Destiny is Bungie’s long-awaited follow-up to their hit first-person-shooter franchise Halo. After leaving Master Chief and his fellow Spartans in the care of 343 Industries, Bungie set out to create a new shooter that mixed elements from single-player, story-driven shooters and massively multiplayer online role-playing games to create a title that includes the best of both. In many ways, the studio has succeeded in doing just that, creating a unique fusion that features the same solid mechanics that gamers have come to expect from them and the dynamic elements of a connected world. However, in several surprising aspects, the always-on shooter comes up short.
The player’s sense of place in Destiny is one of the most un-Bungie-like aspects of the game. Going back to the studio’s earliest series, from Marathon to Myth, they made it a point to focus on the narrative and how the player interacts with an otherwise static world. The studio would enrich their titles by supplementing their solid mechanics with an emphasis on story that was matched by few of their contemporaries. This tradition continued with Halo, which has since dwarfed their earlier efforts but clearly bears the signs of the lessons learned from each. It seemed like a given that Destiny would follow suit, offering gamers a rich single-player experience that was enhanced by the energy provided by a dynamic world teeming with players from around the globe. The beginning suggests just that. Booting up the game hints at yet another lore-rich universe, with top-shelf storytelling seemingly right around the corner. The music is expectedly grand, the graphics lush, and the interface sleek and futuristic; it’s like the moment is at hand, the time when the studio ushers in a new age of shooters. But the moment never comes.
Unlike its previous decade-plus of providing stellar single-player experiences, Bungie has opted to go a more minimalistic route with Destiny. As a Guardian, players are brought back to life by a floating robot called a Ghost, voiced by actor Peter Dinklage, who warns them that they are both in great danger. After a daring escape, the player learns that humanity is on the brink of collapse after a period of prosperity called the Golden Age. A giant white sphere, the Traveler, appeared one day near Earth and bestowed upon mankind the ability to live far longer and travel far further than ever before. An ancient evil referred to only as the Darkness was drawn to this progress and the Traveler’s presence, and in retribution against the Traveler caused a cataclysm (the Collapse), which cut off Earth from its other-world colonies. At the point which the player is reawakened as a dark Elvish Awoken, Human, or robotic Exo, Earth and humanity are on the verge of being completely overrun by an alien race called The Fallen. The Fallen are not alone, though, as other aliens have stepped in to take over man’s former holdings, including the Cabal, giant rhino-like beasts with affinity for Roman titles; Hive, a race akin to subterranean zombie insects; and Vex, a race of cyborgs comprised of mostly mechanical parts that share a hive mind. All that remains is a lone city under the protection of the ever-present, hovering Traveler. As a Guardian, it’s the player’s duty as a Hunter, Warlock, or Titan to safeguard the Traveler while taking back and securing Earth, Mars, the Moon, and Venus.
Destiny’s narrative pillars are vague from the outset, and they remain so throughout with little revealed about man’s Golden Age, the origins of the mysterious giant sphere, or the nebulous Darkness. That is not necessarily a shortfall, however, given the wide berth the genre allows science-fiction authors to indulge in the mysteries of what-ifs and far-off possibilities, offering the flexibility to be enigmatic while still delivering a satisfying story. That won’t hold true for every player, of course, but on my end, I much prefer the ethereal wonder of the Monolith in the film version of 2001 over its use as an interesting tool in the novel. A key component is that any revelation has to be delivered in such a compelling manner so that the trade of opaqueness for intrigue is fair and satisfying for the player; instead of being confusing or half-hearted, it should be enigmatic and enthralling. That is not the case with Destiny.
