My Destiny Beta Impressions -- MMOHalo? Or Is It Something More? Find Out Here!

Written By: Tyler
Platform Played On: PS4

If you own a PS3 or a PS4 and have pre-ordered Destiny, you have the ability to play the beta. Many people have jumped in to see for themselves what Bungie has in store for us after they left the Halo franchise -- the series that evolved the first-person shooter on consoles. It's their first game since Halo: Reach in 2010, so is it any good so far? Obviously it's not the full version, but the point of this post is to give my impressions of the beta.

I don't normally play betas because I generally just like to experience the full game on day one of its official retail release, but Destiny feels special so I thought it'd be a good time to do this. I won't make a habit of it, but here we are. I originally had gameplay footage of the first level, but I was having a hard time uploading it so unfortunately I can only have pictures.

Finally the Destiny beta is live!

I, like many others, are excited to play Destiny. It's one of the big releases of the year, and it's getting the kind of hype that only Watch Dogs can claim. Many people waited with bated breath to play it so there was some real excitement once the title screen, in all its simplicity, showed up for the first time. Finally, let's do this!

And this happened for hours.

Let's skip ahead until I could finally play it because I'm not one of these people who are going to complain that I can't connect to a beta... you know, the thing that is meant for this kind of problem. It annoys me when people rant about not being able to connect when a game is in beta because doing a stress test is literally the point of the beta.

Yay I connected! Dammit now there's the long installation.

Once the installation was complete, I was able to choose one of three classes. I went with Warlock, but as is in most games, each class plays different. I can't comment on the other two, but Warlock has a neat melee ability where you basically blast them with a bunch of energy. It looks like we'll be able to customize their abilities quite a bit so you won't be tied into one framework. Mind you, I wish there were more classes, but I guess this is the norm.

The leveling up isn't incredibly deep, but it's serviceable. You put points into your abilities, and you do have some statistics like defense, strength and whatnot, but don't expect to put points into attributes unless it's with your equipment. With that said, there is a fair bit of armor that you can wear, so it does have lite-RPG elements down.

This is the first time I see other players. They leave me... just like everyone else in my life.

As I stated at the beginning of this article, I couldn't upload the gameplay footage of the first level. I didn't take any pics of it either so we fast-forward a little bit. This is the game in action, and this is what matters the most. Once you see all the bells and whistles, a game is only as strong as its core mechanics.

I'm happy to say that Destiny plays well. Guns feel great to shoot, and the glide mechanic -- where you can essentially double jump and hover through the air -- is a nice touch. I'm surprised it has taken me this long to say it, but the game feels like Halo in a lot of ways. It's not a carbon copy by any means, but it's clear that Bungie hasn't abandoned what took them away from making games like Oni and thrust them into the big leagues of gaming. Anybody who likes Halo should enjoy Destiny because the guns shoot like it, you move like it, the atmosphere is similar and even jumping takes influence from it.

All this excitement made me tired so I sat down.

Before I played Destiny, I wondered how the online mechanics would operate. Bungie insisted that their MMOFPS -- massively multiplayer online first-person shooter to the uninitiated -- wasn't really an MMOFPS... but in my experience it's an MMOFPS.

You can play the game by yourself. There are public events where you'll need people to ease the burden, but there are always other players running around. There weren't many, but they existed and occasionally I'd be in a firefight only to have another like-minded player swoop in and aid me in laying waist to the enemies. Then, more often than not, said person would leave and go off to complete their own objective.

Destiny is social in the same way Journey was social, but Journey was truly something special and meaningful in the way it handled the social aspects. You can communicate with other players by pressing the directional pad; you can wave, for example, or sit if you're lazy like me. At one point I stood on top of a high ledge and waved at a player below me. It made me feel good about myself.

Ultimately though, it's your fight, and the thrill is going to be other players randomly dropping into your battles. This isn't revolutionary in any way, but it is solid.

This is the Tower.

The Tower is the hub. You turn in quests, get rewards, shop, etc. It's typical stuff.

Then I went back to battle.

In order to proceed to the next area, it's as easy as holding triangle and going up to orbit. This is pretty straight-forward stuff; you unlock areas and they are of a certain level. You click on them and you go there. As you progress, it unlocks different types of areas. If you don't want to play the story missions, there are areas that you can explore and do bonus missions.

