5/10
In general, I have to say that Destiny looked to be one of the most hyped-up video games of all time. Everywhere I went, I would see advertisements for Destiny. Exactly two weeks after the game’s release, the time I am currently writing this review, the game has already become a household name. Everyone knows what Destiny is. However with a $500 million budget, was it worth it? For Activision and Bungie, yes it was because of how much the game sold. For the players? Not so much.
I think I can safely say that 2014 has been all about hype. Watch_Dogs and Destiny were these two extremely over-hyped games which both turned out to be nothing special and therefore disappointing to consumers everywhere. When we are promised something so much grander than we receive, we tend to be disappointed. That’s just how it works.
The thing is though, Destiny does a lot of things right. But it also does so much wrong. Let’s jump right into the review.
Destiny is supposed to be a large-scale MMO experience and when I played the closed and open Beta, it was apparent to me that all the hype was for nothing. Many people expected a Fallout or Elder Scrolls type of experience except with Halo-Style combat. Except what we got, at least in my opinion, is a dumbed-down Borderlands (without all the clever writing and humor) mixed with refined Halo gunplay. One of those attributes of the game that I just mentioned is a good thing however (Hint: It’s the latter). And because of what we received, compared to what many were expecting to get out of the game, I can definitely see why many are disappointed.
But there’s more.
Now I say “dumbed-down Borderlands” for a reason. Destiny takes the openness of Borderlands and completely demolishes it by only providing four different maps, each a fairly medium size with not too much exploration, which Bungie decided to call “planets.” This is where the missions of Destiny take place. The planets so far consist of Earth, Moon, Venus, Mars, and each of them have about five story missions. It would have been interesting to see different parts of each of the planets for each mission but instead all we get is the same re-hashed map to play for every single mission on each planet. For example, there are five missions on Mars, so every time I start a new mission I will end up in the same map every single time except for the variations of objectives which mostly consist of “Defeat enemies here” and then “Scan that thing over there.”
But the thing is however, at least in the first few hours, the repetitiveness did not get to me because of how smooth and fun shooting in Destiny is. However, that did not last forever. The game continues to repeat itself and every mission turns into the same layout: Go to objective, fight enemies, scan thing, fight enemies, scan thing, fight enemies, fight boss. And that is what Destiny can essentially be described as.
Now, what are the missions for exactly? The story of course! The thing is however, the storytelling in Destiny is absolutely atrocious. It took me about a week to play through the story, sinking about 8-9 hours into story missions and 20 hours total gametime, and in the end I still had no idea what the story was about. Who is my character? What am I fighting for? I understand that the game is an RPG experience, and it does have some cool RPG elements that I will discuss later, but never once did I feel so invested into my character and his motives. Destiny is supposed to be an MMOFPS experience and in every single MMO I have played, I felt invested in who my character was such as in games like Guild Wars 2 or Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. Even in great single player RPGs, I tend to feel immersed into the story, the lore, and my own character and his or her path like in games such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Pokemon, Darksiders II, or even Dark Souls.
Essentially, however, the story is that you take on the role as Earth’s last hope (as well as the other millions of players) of survival from an ancient alien race (It’s the Leviathans!). The problem is though, the story just turns out to be extremely generic and not exactly a focus for Destiny.
There are collectibles in Destiny which include over fifty “Dead Ghosts” that can be found all over any of the maps, including The Tower. And to be honest, some of them are placed in very clever and hard to reach places. There are also five golden loot cases hidden in each planet which are not as well-hidden but still a challenge to find sometimes. There is an achievement/trophy that may be unlocked when finding fifty “Dead Ghosts”
The RPG elements that Destiny brings to the table are limited but definitely welcome. You are allowed to choose from three different classes: Titan, Hunter, Warlock. The primary difference between these two classes are the upgrade abilities and the special super move that can only be used once charged up after a period of time. As you level up, you are able to upgrade your character’s abilities. At a higher level, you may also unlock another ability-set where you can unlock new abilities completely than your character’s old ability-set, which is the one you start off with.
The character customization is a neat feature as well and though it is not expansive as many other RPG titles, it feels complete for what it is offering. The races you may choose one consist of a human, an Awoken (esentially Destiny’s “elf”), or an Exo (a robot). And each of these races come with their own customization features from paint to tattoos and all that good stuff.
Destiny relies a lot on its menu because it isn’t the open world experience many were hoping for. To select every mission, you must go into “orbit” (the menu) and use your analog sticks, which work as a mouse here, to select every single location or mission you want to go to. The game definitely feels like it should have been released on PC. The problem with this is the fact that this really diminishes the feeling of being in an MMO or RPG game and leaves me feeling that it as an ordinary FPS game, which in the end it is. I don’t spend time in Skyrim selecting what mission I want to do in a menu but I do for games such as Halo or Call of Duty.
