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.
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| Yay I connected! Dammit now there's the long installation. |
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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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| This is the Tower. |
The Tower is the hub. You turn in quests, get rewards, shop, etc. It's typical stuff.
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| 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.
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| 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?
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| 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.
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| 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.
