| Platform | OVERALL |
|---|---|
| PlayStation 4 | 8.60 |
| Overall | 8.60 |
|
Destiny Review Few games have the expectations put on them that Destiny had. After leaving the Halo franchise behind, Bungie signed a ten year deal with Activision to make the next mega franchise in gaming. The first details on Destiny promised a gigantic universe to explore with groundbreaking co-op play. Somewhere along development content was cut and the vision was narrowed into the game we have today. Destiny delivers in the gameplay department but falls far short in most every other area. I will attempt to make this review be as positive as I can because I really do enjoy playing Destiny despite it’s many issues, so we begin with the stellar gameplay. The Halo DNA flows through Destiny, movement and shooting has the same responsiveness Halo fans would come to expect. Being a MMO hybrid Destiny gives players multiple classes to choose from each with their own special powers. Players have specialized grenades, supers that have a variety of effects some being stage clearing blasts and most have some form of movement skill like floating or double jumps. These powers mixed with the already fantastic precision shooting Bungie is known for makes Destiny the most fun first person shooter to control that I have ever experienced. Maneuverability is a huge component to the combat, for me this is important as I am not a fan of shooters where escaping is not an option. All classes offer some power that can get you high in the air to quickly move away from cover or rise up and over enemies. One power allows you to basically do a short teleport jump completely disorienting your enemy (works great in PvP). This is not a game where the only defense you have is to hide behind an object, Destiny gives you the powers to evade death in many ways which makes combat more thrilling. Do not expect the major class differences of other MMOs, in Destiny each of the three classes have powers that include a super area of effect damage blast, they all have some form of movement power and the same kinds of stat buffs. Higher level classes differ a bit with some offering a near unstoppable knife attack, another a giant shield, and one lets you resurrect. Powers can be augmented with certain stats to boost a particular power, for instance choosing to go with quickly recharging grenades. All powers can be changed on the fly allowing for multiple ways to play. That said don’t expect any class coordination on the level of an MMO as there is no true healer or tank. Being stuck into a specific class was one of my main complaints of FFXIV and MMOs in general. I rather have the same combat abilities as everyone else and allow my custom powers contribute in the way I feel is most beneficial. So this aspect is a positive for me where it maybe a major negative for others that enjoy having a very set specialty and lead to the complaint that “all classes feel the same”. Weapons have a great feel to them with the right weight, the right amount of power and feedback from damaged enemies. If you have played Halo you know exactly what to expect as it feels exactly the same, if you are going to copy something copy the best. Mix in the new powers and you get combat that is always engaging no matter if it is the fiftieth time you battled the same boss. Each weapon has its own leveling up system where if you use them you unlock perks (which you need to pay for with money and items, get ready to grind). The highest level guns have crazy abilities like never reloading, automatic shotguns, snipers that explode enemies with head shots. Finding the right mix of guns for any given situation is a very enjoyable experience for me, I love having options. Every gun needs something to kill and in Destiny there are four main enemy races in the game and each have a hierarchy of soldiers. Each race has their own grunts, snipers, heavies and specialized types. The different races introduce some new wrinkle in their attack patterns in how you have to face them. The fallen are your traditional Halo like enemies. The hive are insect mutant monster type with all sorts of unique enemies types. The Vex are robots that can teleport and have weak points in their body rather than their heads. Cabal are large grunts that hop around the battlefield and some carry huge shields. They are all a blast to fight and having so many enemy types keeps the combat fresh for many hours, though not as many hours as you will end up putting into the game. The AI is a tuned down version of Halo; they are better than average, taking cover, flanking, using grenades, but they are no where near as aggressive as they are in Halo. I expect the lack of major scripted story moments removes some of that dynamic AI that fit into those unique situations. Here almost every unique story battle takes place in a room, a well designed room but still a room, which does not leave that much space for enemies to perform unique acts. Vehicles are basically missing from the campaign, so don’t expect to face off against many enemies using tanks or turrets. All large scale war combat that made Halo so dynamic is missing, every once in a while you see two races battling each other but it feels extremly scripted. Destiny feels like a string of Halo’s hallway sections and mid sized open rooms, basically it is Halo 2 the MMO. Now the combat in general is far more fun to play so these room to room battles are more engaging than those found in Halo 2. Hopefully in the future this series evolves to include large scale battles as it is desperately needed. Destiny’s world is broken up into hub worlds of medium size with interconnected roads that take you from one large area to the next. The pattern is like this; open area with two exits which are basically roads that lead to the next open area. The entire map is basically a closed loop with some areas having specific paths that branch off into the story sections. While in the hub areas you