future characters you make:

http://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/2fyju3/when_you_get_to_rank_15_on_any_of_your_characters/

I might take advantage of that and make a Titan and Warlock character at some point for PVP and it'll save me time from replaying a bunch of the campaign just to get the xp needed to unlock the subclasses. I've replayed the opening missions so many times now I doubt I'll have a second PVE character.

*edit*

I uploaded some pics of the limited edition unboxing if anyone was interested in seeing what it looked like:

Just skimming through this without reading it all to avoid spoilers.... this is exactly why I didn't play as much of the beta as I did the alpha.. once I hit the cap I stopped on the beta. It seemed like it was just a better stress test from the alpha for the same exact thing. Once I get my hands on my copy, I wont have any issue plowing through the same missions.

As I said, The alpha/beta I wanted as a sample.. I didn't want it to blow my mind. The strike mission we were treated to was damn good, but the later trailer shows that other strike bosses make Sepiks Prime look like a chump.

If what I saw in the one stream I was watching on Tuesday is from the Moon Strike we have some fucking hard ass fights ahead of us. The final boss of that Strike is a giant Hive creature (kinda looks like a Thrall on mega steroids) and he looks like a major bitch to kill and as I said above I hear the Venus boss is even worse then that. I really do hope so because it'll be extremely fun to do them if it offers a challenge.

I'm only burned out because I had already done that stuff twice which is why I was holding out hope for our Beta characters to transfer. Now that I'm done with all the beginning stuff I'm really looking forward to the rest of the story.

That's exactly what I was afraid of Sledge plus it's the same system FFXIV uses without the additional abilities (with gear making your character a higher level then you really are, effectively my Monk is lvl 90 even if my level is capped at 50). I was really hoping Destiny would avoid the MMO formula but sadly it doesn't seem like they did. I really don't want to be grinding out all the shit I've already done over and over again just to hopefully get a piece of gear that increases my Mote score and to get the required marks to buy the gear from the Vanguard/Crucible/other faction vendors. /sigh, hopefully it won't be as tedious as it is in MMO's.

And I just saw a picture on twitter of a guy I follow who's character is effectively lvl 44 which I'm taking to mean there is no actual level cap for the Mote system atm. That's freaking ridiculous considering the amount of time it took him to get that (which was not through Vanguard or Crucible gear alone due to the 100 mark cap per week, must of gotten some really good drops on his way to that). 

Oh I see now.. No, I don't like this leveling up past the cap with equipment. Thats a bit bullshit. It really favors the people that have nothing but time on their hands to sit and endlessly grind the hell out of the game as opposed to a regular leveling up system.

I just looked this reddit topic.. click the link in the first post to see the image that explains this like what you are talking about. Equipping higher end gear with massive light points artificially increases your level for as long as you have that gear equipped. It just goes to show that I'll have absolutely no interest in playing any of the iron banner PVP. Screw that mess. I suppose this is one of those things Bungie talked about. How they are trying to appeal to all styles of players. They have the never ending leveling up for the hardcore players that have no life, PVP for all the call of duty fans that don't even want to play PVE.. and then PVE for people like us. Oh well.. I'll probably never get the crazy exotic crap some of these other people already have until maybe a year from now. But thats alright. I'll focus on the campaign and enjoy it. If I get some fancy gear along the way then thats cool.

I'm trying to stay away from the bungie forums because I've already read some spoilers about certain missions.. but I'll give you this spoiler.. I guess one mission lets us equip a sword as a primary weapon. That sounds like a damn fun time.

I uploaded 4 new pics to my Limited Edition unboxing gallery that shows some hidden redeemable Bungie Codes. All the credit goes to DX for this. He told me to check my box for codes and sure enough I found 4. There might have been more in my set, but I didn't notice them. They might have been on the steel case that I didn't look at yet.

But! All these codes are endlessly redeemable. Check either of these two links for the full list of codes. The new codes in the limited edition and ghost boxes include 5 emblems and 2 shaders.

http://www.gamefront.com/destiny-limited-edition-promo-codes-unlock-emblems-cards/

http://www.gamepur.com/news/16098-destiny-codes-unlock-extra-limited-edition-content-leaked-not-one-time-use.html

One of the codes said it was already redeemed for my account. After looking at the second link I posted I found that one of the emblems is actually the one you get if you logged on during the beta stress test event.

