Review: Destiny

Posted by: 10/9/2014

I am hard pressed to name another game that was pushed more in the gaming hype machine than Distiny, the latest game from Halo creators Bungie who is now publishing their titles under Activision and no longer Microsoft who has 343 Industries make their Halo games now. With the name Bungie come massive expectations already but when you add the Call of Duty publisher to the mix, you now have a monster deal with.

Destiny Review 4

Destiny had growing expectations each time a new announcement made its way to the websites and blogs of the world – does the game hold up to these highly set standards or does Destiny misstep and end before the franchise actually gets going?

From the moment you boot up Destiny you can feel Bungies handwriting from the musical score to the visuals and the pure feel the game and its world gives off to the player – not to mention enemy design and the excellent signature gunplay.

Destiny Review 1

At this point I would typically tell you that Destiny has some good parts and some bad parts followed by summarizing paragraph of my final thoughts and a score but I will do something different this time given that since the game has been out for a while now and you probably read that some critics flat out thought that the game was “bad” – I disagree with that statement. I think Destiny is a great game because at the core of it, it does the right things well – the things we expected to be done well.

Destiny Review 3

Destiny is fantastic at bringing together friends and shoot things, this may sound a bit crass – and it is – but at the core, that is what Bungie set out to do with Destiny. Seldomly will you find another shooter that feels as good as Destiny does in the gameplay department. Going out and exploring the world with your friends is something that not many games do well and Destiny captures coop excellently. Getting together with friends or strangers is always a fun experience in Destiny and the fact that the lore around the game as well as its minimalist storytelling does not hurt the shooter in my view. Some fans of course will hate the fact that Destiny does not capture the same kind of feeling the narrative department as Halo does but to me, there is just enough background in the game for me to build by own story.

Destiny Review 2

We are guardians. Legends. That is what Bungie told us in the opening of Destiny. The galaxy is being overrun by the darkness and the traveler can no longer protect the world and we are left with the last city on earth. This is your hub world where players get to communicate with others, team up in fire teams, buy new equipment or upgrade their ship which takes them around the solar system. This indeed sounds like an MMO in many ways and to a degree it is which is not a bad thing but it does take away from the strong narrative aspects since we can’t all feel special when dozens of players jump and dance around the hub world as you attempt to get consumed by the game’s story.

Destiny Review 5

So if you come to play Destiny for the narrative, it may not be the game for you but if you are looking for the challenge to explore a reasonably open world that extends across various planets with friends or strangers alike, then you will be in heaven. Destiny’s enemies are challenging and come in a vast variety that will keep you engaged, weather you are a lone wolf or a team player but one thing is certain, leveling up, gathering loot and blasting away aliens has never been this fun. Destiny also allows for multiplayer in the crucible mode which is locked behind a level cap of 5 but here you can face off against human players and gain XP across single and multiplayer modes which is quite refreshing.

Bungie is also adding new challenges and upcoming DLC to the game to continually push new content to keep the player base engaged and coming back. Recently the studio added Raids which are behind a level 26 cap but will require all of you and your friends to master since these 6 player missions are no picnic and will ask everything of the team and coordination is key.

Destiny had some very high expectations to live up to and it didn’t quite get there because of the lacking narrative strength we have come to expect from Bungie but it is by no means a bad game. Destiny will keep you engaged for hours and hours as the world sucks you in with its great gunplay and mechanics as Bungie really nailed the gameplay aspects of a shooter. Even though Destiny doesn’t captivate its audience with great story elements, it simply captures the core mechanics of a shooter better than any title has so far in 2014.

Score: 8.5 / 10

Destiny was developed byBungie and published by Activision for PS3, Ps4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on September 9th. A retail copy of the PS4 version was provided to us by Activision for reviewing purposes.

Playstation Reviews Xbox