Destiny Game Review

Destiny is a game released worldwide by Bungie games. It is very much in the vein of Halo and Planetside and Killzone, Destiny is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) First Person Shooter (FPS). You grind, you level, you collect and upgrade gear. You enjoy doing all of this with friends and strangers as you take on the various challenges set forth by the original story, the available player versus player (PvP) matches, and the unique challenges presented by strikes and raids.

As Bungie describes it, Destiny is, “From the Creators of Halo and the company that brought you Call of Duty. In Destiny you are a Guardian of the last city on Earth, able to wield incredible power. Explore the ancient ruins of our solar system, from the red dunes of Mars to the lush jungles of Venus. Defeat Earth’s enemies. Reclaim all that we have lost. Become legend.”

Destiny has sucked up a good deal of my time lately as I have recently gotten into regularly playing the game, and I feel compelled to offer my honest opinions. I have to confess, I was never a Halo fan. I know that there is a massive fan base for the game, and it has received no small amount of critical acclaim, but it just wasn’t ever my cup of tea. So, needless to say, I was skeptical about the whole concept of Destiny. Let me break it down. Without going through any real spoilers.

The Story:

The concept of the story for Destiny is interesting and rather well done, if a bit short. It wouldn’t take a focused player more than a couple of hours to play through the entirety of the story mode missions, including those added via The Dark Below DLC. Despite all of this, the story is an interesting ride the first time through. I am partial to post-apocolyptic stories and worlds, so I may be biased, but the narration and the manner in which you are carried through the development of your chosen avatar as a “Guardian” of the last remnants of civilization is a fun ride.

The Gameplay:

Anyone familiar with FPS games, particularly the Halo or Call of Duty series won’t have many questions regarding gameplay or controls. The game walks you through all of the basics in a simple and straightforward method as you are walked through the initial pieces of the story. I even watched a friend pick up the game, having never played it before, and figure out the controls and character interactions in a matter of just a couple of minutes due to his familiarity with the Halo series. The pace and controls of the game make it accessible, engaging, and entertaining.

Overall Impressions:

I have found that I enjoy the game quite a bit. I enjoy it, but I do have some gripes none the less. The story could have been laid out in such a fashion as to be more than just a few dedicated hours of gameplay from completion. It is somewhat disheartening to burn through the entirety of the story in only a couple hours and be left with nothing more than a gear grind to finish the process of outfitting my avatar. The fun of Destiny truly comes from facing the end game challenges created with friends at your side and pitting your skills against the most difficult encounters the devs have to offer. This is also a deterrent. If you don’t have friends playing the game or that are willing to play alongside you, it takes some fun out of the experience. It just isn’t the same working to put together a 6 man raid group (there is no simple in game tool to do this), of random players to face these same challenges. So, in short, I find Destiny with The Dark Below expansion a fun game to play, even if it is largely due to the fact that I have a group of friends to play it with.