Shooting For The Stars
The studio behind one of the most iconic video game franchises is heading into an unknown, yet promising direction. Bungie, the brilliant folks behind the Halo franchise, is unleashing what it hopes will be their newest flagship IP in Destiny. It's a game that has been under development for years, and with that, comes plenty of pre-release hype. With rumors of a $500 Million development budget, fans are salivating for Bungie's next foray into the Sci-Fi 1st Person shooter space. For the most part, Destiny does indeed make good on its promises ... but just mostly.
You play as a Guardian; beings who defend the light in a universe that is constantly battling the darkness. Overlooking this universe is another being known as the Traveler, a massive Death Star looking ball of sentient life that brings balance and order to the area. Unfortunately, the Traveler is not acting itself after it suddenly goes dark and stops communicating with life. The Speaker, the so-called voice of the Traveler, sends a small A.I. bot known as a "Ghost" (voiced by Game of Thrones' Peter Dinklage) to find remnants of the Guardians, a once thought extinct collection of beings that defended the universe. The Ghost re-awakens them in order to help restore light to the Traveler. Thus, begins our legend in Destiny.
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| The classes of Destiny: Warlock, Hunter, Titan |
Once you and Dinkle-bot are introduced, you're tasked with creating a character. There are three races to choose from; Human, Exo, and Awoken. You also choose from one of three Guardian classes: Titan, Hunter, or Warlock. Each class essentially represents a certain MMO archetype. Titans are viewed as the DPS/Tanks of the game, with Hunters being strictly DPS, and Warlocks offering a bit of a balance of DPS/Spellcasting. Each class has its own special abilities; The Titan's special allows you to perform a ground pound blast of void energy that decimates all enemies around you. Hunters can wield a glowing flaming gun with three shots that essentially level anyone you hit. Warlocks, meanwhile, can summon a massive nova blast that can be upgraded into a heat seeking missile of confluent energy. Each super ability brings something fun and powerful to the table. It's highly recommended you give each class a try before committing to just one.
Once you're character class is situated, the game starts off in a single-player only zone and gets you familiarized with the controls. They're easy to pick up for any 1st person shooter enthusiast, and are pure Bungie in terms of responsiveness and feel. Each weapon type feels good in the player's hands, and they're all a blast to play (pun intended). Once you've completed the starting zone, you're taken to the Tower, the last stronghold on Earth. Here, you can connect with other live Guardians and begin the true experience of Destiny.
Bungie describes Destiny as a shared-world 1st person shooter, and that's mostly true. It's hard not to compare it to an MMO, but you can trudge your way through a series of tasks including story missions, side-missions, dungeons, raids, or multiplayer matches. Even the menu screens in the game are set up like MMOs with players using a mouse curser to select their items. It's a bit jarring at first, but you get used to it fairly quickly.
The Story Mode
This is without a doubt Destiny's weakest link.
Story missions are also structured quite poorly as each mission carries the same action beats. You land on your planet, and your Ghost points out where you need to go. You then fight enemies along the way, arrive at said location, deploy your Ghost to investigate, and then take on a series of enemy encounters before completing the mission. Save for a few alternate offerings, this is ultimately the same for every story mission in the game. Thankfully, each of the planets you'll discover are very well designed, and the enemy variety is unique and strategic, offering a great challenge paired with phenomenal shooter mechanics. Narrative issues aside, it's fun to fight the constantly teleporting Vex, to then move on to the hulking, shield-wielding Cabal of Mars. You're always adjusting and adapting your combat methods to suit the enemy type.
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| Menus in Destiny utilize mouse cursers which are very efficient |
Looting Never Looked So Beautiful
Putting it simply, Destiny works best as a loot-fest. You can earn XP and gear by participating in Story Missions, Bounties, Patrols, Strikes (Dungeons), the Crucible, and Raids. Along the way, you'll be equipping your character with all types of weapons, armor, and vehicles. As you level up and enter more difficult zones and missions, the loot gets better, and you're always working to make your Guardian into the most legendary intergalactic badass around. You'll be bestowed with weapons ranging from Hand Canons to shotguns, to scout rifles and rocket launchers. Each weapon type gives players variety, and mastering a particular weapons skill set can be rewarding. Level up your sniper rifle enough, and you can acquire perks like having one round of your magazine deal extra damage. As for the armor, the gear becomes beautiful once you reach higher levels. I've seen gauntlets that have alien skulls attached as shoulder pads, and I even came across a helmet made with a living, lava-like growth attached to it. It's really intimidating to see, and the animations are fun to view in-game.
While Destiny indeed excels in the loot-fest aspect, I can't help but feel a little disappointed that every weapon can be wielded by every class. That's not to say you can't tailor your gear to suit your playstyle, as each weapon features upgrades that need to be unlocked with XP and world materials. For example, you can tailor your auto rifle to have either more zoom, or better recoil control, or you can upgrade the rocket launcher to give you the best blast radius, or better handling. It's up to you.
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| Meet the Hive, one of the enemy classes in Destiny |
The disappointment however, is when you realize that every character class can handle the very auto rifle you wield. It's a bit of a bummer, as I would've preferred some class specific weapons to make each class carry its own weight. There is a trade-off though, as no weapon is bound to your character. If you like to play multiple classes, you can leave your already upgraded weapon you leveled up with your Hunter in the vault, and pick it up with your Warlock.
Earn Your Keep and Your Friends
The multiplayer aspects of Destiny are hit-or-miss.
