DEV: Bungie
PUB: Activision
Release Date: 09/09/2014
Format: PS4, PS3, XboxOne and Xbox360.
There is no argument that Destiny is perhaps this years biggest game, one could even argue its one of the biggest of all time. Acclaimed ex-Halo developer Bungie's long awaited return to the gaming scene in collaboration with one of the industries biggest publishers, Activision, in an attempt to bring you the next big MMO in the form of a Sci-fi/Fantasy FPS. Its the most expensive game ever made with an estimated budget of $500 Million, that's nearly $200 Million more than the most expensive film ever made. But does that mind numbing figure provide live up to the hype surrounding the game, will it become legend?
Destiny starts things off on the wrong foot by giving us a crap story. I mean I have seen some bad stories in my time but Destiny's may as well not exist. What little story is there is extremely cliché and outrageously shallow. That being said it has a good and interesting premise. Modern day space exploration takes humanity to Mars where we find a large floating ball called The Traveller. The Traveller journeys to Earth and bring humanity into its 'Golden Age' wherein our technology propels itself hundreds of years into the future. However there is a force wanting to destroy The Traveller called The Darkness. As The Darkness enters our solar system The Traveller awakens chosen ones called Guardians, those who hold the light and are the only ones capable of pushing back The Darkness.
Now when I said interesting premise, I didn't say original. But nonetheless its a good opening to what could have potentially been an interesting storyline. However Destiny has no storyline, not really. You are never given purpose behind any of your quests, you never know why you are doing what you are doing and you never see any effects of it. Characters are bland and have less personality than a bowl of dry Weetabix. This isn't only evident in the lack of memorable characters but also due to the boring voice talent (which I will touch on more later).
This lack of story is surprising, I mean this is coming from Bungie right off the back of Halo. You only have to glance at anything Halo and you are given sheer truckloads of lore and information on the universe. Destiny doesn't have that, you don't know who you are, what The Traveller is, what The Darkness wants with The Traveller, why there are aliens trying to kill you and why you should even care about trying to save Earth, I mean its abandoned apart from one city, its pretty much worthless that this point.
PUB: Activision
Release Date: 09/09/2014
Format: PS4, PS3, XboxOne and Xbox360.
There is no argument that Destiny is perhaps this years biggest game, one could even argue its one of the biggest of all time. Acclaimed ex-Halo developer Bungie's long awaited return to the gaming scene in collaboration with one of the industries biggest publishers, Activision, in an attempt to bring you the next big MMO in the form of a Sci-fi/Fantasy FPS. Its the most expensive game ever made with an estimated budget of $500 Million, that's nearly $200 Million more than the most expensive film ever made. But does that mind numbing figure provide live up to the hype surrounding the game, will it become legend?
Destiny starts things off on the wrong foot by giving us a crap story. I mean I have seen some bad stories in my time but Destiny's may as well not exist. What little story is there is extremely cliché and outrageously shallow. That being said it has a good and interesting premise. Modern day space exploration takes humanity to Mars where we find a large floating ball called The Traveller. The Traveller journeys to Earth and bring humanity into its 'Golden Age' wherein our technology propels itself hundreds of years into the future. However there is a force wanting to destroy The Traveller called The Darkness. As The Darkness enters our solar system The Traveller awakens chosen ones called Guardians, those who hold the light and are the only ones capable of pushing back The Darkness.
Now when I said interesting premise, I didn't say original. But nonetheless its a good opening to what could have potentially been an interesting storyline. However Destiny has no storyline, not really. You are never given purpose behind any of your quests, you never know why you are doing what you are doing and you never see any effects of it. Characters are bland and have less personality than a bowl of dry Weetabix. This isn't only evident in the lack of memorable characters but also due to the boring voice talent (which I will touch on more later).
This lack of story is surprising, I mean this is coming from Bungie right off the back of Halo. You only have to glance at anything Halo and you are given sheer truckloads of lore and information on the universe. Destiny doesn't have that, you don't know who you are, what The Traveller is, what The Darkness wants with The Traveller, why there are aliens trying to kill you and why you should even care about trying to save Earth, I mean its abandoned apart from one city, its pretty much worthless that this point.
