Recently I’ve been thinking about cheese, and not the cow stuff. Cheese as in taking advantage of a game’s weird AI behaviour or a level glitch to bypass the ‘correct’ way of doing things. Surely we’re all guilty of cheesing it up, whether for laughs or more mercenary reasons, but one game has finally managed to… well, make a game out of it.
I’m talking about the billion-dollar investment that is Activision and Bungie’s Destiny, the slick sci-fi MMOFPS hybrid. I have a lot of friends who love Destiny power leveling, by which I mean it’s pretty much the only game they regularly play and talk about. For a couple of weeks it was the same for me, but I’ve cut off the addiction before ending up with three level 32 characters (more people than you’d believe). And it is a universe that reeks of cheddar.
Here’s the thing about serious Destiny players. They almost hate the game. There’s some sort of resentment. And they cheese en masse. Don’t be fooled by last week’s patch that fixed known exploits, it’s only part of a cycle that will see more cheeses discovered and exploited ruthlessly. All my mates talk about is cheesing. All the subreddit and forum talk is about cheesing. But why this game in particular?
First, a story. One pre-patch night a group of six friends were running Crota’s End, the game’s ultimate endgame content – a Raid that’s difficult even for the highest level of player. This hardy bunch, however, had a series of cheeses that let them go through almost every section with the minimum of effort and scoop up all that lovely loot.
I don’t really believe that. It’s an unproveable hunch. All I know is I love playing Destiny moment-to-moment: Bungie is an outstanding developer, and despite all the cheeses this is one of the best shooters I’ve ever played. But every so often I do ponder the miserly structure that squats atop the joy, doles out treats grudgingly, and dictates when I should play – and the methods that, somehow, exist in-game to mitigate that feeling. And something stinks.