Destiny Beta - The Good, The Bad, and The Indifferent

NOTE:

The following is based on the Beta form of Destiny.  Any or all of these thoughts and concerns may have already been fixed or could be in the process of being tweaked for the full game release.

Weeks after Destiny's Alpha (P&P’s Destiny Alpha Impressions can be found here) brought joy to the hearts of many gamers, Bungie unleashed to the world the Beta, opening up the game to many more joystick-fondlers from both Playstation and the second-guesser Xbox.

The Beta began earlier for Playstation lovers on July 17^th, and in gaming news, will be a day no PSN user will forget.  Along with the added benefit of being able to play the game early, Playstation users were also granted a broken Bungie site, where no Codes could be accessed; and a busted PSN due to heavy traffic, where no Beta could be downloaded.  But the highlight of the event was delivered on Twitter where fellow gamers everywhere berated both Playstation and Bungie for the bang-up job of ruining their day.  Did this put a sour taste in gamer mouths early in the Beta?  Sure.  Is this whopping foul-up a taste of what's to come in September?  Hopefully not.  But in the meantime, let's explore what the Beta had to offer to Alpha survivors…once it finally was accessible.

"Do you really think I can do it, Speaker?"

"Make it to the bathroom?  Shouldn't be too difficult."

THE GOOD:

The Alpha had players dropped into Destiny with no job, nowhere to live, and most of all…barely any backstory.  Just a gun and a direction.  But the Beta changed all that.  This time around you were woken up from a beautiful slumber in a filthy car resting in a burned-out world.  Then…you were given a gun and a direction.  The light story element introduced in the opening of the Destiny Beta will be the same in the full game's release come September 9th.  But did it make that much of a difference?  Again, just like the in Alpha, most of your time in Destiny will still be spent in Multiplayer, leaving the story in the wake of PvP kills.  One can only hope in the full release that there's somewhat of an interesting plot to keep gamers enthused and playing.

On Saturday the 26th for two hours, Bungie wanted to stress test the servers, and in that allotted time, they opened up a new mission on the Moon.  While it did give gamers an opportunity for different locale exploration, there were no new enemies or new weapons.  The moon mission could have been breezed through in under ten minutes, but exploring every outhouse, henhouse, cave, and structure took closer to a half hour.  In the end, the mission was at least a new exciting place to shoot the same enemies.

Multiplayer also saw some changes.  Control on the Old Russia map was replaced by Venus' shores of time.  And in special cases, for only a few hours at a time, another area in the Crucible opened up called the Iron Banner where gamers squared-off on Mars.  The Iron Banner is where player levels and upgrades mean life or death for Guardian hopefuls, leaving any combatants that were not maxed-out, respawning most of the time.  But again, the Mars multiplayer map did provide a new backdrop for getting shot-gunned in the face.

"Well, Ghost...I found it.  But how the f*ck am I supposed to get it down?"

THE BAD:

The missions, strikes, and events were all practically the same from the Alpha.  If there was a difference, it was minimal since everything—once again—was accomplished in good Old Russia.  Now, in the Alpha, not one login problem or error occurred—probably due to lower player volume—but in the Beta there were quite a few times when problems occurred trying to connect with Bungie servers.  On top of that, once you were logged in, there was no telling if you would stay, as an error possibility could pull you right out of the game.  And if Twitter is to be believed, many Xbox players had trouble with match-making in multiplayer and also arrived at desolate Towers to point and wave at no one.

The strikes had gamers dropping out left and right.  Whether it was from them losing connection to the Bungie servers or just being crybabies is anyone's guess, but it did hinder some of the fun.  If you were in the middle of a strike that required a three-man team and a member suddenly disappeared, the rest of the team was left hanging.  In the Alpha, when a player dropped out for any reason, another was replaced seamlessly without a problem.  But not in the Beta.  You had to soldier on, ruining a perfectly good three-man dance off at mission end.

Gamer drop-out didn't only extend to strikes though, multiplayer also felt an impact.  Since Control was the only option—yet again—teams in the beginning would be an even matched six vs. six.  But have a guardian get killed once or twice early on and decide to leave, and the team was then left a man short and Destiny never replaced them.  But it didn't stop with one.  Exceeding expectations, Destiny allowed any amount of your team to leave in the middle of a match and never refilled the tank.  There were games that ended up six vs. two by the end.  Bungie needs to implement either a penalty or replacement system for drop-outs.  If not, you'd better gather five of your best friends on your fire-team that way you know no one is leaving until the end.

"Let's find you a new voice, Ghost.  Maybe one of the female persuasion.  Because--no offense--you're just 

not exciting enough for me...I need pizazz and I need it now." 

THE INDIFFERENT:

Since the complaints from the Alpha, Dinklage has had his voice work synthesized to almost unrecognizable levels, even sparking Bungie to remove the "that wizard came from the moon" line.  Some people say it's a lot better, but really…you can polish a turd as much as you want, but in the end, it's still a turd.  Now, Dinklage's voice acting isn't that bad—it's more flat than anything—but sending it through a thousand different programs, still won't give it life. 

Alpha survivors hoped and dreamed that the Beta would have a higher level cap for your character, bringing additional guns, upgrades, accessories, and dance moves.  Many gamers were left disappointed to discover the level cap was still held tight at eight.  So again you obtained the same guns and only went as far as the Alpha.  The other request Alpha survivors wanted were more areas to explore, but the moon mission ended up being the only addition in the Beta.  Which begs the question: Could Destiny be smaller in scope and story than Bungie has led its audience to believe?  With one major area to explore per planet, there's a chance Destiny's story could be beaten in just a few hours.  But this is primarily a multiplayer game, so those looking for a deep story might be better off looking elsewhere.

Other multiplayer game types not shown include: 

Rock, Paper, Scissors; Pick-A-Number; Flip-A-Coin; and Guess Which Hand

BETA CONCLUSION:

The bottom line: Destiny is still a lot of fun at its core.  Were Alpha survivors hoping for a bit more this time around?  Yep.  Did they get it?  Nope.  Did it make a difference?  Only to some.  Most gamers still found the multiplayer exciting even though they were only privy to a few different maps and the same Control game type.  Even though the Beta started with a little more story this time around, it’s the multiplayer and Raids that will keep gamers returning.  Does Bungie have a few aces up its sleeve come release time?  No way to tell.  The only thing gamers can do is try to fill the Destiny void during August and wait for the full version to blow their minds…or maybe not.  Here's hoping for the best.