Here we are. Nearing the end of 2014, we finally get our hands on the most anticipated game of the year. Feedback for Destiny has been a mixed bag. Some love it, some hate it, some merely tolerate it.
Personally, I love it. Cool weapons, fun class abilities and epic multiplayer provide some of the most fun I've had playing an MMO (or MMO-like game, however you look at it). However, with all of the good this game provides, it still puts up some downright embarrasing problems.
To this day, I still have a hard time finding out exactly what Destiny is about. Astronauts (who thought it would be a good idea to bring M4's to Mars) do some exploring on Mars and find the Traveler who gifts humanity with its power. Humans use this power to do cool stuff like expand life expectancy and turn Venus in to a habitable world. However they eventually find out the hard way that the Traveler has an enemy called the Darkness. You're a Guardian was brought to life by your Ghost who warns that you were dead for a while and won't understand much. You battle your way through some waves of enemies called Fallen and are brought to the Tower, the central hub of the universe. I wish the story went deeper than that. More questions are left in my head than answers and that is never remedied throughout the entire story. What is the Traveler? What was it doing on Mars? Why did it bestow its power on Earth? How did my Guardian die? And most importantly, what is the Darkness? Is it an entity? Some kind of black magic controlled by someone? Or is it just a dark cloud that spawns aliens and pursues the Traveler for no real reason?
Also, the Guardian, especially after being revived by a floating robot to fight aliens and protect what's left of Earth, doesn't seem to care that much about what happened. It's as if they said "Screw it, I'm here. Might as well protect the Traveler." Missions, are about as barebones as you can get. Select mission, go to location, do this, do that, get XP. Rinse and repeat. The only reason this didn't seem as tedious is the beautiful environments, but more on that later. There are few end cutscenes. Most times, you complete the mission and have 20 seconds to grab loot before you're ripped unceremoniously from the mission, and dropped right on your ship.
I have no idea what I'm doing here
However, the game itself, does more than enough to hold its own. The beautiful environments like the ridiculously beautiful plant life on Venus, to the awe-inspiring craters on the Moon, to the wonderfully broken setting of Old Russia, each environment looks fabulous with the great graphics.
The soundtrack is just amazing. Fast paced during the most heated battles to serene and calm while simply roaming each planet. It not only compliments the visuals, they go hand-in-hand, tag-teaming the senses and making you lose yourself in the environment.
The multiplayer is frantic fun no matter what game mode your playing. In fact, long time Halo fans will feel right at home with the familiarity of gameplay. The super abilities in each class made each encounter unpredictable. There were many complaints that higher level players had an unfair advantage in the competitive mode with better weapons and armor, and I'm not saying that it won't happen, but in my experience I rarely saw that issue. When I was a level five, I once took on a level 25 head on and came out on top as well as other high levels. The environments in the competitive multiplayer were also extremely cool. High area's where snipers can have fun, but that doesn't mean they're completely safe. There are also in-game vehicles, (I believe they're called Pikes but I can't remember for sure), reminiscent to Halo's Choppers, that are another fun way to shake up matches. They do a lot of damage, but don't exactly have thick armor. You're just as vulnerable riding it as you are on foot.
Even with all of these great things there are still problems that do a nice job at killing the immersion in the game. The post-mission "reward" system for one. After each mission or multiplayer match, the list of players in the game are shown. Then, certain players will get rewards like armor or weapons. The problem is that the person doesn't get rewards based on their performance. It's like a lottery system. That's not fair to the guys in multiplayer that pulled out 22 kills and 5 deaths and got nothing, and the guy who came in the match late and has 2 kills and 8 deaths gets a Rare helmet and sniper rifle.
Purchasing the insanely expensive jumpships is practically futile given that they serve as no more than a loading screen. An albeit impressive looking loading screen, but a loading screen nonetheless. Also, upgrading weapons and armor proves to be little more than just a waste of money. New and better weapons and armor are earned at every mission. Lastly, there is almost no exploration. Sure, the environments look amazing, but when I said that there were awe-inspiring realism on the Moon's craters, that's pretty much all you get to see. When I said that the bleak setting on Old Russia was perfectly captured, it looked great, but all you really see are rusty cars and dilapidated building are mostly all you see. There's no incentive to explore, which really makes the Patrol missions (missions that let you explore the planet and search for side missions and events) a chore. The Tower is no looker either. There are three main interest points, clan leader (which varies based on what class you choose), the gunsmith and the shipwright. There are other people that sell weapons and armor but the game doesn't bother telling you about these people. You have to search the Tower and find them.
Now, that rant may have you thinking that the game does worse than what its worth. Honestly, a final verdict for this game was hard to finalize. I eventually just went with how I personally felt about the game. It makes more than a few slip-ups, but the gameplay itself is more than fun. The presentation is beautiful, and the unlockables are satisfying. Endless grinding, hundreds of enemies and multiple ammo clips followed by a sweet reward was more than enough to keep me enticed. The problem is, it's not what we were promised. We were promised a game that has great gameplay AND a great story. And if you came for the story than getting this game is probably a mistake. However, if you enjoy core gameplay and beautiful presentation, then you will probably clock hours into this as I have