"Bungie needs to actually put humanity on the brink" Every video game I've ever played since I was 5, I've always though "how awesome would it be if the enemy actually advanced when I lose this level" It's never happened, maybe it's too much to ask. Then again I thought "what if the good guys actually lost here?" About books, movies and TV and then Game of Thrones happened. So maybe someday. It's true also that as simplistic as the halo story is, setting foot on a new Halo ring, or going back to the streets of earth to beat back the covenant had a urgency or thrill to it that doesn't really happen in destiny, don't get me wrong, the game is fun, the bosses are cool and the strikes and raid are enjoyable even a few times over - the raid has a sense of thrill due to the mystery I guess but it other than that destiny doesn't quite hit thrilling does it? The lack of story is just one aspect of the lack of 'engagement' required to make this game the best ever. Repetitive strikes is another - especially so, what says 'your actions are worthless' more than - hey phogorth is magically alive again, can you kill him again?' I've always thought the strikes shouldn't be on random but be on rotation like bf4 multiplayer maps. You get the strikes in order and a sense of continuity and don't have to do the same strike 4 times in a row due to randomness sucking ass (at least make it more like. apples ITunes shuffle which solved this problem. Bungie should've learned from Apple. - if you don't know this story : shuffle is not random, people hated random and didn't believe random was random, heavily critiscizing apple, so they made it non-random - if the songs are on repeat less chance of getting the same one twice - and for music to distinguish shuffle from non-shuffle - less chance of getting your songs in album order - here though, in Destiny, I want them in order tbh). Maybe add in some motivation to re-do strikes with some kind of mini story tying it all together. Just a basic little thing emphasising the players pivotal role even though we know it isn't really. Might just give us that "yeah let's do it" tingle in the spine every now and then. Being able to talk to others, matchmaking these are all aspects of delivering that engagement with the game too. I pass straight through non playable and non fire team tower people, I can't hijack a pike, I get turn back countdowns - less interaction = less engaging. When a mini archon priest that I'd never seen before turned up on earth as a VIP mission in some back room on patrol = exciting and engaging. The shank targets, not so much. The strikes and levels themselves (not crucible) are beautiful, fun and well designed, the music is cool, Tyrion is a great choice but the oomph never truly hits the bullseye, at least not after first play through. Returning to the quote at the top of this rant - Destiny never tells us in any convincing way wtf a traveller is, how and why we come back from the dead or if we are even the good guys. If it engaged us a little the created a mystery that would be great. If it drew us in the put a cliff hanger at the end to question whether we are the good guys or whether we are winning, that would be great, if it gave us some idea who the hell the stranger is, enough of there story to want more - then threw the stranger into danger - we'd be engaged enough to want to spend £20 for the 3 chapters that tell us what happened to them. In GoT you end one chapter and think "I should be sleeping an hour ago, I know I have to read 7 more chapters to find out and then it'll be 5am but I have to find out...is Tyrion dead?" We don't get that here. Destiny needs a 'red wedding', a Ned's or Tyrion's trial or at least a "hey, recognise this crumbling city from real earth?" Moment. Yeah it needed it to lure people into caring about the dlc but also to get them excited and engaged - at a higher level - with the game in hand. That's what I'd want anyway. Crucible on the other hand lacks the layers and centre battles if haven or line of sight if pretty much any Halo map. Why is everything so boxed off? The large moon and mars maps suck so hard, they are ragnorok with no centre open space but instead corridors making the already lame vehicles useless. Crucible is fun in small doses, the small mars and earth maps are alright despite so much boxing, Venus might be the best designed and most fun actually. Maybe throw in some capture the flag or oddball? I'm brainstorming. Crucible is going to be so hard to fix.