So I write this to generally give you an idea about the game and just give you an equal measure of its pros and cons.
So, Destiny is a game set on Earth in the future 28th century in a post-apocalypse world. After a big ol' white sphere called "The Traveller" has arrived and increased human knowledge tenfold by introducing them to better technology, the humans have conquered the farthest reaches of the galaxy and have prospered in a new "Golden Age."
Unfortunately, The Traveller brought about an event called "The Collapse" which was brought about by either an evil entity called The Darkness that can still be stopped/that can't be stopped/ the traveller trying to get rid of the Darkness.
So shit went down for three reasons that differ depending on various accounts, all of them vague, none of them described fully in-game.
Why can't we go fly to The Traveller? I don't know. What is The Traveller? I don't know. Why is this games story so incredibly straight-faced? I don't know at all.
In fact, story is fairly minimal in Destiny. There's just not a massive focus. Ask any Destiny player who they're fighting and why and you'll get an answer such as
- Aliens, because they're bad.
- Those dudes with robes and lots of arms.
- Killing things because I can progress through the game.
In Bungie's defence, you pick up Grimoire cards throughout the game which give you bits of lore on Bungie.net.
That's great and all, but for a game with a $500 million dollar budget, I'd like the option to read them in-game, between matchmaking on the multiplayer mode or just during downtime bits.
In any case, I made a Warlock class and started playing on my PS3 console. I had to do a bit of fiddling with my controller because whenever I melee attacked, the controller would disconnect from the charger, but that's hardly the games fault.
The first tutorial bits are very straightforward and it wasn't long until I'd got to the main hub of The Tower.
It feels very Warcraft meets Borderlands, without the humour of either. Harsh, but true. The writing is a bit strange, because this is an MMORPGFPS (Massive multiplayer online role playing game first person shooter.)
A Memorpegerfpeeyes, for the uninitiated amongst you.
So the game requires you to go back to previous planets and do things, so it can't have any sort of ultimatum on any of the planets. A big boss fight, yes. But nothing stupidly major.
You may have seen other reviews of Destiny online and seen that it's received very mediocre scores. And there's a reason for that.
The people who bought Destiny as an FPS are used to fast paced action sequences, cutscenes, a driving narrative and lots of Michael Bayish explosions.
The game can't do that, because it's an RPG.
The people who bought Destiny as an RPG, unless they've played Borderlands, are used to class-building, rich environments and a deep story.
The game can't do that, because it's an MMO.
People didn't particularly recognise the best of both worlds, but saw the worst of every single planet in the solar system.
At current, Destiny is a bit like Disneyworld. You go in, see the attractions, go on a little train to see all the different things the game has and then the ride is over. Don't forget to have your picture taken with Goofy.
Now if Destiny had procedurally generated, properly terraformed planets, with one big bad wolf in the centre attached somehow to the planetary core that would cause the planet to collapse if killed, NOW we'd be talking.
Players would literally have to run as the whole place collapsed or face falling into the void of space and not being able to log in for six hours or something funny.
If they had unique player upgrades that players received for doing quests instead of a constant gear overhaul, THEN we'd be talking.
If the game didn't act shitty and stop me from soloing bosses meant for three like I did in Borderlands 2 or pull shit like making Level 26 elites spawn in a place full of Level 12 goons and stop me from completing objectives whilst resisting all damage, THEN we'd be talking.
But we're not really talking, Destiny. We're muttering to each other and it all feels a bit of a formality.
As a final note, the graphics are lovely. However, the draw distance was disappointing and everything melds into clay to the point that I can't tell whether I'm looking at distant trees, distant rocks, distant spires or distant hot dog stands. If you spent $500 million, Bungie, I'm sorry to say that I didn't notice.
The combat is fun, especially smashing enemies to bits mid-jump or jumping over a building to nova blast a massive enemy into bits. (The five minute recharge makes it even more satisfying when it hits.)
I'll be updating as more stuff becomes available, I do a few more online bits, a few more raid bits and more is added to the game.
At the moment, only write home about it if you've got pretty stationary that you'd really like to use.
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