Recent reviews by Jojojo Jo-jo-jojo

Super fun. Great music and movement. Here is an incomplete list of my gripes for the devs:
- I wish that the transition between level music and pad music wasn't so jarring. Same for gun machines.
- The main hub area doesn't have much to push you to keep doing runs. Aside from upgrades, having long-term things to chase, like character cosmetics by performing feats like in Crab Champions, would go a long way towards playtime longevity.
- Just a *liiiiiittle* more in-air character movement control would feel awesome.
- As it was what interested me in the game initially, I wish that the old music was re-added somehow. I have stuff like Lifeless Survivalist and Neon Light Shootout in my workout mixes, along with many other songs from previous versions of the game. I would be more than willing to even pay a little extra to have them added back as a dlc. I'd mod them in myself but I'm really not smart, gonna be real with you.
- Bunkers feel like they detract from what the game endorses you to do, which is get to the door as fast as you can. If bunkers are to stay, I feel levels need to be lengthened somehow (maybe via having randomized objectives per level that need to be performed before the door unlocks) to make it feel worth it to go into those bunkers in the first place. Otherwise, I myself am perfectly content just quickly running by gun machines, gambling one out, and dipping, aiming to skill my way through the rest of the run with what I have, just about completely ignoring bunkers.

How? How is a screw-up like this even possible?

The Witch Queen reignited what I had once felt lost regarding Destiny 2: An excited desire to know what was next; to know what was around the next corner. Season after season I became more and more excited as the gameplay systems became more and more enjoyable, and the story continued to develop in the direction that everyone had been wanting for so, so long. By the middle of Seraph, I broke the promise I had made to myself, and pre-ordered Lightfall's deluxe edition. I couldn't help it, the high I was riding after how fantastic Seraph's narrative panned out was something you could read all over me. I would rant to my friends about how good the story was getting, and that Destiny wasn't a game people should joke about being garbage anymore.

I am often wrong about things, as most people are, but it is not often that I feel tangible shame for being so wrong. I cannot believe I let myself get dragged back into this mess, and tried so unbelievably hard the entire way through to convince myself it was going to get better. If I could have this refunded and get both my money and my time back, I don't know to what ends I would go to return to myself that prior state of awaiting excitement.

This review may change as this season continues, but I don't know if I can find it within myself to care anymore. I just want this game to finish its final chapter and be done with.

I'm tired of caring so intrinsically for something that constantly finds new avenues to disappoint me.

Game has its ups, and the game has its downs. I have to admit the game at the moment is in a very, very stale state. All of the core activities haven't changed almost at all fundamentally in years, getting specific loot is an abhorrent grind if you're unable to focus-farm, PvP is and likely always will be an unbalanced mess, free-to-players have a horrid time getting a foot in the door due to all the expansions and vaulted content. Speaking of vaulted content, what has been brought back is practically the same as it was in the past, or is missing content it had previously. Then there's the topic of FOMO that's positively rampant in the loot grinding scene, made even worse by the inability to focus-farm during limited time events.

I will always have a special place in my heart for Destiny, but this game is like a bag of bread that's been left on the counter for far too long. There are ways to make it nice and tasty even in its current state, but someone needs to realize it first and take that action. All of this said, I cannot recommend the game to anyone new or returning in its current state. I thought Witch Queen would be the turning of the tables in terms of the content we would be getting, but the last two seasons have been as cookie-cutter as I've ever seen content released. I'm to the point that I hate I've invested so much time and money into this product, that I almost feel a moral obligation to keep playing. This game is the epitome of the sunk cost fallacy.

I'm gonna continue playing (albeit quite sparsely) since I already have the next two seasons bought, but I hope things change soon, because I may not be coming back next expansion at this rate.

I will be entirely shameless and state that I beat the entirety of the campaign hours after release, and have played a few matches of firefight. I haven't played multiplayer vs any as it's not my cup of tea, but I will at some point. While I understand the qualms stated by the negative reviews, which I will go over, I do not think that they warrant for a negative review from my point of view. There is too much good this game presents, even in it's current state, to call for such a decision.

To start, I have a history with Halo, and this game in particular. This was, and still is, a series that my family loved from the day it released when I was two. I can still remember the first time I ever saw my brothers playing the game split-screen on our tiny television. And I remember the days leading up to Halo 2, and the day we bought the game from an over-crowded GameStop. Same thing with Halo 3. ODST I played a while after it was released, but still liked it (can't hate those jazzy rhythms). But Reach was special to me, as it was the first narrative I'd ever really gotten into in terms of video games. The other games I loved because shooty shooty, but Reach was special.

The atmosphere, the music, characters, and the location of Reach all grip you like nothing else. The combat felt great and added some new mechanics that the other games hadn't been given at their times. While I do think that this game as it is now on Steam is good, and I stick by that thought no matter the critique, there are issues. My first qualm namely being the sound. It's one of the prominent things I remember from the first time I played the game, and to hear things as overlapped, cutty, and muffled as they are does indeed make me sad. Queue times for firefight are quite slow, and some of the enemies are quite janky in terms of death animation, movement on jump pads, and actually dying when killed (I've been shot by a few ghost grunts).

Along with that, I've heard and seen that multiplayer can be a bit jumpy at times, it's difficult to play with friends, and hit registration is a bit suspicious at times. I'll have to go in and experience it for myself in order to formulate my own opinion on it, as what I've seen doesn't look too bad, especially for a port of this magnitude. And I have to say, my least favorite critique I've seen from people is that you can't crouch while moving. I think it's totally fine, as drop-shotting people in pvp matches the most annoying thing I have ever witnessed in a game. If you want to kill someone, think about your placement beforehand. If you want to avoid being killed, same thing. You lose fights because you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, not because you can't crouch while moving.

What we all need to keep in mind when critiquing the game is that this is a very, very large ordeal for the teams at Microsoft and 343. They're moving six large games from a normal console to a wholly different platform in a single package. Is there gonna be bugs? Of course. Is it gonna feel weird? Of course. It takes time for things to be straightened out. Save criticism for a time after which the bugs should be fixed. And while some debate that they should have been fixed on launch, give them a break. You're only the one experiencing the product, not it's development. You've no idea the stresses they may be going through behind the scenes. It is their job, yes, but I choose to have faith that they are putting in as much as they can give.

As a last minute thing, I would also like to bring up the battle pass system: I don't really know how to feel about this. It is a streamlined unlock system, and makes it to where you can simply unlock things by doing what you're already going to be doing, which is playing the game. However, I wish that it would allow for some more prestigious unlocks, like the armor effects and death effects, to be unlocked in harder ways. But, as it is now is far, far better than having them behind microtransactions, in which case I will take this current method any day. So with a little from A and B, I'd say it's mostly alright.

This I would say is a good starting point for the MCC. They have a solid enough foundation built, and now they just need to improve upon it, build on it, and repeat. I'm happy more than anything that I'm finally able to relive these experiences on PC with high settings. I believe there is much potential and room for improvement in what they have right now, but I have chosen to place faith in the teams that they will do what is best for the game, listen to what we ask of them, and strive to be better. Keep it up, my dudes, you're doing good :)