The story propels the single-player campaign but amounts to little more than a few lines of dialog between the player and either the Ghost or the Traveler’s Earthly emissary, the Speaker. The new races are introduced as players make their way from Earth to the Moon, and from there to Venus and eventually Mars. As a means of sending the player to different planets to unlock missions, the story is serviceable, but it falls far, far below the studio’s previous titles. The mystery that should have added an air of excitement to the events ends up turning in on the narrative, making it feel hollow. The dialog is similarly uninteresting, with a lot of grave talk about taking back planets and victory, but it feels as if it could be used in any number of other shooters; even Peter Dinklage is unable to inject the sort of energy needed to maintain interest. Save for a few snappy lines of banter, Ghost is more useful as a tool than a somewhat-sentient sidekick. Something akin to an actual, meaty plot in which the player can become engaged doesn’t appear until the player meets the Awakened’s queen, which is just about when the story begins to wrap up. Bungie might have some wonderful things in store for the characters and factions within the universe of Destiny, but that was not delivered here. All that the player is left with after 15 or so hours are a bunch of Grimoire cards, which shoehorn much of the lore and background information into a database of digital cards only viewable through a web browser or downloadable app.
Destiny does excel in one very important area, however: gameplay. Granted, the game frequently finds itself stumbling into the same pitfalls that other massively multiplayer games have been finding themselves in since Ultima Online and EverQuest, but there are some great ideas at work here and the action is second to none. In fact, in terms of pure mechanics, from shooting to jumping to utilizing the upgradable powers, Destiny easily surpasses Halo. The guns all have a hefty weight to them, and the slight floatiness of movement common to Master Chief is gone, replaced with tight run-and-gun controls and a multi-jump ability that offers numerous ways to improve. The missions might not always be engaging, but that didn’t stop me from playing for hours on end.
Before becoming the ultimate Guardian badass, players must create said Guardian. The process is pretty light by role-playing standards, with the race (no effect on stats), class, and physical appearance being determined before setting foot on Earth. The classes break down along standard fantasy lines, with Hunters being rangers, Titans being warriors, and Warlocks being mages (or, if you prefer, warlocks). Each has an initial skill set based on one of three element types—Arc, Solar, and Void—as well as a second, independently leveling set that unlocks later; they are also swappable during combat. Appearance options range from skin color to hair styles, but the models have a slightly creepy mannequin look to them. Armor typically covers most players, so the soullessness of the models is thankfully often obscured. The gear itself looks nice, and the kit, along with the weapons, vehicles, and architecture, is suitably Halo-like, though with a better mixture of earth tones and pastels. Structures, like the environments, aren’t overly detailed but are stylish; backgrounds often look very nice as well, with huge volcanos, massive buildings, and planets dominating the skyline. Once fully armored, the player’s Guardian will cut an imposing figure regardless of whether they’re in front of a towering, dilapidated skyscraper or in a rundown office building.
The early missions do a good job acclimating players to the style of missions they can expect to find on all of the planets. A series of story missions offer some explanation as to the current situation in that sector, which often involves multiple warring alien factions. These will be enough to level at a modest pace, but to accelerate the process, players can opt to go on patrol missions and strike missions. Patrol missions are the easiest way to grind for experience and gear, but they are also the most tedious as they comprise a handful of generic tasks: scan an environment, kill a set amount of enemies, scout a location, etc. These are repeated on every single planet, and as it is with every other MMO’s choice of busy work, they quickly wear out their welcome. Story missions are similarly repetitive with most following the same pattern of fighting to a point and then fending off waves of enemies as Ghost scans or decrypts something or reinforcements are called in. Fortunately, there are the more exciting and much longer strike missions. These set a three-player fireteam against an extended multi-objective mission, which are often much more difficult than patrol missions and ostensibly more rewarding. I say ostensibly because, given the game’s erratic loot system, that’s not always the case.
Every character starts with a basic loadout after the initial escape sequence, consisting of a helmet, breast plate, boots, and gauntlets. There are is also a slot for class-specific decorative gear and options for selecting different emblems and new color shades. Players also receive a spaceship to travel between planets and a land-based craft (a Star Wars-style speeder) for faster surface travel. Gaining better kit is similar to Borderlands and MMOs in that it largely comes from defeated enemies and bosses as well as in the form of quest rewards. Shops sell lower-level gear for new players, which is helpful in the beginning, but the best stuff comes from spending time on the battlefield. There are loot chests, but they are far more rare than in other titles and, in my experience, almost always a disappointment. And when it comes to the game’s loot, players are bound to be disappointed.
