Our resident Destiny expert talks about what it’s like to communicate in the game without using a headset.
The result is quite beautiful.
Theres a good balance between both the solo and cooperative experiences that really speak to the fantastic framework ofDestiny.
But for the most part, I chose to stand alone.
This, of course, has been changed in the latest patch.
Destinyin its first week was as different fromDestinytoday asDestinytoday will be fromDestinya few months from now.
Like any MMO, it grows and changes as updates are applied.
Already, Bungie has changed how the multiplayer modes and communication work.
ButDestinyback in September was a much quieter animal.
But I always decided to continue on my own.
Communication inDestinywith players who arent on your friends list is largely controlled by the d-pad.
Pressing up on the d-pad makes the character wave.
Pressing down means they sit down, and the animation on this is excellent.
The new team chat is, for me, a gift and a curse.
Team chat can make Strikes more engaging and cooperative.
It also breaks an illusion, though, becoming less high fantasy and moreWreck-It Ralph.
For me as a character-based player, silence can be poignant.
Thats another advantage of playing solo the creation of the player character as something separate from the player.
This is the realm of fan fiction writers and roleplayers.
I know that language better than the language of raids.
That character doesnt have to stay alone, either.
Characterization like that may be lost in translation on a competitive team.
I wonder what a team wouldve said to my holding them up.
Probably not something nice.
Destinyis overwrought sometimes, too mysterious for its own good.
The game is often frightenging, strange, and mechanical, full of dark things stepping out of portals.
Playing against the grain isnt always a paradise.
Playing alone is a bull-headed war of attrition in a way that the more dynamic multiplayer modes arent.
Solo play means greater reliance on your Ghost, too, which is usually a death sentence.
Bounties and Patrols become gruelingly repetitive murder-fests.
Im sure Im missing something in not having the Raid experience in the same way others have.
Sometimes its the unexpected things that we stumble on by accident that make it interesting.
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