Speaking of story missions, as of now I don't care about what's going on in the plot. It seems like pretty generic Sci-Fi stuff, but that doesn't necessarily mean its bad. I seem to be one of the few that don't think Halo had a great story, so take what I say with a grain of salt. Obviously its early yet and the plot could open up and become something memorable so I don't want to down on it too much yet.

I do like that you essentially are dead at the beginning and a little machine, called a Ghost, revives you and off you go. It was a nice little touch, being raised from the dead, and the game does a good job with its visuals to engulf you in its world.

I got in my vehicle and I zoomed away.

One thing I love is that the game allows you a certain degree of freedom from the very beginning. Early on, you are able to summon a vehicle at will -- with a few exceptions -- so traveling is easy. You won't have to grind for hours in order to unlock this feature. That's definitely welcome.

Another thing I noticed was the music. The title screen theme sounds so much like Halo, but in a good way. The music in-game often kicks in and is mixed quite loudly. While there weren't any truly exciting moments in the beta, I am lead to believe that there will be moments -- like in Halo -- where music and action blend together to create a thrill ride that we will remember forever. 


Overall, the way that Destiny handles single-player and integrates it with the online aspects is well done so far. I'm going a little easier on it then I would an MMORPG because the MMOFPS is not as common, so even doing quests that are familiar to people who play MMOs doesn't seem like a drag because the genre is somewhat fresh. At the same time, there is nothing here that we haven't seen before. Take Halo, throw in a little bit of Borderlands (though without the excessive amount of loot) and you have Destiny single-player thus far.


The Multiplayer

Halo has always had a solid campaign, but it arguably is more known for its multiplayer. That's a lot of hype to live up to, as many people will flock to the multiplayer mode -- the Crucible -- once it's unlocked at level five. But can we gather from the one mode that's available whether it will be the next Halo or just another solid shooter? Or could it be a terrible experience?

Here we go, my first ever multiplayer match.

The PvP is directly influenced by the story mode. You keep the equipment, abilities and levels that you have attained elsewhere. You literally keep things like your grenades, or even your special power. This will undoubtedly lead to some frustration as some people will just have more fire power than you and balance, like in any competitive game, is going to be key in the full release.

The beta only offers one game mode -- Control. It is a mode we've played a million times before. You and your team have to capture one of the three areas while shooting down your opponents. I only played a few games but they were fun. Things got intense, especially with vehicles driving around, but even though I saw other sites venting about how imbalanced it is with vehicle play, I didn't really run into it. Obviously vehicles can be an advantage, but they weren't a problem for me in the few games I participated in.

And this happened to me. A lot. Because I suck.

When you're choosing multiplayer, you can see there are numerous modes locked, but it doesn't look like there's going to be a lot of variety. Certainly not as much as there ended up being in games like Halo, Call of Duty or Battlefield. Only time will tell what these are going to be, but I hope that there are some interesting ones.


The Verdict

Though the beta only goes to level eight, we can gather a few things from it. It plays and handles well and the foundation of a good shooter is there. Yes, it does feel like Halo, but that's not a bad thing. It does enough with the genre that it can't be seen as copying Halo, which would be silly anyway considering Bungie's history.

The online aspects aren't a big deal to me. I saw someone from either Gamespot or IGN gushing about how amazing it is -- indeed, I did like the Journey comparison that I used above -- but I don't see it. To me it's just another MMO in that regard. People will show up and help you, then they'll often disappear.

Destiny looks beautiful, and a lot of care has been taken to craft a fantastic looking universe where we can travel to the Moon, to Earth, and beyond. There's a lot of attention to detail, and the different environments and maps look wonderful. It should be a joy traversing the different places that Destiny takes us to.

The multiplayer should suck some hours from my life, but I don't know at this point if it'll be the next shooter that I dedicate a good chunk of my life to. It's fun and there's no denying that, but the beta hasn't shown us anything that we haven't seen a thousand times before. Ultimately though, like any shooter, it's going to come down to what you prefer. If you prefer games like Call of Duty, this won't appeal. If you're into Battlefield, this won't cut it. I'm a Killzone guy, but my back-up shooters are games like Halo or even Titanfall. It's all going to come down to what kind of feeling you like, and if you're into Halo, I stress that you should like it.

I think Destiny will be a great game. I predict that I'll end up giving it an 8.5 or a 9, but that's basically because it's just really good at what it does... even if it's mostly been done before. It does enough to keep you coming back, and the gameplay works. I look forward to September, when we can finally sink our teeth into the full thing.



