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First Posted: 9/15/2014
The wait is over, and “Destiny” has finally arrived.
If you’re a video game player, you’ve undoubtedly heard about this game. In the last week, you’ve probably seen the live-action commercials to boost the game’s exposure before it was released.
Admittedly, there has been a lot of hype surrounding this game, and I initially wasn’t buying into it. This looked like another game that would be over-hyped and have little substance to back it up. I also wasn’t a big fan of sci-fi shooters.
“Wasn’t” is the key word.
I’m pumped to say that not only was I wrong, but “Destiny” is easily one of the coolest and best-looking games I have played this year.
And it has the potential to be even better.
How this review will work
Reviewing MMOs is not an easy thing to do. A lot of gaming media outlets have pumped out reviews for “Destiny,” and while most are positive, some are rushed and don’t capture fully what “Destiny” does.
To combat that, this review is going to take place over the next couple of weeks. I’ll provide some progress reports on how my character is going, along with some screenshots and some live broadcasts via my Twitch channel.
Keep in mind that Destiny has only just been released, and there are plans for downloadable content in the not-too-distant future.
The story
If you like science fiction or anything related to “Star Wars” or “Star Trek,” then “Destiny” is going to be right up your alley.
The game takes place a few hundred years after what was known as “The Golden Age.” That period happened after humans landed on Mars and discovered “the Traveler,” a massive orb-like satellite that fostered the way for mankind’s expansion into space.
Great cities were constructed on planets and moons throughout the solar system in what would be called “an age of miracles.”
Of course, things come to crashing halt when an ancient enemy known only as “The Darkness” waged war in an event called “The Collapse.” The Traveler sacrificed itself to prevent Earth from being destroyed, and an army of warriors known as “Guardians” harness “The Traveler’s” powers to protect what’s left of humanity from hostile aliens.
That’s where you, the player, comes in, so cue the theme music. Guardians are assisted by “Ghosts,” floating robotics spawned from The Traveler that serve a number of functions.
Character Creation and Progression
Character creation is pretty straightforward in “Destiny.” There are three different races — human, Exo and Awoken. Exo are robotic-like beings, while Awoken are almost god-like in their appearance. They have blueish skin and an otherworldly feel about them.
Me, I went with the human race. The rest of the creation process is simple — you pick hair and hair color, face markings (if any), eye color, etc.
It’s all very basic, but everything looks incredible. From the intricate detail of the hairstyles to the piercing look my character’s eyes gave, the character creation gave a quick glimpse at just how awesome this game looks.
Players also pick one of three classes — Titan, Hunter or Warlock. Titans specialize in armor, Hunters specialize in ranged weapons and knives and Warlocks combine magical powers with modern weapons.
I chose to be a Titan — I’m a sucker for cool-looking armor.
Each class has different types of armors and weapons to use. Being a Titan, my armor makes me look like a hybrid version of Boba Fett, and that’s not a bad thing.
Weapons range from standard assault rifles and heavy machine guns to shotguns and plasma rifles. I love the variety, and each weapon has a use in different circumstances. When a Wizard shows up, a fusion rifle gets the job done — when it’s a boss fight, it’s time to break out the heavy machine gun or the rocket launcher.
Tutorial
After a brief cutscene, the player is automatically thrown into a tutorial mission. The mission, as I implied, is meant to introduce characters to the mechanics of the game. It doesn’t take long for those pesky aliens (known as “The Fallen”) to arrive, and the player finds a handy rifle lying nearby.
As many of my readers know, I’m an avid “Call of Duty” guy, so I came into this with high expectations. It took my first pull of the trigger to blow those expectations away (no pun intended.)
Aiming down my sights felt familiar like “Call of Duty,” but had more of a heavier feel to it. The recoil of the rifle was high, and that forced me to fire off bursts of shots to stay on point. Numbers showed with each hit to indicate the damage — white numbers are normal hits, and yellow indicate critical hits when weak spots are targeted.