In typical fashion my PS4 has been off for a while without me paying attention. The power must have went out at the house at some point in the last week or so.... therefore I had a crap ton of updates waiting on me when I turned it back on along with the install and update for Destiny, I didn't get to play much tonight.

The AI is vastly improved IMO... These lower level guys are complete cowards... you have to chase their ass down as they tuck tail behind cover and run away as you close in. I was a bit surprised how much better they were at self preservation. This is the opposite of what I have seen from any other game's AI, that will quickly give in and expose themselves from cover. These AI will only attack when they have no choice and know that it is the end for them.

It seems you take even more damage than in the beta, but I am only level 3 so I will reserve that judgement for later.

After have saying all that... anyone try out the revamped Hand Cannons? LMAO! How is this shit not nerfed yet? I took the Wizard out in like 2-3 seconds!!! XD I'll be abusing this until its fixed. I probably wont rock it on strike missions until the boss though... the ammo capacity and mag size does have its limitations in intense fire fights, but the absurdity of its power more than makes up for it. Observe:

(The video was still processing when I posted this. I will fix later if it doesn't work)

Wow! Nice hand canon work. I haven't tried them yet myself. I had some difficulty with that wizard at first because he kept hiding after I took out his shields. But the hunter base grenade is nuts. With the wizard at full health and shields all I needed was 1 grenade and a couple bullets from an assault rifle and he was killed easily.

Using Turtles, I've notice the subtle things Bungie has put into this game, like wind effects in your ears when you sprint or are in a cave.... this is the first time I've seen this real life application used. It gives a sense of immersion that I haven't experienced before. I'm level 7 and did the first moon mission... which was actually really intense by myself. I also got my first look at vehicle play.... screw the Sparrow!

My hand canon eventually became obsolete and I went to a pulse rifle until I got a newer canon... It only has 3 shots, but I'm addicted to the power per shot now. I might go with shotgun as a true back up rather than the long distance luxury sniper rifle.

The pike was hella fun on that moon mission. If you played any crucible in the alpha or beta, you'd have experienced the pike, interceptor and gun turret already. The interceptor is too bulky IMO but it does some monster damage that'll blow pikes to hell.. but the pike's maneuverability with damage output makes it my favorite.

After tonight I'm at level 10. That sword mission was great. Watching DX smash everyone to death was hilarious.

But that last moon mission we did.. that was epic. Some of these bosses are huge compared to the regular enemies. I'm really liking the hand cannons, but only the green ones I've been using with the 6 bullets. The fusion rifles have to be my second favorite weapon in this game besides the sniper rifles.

The hand canons really are the best as long as you can keep them up to date with your level progression. The range is insane, and head shots are instakills every time. We just need to find a good one with elemental damage.

I went ahead and finished up the moon after you got off... the last mission doesn't disappoint.

I wish you could have captured myself trying to titan smash Sepkis Prime. That guy that was in our party was horrible. He kept trying to camp on the ghost scan part. These AI do not let you camp, and I've noticed the Hive will keep sending waves of thrall if you try to hang back and pick them all off. This game has the best enemy AI I've ever seen.

Here is a video of Sledge and I getting caught off guard with the appearance of a massive boss.

Dammit Strider, I'm off for the next 6 days, we're gonna get some play time in!

That boss fight was fun. But yes that guy that was in the strike with us was horrible. I didn't notice him using his charge a single time either. His camping strategy was horrible.

Yes, we will get playtime in (we got some in tonight, we'll get more in later). I'll be off for the next 4 days but sadly I won't be able to play on Thursday (Five Finger Death Punch concert, not really a sad thing but no Destiny play time). My plan over them 4 days is to get to 20 so I'll be on quite a bit Tuesday and Wednesday (during the day as well, holy crap ain't that a twist).

Heh, as I was saying I two manned Devil's Lair on Saturday after the third guy dropped out shortly after you start defending your Ghost. The other guy and I wiped once there but did the rest of the strike like pros. Actually made the Strike more enjoyable as we had to work together and pick our fights carefully.

After the Moon Strike I am not looking forward to the Venus one if it's supposed to be harder. We're definitely going to have to do it at the required level though, sucks being practically useless and dieing all the time

Geez. I'd rather deal with the Devil Walker while fighting Sepiks Prime than deal with the room full of sword knights during that boss fight. If I don't see you on when I get on tomorrow. I'm probably gonna wait to do the Vex gatekeeper until you get on... the Venus missions can be a bitch by yourself. There are damn Vandals with yellow health bars if that means anything to you.

