7 / 10

Gallery: Destiny review (PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360) Gallery Gallery: Destiny review (PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360) + 6

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When I first saw Destiny, Activision and Bungie's wildly ambitious space opera, like many I was at a loss for how to describe it, or what to expect from it.

With its sci-fi trappings, fallen Earth backstory and mix of first-person shooter action, loot grabbing, and RPG levelling mechanics, the closest comparison was 2K's Borderlands franchise, though Destiny seemed to lack the sense of humour. Having spent a few days with the game under real conditions, I'm sticking with my original assessment. However, while the similarities are undeniable, there's plenty more going on that makes this a worthwhile experience in its own right.


After three years of build up, Destiny's lore is already well-known by those who've been following its development, many no doubt attracted by Bungie's pedigree from having created Halo. In short though, centures in the future, humanity's expansion into the cosmos is spurred by the discovery of a colossal sphere called the Traveller. That golden era has ended though, with the arrival of the Darkness, forcing the Traveller and humanity to retreat to one last city on Earth. You, as a resurrected Guardian gifted powers by the mysterious orb, must venture out into what remains to look for answers.

While deeply serious fare, it's delivered with the po-faced solemnity of a dictatorial LARPer trying to get players to pay attention to his event plot. For

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Destiny's purposes, it works well enough though, a storytelling structure allowing the player the freedom and openness of an MMO -- fitting, since that's the final ingredient in

Destiny's gumbo of influences.


Mission: single-player possible

Your early missions, after being brought back to life by the Peter Dinklage-voiced Ghost drone, are largely single-player experiences, getting you used to the controls, the character management systems, the abilities on offer. It teaches you who to speak to at The Tower, where the game pulls out the third-person perspective for you to revel in your customised appearance, in order to get missions and weapons from. After that, it's more or less up to you how Destiny plays out, and to what extent its MMO elements begin to take over.

Story missions take you around the solar system, unlocking the mysteries of the downfall. This is when Destiny makes one of its unimpeachable merits clear -- it is a staggeringly gorgeous game. From the desolation of Old Russia and the swampy ruins of Old Chicago on Earth, to the alien vistas of Venus and Mars, the art direction simply cannot be faulted. Every location offers unspoken clues as to the horrors that occured when the Traveller fell, monuments to fallen civilisations that are achingly beautiful in their emptiness. Just wandering around the setting provides as much story background as you get from the more directly narrative-focussed moments. Similarly, enemy designs are faultless, a mix of extra-terrestrial horrors with distinct features and social characteristics to each of them.

You can play the entire game solo, if you wish. Key missions creep up on your map with satisfying regularity, and while you may not be the recommended level when they appear, scouring the open areas will provide random Patrol missions to earn experience to progress in the narrative. But Destiny is a game that wants you to play with others. It's an intrinsically social experience, inescapably so. Like Guild Wars or its ilk, everyone you'll see who isn't an enemy is another human player. You're always in the shared world, but free to take part in it as much as you want. Create or join a fireteam to challenge missions co-op, the difficulty scaling appropriately; join in or ignore randomly generated group battles against giant enemies in the wider environment; take part in more conventional PVP multiplayer through the tournament-based Crucible. Weirdly, for an FPS, the player base seems remarkably friendly, at least so far.

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Even in versus areas, there's none of the expected bad behaviour of online shooters. It's almost alarmingly pleasant.


Gunner love the weapons

As a shooter, it's hard to find fault with Destiny. It has all the precision, speed, and excitement players expect from the developers. Even early weapons offer plenty of variety, allowing you to modify your play style to favour sniping over assault, or beam weapons over shotguns. Your loadout expands at a good pace, leaving you with a standard, special, and heavy weapon in relatively short order. Unlike Halo, the abilities you'll gain really mix the play up though. It starts small -- your melee attack is more of a telekinetic force slam, while grenades recharge over time. Other, more powerful talents will differ depending on class, but level up enough and you'll be unleashing super-powered hell on the likes of the Fallen and the Hive in fine form.

Destiny does at least try to stop you from relying too heavily on these skills, most replenishing with X number of kills, but this can be sped up with appropriate armour buffs. Customisation is key, with level-based armour and weapons offering aesthetic as well as martial improvements. It's another example of the MMO, with higher level characters visually more striking for the efforts as well as more powerful. It's easy to spot more advanced players in the field, and not just from the level number indicator above their heads.

It's incredibly simple to invite friends or random players to join your own fireteam too, so those who don't want to be alone won't be for long. The downside to the always-on nature is there's no pause -- a nightmare if the phone rings in the middle of a frenzied shootout.

Okay, so what's NOT good?

However, unlike MMOs, the only path to progression is shooting stuff. Understandable -- Destiny isn't advertised or intended to be an MMO in the conventional sense -- but it does soon begin to feel a slightly hollow experience. All the Patrol missions I've encountered, all the bounties picked up on the Tower, all the story missions, everything becomes some variant on "go kill a bajillion things". Even when the target is to collect items, they're dropped by dead enemies. There's tremendous scope for Destiny to do more, without abandoning its identity as a shooter. Stealth missions, no-kill recons, even races on the speeder bikes players have access to could add much needed variety.

There also felt to be a matter of balance between the three player classes. In principle, Hunter, Titan, and Warlock all offer minor variations on skills and abilities. In practise, the Warlock's eventual array of powers felt far more rewarding and appropriate to use in battle than anything the other classes offered. Simple personal preference? Perhaps; likely even. But I didn't have half the fun playing the other two as I did with the Warlock, which has become my main character, nor did I feel much incentive to put as much time into them.


The biggest problem Destiny faces is that, despite the technical magnificence of blending its shooter, MMO, and RPG components into a cohesive whole, and delivering a lag-free online experience, it doesn't really feel like anything new. Strip away the polish, the finesse, the dazzle -- of which there's plenty -- and you're left with a few new ways to shoot dudes in the face. Or alien bug monsters who may not technically have faces in the traditional sense, but you get the idea. It feels as though Bungie has tried to catch lightning in a bottle again, but that's rarely a feat that happens by design. Halo became a phenomenon through word of mouth as much as marketing. Will the same be said for Destiny, a decade on?

Conclusion

To an extent, it scarcely matters. The game has already recouped its $500m development budget, giving developer and publisher alike reason and confidence to move forward on expansions and sequels. It deserves them, as well -- as shooters go, it's hard to fault, and its world and lore does beg to be explored further. Let's just hope that involves a touch more creativity and experimentation than is on display here.

Destiny doesn't quite live up to the hype, but that it's as enjoyable as it is in spite of those impossible expectations speaks to its overall quality.