have mid sized open spaces to explore but most enemies are stuck to a certain structure or location and simply serve to be killed while they respawn over and over for eternity. Destiny is not a game where you explore a large world and acquire missions during exploration, everything is basically menu based. If you played PSO back in the day it follows that stucture closely. You choose a planet, pick a mission and the game takes you there. Each mission starts you in the hub, which is a public space where you will find other players doing their own thing. Once you reach the specific mission location you enter a zone where only you and your party my play. There are also strikes on each planet which serve as the major coop battles for the game. These missions put you into a group and serve as some of the hardest challenges in the game. Each strike ends with a major boss battle that is mostly a bullet sponge with adds spawning all over the map. A good team will manage the adds and attack the boss when appropriate… or just cheese the boss battle by hiding on some spot where no one can hurt you (hey some of these on the highest difficulty are crazy hard). Each planet offers an “explore” mission which lets you explore the hub at your leisure. There are hub missions scattered across the map that offer extremely generic missions like “go there and kill that” and the ever popular “go there and stand still”. The main reason anyone would go to the hub is to explore for materials and hopefully land some loot, once again another missed oppertunity for good content. Which brings us to the ever controversial loot system. Here is a system that rewards nothing in particular. Say you excel at combat getting the most kills in a match, doesn’t matter. Are you the best player in PvP, the last place guy has as good a chance as you to gain looty. It is all extremely random and is designed to make players sink as much time as possible. Leveling is quick at first but soon players will hit a brick wall at level 20 where your equipment determines your level from that point on. Finding this equipment is all about dumb luck and grinding for hours on the same missions and playlists you have done before but at higher difficulties. The end game of Destiny is nothing but endless repetition, well there is raid which I will get too later. Once again I must state that the combat is so fun and dynamic, especially at higher levels that it makes the grind somewhat enjoyable, especially with friends. That said eventually locations and enemies all begin to blend together, you won’t care if you are on Mars or Venus. Bungie offers all kinds of daily options to basically direct players on what they should do on that day. For instance each day there is a daily mission, which takes one of the story missions and may add a modifier that change enemy behaviors or add new element. (think skulls from Halo) One modifier gives ammo drops only to weapons you are not using, so to gain ammo for your primary you must use your secondary gun. These modifiers are a nice twist but there are so few of them that within days even those will begin to repeat. There is a tower which serves as your main hub; here you have stores and a vault to keep weapons in. This is also where you will pick up daily bounties. These offer faction points and large exp bonuses for certain actions like killing enemies with headshots, completing strikes without dying, finishing certain story missions on hard and so on. There is also a whole set of PvP bounties with similar goals.The bounty system is the other way Bungie keeps guiding the experience after you are long done with the story. Sadly there are so few bounty types that like with everything else get ready for REPETITION! Clearly there is a lack of content but the fact that these basic modes are so addicting is testament to the quality of the Destiny gameplay experience. The community aspect is clearly half baked, it blows my mind that this game came from Bungie, the team that invented the way to handle online FPSs on consoles. There is no voice chat anywhere in the game unless you are in a set fireteam. Guess what, a team you get matched with in PvP is not a fireteam so there is no chat in competitive multiplayer. There are clans but not one clan function in game; no way to see who in your clan is online, no way to match with anyone, no way to see any stats. The best modes in the game have no matchmaking forcing you to find people on your friend list, with no way of asking people in game to join up most end up searching message boards for players. Imagine the hub in PSO but you can’t write or communicate to anyone, that is Destiny. Still despite the issues when Destiny works it works beautifully. There is no better example of that than the much talked about Raid level which is unlike anything I have ever experienced in a shooter. In a dumb decision Bungie left out matchmaking, forcing players to find 5 other people on their own and set up a team, all cause Bungie feels random people would not communicate or work together. So prepare for waiting as you ask everyone on your friend list if they want to play and eventually hop on forums to ask random strangers to join your game, which is basically playing with randoms, just like matchmaking. Most people will probably never get to play the games best mode because of this stupidity. Such a shame cause the raid is pure brilliance and is what the entire game should have been. The raid is a multistage epic level where six team members must coordinate attacks and perform multiple tasks to advance. The entire team must work together, if anyone cog falls the entire team will wipe. All of a sudden a ton of new gameplay elements are introduced, some coming from MMOs. Teams will have to split into groups of two and cover multiple parts of the map. New enemies have the ability to curse the team making the players blind and eventually have an instant death if they don’t cleanse. There is a brand