Naturally, I was aiming for headshots to put the Fallen down as quickly as possible. Each shot had an impact and surprisingly did not feel as “arcadey” as “Call of Duty” can at times. Fallen aliens are also clever in their tactics — some are brutes with shields, while others prefer melee attacks.
That variety makes each gunfight just a little different from the last.
It was pretty tough for me to not notice how amazing the game looked, even in the heat of battle. The tutorial mission (and the first handful of first missions) all take place in what’s left of Russia. called “Old Russia.” At night, aurora borealis lit of the sky, and the sunshine glistened off of the snow during the day to make an apocalyptic Earth somehow beautiful.
Socially acceptable
After the tutorial mission was over, I arrived at “The Tower” via my Jumpship. The Tower is a social center for Guardians in “The City,” the last populated city on Earth
As that description suggests, The Tower also serves as a social lobby for players. When I first landed, I was greeted with a number of players running around to different non-playable characters (NPCs). Vendors of different sorts are scattered around and offer different things from armor to new weapons.
My girlfriend joined my lobby, and we teamed up in a “Fireteam” and we went into orbit to choose a mission to do. Going into orbit is basically going into a pre-game lobby, but on screen, characters are shown soaring above the Earth in their Jumpships. Once I chose a mission, our Jumpships soared off into space.
That detail, while very minor, is one of the things that I love about “Destiny.” In “Call of Duty,” the only thing that the game does to let you know who’s on your team is change the text of their screen name. “Destiny” genuinely made me feel, in that moment, a member of a Fireteam, and I can’t explain how awesome it is.
Team combat
We descended back down to Old Russia for our first mission. The first thing I’ll say is that the maps are absolutely huge. Abandoned buildings and caves stand to be explored, and the threat of aliens never seems to go away.
My girlfriend and I established that she would be the sniper, while I was the scout and run-and-gun guy. We started picking our way through what was left of Old Russia, and sure enough, an enemy ship swooped down from the atmosphere and dropped off more Fallen for us to deal with.
The great thing about “Destiny” is that the game will not let you rest. If you clear an area, an enemy ship will drop more aliens off to try to ruin your day. If you dwell too deeply into a subway tunnel or part of a map, you might stumble across some enemies that are just too tough to handle.
That sense of unpredictability is one of the best things about MMOs, and “Destiny” captured that. Sure, it can be mundane fighting off respawning aliens over and over again, but every kill means experience points and loot, so that’s easy to overlook.
Each mission is essentially going to a number of checkpoints that lead up to a boss fight. It’s formulaic and somewhat repetitive, but the game does enough to distinguish one battle from the next..
Character Progression
Each kill gives experience points, which levels players up. It’s a basic function that is akin to a role-playing game (RPG), but it’s a welcomed one. Another nice function is that if a member of your Fireteam gets a kill, you’ll still get experience points, so there won’t be any fights over who stole the kills.
After a mission is over, a progress screen is shown to indicate the number of kills, along with a number of goodies in the form of weapons and armor. It’s a basic function, but it’s handy.
I also recommend that “Destiny” players download the “Destiny” app on those iPhones or iPads. It’ll give you an even further look at your kill-to-death ratio, how many kills you got, etc.
I’ll dive deeper into character progression in a future blog.
Week I Thoughts
As I wrote earlier in the blog, I was ready to cast off “Destiny” as an over-hyped sci-fi shooter like “Watch Dogs” or even “Titanfall.”
After my first week, I’m pumped to say that not only was I wrong, but “Destiny” is easily one of the best games I’ve played. As of this writing, I managed to climb to level 10 and that keeps rising. I have a lingering fear of what happens when I hit the current level cap of 20 — my gut tells me that will mean grinding, but I’ll worry about that when the time comes.
Check back with “High Score Gaming” in about a week for the second part of my “Destiny” review! In the mean time, I want to hear about your experiences!
What have you thought of “Destiny” so far? Did it meet your expectations? What do you like / dislike about it? Leave a comment below, or email me at [email protected] and let me know what you think!