Review
September 11th, 2014 By Maya Mayfield
Bungie's biggest game of the year is finally here and we have been taking our time these last couple of days playing through the massive FPSMMORPG in order to score it properly. Due to the massive level of detail and scale of Destiny, the right thing to do was not to rush this review since its official Tuesday launch.
From first impressions of Destiny's full version, there was little surprise of what to expect from our initial gameplay during the week long Beta in July, except for the limitation cap being lifted. For those yet to experience Destiny or play Bungie's previous global smash hit Halo, then you are most certainly in for a good time.
After a few hours playing, we couldn't help but question the who, what or why of it all. At least during the Beta we could forgive Bungie's illusive plot to not wanting to spoil the surprise but, 8 hours in and Destiny's story mission just seemed to sadly feel rather pointless.
The secret to successful books, movies, music and games has been the creators ability to capture the hearts, minds and souls of its intended audience. This success goes beyond just throwing money on a marketing campaign to generate leads. Destiny does have a great marketing drive and with recent sale figures in the 500 million units, Destiny's PR campaign has certainly worked. But once the dust has settled, there will be those who will be looking behind all the noise and hype to see exactly what's really on offer from Bungie's new shooter.
Destiny's gameplay is smooth and fast, combined with highly detailed open world environments that feels very reminiscent to the original Halo - Which makes sense since it's apparently been developed of an advanced Halo: Reach engine. Those who have previously played Halo will find some similarities to Destiny but this comparison may not exactly be a good thing since that series did eventually grow stale by its 4th to 5th series. This was mostly due to gamers knowing exactly what to expect from battling the same enemies over and over again. Destiny also has a similar style of enemies and so the Halo-esq comparisons can't be helped but thrown into this review.
What did make the original Halo so cutting edge however was its engaging storyline which as mentioned earlier was great enough to captivate the hearts, soul and minds of its intended audience. Bungie could have done the same with Destiny but chose to go down a safer approach. This isn't exactly a bad thing, just not worthy of the Hall of Fame status we really would have liked to give this game.
Destiny's Story was somewhat lacking. There were odd words here and there thrown into the script that completely seemed out of place that we wandered why it was added. Even Peter Drinklage's voice from Games of Throwns failed to stir some deep sense of emotion or intense feeling during our many missions to acquire artifacts that apparently was of great importance to saving humanity.
This is very unfortunate for what truly is otherwise a very polished looking game. We think Bungie may have been stuck between a rock and a hard place, wanting to tell a passionate story of Earth's last population on the brink of destruction but not wanting to put off casual gamers with too much backstory.
What we are left with however is an inexplainable story filled with deep mysteries and gaping holes that doesn't quite reach its intended mark. Based of our experience with Halo, we don't see Bungie being a team to just present some vague plot to its audience. With Destiny being an ongoing project, we are secretly hoping to see things being spiced up in the narrative department as time goes on.
Moving beyond that, where Destiny really does shine is in its unique approach to the genre. Unlike most FPS that focuses on a start, middle and end. Bungie gives you the option of taking the Destiny ride which ever way you want. There really is no right or wrong way of doing things and this easy pick up and play design should be perfect for casual gamers looking for a non-committed run, point and shoot experience. From free roaming for hours exploring the furthest regions of the galaxy, to joining co-op missions with random players on your timeline, the world is literally your oyster.
Beyond the story mode, PVP has been our most enjoyable experience so far. The gameplay is much faster than PvE, and it's here that things really come to life. The interactive gameplay in PvP mode is really what has been Destiny's saving grace. The human element in the Crucible has been so engaging that it feels like a completely different game entirely. The random reactions and sometimes unexpected outcomes while versing other players really highlights all that is great about the game. PVP mode pulls the focus away from the main missions uninspiring plot and really gets the heart racing when faced against other people.
The only drawback to PVP is the low amounts of leveling you can gain from this mode despite the amounts of victories. The reward to win ratio isn't quite the same as PvE but, the engaging and very exciting trade off does far outweigh the slugging campaign even if you do level up faster that way.
You may want to take a different approach to weapon load-outs in PvP as the gameplay is quicker than PvE. We would recommend smaller lighter weapons like shotguns, rifles and handguns as the missions tend to play out at faster than when fighting AI's.
As for Destiny's design, we think Bungie really did a phenomenal job on the games environment. The game is without a shadow of a doubt stunning. The PvP arenas's look and feel alive but the most frustrating thing about PvP however is the ability for players to just up and quit a match when they are losing without the risk of being penalized for it. We witnessed this happening in quite a few match-ups and thought this wasn't very fair especially to those who did stay to the very end. This is definitely something we think Bungie should look into fixing ASAP as this may make PvP a frustrating experience and not worth the hassle in the long run.
If anything Bungie should consider rewarding gamers who choose to stay and fight with an extra level, weapon or armor bonus at the end of each match-up, this way others will likely stay for the rewards when the going gets really tough in the crucible.
Overall
A Work In Progress
Overall Destiny has been quite an enjoyable experience especially in PvP, though the PvE mode is less to be desired. We are hoping Bungie does have some trick up their sleeve to spice things up as we currently couldn't careless if the aliens did wipe us out.
Finally as Destiny is an expanding evolving world we do know the team will be taking feedback from user trends within Destiny to keep improving on the game from here on out.
Score 3/5
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