Destiny utilizes a random distribution system when doling out rewards during story missions and online play. This sounds interesting, and it is, until the player is the one left in the lurch. Despite trudging through a hard mission solo or putting on a stellar performance in multiplayer, the player could end up with a piece of junk or, even worse, absolutely nothing for their efforts. At least junk can be sold for glitter, the in-game currency. Glitter can be put towards something more tangible, such as better gear early on and better vehicles; granted, the other ships are unfortunately only cosmetically different, but at least new land-based vehicles feature better controls and weaponry. To add salt to the wound, the better gear, ranked as uncommon, rare, legendary, or exotic, will often need to be decrypted by the city’s Cryptarch, Master Rahool, to become accessible. This cruel madman is one of the most reviled individuals in the game because he will occasionally return common gear despite the item’s being marked it as special. This is one of the most bizarre approaches to loot that I have ever encountered, and it intentionally undermines one of the most enjoyable aspects, if not only of the few enjoyable aspects, of repeating the same mission ad nausea: the chance to attain something incredibly cool. To think that a Rare sniper rifle or Legendary helmet is mere moments away from being added to the inventory and end up with a common pistol of little worth—well, “enraging” is probably more accurate than “disappointing.” This also affects the higher-level game as traditional experience stops at level 20. Powers, weapons, and gear will continue to level with use, but the Guardian can only level by acquiring and wearing gear enhanced with Light, which makes decrypting high-end items all the more important. Leveling is far from impossible past 20, but it’s also more time-consuming than it should be.
Yet the lure of killer gear remains, and it’s always a celebratory event when a legendary item appears in the rewards column. There are two chances to receive a reward at the end of each event, and with players capable of equipping three weapons in addition to their armor—a primary, a secondary weapon, and a special weapon—there are plenty of opportunities to walk away with something good. Grenades are a special case, as these are eventually unlocked by each class as the ability to throw an explosive projectile. Weapon types include revolvers, heavy machine guns, rocket launchers, sniper rifles, shotguns, and auto rifles. The bigger weapons—the heavy machine guns and rocket launchers—are reserved for the special-weapon slot while any of the other types can be assigned to the primary or secondary slots. An odd aside: all weapons within a slot share the same ammo, so switching from an empty weapon to a previously equipped and loaded one will not result in having an armed weapon, which was a habit that I found difficult to break. But getting a new weapon is only the start, as each decent one has several upgrades that slowly unlock during play. After an upgrade becomes available, and the requisite materials (attained by breaking down unwanted weapons or as a reward) and glimmer are in hand, the weapon is then upgraded with a stat-tweaking enhancement that will result in anything from greater damage to less recoil. Additional properties can be modified as well, such as adding an automatic function to a semiautomatic rifle. Armor is upgraded in a similar manner, except they have such modifiers as absorbing more damage or decreasing grenade recharge time with successful melee attacks. It’s a very addictive system that leads to a steady trickle of upgrades, and the fact that every weapon feels extremely satisfying to use makes the possibility of a new modifier all the more reason to continue playing.