So what did you think of the Destiny beta? Like it? Love it? Hate it? Mildly dislike it? Let me know in the comments below or tweet me @ArtBathednCrime. Thank you for reading.

On The Podcast Episode 5 - Vladimir Putin Is Pac-Man

 
It's Friday so that means a lot of people with decent jobs are in their last work day of the week. Why not celebrate that fact by listening to a podcast starring your favourite Jacob and Tyler?

We talk Vladimir Putin, games, more games, video game music, and we even tell some stories about our lives. Don't miss this um, action-packed extravaganza.


Youtube: http://youtu.be/XYuvp6MKjCY

Listen Here:
Download MP3: https://archive.org/details/onthepodcast5

It's A Novel Concept But The Number One Priority of Games Should Be "Being A Game"

Written By: Tyler

We live in an outstanding time, technologically speaking. If you go back 25 years ago when I started gaming as a wee little Tyler, it would be hard to imagine what is now possible. We had great games that still stand the test of time because of fantastic game design, but the industry has been revolutionized so many times that little me would probably have a heart attack had these ideas been presented to me at that point. The internet and online gaming changed everything, games like Minecraft have come along and added a whole new element to games that people are picking up on and expanding upon in games like Rust. Speaking of Rust, or DayZ, these are games that scream "next-gen" to me (yes I'm aware they're on PC and next-gen tends to be a console term) because of the PvP social/survival concepts presented in them. Game mechanics and genres have been created or made more complex, visuals have come a hell of a long way since the old days. Games like Grand Theft Auto 3 offered us the "sandbox" genre and a series like The Elder Scrolls took open-world to a whole new level and gave us games with hundreds upon hundreds of hours. We have real talent writing the stories for games, we have action set pieces that weren't possible back in the day. Though AI will always be one of the more difficult things to program believably, it has come a long way and we've progressed past difficulty in games meaning, more often than not, that the "computer is cheating." We've seen indie culture rise to the point it gets mainstream coverage. The industry has even gone through controversy after controversy over the years in its attempt to be seen as a legitimate form of entertainment and/or art.

A person could go and on about how kick-ass video games are, but you get the point. We've come a long way and we will go even further. But don't mistake my admiration for video games as a weakness... no, I'm a cranky old bastard too just like the rest of the internet. We have to rage, I have to rage, let us rage for just a couple more seconds. I want to rage about the state of video games, which is flabbergasting (possibly the first time I've used the word) when you consider that long-ass wall of text above.

Let's just throw it out there: video games, as entertainment or an art form -- whichever you want, baby -- should have the number one priority of being fun to play. This is a blanket statement, of course, because I'm not really trying to put video games in the corner, and there are games that are able to break that mold, but we'll get into that more in a bit.

Every art form is something at their core. In their most pure sense, movies are visuals and moving pictures, books are written word and story, music is audio and so on and so forth. Games are a melting pot of these -- visuals may not be as realistic as movies but there's a dependance on them, games are long enough to tell captivating stories, while music has always been good for the tone and atmosphere. They have the added luxury of being interactive as a core idea, not just as a novelty like Choose Your Own Adventure books (which are fun).

But I think we're getting too caught up in making our games more like movies. That's my point in a nutshell. I have to reiterate that I'm speaking in general terms. I'm examining the state of games in a broad sense, but I stand firmly behind it.

When I pick up a game, I want it to be fun. A game can have shitty graphics, serviceable music, but as long as its fun then that's great. Earth Defense Force is a perfect example of this. If you look at the graphics compared to other games today, they look like crap. Outside of the main menu music for Insect Armageddon, I've never been involved in the music. But damn that game is silly, simple and a hell of a lot of fun. I play the games for hours and hours, because the game was designed thrill you. It succeeds.

A game like Earth Defense Force -- or a series in that case -- doesn't get bogged down with meaningless, boring cutscenes. The fascination with cinematics in gaming blows my mind because we've gotten to the point where companies will release trailers that only show the cinematic aspects of the game. This is fine if it's a teaser trailer, but if someone waits months for more information and all you get is a trailer showcasing how much of a movie it is... that's not okay. That's not how it works. Wow me with your gameplay, make me want to pick up the controller, grab the mouse or play with my joystick.

I don't even need complex gameplay. I'm still okay with some games being button mashers. I love Suda51 games and they are known for being stylish yet not complicated in the least. I love when games go out of their way to offer new gameplay experiences, too. I just want to play.