The game is structured in a way where players are encouraged to party up with friends, but it doesn't completely penalize you for wanting to lone-wolf it. As you traverse the galaxy, you'll fight your way through the old stomping grounds of Russia, or drive across the cratered divets of the moon. If that's not your thing, why not patrol your way through the lush and humid jungles of Venus? Along the way you'll encounter players who could be heading to a story mission or just working on brief patrol missions to scour resources. It's not the best place to socialize, but you can do some brief interactions with the D-Pad like wave, dance, and invite players to your squad. It's all done in the real-time pause menu. The place where you'll be doing most of your socializing, however, is the Tower.
The Tower allows Guardians to hook up with vendors, store away items in their vault, or pick up some mail from the robotic postman. You can also pick up bounties here, which are essentially quest-driven tasks that reward you with heavy XP and reputation. Missions are mostly tasking you to grind through locations you've already been, but if you come into Destiny with an MMO mindset, it shouldn't seem like much of a chore, especially when playing through the game's tight and responsive control scheme. Remember: never leave the Tower without your bounties. You've been warned.
Guardians can also use the Tower to meet up with other live Guardians, inspect their gear, and create parties before heading out to missions. It's here where Destiny also falls flat as it doesn't include a general chat messaging system, making it difficult to reach out to other players. If I wanted to find a group for a raid and none of my friends were online, I'd have to invite each Guardian I come across one-by-one to see if they would be willing to accompany me. It's a lengthy process. Matchmaking is available, but only for regular Strikes and the Crucible. There is no matchmaking for raids, meaning if you happen to find a solid group by accident, make sure to send them a friend request immediately for future high-level raid runs. Speaking of which ...
Strike Down Enemies With Great Anger And Furious Vengeance
Strikes work as a 3-man dungeon featuring heavy enemy encounters and bosses. There's at least one strike on every planet, and they're structured a little better than Story Missions in terms of variety.
Raids are bit tougher to manage, but are the way to get the true experience out of Destiny. There's only one raid currently active in the game right now called the Vault of Glass. You'll need a 6-man squad made up Guardians who are at least level 26. Make no mistake, if you want to stand a chance in a raid, you need to utilize HEAVY teamwork. Do not even think about joining teams that have members with no mics. It'll frustrate you and leave you constantly staring at a death screen. If you can put in the effort, raids offer some of the best loot in the game, meaning you will want to do multiple run-throughs to collect all the legendary loot.
Crucible
If you're a PvP fiend, then the Crucible is where you want to be. It's a collection of multiplayer modes allowing you to take on other guardians. You can unlock the mode early on with your Guardian. You'll find your standard adversarial multiplayer modes, including team deathmatch, king of the hill, rumble pit, and skirmishes. Whether you decide to play 6v6 or 3v3 matches, Crucible is a fun, challenging, and rewarding experience for players. You can also gather separate bounties strictly for Crucible, allowing you to build XP and reputation for vendors in the Tower. There are also ways to earn Glimmer (Destiny's currency) and gear along the way.
As for multiplayer balance, Bungie knocks it out of the park with its maps and modes. Some areas have strongholds that are tough to break through, but not impossible. You'll need to learn these maps in order to figure out which is the best approach to stop the other team.
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| Guardians vs. Guardians ... The Light Will Never Be The Same |
Leveling up can be considered a chore in Destiny, but I found it to be quite fun. Players earn their typical XP to make their way up the level chain, but they will hit a "soft" cap at 20. Once you make it here, the only way to upgrade your Guardian to a hard level cap of 30 is to find gear that contains light. These pieces are harder to get, but they can be obtained through strike missions, raids, or Crucible. The more light your gear has, the more you can level up and attempt to hit level 30. While most people will complain this is a cheap way to force players into grinding, Destiny's strikes, raids, and Crucible modes are a blast to play, and the provide enough entertainment and satisfaction to warrant multiple playthroughs, especially if you're attempting to pull legendary gear along the way.
There is a lot to do in Destiny. Bungie says it's committed for the long run, and that's a good thing. Destiny will need to add new content and patchwork along the way, but if you're the type of gamer who wants to squeeze the most from their $60 purchase, I can safely say Destiny is a solid gamble for you. Lone-wolf players won't get too much enjoyment out of it, as the best parts of Destiny come when you're interacting with friends, or running through raids with new acquaintances.
Other Perks
There is a mobile companion app you can link with Destiny on your iOS or Android devices. It allows you to view your character's inventory, track your stats, and receive updates from Bungie. It's mostly a secondary experience that isn't necessary, but it can be helpful.
By far the best part of the app is unlocking Grimoire cards. You get these for completing certain achievements in the game, and the cards allow you to delve deeper into the mythos of Destiny. Each card gives you either a fun fact or mini-story about a particular character or enemy class in the game, and some are quite engrossing. In fact, if you take the time to read through these Grimoire cards, they offer a more compelling story of the game, than the game itself.
The Final Word
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| Multiple Guardians Inhabiting The Play Space |
Destiny is a shared world 1st person sci-fi shooter, but it doesn't want to be labeled as an MMO, even though it's clearly inspired by its more notorious counterparts like World of Warcraft. If you can get past Destiny's story identity crisis, you will find an extremely tight shooter that offers great multiplayer, as well as a fun and entertaining loot system that will keep you searching the ends of the galaxy for the next best drop.
Verdict: 4 out of 5 stars
The Good: Great Gunplay - Fun Worlds - Crucible - Raids + Strikes
The Bad: Story leaves much to be desired - Load times - Lack of Character Differences
The Ugly: Social Connectivity
Verdict: 4 out of 5 stars
The Good: Great Gunplay - Fun Worlds - Crucible - Raids + Strikes
The Bad: Story leaves much to be desired - Load times - Lack of Character Differences
The Ugly: Social Connectivity