Of course, there are also the all-important class-based upgrades. These drastically change the pace of the game and make it far more enjoyable than I had anticipated. For example, I chose to be a warlock, which allowed me to unlock abilities for unleashing a short-range melee attack that siphoned any killed enemy’s health and another that caused them to explode—an awesome combination. The thrill of knocking back a weaker enemy into a group of others and killing them all with the resulting explosion never got old. By utilizing the Void element, my grenades also had the ability to draw enemies in, continuously damaging all caught within range of the pull, and I gained the ability to double jump while gliding. In fact, gliding become a significant part of my strategy, as I mastered the ability to cancel a glide and then immediately re-engage another double jump after hitting the ground, allowing me to cover large distances and throw enemies off. By fully utilizing each class’ powers, along with an extended sprint and ability to slide, the game becomes thrilling in a way unmatched in recent memory. That’s especially the case with versus multiplayer, known as the Crucible, which was a blast regardless of mode—deathmatch, team deathmatch, or zones. An equalization mechanic is in place to ensure that matches are fair due to the wide range of player levels, but there were still plenty of one-shot kills due to weapon differences that were frustrating, but not enough to serious deter from the sheer enjoyment of versus play. All told, Bungie absolutely nailed the integration of powers and firearms, and the tight controls and sense of movement and fluidity is outstanding.
The levels are also well designed, though they aren’t as large as they initially appear and are buffered with some awkwardly placed invisible walls. I was actually surprised at the height differences throughout the areas, as there were times when I could perch on a high edge to snipe enemies but found myself being pushed down when trying to glide to another nearby cliff, even if it was slightly lower. The playable areas would be a more acceptable size if there were more spots to explore, but they feature very few nooks, crannies, or side paths. Players are also always dropped in the same spot, which makes the worlds seem far smaller than they should. Areas also lack the liveliness found in other MMO-type titles, as most of the other creatures will be enemies milling around on patrol or spawning in as reinforcements. Other players will appear running here and there, but never in large numbers, and since interaction is minimal, they do little to provide a sense of connection to the worlds. Their presence also limits the amount the world can react to the player because of the shared state, so bullets and explosions have no impact on the shelves, windows, walls, etc., causing a further sense of disconnect. Without the normal trade-off of a busy world to offset the lack of interactivity, the areas lack a strong draw. There are times when the world does feel alive and as if the game is taking advantage of the presence of others, and that’s during instance events. These are similar to those in Guild Wars 2, with players being alerted to something happening nearby, usually a creepy shadow being cast overhead, and a time limit for them to reach the zone and take part in what’s about to happen. These usually draw in other nearby players, and for the next few minutes, a makeshift fireteam forms to battle back waves of enemies. As with the patrol missions, though, there aren’t many different types of these, though I still took part in every one I came across and look forward to how Bungie expands this in the future.
The versus maps are also well designed, offering vantage points for tossing grenades, sniping, and holding down positions for teammates to rush in. The ability to teleport, glide, and slide not only made for really fast sessions but played well with the various crumbling structures, elevated platforms, tunnels. The numerous powers also encouraged maximizing cover and discovering alternate routes, in addition to adding a chaotic element that kept matches interesting.
As with the Xbox 360 version, I ran into some untimely disconnects. Again, these weren’t frequent but did occur several times, as did the connection failing to initialize. Checkpoints within the missions and the game retaining earned items minimized the resulting frustrations, however. On a positive note, I wasn’t disconnected during a Daily Heroic Story as I was with the Xbox 360 version, leaving the sessions with new loot plus the bonus reputation and marks. Reputation and marks allow access to high-end items sold by the elite Vanguard Guard NPCs (and Crucible-centric Factions), so acquiring as much as possible is important, especially during the post-level-20 game. This version was also free of the framerate dips that I encountered with its less-stable counterpart, which isn’t a surprise given the extra power, but those making the upgrade later will appreciate the improved performance.
Overall: 8/10
Destiny isn’t the ground-breaking fusion of single-player and massively multiplayer combat that many anticipated, but it remains a very enjoyable game. Thanks largely to the mechanics, a combination of excellent gunplay, fast action, and varied powers buoy some unimaginative missions and a barebones story. A great versus multiplayer component adds longevity to a title that would otherwise find its way back onto the shelf, but thanks to its MMO influences, it has the kind of staying power to see it remain in play while Bungie continues to expand the universe, hopefully adding some much-needed life in the process.
(This review is based on a copy provided by the publisher.)