Become a legend by exploring other planets and kill other species? Sure, sign me up… or wait t’ill another game can offer me the same and more?
Bungie’s new high-flyer “ Destiny” has finally launched on consoles. This game was so hyped, that every shop had to order more copies of the game to keep the fans satisfied… Even when it wasn’t even out yet! Collector’s editions sold out rapidly and unique pre-orders on different consoles were of big importance. I must admit, I too wanted to get my hands on this next-gen first person shooter MMO as soon as possible but when I finally got, was it enough to keep me down to earth?
Well, I’m still here after spending a good amount of hours in the game and a quick conclusion: it’s a fun game but it doesn’t soar high among other MMO shooters I’ve played. Let’s start by explaining the story in Destiny.
You are an adventurous Guardian that has been linked with your new best friend: Ghost. Ghost is a mechanical descendant from the Traveler that helps you with achieving greatness. You are destined to do great things such as saving the Traveler and of course humanity. You’ll have to go head on with an ancient enemy of the Traveler: the Darkness. The Darkness is coming back with his own disciples such as the Vex, Fallen and the Hive to destroy the Traveler. The Traveler lost a lot of energy during his own fight with the Darkness and it’s kind of your job to defend him and get him awake in time. The Traveler summons different guardians with different abilities to aid him in his conquest. While you’re at it, you’ll get a chance to explore different planets with their own little secrets.
In the beginning of the game, you’ll get to choose from among 3 different classes with their own unique abilities: Warlock ( mage) , Hunter ( stealth) or Titan( tank) . Each class has its own play style and a super ability that can give you the overhand in a few situations when used correctly. If you misused an ability, you’ll have to wait a couple of minutes before you can use it again.
In the game, you’ll earn experience by killing enemies and completing different kind of missions such as story missions, strike missions or bounties. During the game, you’re able to die but you’ll revive at the nearest checkpoint. If a fellow Guardian is in the neighborhood, he or she can revive you. The story missions are actually plain simple. Go from A to B, stand there while Ghost is extracting/ salvaging data or opening certain gates and defeat different waves of enemies. After completing a mission, you have a couple of seconds to scout the area for loot because you’ll be automatically summoned to your ship. It’s not like in other MMO’s where you finish a mission and get straight back to exploring. There are some “big” bosses at the end of most story missions but they’re not that different from other bosses. Other things such as solving puzzles or crafting your own path in-game are also not in order.
As you can read, the story missions aren’t top notch. The story doesn’t give you a lot of explanation about enemies or the Darkness itself, it’s just “there”. Sometimes a cinematic is being showed and it makes the story more interesting but there aren’t a lot of those cinematic that you can enjoy. It’s not the best game movie I’ve seen…
Of course, the game is not only about solo experience. It’s an MMO and thus it’s meant to play with a group of people. It’s more fun to shoot enemies in the face with two best friends by your side, than doing the same thing over and over again. It makes the grind more fun and you can make your own action movie. It’s a relief, knowing a buddy has your back in the heat of battle. And trust me, Destiny will give you hard times. A lot of those enemies, just don’t miss… The AI is pretty okay because you the enemies will find you and they don’t back off instantly. They also fight in group, so it’s easier to survive when two buddies come along with you. They are a big help in Darkness zones, where respawning is restricted. Talking about “friends in- game”… you can team two friends to enter strike missions. Strike missions give tougher enemies and better loot. These are the dungeons that any MMO has. Also keep in mind that the the strike missions have a certain level to enter but they are accessible if you’re a higher level. The strike missions get a lot harder to beat when you’ve reached level 20.
Destiny lived up to the ‘next-gen’ hype.
I must admit that Destiny lived up to the hype of “next-gen”. The game is very keen on the eyes and the soundtrack gives you an epic feeling during your toughest moments. The textures are smooth and the light density fits the game perfectly. The only thing that bothers me, is the fact that some guns are just the same guns with different stats. In an MMO, it’s always fun to show off your looks of your character and weapons. It’s one of the best goals in an MMO and this is something Destiny can’t give me. There are cool guns and there is good-looking armor but most of the time, it’s just the same thing. Guns blazing also sounds as it should be! The differences between a pulse rifle and an automatic gun are very different. Also the super abilities, look and sound different. Of course, there are Legendary items that can be obtained at merchants, but you’ll have to buy vanguard or crucible marks to get those item sets. These marks are a special currency that’s being used to buy legendary items. Vanguard marks are PVE objectives and Crucible marks are PVP related objectives. Not only can you use this currency for items, but it can also be used to get access to certain level- based strike missions .
The maximum level in Destiny is level 20 but there’s a way to ascend to level 30. This can only be achieved by equipping your character with “Light” armor. If you’re equipped with “Light” armor, you’ll have to grind a lot more to reach ten levels. The journey to level 30 is slower in comparison with your journey to level 20. These certain “ Light” items can only be found in the game world.
The Crucible is the place to be, where you want to test your madman skills against other Guardians. There are different game modes such as Domination, Free- For – All and Team Deathmatch. Of course, these game modes would be useless if you’re not a regular player right? WRONG! Bungie was clever enough to make these modes as equal as they can be. Each player’s stats are being pumped to an equal amount of statistics. This means that skills in the crucible are necessary to win the match. A level 10 player can easily match out a level 20 player.
For the people who really want to show off their stats and skills in a Crucible match without having the feeling that they’re being snared, is the following game mode that will be released in the near future: the Iron Banner. In this mode, it will depend on your gear how much damage you’ll produce. So if you’re a level 10 player and you don’t have “better” gear… …you’ll probably end up with a depression since higher level players will always kick your “bottom”.
The game Destiny offers a good base of a new and vast world where you can play in but it doesn’t stand enough out alongside the other MMO games. Destiny just picked up all the good things from other MMO’s and added the space flavor to get a decent game. There weren’t a lot of bugs in the game at launch so you can be sure of this very polished game. The only thing that bothers me, is the fact that I lost connection a lot of times and I had to start certain missions over again. The game gives me a feeling about a mix between halo and borderlands. It’s a good space setting, there’s a lot of things to do and there will be more things to do in the near future. Bungie promised new and free DLC during the whole year.
The game is worth your money, if you’re a fashioned old first person shooter gamer but if you’re the type of person that wants something new towards the whole first person shooter franchise… you won’t be getting it. The game has a lot of potential to become big and to become one of the pioneers in next- gen games. Just like the moonlanding… It’s not a big leap for mankind, but it’s a leap in the right direction.
