I'm unfortunately really disappointed in this. I'll wait for the full release so people can tell me if the upgrade system is a bit more extensive, but if it's not VASTLY improved, it's a no buy for me.
For the game to work, it needs incentive to level up- that incentive is cool gear and power up- those create both the willingness for me to do more missions to aquire them, and they also spice up those missions by letting me play in different ways based on each new toy I've got from previously leveling up.
But so far on my Titan class, the upgrades are boooring. There's no incentive to level up, because the upgrades aren't a big deal, and then the combat itself becomes stale because of that as well.
Just as a comparison, here are the different ways I can upgrade my grenade in Destiny so far:
- Concussion
- Pulse
- Lightning
And HERE are the different possible grenades I can get in Borderlands. Not only are there more, but the effects of each are VASTLY more different and interesting from one another:
- Bouncing Betties
- Longbow
- MIRVs
- Contact
- Proximity
- Rain grenades
- Rubberized
- Sticky
- Transfusion
The same applies to everything else in terms of character powers. The characters go by the classic "Warrior", "Rogue", and "Mage" setup, but their skill trees are all so small, that instead of each having several different sub-specialties, it appears reaching the level cap just gets you all there is. There aren't enough different skills to have different sub-sections without each sub-section feeling too dull, so they just lumped it all into one. There's just not enough stuff to make combat more diverse, and that means no incentive to shoot stuff so I can gain upgrades to shoot stuff in different ways.
The big features are dynamic events, and dynamic multiplayer matching, but these are things that would enhance an experience, not make it. If they sold me a Borderlands-type RPG/FPS mix with those dynamic event/matchmaking features, this would be an AMAZING game. But all it offers are these new features that ultimately do nothing because there is really nothing for them to bolster. Dynamic events don't mean anything if the ensuing fight and the way I fight isn't interesting. Dynamic multiplayer doesn't mean anything if the classes themselves aren't unique and complimentary enough to each other- the skill sets are too shallow for that.