There is where I backtrack a little bit and become more understanding, however. I'm not saying that games can't put love and care into the other elements of their games. You can impress me with your eye candy, whether it's brilliant visual design or high definition graphics. Let me see how beautiful you've made that grass I'm stepping on. Take me to other worlds with great artistic ideas.

Give me a soundtrack that I sit here and listen to when I'm doing other stuff, because I want that too. Believe me, I listen to a lot of video game OSTs.

But give me something I want to play.

A good cutscene can definitely add to the experience but I'm just going to throw it out there and say that a lot of games don't have interesting cutscenes. They're generic (but generic doesn't mean terrible), and the focus isn't on staging good shots because they're not movie directors. It's not their job. The Metal Gear series can get away with that these days because Kojima wishes he was a movie director and actually puts a lot of emphasis on making memorable cutscenes. If you have to watch a game, which you will in most games these days at some point, then give us something exciting. Don't give us what a game like Haze did with people standing in a helicopter talking over and over.

Still, there are so many games where I think, "It would be sweet if we could have played this instead of watch it." It's why games like Bayonetta should be more credit because while there are certainly cutscenes, it also allows you to play these excellent moments quite often. I'm harping on about Metal Gear so much because Metal Gear Solid 4 was especially contentious regarding how long the cutscenes are, but remember at the end (um, spoilers?) where you basically crawl through a furnace? Would that scene have been great had you just watched it? Yes, it was a big moment for Solid Snake and his heroism. Was it better because you were able to play it? Definitely, because even though it was only button mashing (to the point of pain I might add), it put you in the moment.

Journey was an artistic masterpiece on all fronts, but like Metal Gear, it never forgets that it's ultimately a game. It was a perfect example of how a game can get visuals and music right to the point that it actually compliments the gameplay. Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, two games that are widely considered "art," have compelling gameplay, even if Shadow of the Colossus does consist a lot of riding a horse through barren areas before you get to the epic boss battles.

Admittedly, indie games tend to be more guilty of this than big budget titles. I've played a ton of freeware games that have minimalist gameplay, to put it lightly. However, most of the time they get away with this because they are 5 minutes long and do other things right, so even if you just walk from left to right a little bit, it's fine. I'm not against expanding video games into new and interesting territories, but a lot of these games would overstay their welcome if they weren't so short (a good design choice to keep them short). There are exceptions, of course, with a game like To The Moon being emotional and memorable while being relatively light on "real" gameplay. 

Some games and developers get away with this kind of thing because their talent in other areas is impressive. Jake King-Spooner, a guy I have mentioned numerous times on this blog, releases some games that you really only walk around... but he's so good at what he does that it's okay. However, you'll notice that I reviewed Sluggish Morss: Ad Infinitum and gushed about it, but still only gave it a 9.5 because I wish it had more gameplay.
 
 I feel like I'm coming across as too close-minded in this matter and I think I may be forgetting points that I wanted to make (I'm old, forgive me), but I play a lot of games that go against my sentiment that I'm expressing in this post. In fact, I greatly enjoy a lot of them. If you asked me to prioritize what's important in video games, however, I'd have to pick gameplay first and foremost. Games can buck that trend, but in general, that's where I stand.

My Top 50 Favourite Video Games of This Generation, 20 - 11

Written By: Tyler Selig

20: Bastion (360)

                Bastion is fantastic on all fronts. The gameplay is easy to get into but has just enough depth to stay interesting, as they give you different weapons and whatnot.

                The choice to make the world literally materialize in front of you as you move was a good one and made it original among other games in the genre.

                The soundtrack is definitely one of the finest of this generation, and ranks pretty high up there in the history of video game music.

                The story is emotional. The last bit of the game is especially so.

                Bastion got a lot of credit and it deserves it.

19: ZP2KX: Zombies and Pterodactyls (360)

                This series is one of my favourite recent multiplayer games. It’s just a 2D action game, but I don’t know, I just really dig it. I like that this one added jetpacks, and the variety of guns, swords and bombs make it worthwhile to run around the map and try to find them.

                The only thing that sucks is that there really is no community. You can play bots online, mixed with real players, but I wish this indie game had more of a following because it really is a lot of fun. I’d like to see this type of thing made by a big company with lots of money, so long as they don’t fuck it up.

18: Metroid: Other M (Wii)

                I’d probably get hate here, because I guess a lot of people didn’t like it, especially since I put this above Metroid Prime 3.

                I dig the side-scrolling Metroid. I come from that school, what can I say?