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Luckily Destiny's gameplay is much more interesting and in-depth than its story. To the point where it even starts to make up for it. One the surface Destiny is a typical FPS. You have Assault Rifles, Shotguns, Snipers, Pistols, Rocket Launchers & Grenades at your disposal, you point them at aliens, you shoot aliens, you kill aliens. However, get past the surface layer and you have a whole wealth of MMO features to explore. First of all you have three classes to choose from, each with two subclass variants. You have the Hunter, a bounty hunter style class (with variants of Gunslinger and Bladedancer). Warlock, a mage class (with variants of Voidwalker & Sunsinger) and Titan, a tank class (with variants of Striker and Defender). Each class plays pretty similarly to each other, even to the point of having access to the same weapons as each other; but what varies is the special abilities and armour traits. The more you do things the more a bar in the bottom left corner fills, once full you can unleash your special ability which varies depending on class and variant. For example the Titan Striker ground slams causing massive damage in a set area, often clearing enemies in its radius; whereas the Hunter Gunslinger receives a three shot revolver that deals massive damage with each individual hit. You have access to the other subclass once you reach level 15 with the one available during character creation allowing you to swap out your abilities during missions in order to best fit a situation.
Missions are divided into different groups. You have story missions which slowly begin to tell you nothing about the story. Strikes which are longer, much more difficult, co-op only missions designed to test your mettle. Raids, which offer the most difficult test. Cop-op only much like Strikes but you are given no aid in what to do or where to go, leaving you & your team to figure it out by yourself. There are 4 planets (or 3 planets and a moon to be specific) each of which containing roughly 6 story missions and 2 strikes; raids are infrequent and reset each week meaning any progress you make will be lost after a week if you haven't completed it. Destiny uses a loot system similar to many dungeon crawlers & MMO's, most console players will be most familiar with this style from the Borderlands series. Loot is acquired at random from enemy drops, also objectives will occasionally grant you new loot & there are loot chests to find scattered among Destiny's various worlds. Loot can be weapons of three variants (Primary, Special & Heavy), various pieces of armour, consumable items or Glimmer (currency) and will always vary in rarity & quantity. There is a trend wherein the more difficult missions & strikes are, the higher chance of acquiring rarer and more frequent loot drops.
Back in The Tower, the main hub of Destiny, there are various vendors available to meet your needs. Here you can buy weapons, ships, speeders, armour and bounties (Challenges to help you gain XP faster). Vendors do lock out items based on character level, requiring you to attain a higher level before you can purchase an item. They also lock you out based on 'Vanguard' & Crucible' rankings. Your Vanguard rank is increased by taking bounties based on missions and strikes whereas your Crucible rank is increased by playing PvP multiplayer and by completing Crucible bounties. PvP multiplayer consists of various game modes such as Control Points, Team Deathmatch, Free for All and Vehicle inclusive Deathmatches. None of them are too different from the standard multiplayer in games such as Halo & Call of Duty, but they are in themselves robust and enjoyable, good enough to keep people playing for years to come. One feature that is missing, which comes as a big surprise, is item trading. Some MMO's are famous for their player to player trading capabilities but Destiny has none. For a game that is all about communicating with players around you, for sharing experiences together, for building stories with each other...not being able to trade seriously impacts that relationship players have with each other. Not only that but there is a cap at Level 20, what kind of MMO stops at level 20? Admittedly you can carry on after level 20, but the way you level up changes and relies on you getting rare loot drops, rather than gaining XP.
Missions are divided into different groups. You have story missions which slowly begin to tell you nothing about the story. Strikes which are longer, much more difficult, co-op only missions designed to test your mettle. Raids, which offer the most difficult test. Cop-op only much like Strikes but you are given no aid in what to do or where to go, leaving you & your team to figure it out by yourself. There are 4 planets (or 3 planets and a moon to be specific) each of which containing roughly 6 story missions and 2 strikes; raids are infrequent and reset each week meaning any progress you make will be lost after a week if you haven't completed it. Destiny uses a loot system similar to many dungeon crawlers & MMO's, most console players will be most familiar with this style from the Borderlands series. Loot is acquired at random from enemy drops, also objectives will occasionally grant you new loot & there are loot chests to find scattered among Destiny's various worlds. Loot can be weapons of three variants (Primary, Special & Heavy), various pieces of armour, consumable items or Glimmer (currency) and will always vary in rarity & quantity. There is a trend wherein the more difficult missions & strikes are, the higher chance of acquiring rarer and more frequent loot drops.
