A couple of months ago, Bungie opened the floodgates and unleashed the open beta for Destiny, proudly showcasing their masterpiece to the public. It was just enough to get everybody on the edge of their seats and ready for the full version to hit the shelves. That time has finally come, and the servers are brought to life with thousands of players immersing themselves in the Destiny experience.
Considering the high expectations that Destiny had to uphold due to Bungie’s riotous success, something big had to be done. Something fresh, new and interesting to take the gaming world by storm. Destiny brings a unique spin on the average FPS, blending in character advancement, looting, and a huge variety of upgradeable weaponry.
Destiny blends campaign missions and multiplayer into one big, navigable world map, allowing the character to pilot their ship to any one of the many available PvP or PvE game modes. Every mission and mode in the game can be played with a fireteam, allowing the entire game to be played with friends. In fact, the game very obviously highly encourages the use of a fireteam for most missions. Reasonably so, as the campaign missions can get a bit hairy at times.
There are 3 different classes available for play; The Titan, the Warlock and the Hunter. They play the classic roles of Tank, Spellcaster, and Ranger, respectively. Each have greatly varying abilities and play styles. As you level up, you gain new skills unique to each class and passive abilities to help with damage output, reduce cooldowns, and enhance your character’s other traits. Equipment you acquire through gameplay is ranked from common to legendary. As you use your weapons and armor, they also gain passive abilities, new attachments, and many other upgrades.
Despite the undeniably Halo-like feel to the moving, shooting, and jumping, Destiny manages to wrestle away its own identity. The story is fantastic as well, weaving the tale of the Guardians with great voice acting and well-written dialog, some of it actually quite memorable. The futuristic theme of the game is fused wonderfully into the scenery as you explore deep jungles, huge deserts, and foreign planets, both on the multiplayer ‘Crucible mode’ maps and the campaign missions. It truly creates an atmosphere and brings you into the battlefields.
Destiny has definitely lived up to the hype. I also don’t see this one fizzling out any time soon, with 2 DLCs announced and in production. The multiplayer gives plenty of incentive to keep playing, such as a chance at the end of each match to get some random gear or grinding for crucible marks to get that coveted legendary gear. So far, it’s my game of the year, and I wish luck to any upcoming title that tries to take that role. Three cheers to Bungie for exceeding all expectations.