Here is my epic go for broke finisher on the same boss with Strider.

OK... I couldn't wait. I finished up Venus... this game as a trend of having the 2nd to last mission of each planet being harder than the final mission. 0_o

Those sword knights were a bastard. That was a great smash!

I doubt I'll be on later, I got a late start on work this morning and I have to put in 9 hours today. x_x

I hope you're taking sweet revenge on your coworkers by hacking up you lungs upon them as they normally do to you.

You better believe it. one person was sick Monday so they might have already caught it from me.

I finally got 50 spinmetal and turned it into the Vanguard Quatermaster. it gave me 5 vanguard marks and a good amount of glimmer. It seems its worth doing the redundant patrol missions to run into each planet's material. I just wish they would spread out the locations more. Old Russia likes to send you into the Devil's Lair area relentlessly and it gets annoying running back out, grabbing another beacon only to find out you have to run back in.

After doing the first mission on Mars. I decided I don't want none of the Cabal without someone else with me... They are a highly sophisticate military that have various solider types that share the same abilities as you. They have double jumps, rocket jumps, powered melee, and unlike the Hive, while they are just as tactical, they don't retreat as much. They push forward. They have shields, they have rocket launchers, they have pulse rifles. They have more advanced weaponry than any enemy race yet.... and I haven't even encountered a boss....

I played a few moon missions with another friend that was just getting started and made it to level 20. I'm impressed with how I still get good drops no matter where I am. I ended up getting a pair of boots that have the light attribute... it doesn't seem to be leveling me however. Probably because its only +5 Light. New content opens up upon reaching level 20. You now have a daily strike which was level 22 today, and a daily mission. So my ass decides to do the daily mission even though I'm timid to try mars on my own.

The Daily Mission is just a normal mission from the campaign upgraded with level 20 enemies. This shit ain't no joke. Of course with my luck, today was my least favorite mission so far.... and they made it even worse with 2x enemy spawn. I really didn't think I'd beat it in the first place, and I barely pulled through. Playing this made me realize that there is an epic fail in programming as far as clipping goes. As you can see in the video, I get stuck on stupid environment pieces. As much as I love this game, it has that COD type clipping to where if the tip of your elbow is on a door frame you cant move forward. I cannot f'in stand that. I also can't stand ally clipping. There is nothing worse than trying to retreat, and a buddy is trying to do the same in a different direction and you get stuck on each other. Yeah its more realistic, but it still pisses me off. I haven't played multiplayer yet, but I can already see jackasses standing in doorways to where I cant get out or in to evade fire. Excuse my aim. I've been sipping on Jim Beam, which is the whole reason I was stupid enough to attempt this on my own! XD As far as I can tell you don't really get anything other than a good amount of glimmer drop and higher green drops. Perhaps there is a trophy for doing so many. I didn't get any advancement towards level 21, thats for sure.

On a final note, The newest patch doubled the frequency that Daily Events happen. When I helped a friend on the moon I got a second daily.... when I went to mars two dailys happened. One at where nobody was so it failed on me. What I have seen from Mars and Venus is that materials and chests are spawned more frequently than on earth and the moon. Mars had a lot of chest spawns and element spawns, while Venus had an highly condensed spirit blossom spawn rate.  

I agree about clipping. I kept getting stuck on you and edges repeatedly. It's one thing to push into something and have the game make you flow past it with a bump, but I kept getting stuck while being shot. X_x

I did a little bit of this today. It gets redundant fast, but I did get to level 21 by finding blue engrams.

After finishing up story mode I can kinda see why some could be disappointing with the story. There are many things left unanswered. But I expect that to be revealed in the expansion pass. The game is fun as hell playing with friends.

http://www.vg247.com/2014/09/17/destiny-guide-complete-tips-enemies/ << Love the Knights with swords tip !

My least favorite enemies

1. Knights with Swords - They're straight up assholes.

2. Minotaurs - They are assholes too, the mutli-teleport to get close to you and avoid your void weaponry is crazy, but they aren't as scary as sword knights because they arent as fast and don't chase as aggressively.

3. Cloked Vandals - Just an overall nuisance. On their own they aren't bad, but they normally show up when you are tied down by something bigger. They are great at dropping your shields when you don't have time to look for a distortion in the distance.

4. Champion level Hobgoblins - They can one shot kill you.... nuff said

5. Any Elite Cabal - They love rockets....