Hey,
Loving the Destiny Beta. The gameplay is some of the best FPS gameplay I've ever experienced. I just had a couple points of feedback/suggestions with the couple problems (nitpicks) I had:
1) In the Crucible, it's VERY hard to distinguish friend from foe, at least before it's too late. The different team members aren't clearly marked in their armor color or the text/icons above their heads. Many times enemies and I have walked right by each other before we both figure out that we should be attacking each other. And when there's a group of people in a small space, it's practically impossible to locate the enemy. When multiple people are guarding a flag, it's usually pretty easy for an enemy to slip in without being recognized at first. I'd suggest more clearly coloring the outfits in team battles and making the text/icons above the enemies' heads more distinguishable. While usually you can tell who's friend or so after a second or two, by then it's WAY too late and it definitely gets in the way of the gameplay. As such, I think the coloration/distinguishing of team members is something that really needs a tweak.
2) While I'm cool with friendly fire being turned off on multiplayer, that becomes a problem when somebody throws a grenade. There's no way to tell (without being seriously hurt) if a grenade vortex is an ally's or enemies. I'd suggest maybe coloring them by team colors slightly and/or having the HUD acknowledge through text/icon, "Look out, enemy grenade zone."
3) I love the scenery in the game, but sometimes you're fighting Fallen or other Guardians, and you need to retreat quickly or die. I find that sometimes foot/ankle high scenery gets in the way as I try to flee, usually scenery I don't necessarily see at first or know to look out for (rusty rubble, etc.). That two second delay where I have to right myself and go around the scenery is life or death time, and I feel that it's something that could (and should) be tweaked.
4) Shaders are a much-needed excellent idea to customize your costume and distinguish it from others. However, 1) I think they're too expensive, though in the actual game maybe money will be easier to come by, and, more importantly, 2) Apparently (if I'm not mistaken) you can only equip one Shader at a time that affects your whole armor, which I think is huge shame. You should be able to apply different colors to each individual piece of colorable armor, both for more individuality, and also it's more fun to coordinate your color scheme. The (admittedly badass-looking) clothing gets a little samey the more Guardians you come across, so every little thing you can do to better distinguish your clothing is a must, and being able to mix and match different Shaders with different pieces of equipment is something I believe is an important tweak that should be made. (Though obviously for team battles, recoloring people for teams is still important, a la Halo.)
5. This one's a little bit of a nitpick, but I can't help but feel the different shops are too far apart. The gun merchant is in a good location at the side near the city entrance but you have to go all the way down the central stairs to buy armor, when the two merchants should naturally be much closer. When I come to the city, sometimes all I wanna do is update my weapons and equipment, and the long distance between the two shops seems counter-intuitive.
6. It's cool that you can open your Options menu during scenes, but I think during the loading (ship flying) sequences before battles/landing at a location, you should be able to access the Options menu for much longer as well. Sometimes I'll get a piece of equipment as a reward for a battle, but before I have the chance to check it out, compare it, equip it, or dismantle it, I'm taken out of the options menu for a long pre-battle/landing loading sequence with the ships that takes up a large period of time, time that could have been better spent getting my equipment in order. So just expanding the time to use the Options menu would be cool.
7. The glowy things dropped by enemies, etc. kind of blur together. You have green, white, and purple blocks representing the normal, special, and heavy ammo. That's fine. But then you have the Engrams, which are also white and green (albeit round)? They're kind of difficult to see and notice at first, especially since they share the same colors as the normal and special ammunition (which is often littering the ground right next to them). I would suggest changing the color of the Engrams to something different from the ammo, something instantly noticeable (red/yellow/etc.). There are so many times I almost missed out on an Engram because I came this close to not realizing it wasn't just more ammo on the ground.
(Ex: I used to play a lot of Phantasy Star Online back in the day, and whenever an enemy dropped an item, it was really easy to spot. Especially if it was a rare item, which was bright-shiny red. And whenever a bright-shiny red item appeared, it was a BIG DEAL, and it was instantly visible and recognizable, and it was so satisfying to pick one up. Just by changing the Engram color a bit, I believe that same kind of highly satisfying effect could also be achieved.)
I think that's basically it from me for now. Like I said, I am thoroughly impressed by Destiny, and these are just a couple minor critiques. On the whole, the gameplay is excellent, and I really felt like I was in an action movie fighting the Fallen. Every kill is thoroughly earned. It's genuinely challenging without being broken (I haven't died too much). Anyways, I hope you consider my feedback/suggestions, and I'm totally stoked for the full game! Thank you.
#feedback. (sorry for double post. I forgot to tag this and it's not letting me tag it as #feedback because that's a forum category name?)
EDIT: Problem fixed.