As you may have heard, Bungie refused to hand out pre-release copies of Destiny to journalists, with the developer claiming that this would lead to reviews that were unrepresentative of its new FPS/MMO/RPG hybrid. This kind of announcement always concerns me, as in the past it has more often than not indicated that a game’s publisher is concerned about it getting negative reviews ahead of its launch. One need only look at EA’s The Sims 4 as evidence that more often than not, if the press aren’t given access to a game before the time it reaches store shelves, it’s because the publisher is afraid that its ratings are going to fall below expectations.
Related: Destiny Review – Star Bores
Now that I’ve got my hands on Destiny, though, and have spent a reasonable amount of time in the game, I feel that I am in a position to point out its strengths and weaknesses I have picked up on. Here’s my first impressions of the good, the bad and the ugly bits of Destiny.
The Good
- Its amazing presentation. While you wouldn’t expect much less from literally the most expensive game ever made, its art design and visual style are second-to-none for a game of this nature, which is still an impressive feat no matter how much money has been piled into it. The terrain is beautifully rendered, with moon rocks and craters looking as realistic as they possibly could on the current-gen hardware, the enemies each boast memorable designs and the awe-inspiring skyboxes have Bungie written all over them. Bungie has created a beautiful, organic world in Destiny, and the love and care that has been put into it oozes from out of it. The same can be said of the sound effects and musical composition, which are some of the best in video game history.
- A well-tuned leveling system. I hate the Prestige Mode mechanic so frequently implemented into first-person shooters because it just feels so redundant. Spending all that time pouring hours into a game, only to be rewarded by having your progress essentially deleted and replaced by a nice little emblem to put next to your name? No thanks. Fortunately, Destiny leans more towards the RPG side of things with its leveling system, with you simply acquiring more cool weaponry and armor to suit your player-character with as you progress. You gain XP for the sole purpose of improving your avatar, not to impress your friends who a superfluous badge to plop next to your PSN ID/Gamertag.
- Diablo-esque progression. Which brings me to one of my favorite aspects of Destiny: its surprising similarities with Diablo. Obviously its gameplay is nothing like Blizzard’s dungeon crawler, but its progression system shares much of the same ethos. There’s a huge amount of focus on upgrading your character’s equipment rather than the usual RPG mechanic of spending points to upgrade their base stats. Much like Diablo, there is no way of upgrading these stats other than buying/earning better weaponry and armor, which ensures that there will always be something to do in Destiny‘s endgame. Many complained about the game’s level 20 cap being far too low, but unlike most RPGs/MMOs Destiny only really gets started when you reach that cap, as that’s when you can go on Raids with your friends and begin to unlock some of the game’s best loot.
- Free mode. Giving players the ability to explore each planet of their own free will is a great way of increasing Destiny‘s longevity on Bungie’s behalf. Outside of the main story missions there’s still a huge amount of stuff to see and do in the game, with Bungie littering each world with collectibles and bonus events to keep players occupied for a long time to come.
- Strikes. I haven’t reached the level cap yet so I can’t pass judgement on Raids (though I’ve heard nothing but good things), but Strikes are very fun in their own right, too. Essentially more difficult and lengthier co-op missions, Strikes see your three-man Fireteam embarking upon a 15-20 minute mission (depending upon your level – me and two friends played a mission with enemies 4 levels above us, which took us a grueling hour to complete) that offer a greater level of challenge than the typical co-op missions. These missions require no small degree of tactics to be put in place in order to complete them, with you frequently having to communicate with your friends in order to overcome the variety of difficult enemies that will be thrown at you.
- Server Reliability. I have to admit that I was expecting Destiny‘s servers to crumble under the pressure of its huge launch, but there have been very few complaints so far. Good job, Bungie.
- The Crucible. Though Destiny features a robust co-op experience, that doesn’t mean that they’ve forgotten about PvP. The Crucible is likely where you’ll spend a lot of your time after you’ve reached the level cap (outside of the aforementioned Raids), and while it isn’t exactly an innovative addition to the FPS genre, it’s a lot of fun nonetheless. More modes become available to the player as they continue to level up, and thus far I’ve only experienced Control, Clash and the Iron Banner (which I played in the beta) modes, so I can’t give a more well-rounded view of everything that’s on offer. However, from what I have played it’s certainly enjoyable, with Control in particular offering some intense firefights with opponents as each team attempts to take control of three points of the map.
- Social interaction. In many respects, Destiny made me feel like I was playing a character in an episode of Firefly. Venturing around the galaxy with my Fireteam, completing missions and hunting for rare items before heading back to the Tower and buying some more wares – Destiny really taps into that feeling of escapism which makes us love video games so much. Even the little details such as one member of your Fireteam being the leader of your fleet, guiding you to your next destination before you watch your ships fly to their objective, all stand to make it a great game to experience with friends. I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun with a console multiplayer game.
