Intro:
I won't hesitate to say that Destiny was my most anticipated game for this year and rightfully so. I was one of the many who were onboard since the first announcement of the game with the concept art (below). I knew Destiny would be the Star Wars game of my dreams. A large universe with multiple planets, a powerful story, and multiplayer of the Halo caliber as the icing on the cake, and it wasn't a ridiculous dream. The Beta did everything to tell me I'd get just what I'd expected. The opening level was awesome with the fallen crawling all over the walls and the feeling that my enemies are more powerful than me, did enough to tell me the Story would be awesome. But then the game changed...
Story:
Rating the story missions in Destiny is a difficult thing to do. Unlike Call of Duty the campaign in Destiny has a ton of value and I encourage everyone to play through it too get the best experience out of Destiny. That being said the story itself is not very entertaining. The basic plot is you are a Guardian, revived by the Traveler, tasked with pushing "The Darkness" away from the last city of earth. The concept is amazing and I hope Bungie expands on the universe in future iterations of it's new series. Disappointingly, Bungie didn't succeed in delivering the Mass Effect like story I wanted. Destiny fails at delivering a meaningful experience within it's lore filled world. But where the "Story" lacks in story it tries to make-up for in epic battles, massive set pieces, and titanic enemies. Luckily, this approach worked for most of the levels, especially towards the end of the game. I won't go into too much detail to avoid spoiling these awesome moments. Finally, a large part of how Destiny attempts to tell it's tale is through cut scenes. Sadly, the beautiful cut scenes seem to be forced down the player's throat. Like forcing a baby to swallow baby food, Destiny tries to convey it's lacking story through the few (I'd estimate around 6-7) cinematic scenes in the game. One of these cut scenes is the ending, which unlike the others it serves a purpose, to leave the room for a sequel. Overall, Bungie did exactly what I feared they would; sacrifice the story for an open, cohesive, and activity filled world.
6.5/10
Crucible:
What I love about Destiny's competitive multiplayer is how impactful each player's choices are. What I mean by this is every class and sub-class plays differently. A Hunter who is a blade dancer is going to be more up close and personal and very effective in playlists that encourage close combat, such as Salvage or Rumble. Speaking of playlists Bungie does a great job making each playlist distinct. Unlike Titanfall each one doesn't feel the same, I've played through the 4 main playlists and salvage and I've had different levels of success in each. Different maps and playlists seem catered towards certain playing styles. This helps keep one team from consistently dominating several matches. There is not as much content in the multiplayer as there is in Halo. But the content provided is well polished and fun to play with.
9.25/10
World(s):
In this category I include everything from side missions placed around the world to the impossible raid I'll probably never beat. Lets start with the bad and work our way up. The side-missions are very repetitive after doing the first ten or so on each planet. That being said it is a lot of fun to freely roam the beautiful planets Bungie constructed. The open-world is surprisingly empty. Not of enemies or loot but of other characters, it's rare to have more then two players listed as near you.
Now for the good, the strikes and raid are exactly what I hoped they would be. Cooperative events designed to be difficult for a certain rank. I played some strikes as two levels higher and beat them in one try. The first strike I played two ranks lower and it took me three attempts to beat. As for the raid I've spent one day trying it and completely failed. But that's a great thing, it is impossible to succeed without teamwork. Destiny has a bolt load of additional content after beating the story including some that is available weekly. Like the Queen's bounties, which I've been trying to accomplish lately.
All in all, Bungie packed their game to the gills with content. And though it under performs in some areas, Destiny certainly provides the player with quality experiences outside the campaign and multiplayer.
8.75/10
Customization:
In comparison to other first-person shooter's Destiny's RPG elements are groundbreaking, hopefully setting a new trend among the dying genre. Upgrading is easily laid out so that anyone can understand what each choice means. Now the choices don't really kick-in till around level 15 but once the choice arise they actually matter. I've been playing Destiny as a Titan and when I switched my sub-class my approach to combat (especially in multiplayer) completely changed. The "Super-Charge" move changed from a destructive smash to a bubble shield that cannot be shot through and improves my defense.
There is also a lot of cosmetic customization. At the beginning of the game the player is tasked with creating their "Guardian". There aren't as many options as I would like when creating a character but there are many more choices then any other fps I've played.Until about level 20 the best bet is probably to always where the gear with the highest defense, after that point the player will have a lot gear to choose from to make his/her guardian as awesome looking as possible. The player can also purposefully customize and upgrade weapons and armor. The more exotic the armor/weapons the more choices there are to make. For example, the player must choice whether he/she wants more range, more recoil or less range, less recoil. These choices all have a large impact on the Crucible and out in the open-world. Sadly the customization really doesn't kick in until after playing for several hours.
9.5/10
Graphics/Sound:
It's been a long review so I'll try to keep it brief. Destiny's soundtrack is amazing the music sways the player's emotions throughout the campaign. In fact my favorite part of the campaign is probably the way the music brings certain missions to life. The graphics are beautiful on PS4, probably the best I've seen aside from The Last of Us: Remastered.
10/10
Playability:
There are three aspects of playability that stick out in Destiny. The first is obviously the flawless shooting mechanics. It is the perfect balance between Halo and Call of Duty. Both speed and accuracy are emphasized when attempting to eliminate a target and the mechanics allow the player to accomplish both in an elegant manner. Secondly, there is the tutorial, the Story missions teach the player how to, for lack of a better word, play without holding the players hand through a tutorial. One of my favorite parts in the opening level was when I got my hands on a gun for the first time and my ghost said, "I hope you know how to use that thing." This line basically sums up Bungie's approach teaching the player how to play Destiny. Figure it out yourself and that's a very good thing. On the negative side a lot of errors occur in Destiny, which prevent the player from experiencing the game when he/she wants too. Some of these errors are caused by a poor internet connection but slightly less than 50% of the ones I've experienced where not caused by anything I had control over.
9.5/10
Replay Value:
There is so much to do in Destiny, I would virtually guarantee that if you like the fps genre you will easily put 50 hours in this game. Between the 16-20 hour campaign, the multiple strikes and raids, and the simple but excellently designed Crucible. Giving Destiny a 10/10 for replay value was an easy choice, even with it's shallow side-missions.
10/10
Overall:9.1/10