Destiny is finally here and though the game is not for everyone, if you have patience and a dedicated group of friends it can become a challenging and rewarding adventure.
Destiny provides players with mechanically perfected gunplay, fascinating environments to play through, and brilliantly designed enemies.
Destiny’s gameplay is a combination of games from multiple genres. Because the Destiny was developed by Bungie, the same studio that first created the Halo franchise, it shouldn’t be too surprising to know that the game feels a lot like it.
The Guardian has a life bar at the top of the screen which acts just like a Spartans energy shield, though less durable. Guardians also have a normal jump that is roughly the same height and distance as the Master Chief. However, where Destiny’s movement really differentiates itself from its predecessor is the jump abilities that your character gets.
If you play as a Hunter, you get a double jump that can later on be upgraded to a triple jump or a blink ability that teleports the hunter short distances.Titans have a jetpack that launches them in the air and allows them to reach great heights, and Warlocks have a glide ability that allows them to leisurely glide long distances and can also eventually be upgraded to blink.
There are ten different guns that the player can wield and each gun has three models, which changes stats like range, damage and rate of fire. I played most of the game using the same weapon type of auto rifle because for some reason the enemies that I defeated didn’t drop anything new. However, other players have had greater success in finding a more diversified arsenal to play around with.
Finally, each Guardian class has his or her own “Super Ability” that is immensely powerful. You earn the chance to use the Super Ability by defeating enemies and completing objectives and the results are devastating.
The Hunter has the ability to summon a powerful gun called the Golden Gun and fire three awesomely destructive rounds at enemies. The Titan’s Super Ability, called Fist of Havoc, launches the titan into the air then slams him to the ground, decimating anything around him. And lastly, the Warlock hurls a Nova Bomb at a group of enemies, disintegrating those caught in its path.
Bungie is known for making worlds that are picturesque and exciting, and in this front, Bungie doesn’t disappoint.
There are four different worlds you visit, each with its very own unique and wide-open spaces for the guardian to explore.
You start out on Earth in old Russia, make your way to the moon, head over to a terraformed Venus and end at Mars. Each and every inch of every planet looks unique and lovingly hand-crafted all the way down to the placement of broken pavement that makes up the ramshackle roads you’ll be traveling on.
The many small details that Bungie paid attention to while constructing this futuristic solar system made for a very believable and alluring playing experience, which made every area feel like a special place.
While traveling through the beautifully realized future, a superb score of orchestrated music plays, magnifying the sense of discovery. When you get into a confrontation, the music seamlessly picks up and drives the action forward. And even the horrendously long load times going from one planet to the other are made much more attractive by the score and good use of visuals in the load screen.
Along with all these things, Bungie is known for making a game with a compelling story that makes you care and feel for the protagonist.
I’m sorry to say, this isn’t the case for Destiny. If you are looking for a game with a good story to get behind, you’re looking at the wrong game. Which is a shame, because Destiny sports a star-studded voice cast including Peter Dinklage and Nathan Fillion.
The game starts out with a floating robot ball called a ghost (voiced by Peter Dinklage) who resurrects the guardian from the dead. One of the first things that he says is something along the lines of, “I’m sure you have a lot of questions, but there’s no time now.”
Turns out there isn’t time throughout the entire 12- hour story. In fact, the guardian only meets a few other characters through the course of the game and ends before anyone was even named.
To have a good story, you generally need to answer five questions. Who? What? When? Where? Why?
The only two that are actually clear here are when and where, the Sol System Hundreds of years in the future.
What is somewhat answered too. You’re doing missions to revive the mystical sphere that is floating above the last city on earth.
However, who, why are still very vague and unanswered questions. Sure, “who” might be the guardian, but without any context we don’t know “who” the guardian actually is.
The real problem is the question “Why.” You go from planet to planet doing missions to attempt to revive the traveler, but the narrative never clearly states why we’re doing this.
Throughout the game there are only a handful of cut scenes and most of the near nonexistent story is told during load screens.
Destiny’s convoluted and downright atrocious story-telling techniques are a huge problem.
The end of the story is not the end of the game however. Once you reach the max level the game starts to get into the MMORPG territory. That, in my opinion, is when the game starts to become the most fun.
After reaching the max level of 20, the guardian can start earning better gear, which gives him or her a sub-level called a light level, allowing for the player to get to light level 30.
Getting a higher light level allows you to participate in new events and harder challenges, all leading to prepare you for the immensely fun raid.
In Destiny, a raid is a cooperative mission requiring a full fire team of six high-level and skilled member to complete.
The raids are so challenging that even my group of friends and I couldn’t get past the last boss, even after playing the raid for over eight hours straight.
There are five stages that you have to complete to beat the raid, each one multiplying in difficulty.
The raid is by far the best part of the game, and it’s a shame that you are required to play 25+ hours before you can even think about attempting it.
The last thing that needs to be mentioned is the competitive multiplayer.
Multiplayer matches are up to six versus six players and Bungies’ multiplayer map design is great, making for fun and fluid boards to compete on.
The multiplayer doesn’t seem all the way fleshed out. It runs excellent, there’s always action at every time in every match, the gunplay is fluid, and bringing your gear from the main game to the multiplayer stage is cool, but there isn’t too much to do.
There are only five regular game types and none of them take advantage of Destiny’s unique gameplay to make a fun and different experience. All five game types are modes that are found in almost every other online multiplayer shooter.
Saying that Destiny is an MMO-Shooter doesn’t do Destiny justice, it borrows from many gaming genres and plays extraordinarily well. Destiny doesn’t take advantage of its star studded cast to tell a compelling story, and the real meat of the game doesn’t start until after you’ve finished it. The competitive multiplayer is a fun time, though it lacks variety of game types. Destiny’s endgame content might keep you coming back once you fully understand it, but having to play 25+ hours before you get to it can be a chore.
Destiny is available on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.