Destiny’s a great deal of fun when playing with friends, but going in alone is considerably less enjoyable.
The Bad
- The Crucible’s activity rewards. The activity rewards that are unlocked after a match in the Crucible seem to be handed out almost at random. Despite me and two of my friends frequently taking the top three slots on the leaderboard, we’d find that those who had underperformed in the match would be rewarded with goodies and we’d be left with nothing. While I’m sure that a definitive system is in place to decide who gets to take the rewards home after a match, that doesn’t prevent it from being annoying when you find yourself carrying one or two of your teammates, only for them to receive the best loot afterwards seemingly as a result of your efforts.
- The story (or lack thereof). Destiny‘s story isn’t exactly terrible, but by the same token it isn’t memorable, either. In fact, I’m still not really sure what my objective is in its world, other than to kill all of the ugly things in the galaxy. There’s a mysterious woman who pops up every now and again without saying a single word, but other than that it’s solely Destiny‘s gameplay that keeps me coming back for more, not its barely-there plot.
- Peter Dinklage. I’ve heard people say that Dinklage’s voiceover performance is now much better than it was in the beta, and while I’d agree that it has been improved upon (though that was hardly a difficult task) the Game of Thrones actor still sounds overwhelmingly bored in his role as your NPC companion Ghost. Perhaps that was what Dinklage was going for, what with Ghost being a floating robotic cube and all, but he sounds so unenthusiastic about everything happening around you that it only serves to irritate.
- Character customization. While you can make your player-character look distinctive using the weaponry and armor you pick up throughout the game, the options you’re given to change their actual physical appearance is a little lackluster. With you basically being given just a few face, skin, hair and style options, your character will never really look the way you want him/her to. It’s a small gripe considering they’ll spend the majority of the game wearing a helmet anyway, but I’d still like to customize my player-character a little more.
The world of Destiny looks beautiful, but it’d be more exciting to explore if it made the player care about its story.
The Ugly
- Playing solo. Destiny hasn’t been designed with solo play in mind, and it really shows. Attempting to complete a few story missions on my own was a dull and often frustrating experience, as the enemies are designed to be handled by a team of players rather than a lone Warlock. I would often find myself annoyingly swarmed by enemies in the crucial moments of a mission, turning firefights into exhausting battles of attrition rather than the kind of thrilling challenges so frequently offered in co-op. It was always Bungie’s intent for this to be a game you play with your friends, but it doesn’t prevent Destiny from becoming much less fun when you’re flying solo.
- No proximity chat. I never opt for in-game chat myself, but I know that there are those who do and who would have the opinion that proximity chat would greatly benefit the social aspect of Destiny. Being able to communicate with other players with nothing more than hand gestures/dance moves seems like a wasted opportunity.
- Fireteams limited to 3 players. I’ve still yet to think of a reason why Fireteams work best with 3 players and not 4. As someone who routinely plays video games online with a steady group of at least 4 people, it’s a shame that someone will almost always have to sit out whenever we want to play co-op missions. It’s difficult to imagine how Destiny‘s multiplayer could have been negatively impacted by ramping up the number of co-op players from 3 to 4, but as it stands the current limitations of your Fireteam are irritating.
- Weapon variety. The Halo series had some of the most iconic weaponry in FPS history, but Destiny features nothing of the sort. Bungie has really toned it down in this area, and it’s certainly a shame for those such as myself who enjoyed some of the more absurd weapons you could pick up in the Halo games. The only weapon that really stands out is a certain melee weapon you can get your hands on in one of the Moon’s story missions, though this is only available for a limited time. Destiny is lacking some of the campy absurdity of Halo, and I definitely miss it.
Early Conclusion
Considering its big-budget nature, Destiny is a surprisingly simple game that takes gameplay elements from a number of different genres and stuffs them inside its FPS chassis. It isn’t reliant upon the obnoxious, big-budget set-pieces we’ve come to expect from the genre, instead favoring to place the player and their small Fireteam in a variety of small-scale gunfights across its beautiful sci-fi landscapes. This makes it a different beast to what is typically available on the market in terms of triple-A shooting games, but despite this it doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel, instead choosing to give said wheel some shiny new rims and taking it out for a frequently thrilling test drive.
Also See: Why Destiny is So Popular
I’ve enjoyed the time I’ve spent with it so far, though I’ve had the benefit of playing it with a groups of friends. The single-player experience appears to be a different beast altogether, and it remains to be seen how negatively this will effect the gameplay in the long run. As it stands, though, Destiny‘s got a lot going for it and I’m excited to spend more time with it.
Our full Destiny review is being handled by our Gaming Editor Jonathan Leack and will be up soon. Be sure to stay tuned to CraveOnline for his verdict on the game.