new item called the relic, a sort of futuristic shield that can shoot a laser blast and is used in various functions throughout the raid, both on offense and defense. There is a stealth section, platforming sections, hidden treasures and two new major boss battles that take team coordination to a whole new level. A first run may take three hours or longer depending on the quality of play from your teammates and subsequent runs will drop to half that time easily. The raid is the best experience in Destiny and one of the most interesting co-op experiences I have ever had in any game. Halo was known most for its fantastic multiplayer, Bungie would pack Halo games with unheard of levels of customization and options. Someone forgot to tell Bungie to do the same with Destiny; what you get from competitive multiplayer is very bare bones. The crucible is where you battle other players and you get five different game types to play, the most common one being control where your team needs to control points on a map. There is of course team and solo deathmatch and a few three on three types. Once you select a game type you are sent into matchmaking where you play whatever map is randomly chosen. No game options, no customizations, no way to make a private game for your friends, no capture the flag, no match recordings, no specialized game types like shotguns only. Some game modes even disappear for days alternating with a different game mode. Thankfully PvP can be an absolute blast but only when you reach higher levels. Every player gets to bring in their weapons (which includes those weapons perks) and their characters abilities. Higher level players will have all their abilities and guns with insane bonus perks. Armor levels and the damage level of your weapon is disabled, still the best guns fire quicker or have bonuses that do damage faster. I have never been a big fan of FPS competitive multiplayer because I am not that skilled at pointing a cursor at a moving targets head, and that is basically what the majority of those games come down to. I like being able to use abilities outside shooting. I enjoy games where movement is as big a role as fast reactions. I don’t like games where if you get spotted first it means you are instantly killed, here you have plenty of powers to be able to escape death if ambushed. For me this is exactly the kind of PvP I enjoy, I just wish it had even half the game options Halo 2 had. Apparently there is a story in Destiny, clearly the developers felt it was not that important because almost all the backstory is located on the Destiny website, not in game. The story presented in the game is one of the worst, ambiguous, generic, sci-fi stories ever put in a game. My mind is blown that someone was paid to write this crap, everything is named in the most generic way possible it is as if a kid wrote it. You are a guardian who protects the traveler who is a keeper of light that is hiding from the darkness, I am not making up these names, that is what they are officially called. Most missions introduce some random item with an equally generic name that does something that is never really explained. There are these two characters, a queen (called, wait for it, The Queen!) and her brother which is clearly an evil mustache twirling bad guy, who actually have dialogue scenes with your character. They somewhat have a personality, which stands out because everyone else might as well be robots. The tower is filled with characters voiced by famous television actors with very recognizable voices. Prepare for a whole lot of “hey that is the voice from that guy on that show!” Yet even with all that talent they have nothing of value to say. Headlining the cast is Peter Dinklage who probably would rather be thrown back in a cell by Cersei than to read any more lines of this garbage, I feel bad for him. On a technical level Destiny is as polished as it comes. Graphically beautiful with a solid smooth frame rate that never dips. Incredible sound that should be played with the best surround sound option you have. The musical score is a classic, it has a great variety in music. For instance every race has their own themes that match the kind of enemy they are. When the action hits the music soars to meet the intensity of the gameplay. Since day one the servers have been nearly perfect. Outside of a few issues certain players were having with occasional drops, which has been patched, this online only game has run extremely smooth even though it has many million players playing at the same time. Destiny is the most fun I have had with an online title since Phantasy Star Online. Back in the Dreamcast days I would jump online with some friends every single night; we would replay the same levels in that never ending quest for better loot. My time with Destiny is very similar; every night with friends, replaying the same areas trying to get better loot. Clearly Destiny is no where near the game that was promised when it was first discussed. What we have here feels like the skeleton of a full game that will be released in pieces in the future. The important thing is that the backbone to the entire franchise, the gameplay, is excellent. New levels can always be added in, features can be implemented, core concepts expanded upon, but if that core gameplay was not fun nothing Bungie would add could have fixed it. They nailed the important part, now they need to expand on it. |
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Posted by Dvader Tue, 14 Oct 2014 07:55:37
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travo (7m)
I don't like what patches and DLC have done to my hobby. All of a sudden it's ok to release something that's not up to scratch in a lot of areas, just because people will assume that it'll get patched.
I agree with you though. Its a great game, but it could have used a bit more structure like Halo has to give it some direction. I'm not even sure that's possible in an online game.