While I am enjoying myself for the most part on my path to Destiny's elaborate endgame, I have to say the journey so far hasn't been quite as spectacular as I initially hoped.
I've been playing shooters my entire life, growing up with John Carmack's Catacomb before Wolfenstein andDoom, and haven't grown tired of the genre yet. Many fellow gamers with similar histories with shooters have started to feel the burn, though, and aren't nearly as passionate as they once were. Why am I leading with this anecdote? Because you really need to judge how much you still love shooters before you play Destiny, since it really doesn't do anything new or exciting.
Yes, Destiny is a shooter at heart, and never really strays from that. The setup is fairly enticing -- one day, a mysterious entity called "The Traveler" finds its way to Earth, kicking off a golden age of prosperity and colonization. Until the sworn enemy of said Traveler (The Darkness) finds its way to our solar system of course, and causes "The Collapse" -- a cataclysmic event that extinguishes many lives and halts all advancement. Now, it's your job, with the help of your AI companion Ghost, to learn what your enemy truly is, and find a way to stop it.
Cool premise, right? Well, it hasn't really gone anywhere yet as I'm crossing over the halfway point to endgame (20) at level 11. Again, you're mostly going to be shooting things, and the narrative really takes a backseat to the action. After starting up a story mission you'll hear a short voiceover describing the mission at hand (some of which is delivered by actor Lance Reddikk, who does a great job -- better than Peter Dinklage's turn as Ghost), followed by some chatter during said mission, and maybe, if you're lucky, a short cutscene at the conclusion. That's really it.
To understand how Destiny plays you have to look at all the major mission types -- Story, Recon, Strike, and PVP. Strikes are probably my favorite part of the game, as they task three players with taking on waves of enemies with boss fights. It's not just a "horde mode" though, as there is a mini-story and a sense of progression with linear paths. As you fight your way through a ton of unique setpieces, things can get really heated as Strikes are the toughest challenges in the game outside of raids. Playing a Strike on a higher difficulty really can feel like playing aHalo game on Legendary. If you have friends to play with, definitely take them on Strikes -- they're awesome.
Recon missions are enjoyable as well for a different reason. They're more serene and sandbox-like, allowing you to roam around each hub searching for "beacons" that spark missions like "kill [x] amount of enemies in a certain time frame," or "survey a particular cave for resources." You don't have to do the beacons though, as you can meander around in search for enemies to kill or look for loot chests and other hidden secrets. They're not worth playing for hours on end, but they're a nice distraction -- again, especially with friends.
Story missions, on the other hand, are rather drab. Here's how most of them play out:
You enter the same hub world on each planet -- you drive your vehicle into a remote "spoke" on the hub world wheel, usually a cave or building -- enemies pop out "unexpectedly" -- Ghost wants to scan the goal at the end while you protect him -- cue waves of enemies in a horde mode layout -- end mission.
So, how does it feel after roughly 10 hours of gameplay? Familiar. During some of the aforementioned horde scenarios in story mode, I had flashbacks to playing aHalo campaign, holed up while droves of alien enemies fired upon me. That's both a good and bad thing, as it simultaneously proves that Bungie still "has it" and that they haven't really innovated past that formula. There is a loot system and hub world, but since I'm not at the endgame yet they feel more like a formality and less like a core part of the game.
Destiny has a lot of fun moving parts, but I'm unsure of the viability of the game lasting long term. Unless raids really work out and people continue to play PVP for months on end, I think players will trickle out before the next expansion DLC is set to launch. Stay tuned as I work my way up to level 20, and see if the experience changes.
YMMV
to them.