                I don’t even care that Samus talks in it. I’m really not caught up in that kind of bullshit. I actually thought it was a nice touch.

                What matters to me is that this was a solid, direct sequel to the best Metroid of all time. Finally.

17: Halo: Reach (360)

                I’m useless when discussing Halo. I say this because all the games blend together for me. Halo fanatics can tell you the difference between them, why this one sucks and that one doesn’t, which game the pistol is overpowered in, etc. They can debate this because they’re really passionate about it and don’t have a shitty memory.

                I like Halo a lot, it’s important to the genre and it’s one of my popular shooters that I feel deserves it, even if I don’t like it as much as the fanatics and think there are better shooters.

                Halo, as a whole, is a shooter I’ve spent a fair time with in multiplayer, so it has that going for it when it comes to being placed in the list. It also allows me to play the campaign with a friend, split-screen, which is always a bonus for me.

                I chose Halo: Reach because it’s the only one that sticks out to me. Halo 3 was probably the best (?), Halo 4 was Halo 4, but Halo: Reach sticks out because of jetpacks and the fact that it is a little bit different in some ways.

                I don’t know if it’s technically better. Probably not. Usually in a case like this I’d just pick the newest game in the series, but I’m going with Reach. Just for shits and giggles.  

16: The Darkness (PS3, 360)

                It’s not a multiplayer shooter so it doesn’t have as much replay value as some of the other shooters on my list, but story-wise? Pretty much without equal in the genre. There are probably a few shooters with stories as good or almost as good, but none are popping into my head.

                The Darkness was more open than its sequel and has one of the most amazing video game scenes of all time (watching your girlfriend get killed right in front of you, while The Darkness prevents you from saving her… powerful stuff). The sequel was probably more fun from just a shooting perspective, as it was more linear and you were always in the action. Plus it was constantly making you wonder if you were crazy or not. I also thought the ending was great and the song that plays during the credits was really beautiful and fitting.

                So it’s hard for me to pick one game, because both are incredible, but I make it a rule to only have one game in a series when I make these lists. There are exceptions, and I usually have some justification, but The Darkness 1 can represent both games.

15: Sacred 2: Fallen Angel (PS3, 360)

                This is probably my favourite game in the genre. So knowing this, it’s weird that I placed it 15. I think I said this before, in a previous entry, but you could switch around a lot of these games, place some of them higher, and I’d be cool with it.

                Within the hack n’ slash/action RPG genre, this has my favourite levelling up system. In an RPG that’s pretty important to me. The story is kind of silly and the game has a sense of humour, and some of the character classes are cool (like a dog with a hand cannon).

                I can’t wait for Sacred 3.

14: Fight Night Champion (PS3, 360)

                Maybe to some people it would seem weird that a boxing game is this high, but nothing makes me more obsessed than a good combat sports game. I will spent hours upon hours just sitting there building my fighter up. I’ll say, “Just one more fight” but one more fight becomes the whole day.

                Fight Night is the best boxing game to date. The type of game I can walk away from but then want to go back to a month later and start a new fighter.

13: Borderlands 2 (PS3, 360)

                Co-op gun-porn FPS. You know the game. It does the RPG element well enough, and the shooting feels fine. I have criticisms of the series, but they’re minor… mostly just things I hope they do for the third.

                The best thing that was added to Borderlands 2 was Handsome Jack, for sure.

12: Journey (PS3)

                I don’t think I’d ever actually want to play Journey again, but I place it on here because when I did play it, it was an amazing experience. It’s a multiplayer game but it’s so different. You don’t have usernames, people drop in and out of your game, and yet the game does little things to encourage team work.

                I will never forget my play through of Journey because it’s the type of game that you need to play once, and see a different direction that games can go in. It’s the type of game that impacts you on such a deep level that you get the urge to start talking like you’re a poet, which I’m restraining myself from doing here because I don’t want to make a huge post.

11: F.E.A.R. (PS3, 360)

                I think it’s one of the scariest games I’ve ever played.

                By the time you figure out the tricks the game uses to scare you, the game is over. The sequel tried to do the same thing but it wasn’t really the same.

                Outside of just being scary, the story is interesting and the bullet-time mode helps you a lot.

                I know some people don’t think that F.E.A.R. is that scary, but I do.

                Mad at me for including Halo: Reach and not 3 or 4? Let me know in the comments below. Also make fun of me for being scared by F.E.A.R. if you want.

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