No it's not. Their lead writer left in 2013 and they were forced to sideline the story to get everything else working in time for the hard deadline. I would have much rather had a nice, lengthy 25+ hour campaign with in-depth, in-game explanations so that there was actual context to everything going on in the game. You wouldn't watch a movie that made no attempt to explain the plot or cast would you? So why tolerate it in a video game? I don't mind this kind of easter egg stuff on the side, it's cool and I love how Halo Waypoint did it for that franchise but you still have to have a basic level of context within your games so that everything makes sense, and Destiny lacks that in spades. So while I appreciate the OP's post and enjoyed reading this, again, the bulk of this stuff should have been in the game to begin with and involved a healthy mix of outright giving the info to us, and having to explore to find out the rest (Secret Missions and whatnot).

[quote]This entire series reminds me of a book trilogy called mistborn. [spoiler]-blam!-ing fantastic books, y'all should read them[/spoiler] The "Lord Ruler" defeated an enemy known as the "Deepness" 10,000 years or so previously, but it's never stated in the first book what that actually was or how he did it. The characters eventually puzzle it out in the subsequent novels. The main difference is that the books had characters you actually about/knew. I wish Destiny had that, it's world and lore has so much potential.[/quote] Definitely agree with you there, while the cards are a good method to expanding the lore, they do a crap job of actual storytelling, and so does the game. I really don't care about my guardian or anybody in the tower because I don't know anything about them

That's just it, there's no context for ANYTHING in the game other than this big white thing showed up 1 day on Mars and everything was awesome for a time and now everything's crap so go out and kill stuff because reasons. Seriously, the Ghost's explanation of the Cabal was one of the WORST I have ever seen in a game. How about a little background info on where they came from, what they are exactly and their empire? There's all kinds of hinting as to what the Vex could be, but nothing in-depth to go on. And there's absolutely no explanation as to the Hive or the Fallen, only that they want us dead for, yet again, reasons. It kills the immersion in what's otherwise a beautiful game with loads of potential. It's not that the game's a lost cause by any stretch, it's just mind-boggling how Bungie could have fumbled things so badly - it comes off as a major rush job to me. They probably would have been better off delaying the game's release for 1 more year (and making it strictly next-gen as well) to ensure the quality lined up with the hype. And while on the subject of immersion, it's hard to feel like some legendary badass Hero when even a lowly level 2 enemy can kill me if I'm not careful. Sorry but that's breaking major RPG rules right there and not only is it annoying from a gameplay perspective but as I said it makes it hard to believe my Guardian is something special, and not just another ***clown with a gun.

I getcha, I'm just saying that the way cards work is like this: "read a vague Story" hey that's interesting, where can I find more about this? *scans through rest of Grimoire collection* nothing here... *plays Destiny* there's not Jack shit either. I totally agree with you, and it's a shame that such good storytellers -blam!-ed up so badly. I hate it when people say the story is in the cards, because there's nothing there. And nothing in the game.

It's not that it's entirely gone from the game, just that what *is* present in the game is entirely too vague. At best we get little teasers/snippits of information to pique our interest, but ultimately every lead is a red herring and that is just a major crime for a game with this much money and effort put behind it. I can't believe how defensive some people get too, rushing to Bungie's defense as if we're looking to tear them apart - we aren't (or at least I'm not). I don't hate Bungie, I'm disappointed in them because the potential for this game to deliver an epic story and experience is painfully obvious - it literally hurts me physically and emotionally to see the state that the game is in as opposed to what it should be both as a gamer and an artist. Just look at the Halo universe - sure Frankie's the one in charge of that and stayed behind with 343i, but he didn't create all that by himself and if you bother with the novels at all you'll find that the Halo expanded universe is actually one of the best Sci-Fi settings ever conceived. So why isn't Destiny? When I saw Destiny for the 1st time I immediately thought "Holy crap, this is Borderlands meets Mass Effect OMFG!!!" but that's not what we got, at least not yet. Hoping Bungie will deliver with the DLC but also do something in the mean time to spice things up because even the Iron Banner fell rather flat. There needs to be more real story content to pad the bare bones groundwork that was laid by the campaign, preferably starting with more detailed explanations of the factions and who our enemies are and why they have a beef with us. I'd also like to actually explore the rest of the tower and the city itself - thew view of it from the tower is gorgeous. Which reminds me of yet another burning question that there's been absolutely no hinting of whatsoever - why the hell is the last city on Earth in Russia of all places? I have a very hard time believing that North America & Asia both got completely overrun - nevermind that Canada (my home incidentally) not only has similar land mass to Russia, but far more natural resources and free space. And then there's the Prison of Elders... So yeah, lots of stuff hinted at in the game but very poorly explained (if at all) so Bungie has their work cut out for them.

yes, the story is lacking, but, for a game that you want to support for years? you need to be conservative on the story, Scheherazade needs to cut much of her story to be continued next day and give the king a reason to not kill her(Arabian Nights),, Bungie can't go all out on this game because of that, they don't want you to just finish the mission with destroying every damn Fallen ships and buildings like we did in Halo series or CoD, they can't just gave us details of the story, Bungie don't want you to care, they want you to search, because by searching something, you'll get more interested over time, if you listen the story and follow the breadcrumbs, it's just like another CoD, they'll give us new campaign mission if they think we are ready, ready for what? for new puzzles and stuffs, and when will that happen? when we stop looking for loot cave, crack the puzzles we have now, and try to go back in time and remember, what are we doing in old russia? we must be on our way to board a ship to get the f*ck out of there, so we must have been drive/walk-ing along the road, then search that area! is there any loot? any new Fallen types? can we go to the OTHER SIDE of the bridge that broken? if not, can we overcome the system to go there and exploit the rest of the game? hope you guys found the answer first

There's a world of difference between being conservative and what Bungie did. There was barely any context whatsoever to anything in-game, and that's just a major faux pas.

well.... as far as I care, a great game is not determined by the epicness or great story telling, but by the experiences and memories it made, see you later when we crack the whole story open

So... a mountain of unnecessary frustration surrounding what should otherwise be a very fun and engaging game.