A location you will go to a lot in Destiny is The Tower. The Tower is where all the magic happens. The Tower is where you may buy new equipment, weapons, “Destiny callsigns”, emblems, etc. Here you may also buy bounties and set them up, five at a time, and whenever a bounty is completed the player receives any extra XP or any other rewards stated. For example, if a bounty says “Kill 100 enemies with headshots” and I do so, I must return back to The Tower and return my bounty to receive my extra XP.
A neat feature Destiny has is its engram system. Engrams are these mysterious weapon or equipment items which are unknown to the user unless they are taken to the Cryptarch located at The Tower to be unveiled. These are loot which can be found in any mission. And that brings me to the loot system of Destiny which is absolutely…mediocre at best. The reason why Borderlands loot works so well is the fact that there are so many weapons. Destiny has the problem time and time again that it wants to be so much more than what it actually is. Destiny’s looting system pretty much works with the engrams and any other weapons/equipment you find while doing random missions, which leads to a whole lot of grinding.
The soft level-cap for Destiny is at Level 20. This can be achieved with only XP. However to get higher than level 20, you must find any equipment with the “Light” attribute in it. For example, if level 21 requires me to have “15 Light” equipped and I find a helmet with “15 Light”, I will move on to Level 21. This may also work for example if I find a helmet with “5 Light” and chest armor with “10 Light” ; The total “Light” is what needs to be accumulated to move on after Level 20. And once again, this leads to a whole bunch of grinding and therefore a whole bunch of repetitiveness in the game.
Another cool element about Destiny is the upgradable weapons and equipment. Each piece of equipment/weapon you find is upgradable and these upgrades can be unlocked the more you use them. Even though you may find a weapon that has exactly the same stats as the one you were using before, it is always interesting to see the different upgrades your new weapon has compared to your old one. Finding new weapons and armor, while checking the upgrades, kept me switching my equipment and weapons around a lot until I hit level 20 where the game just got slower while I grinded for Light armor, repeating the same missions over and over.
Playing Destiny Co-op however is definitely some of the most fun I have had playing a game in a long time and that is by far, my favorite part of the game. There really are not a lot of fun co-op games nowadays, especially in the big AAA First-Person Shooter games industry anymore, like with Call of Duty or Battlefield. So Destiny’s co-op feels fresh again even though it definitely isn’t. The game is still essentially “Go to objective, fight enemies, scan thing, fight enemies, scan thing, fight enemies, fight boss” but it’s fun with friends because at least after I beat all the enemies, I can go take a few steps back and make my character dance with everyone else’s. And the thing is, even though the core of Destiny feels repetitive and uninspired a lot of the times, it was always fun to go out and do some missions or PvP with a couple friends even though many missions are capped at a three-man Fireteam which got annoying sometimes.
As flawed as many aspects of the game are, one thing can definitely be said without a doubt. The game looks gorgeous. Even while running at a capped 30 frames per second, that did not effect my experience of enjoying the beautiful art style of Destiny. Each of the planets, though the maps are reused continuously like I said, look unique in their own way and they all look absolutely great. The character designs also look great (and pretty badass too) and sometimes I was having a mental conflict with myself, deciding whether I wanted better stats or for my character to just look awesome. The sound design in Destiny is great too with an appropriate sci-fi score and music that sounds just so grand, even for a video game coming out in 2014.
For the most part, many modern-day First Person shooters rely on their PvP (Player vs. Player) game modes for replayability. And I have to say that coming from Bungie the PvP, or The Crucible as it is called in-game, is definitely one of Destiny’s stronger attributes. The Crucible (I’m calling it this now because it’s actually a pretty cool name to be honest) has basic multiplayer game modes such as Control (Domination), Clash (Team Deathmatch), Rumble (Free-For-All), and Skirmish (Team Deathmatch with revives). There are also some game modes which are available for a short period of time and are continuously switched out, or that is what it seems it will be like in the future. Each of The Crucible game modes are fun and seem balanced, given the fact that all weapons damage and equipment defense are normalized for each player, giving no one an advantage. The Crucible definitely adds more replay ability to the game and is the primary reason why I will keep coming back to it.
So Destiny does a lot right but at the same time does a whole lot wrong. It is definitely not what people expected and that delves into the topic of game expectations and the inevitable overhype. Destiny definitely should have been a more expansive experience and maybe in due time, with the addition of all the future expansions, it will add to the overall experience. But for now, Destiny is a game that I would recommend you play with friends for minimal fun but in the end, Destiny just falls short.
