Destiny
The first Destiny game had so much in place from the get-go to be a great game. It had excellent gunplay, lots of cooperative and competitive game modes, and lots of pretty worlds to explore. What it really lacked though was a cohesive story and lore (in-game anyway) that players could latch onto. It was the missing glue that would have helped bring everything together from the start, rather than waiting a year or two to finally work up to that point.
However, it is widely known thanks to Kotaku’s Jason Schreier that Destiny had an extremely tumultuous development history, especially in regards to its story and ending. Apparently, the whole plot was thrown out within the final year, and the new team that took over that aspect of the game had to try and piece something together quickly before the game was set for release. According to Schreier, Bungie members were split on whether the original plot was too confusing, while some really liked it and thought it was powerful. Everything was boiled down to a two-hour “supercut.”
“Bungie ditched everything Joe Staten and his team had written, reworking “Destiny’s” entire structure as they scrapped plot threads, overhauled characters, and rewrote most of the dialogue.” via Kotaku
The rest is history. While Destiny 2 has certainly improved the storytelling of the Destiny franchise, it’s still somewhat messy. Bungie had to leave a lot of lore back behind in Destiny 1, such as the Darkness, and the Stranger, in order to bring the overarching plot back to a place where they felt comfortable continuing it in Destiny 2.
