After years of anticipation, speculation and delays, Destiny has finally arrived. The heir to the massively successful Halo franchise has launched a remarkably fun game, but it’s not memorable.
The setting of Destiny is that of a massive alien sphere known as the Traveler. It appears in our solar system and allows mankind to flourish into a golden age of prosperity. Civilizations are built upon other planets and life seems swell until a force known as the Darkness, who has followed the Traveler, arrives and threatens to destroy everything.
Destiny is a massive multiplayer online game crossed with a shooter in the same vain as Borderlands. If you are familiar with Diablo, then the structure of Destiny will not be foreign.
You play as a Guardian, someone who can use the light of the Traveler to fight the Darkness by blasting every alien in sight to save the last city on Earth. To do so, players must traverse the ruins of the Moon, Venus and Mars to fight the alien hordes.
The story missions in destiny are fun to do, but seem to be very repetitive. Every mission involves the same linear structure that involves fighting an increasing number of enemies before battling a boss and collecting better gear and experience.
There doesn’t seem to be any motivation for any of your actions. Nothing seems imminent or pressing in any of the missions – just shoot stuff and continue.
Since the creators of Halo developed Destiny, the fact that it feels great should not be surprising. The shooting mechanics feel crisp and the overall controls feel great in wildly intense fights that get the adrenaline pumping at higher difficulties.
The absolute best moments of Destiny come from the strikes and raids. Destiny’s take on cooperative missions similar to those in other MMOs. The enemies are tougher, and the use of everyone’s abilities to work as a single unit brings the best out of the game. The tension of constantly fighting the boss with waves of smaller enemies swarming at you maintains an intensity that few games can duplicate.
Aside from story and co-op raids, you can take your character into the Crucible, the multiplayer section of Destiny. This section has the usual multiplayer style matches: death match, capture the flag, etc.
As the story of Destiny ends, the real fun begins. Once the level cap is reached, you can still find better gear that boosts your Light Rating which is based on armor and not traditional experience.
It’s quite a shame acquiring better gear and rare items are more fun than the story itself. The idea of sitting through 10 to 15 hours to get to the best part of the game is not appealing for most people, and even the best part is just repetition of the same missions, though the loot chase is addicting.
For a game that is slim on content, the overall experience still has me hooked.