Back in The Tower, the main hub of Destiny, there are various vendors available to meet your needs. Here you can buy weapons, ships, speeders, armour and bounties (Challenges to help you gain XP faster). Vendors do lock out items based on character level, requiring you to attain a higher level before you can purchase an item. They also lock you out based on 'Vanguard' & Crucible' rankings. Your Vanguard rank is increased by taking bounties based on missions and strikes whereas your Crucible rank is increased by playing PvP multiplayer and by completing Crucible bounties. PvP multiplayer consists of various game modes such as Control Points, Team Deathmatch, Free for All and Vehicle inclusive Deathmatches. None of them are too different from the standard multiplayer in games such as Halo & Call of Duty, but they are in themselves robust and enjoyable, good enough to keep people playing for years to come. One feature that is missing, which comes as a big surprise, is item trading. Some MMO's are famous for their player to player trading capabilities but Destiny has none. For a game that is all about communicating with players around you, for sharing experiences together, for building stories with each other...not being able to trade seriously impacts that relationship players have with each other. Not only that but there is a cap at Level 20, what kind of MMO stops at level 20? Admittedly you can carry on after level 20, but the way you level up changes and relies on you getting rare loot drops, rather than gaining XP.
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I've always wanted to see other worlds, go to space, explore where no man has before. Destiny is one of the first games to fulfil that feeling for me by having such a visual polish and great level design. Each world looks distinctly different from one another both in terms of natural environment and manmade architecture. Earth looks old and rusted, abandoned long ago and what's is left behind is a slowly decaying shell, overgrowing with familiar plantlife. The Moon is a rocky, uneven and sterile looking land. Industrialised from when man colonised the Moon in the Golden Age, with deep caverns and high cliff's littering the landscaspe. Venus is a rainforest, remnants of a civilisation appear here and there with sleek high rise buildings, but the rain & plants have taken over. Finally Mars is a dusty, desert landscape with civilisation buried under the ground, as wind has swept the land up over it.
You can really see the $500 Million budget in Destiny's visuals. Highly detailed environments, even down to the smallest things. The beauty extends beyond what you can touch as Destiny's dynamic skyboxes are among the best in the business. See Earth rotate around you on the Moon, see a city alive below you on Earth or enjoy solitude overlooking one of Mars' dusty plains.
Detail on character & weapon modelling is great with a high degree of attention on every single item, some of the best looking weapons in gaming by far. Cutscenes are well directed and cinematic, however dialogue lacks thanks to a poorly written story (as explained earlier) and some bad voice acting.
The game hires the voice talents of Peter Dinklage, Bill Nighy, Nathan Fillion and John DiMaggio just to name a few big names, however all of these performances are among the worst in their careers. Everyone sounds bored, not to mention nothing they say even makes any sense at all because its never explained or elaborated on. That being said the sound design in general is great, with an awesome soundtrack stolen from Marty O'Donnell (what?) and some great sound effects on weapons. Some very high quality audio on offer here to match the equally high quality visuals.
You can really see the $500 Million budget in Destiny's visuals. Highly detailed environments, even down to the smallest things. The beauty extends beyond what you can touch as Destiny's dynamic skyboxes are among the best in the business. See Earth rotate around you on the Moon, see a city alive below you on Earth or enjoy solitude overlooking one of Mars' dusty plains.
Detail on character & weapon modelling is great with a high degree of attention on every single item, some of the best looking weapons in gaming by far. Cutscenes are well directed and cinematic, however dialogue lacks thanks to a poorly written story (as explained earlier) and some bad voice acting.
The game hires the voice talents of Peter Dinklage, Bill Nighy, Nathan Fillion and John DiMaggio just to name a few big names, however all of these performances are among the worst in their careers. Everyone sounds bored, not to mention nothing they say even makes any sense at all because its never explained or elaborated on. That being said the sound design in general is great, with an awesome soundtrack stolen from Marty O'Donnell (what?) and some great sound effects on weapons. Some very high quality audio on offer here to match the equally high quality visuals.
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As a whole Destiny is passable. It's underwhelming but its not a bad game. Its sheer lack of story, content and basic MMO features like player communications is very very disappointing and stop it from being something great. However the gameplay as it is, is enough to entertain you for hours upon hours thanks to an addictive loot system and generally great shooting mechanics.
