8. "Find The Thing, Shoot The Thing" Gets Old Fast
First-person shooter mission and level design is practically spelled out by the genre: You're a person, so go shoot some things. Unfortunately, that's about as far as Destiny got; the majority of its missions - and this is particularly apparent in its mind-numbingly repetitive Patrols - are just reiterations of "go here, shoot here." If you're lucky, it breaks it up with a round of "go here and do absolutely nothing for nine seconds." That's just plain shallow design, FPS shorthand for "insert distraction here." Over-reliance on fetch (and kill) quests quickly renders Destiny monochromatic. Of course, this is a problem primarily stemming from its desperate grabs at the MMORPG table. The chapter-based and single-player structure of Halo campaigns fundamentally avoids the issue, but is still not immune to banal pacing. Moreover, Halo 5 is working with a new set of blocks - the shiniest and most versatile of which is the appearance of a new major character - and is therefore able to craft new experiences. At their core, FPS campaigns will always be about ensuring your character is the only living thing on-screen, but spicing things up by way of environmental elements, vehicles, dynamic enemy AI and the like does wonders for the old horse.
A freelance games writer, you say? Typically battling his current RPG addiction and ceaseless perfectionism? A fan of horror but too big a sissy to play for more than a couple of hours? Spends far too much time on JRPGs and gets way too angry with card games?
Well that doesn't sound anything like me.