Its a game that could get better with patches and DLC but as it stands is rather a let down from what we were built up to expect. Its certainly not a game changer for any genre and its a game that you could let slip under your radar without missing out on much. However if you just want a great shooter to play with friends co-operativley then Destiny should be one of your first choices.
Its a game that could get better with patches and DLC but as it stands is rather a let down from what we were built up to expect. Its certainly not a game changer for any genre and its a game that you could let slip under your radar without missing out on much. However if you just want a great shooter to play with friends co-operativley then Destiny should be one of your first choices.
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+Robust Shooting Mechanics
+Good Loot System +Jaw Dropping Visuals +Great Soundtrack -Lack of Story -Lack of Content -Bad Voice Acting -Occasionally Unreliable Servers |
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Second opinion
After changing first-person shooters
as we know it with Master Chief, can Bungie strike lightning a second time with
Destiny? At face value this is a Halo
game with nods from other successful games, in order to create something fresh
and unique. For the most part they have succeeded, while the permanently online
aspect may cause debate. The end product blurs the line between single and
multiplayer giving its players the best of both worlds.
You are dropped into a post-apocalyptic earth and faced with saving the solar system from an entity only known as “The Darkness”. You're steadily feed small aspects of story during the 20 story missions and because of this the campaign as a whole feels unfinished. Leaving you with more questions than answers and nothing explained, these are left to Gilmore Cards unlocked in-game and accessed via Bungie’s website.
Gameplay is a straight copy and paste of Bungie’s previous games and you wouldn’t expect anything different. It’s FPS at its finest, smooth and clinical. Weapons hit hard, enemies are plentiful and this is one damn enjoyable game to play. Where Destiny begins to fall apart is what Bungie refer to as its “end game”. Replaying various co-op strikes and story missions many times, gathering materials from Destiny’s four open world planets to upgrade and improve your custom built character to play the mighty Vault of Glass.
I will argue that all the time I spent farming, grinding and playing the same missions countless times was worth completing the epic Raid that has become the talk in the gaming community. The six man puzzle mission is a great example of teamwork, strategy and multitasking. It requires everyone to know their job and work together, killing the final boss ends in a mighty cry of joy no matter how many times you have completed it previous.
Destiny is trying something new and looks good while doing it. While it may not tick all the boxes to be classed as a masterpiece it is here to stay and you cant let immaterial things get in the way of a thoroughly enjoyable experience. No matter what my common sense brain is telling me about grind and boosting. I just want to play this game like its become a drug, one that will keep me coming back to play Destiny for Bungie’s ten year plan forging friendships and rivalries.
Chris Sowry 9/10
You are dropped into a post-apocalyptic earth and faced with saving the solar system from an entity only known as “The Darkness”. You're steadily feed small aspects of story during the 20 story missions and because of this the campaign as a whole feels unfinished. Leaving you with more questions than answers and nothing explained, these are left to Gilmore Cards unlocked in-game and accessed via Bungie’s website.
Gameplay is a straight copy and paste of Bungie’s previous games and you wouldn’t expect anything different. It’s FPS at its finest, smooth and clinical. Weapons hit hard, enemies are plentiful and this is one damn enjoyable game to play. Where Destiny begins to fall apart is what Bungie refer to as its “end game”. Replaying various co-op strikes and story missions many times, gathering materials from Destiny’s four open world planets to upgrade and improve your custom built character to play the mighty Vault of Glass.
I will argue that all the time I spent farming, grinding and playing the same missions countless times was worth completing the epic Raid that has become the talk in the gaming community. The six man puzzle mission is a great example of teamwork, strategy and multitasking. It requires everyone to know their job and work together, killing the final boss ends in a mighty cry of joy no matter how many times you have completed it previous.
Destiny is trying something new and looks good while doing it. While it may not tick all the boxes to be classed as a masterpiece it is here to stay and you cant let immaterial things get in the way of a thoroughly enjoyable experience. No matter what my common sense brain is telling me about grind and boosting. I just want to play this game like its become a drug, one that will keep me coming back to play Destiny for Bungie’s ten year plan forging friendships and rivalries.
Chris Sowry 9/10
