NOTE:
Bungie, the team that created the little unknown game
called Halo, has teamed up with Activision's half a billion smackaroos, to
bring you Destiny: the love child of an MMORPG and FPS. The following impressions are based on the
Alpha form of Destiny. And any or all of
these thoughts and concerns may have already been fixed or could be in the
process of being tweaked.
I may not be the fastest quick-draw in galaxy, the
most proficient with a machine gun, or even have the slightest idea of how to
follow quest markers or bring up my personal hover bike. But there is one thing that I can do better
than anyone in the galaxy…and that, my friends, is dance. Yes, when it comes to busting a move in the
most awkward of places like in the midst of battle, you can be rest assured my
booty shaking is the best in the galaxy.
Why? Because a galaxy without
dance is a galaxy where Kevin Bacon and I, can never, ever belong. But I've gotten ahead of myself. Allow me to start from the beginning.
A few minutes into Destiny, I was already on my
way to creating a perfect lookalike Warlock: a charming gentleman with blue
skin, white hair and yellow war-paint.
Different facial choices seemed scarce and the scary 90's hairstyles
left much to be desired, but the gorgeous graphics brought tears to my
eyes. Never before has a gamer been able
to create such ugliness in gorgeous 1080p.
And after I had my perfect avatar—one who would surly dance his way into
every female guardian's pants—I was dropped willy-nilly into old Russia and left
to find my way. With rifle in hand and
absolutely no idea what to do or where to go, I began running. And no more than a few moments later, my
beautiful face became the finish line of many enemy bullets. (In the
Alpha, enemies came in two forms: the Hive and the Fallen. Besides a different set of attacks and
weapons, they're mainly the same and can be dispatched of with a steady stream
of pew-pew-pew)
THE WHOLE MASSIVE MULTIPLAYER THINGIE:
Some people may dislike MMO's because of the
time investment, monthly payment (which Destiny doesn't have), or the need to
make friends. But Destiny has solved
those problems. It's a game that can
appeal to the casual/mature gamer and
the MMO fan that has way too much free time.
How? Well, by allowing a gamer to
pop in and out for as little or as much time as they want. Since the player has multiple gaming options
(multiplayer, strikes, missions, etc.) with rewards, you won't have to prepare
for an eight hour session of boar killing in a forest to raise your level. Twenty minutes may be all you have time for
and you'll still be able to increase your stats. Destiny also creates "Fireteams"
consisting of other players to help you out.
And the first time I happened to look to my left and see another player—someone
I've never met and will probably never see again—beside me, chopping down
enemies…it felt awesome. Like I was part
of something bigger than just my story.
Like I was part of a living world.
That's the secret to Destiny. It
doesn't force you to become friends with anyone or to team up, but if it
happens along the way, you'll appreciate the help.
THE TOWER, CLASSES, MISSIONS, PUBLIC EVENTS, AND STRIKES:
Pushing through the Alpha's limited 8 levels as
a Warlock (the Warlock is like a wizard dude with a gun) took around five
hours. And now you're thinking, "Well, my good man, did you also level up a
Hunter (a quick-on-their-feet dude with a gun) or a Titan (a heavily armored dude with a gun)?" No, Sir.
And here's why: aside from their special moves and über-special moves,
there really seemed to be no difference between characters. And running around doing the same missions
over again, just in a different pixelated skin, seemed like absolutely no fun. So I decided to stick with my Warlock and max
out his abilities, and then head over to multiplayer.
After the first 20 minute mission, which
establishes a small chunk of Destiny's story, you're sent to the Tower (Destiny's galactic coffee shop filled with
emo guardians and gun aficionados) to regroup. In the Tower, you learn how to obtain new
gear (helmets, gauntlets, chest/leg armor, guns and the like), find new quests,
upgrade your ship (which seemed
unnecessary, at least where the Alpha is concerned), buy/sell rewards, and
if you're inclined, how to add friends to your Fireteam.
So after having a galactic cup of coffee and
watching people dance, wave, point, and sit (emotes mapped to the D-pad) you're
free to do whatever you want. The only
location in the Alpha was Earth—mainly old Russia—where small missions like
discover this cave and kill that idiot can be found. Also, if you run around doing nothing for a
while, you might happen upon a public event.
This is a randomly generated quest that starts in a public area and
includes other people who happened to be nearby. I was part of two public events. My first had me all alone defending and
downloading information from a large orb that fell from the sky, while fending
off waves of enemies. Needless to say, I
died quickly and cursed up a storm. The
second public event had me teamed with two strangers and we won, leading to an
impromptu dance-off in the snow. I, of
course, won with unmatched galactic moves, but the judging is subjective. Two public events seemed like enough so I
moved on.
Strikes come in all types of difficulty and
length. My first had me dispatch some
wizard A-hole that the galactic community deemed unfit to cast spells. So I ran through claustrophobic hallways and
oil refineries to slay the beast, and did so, on my own. I therefore, became a level three Warlock and
was able to wipe my own arcane ass.
After another strike of dispatching the same enemies in a different area
of snowy Russia, I finally reached level seven Warlock and the last and biggest
strike in the Alpha became available.
If you do partake in Destiny, you should know
that Strikes can take a while and you should allocate your time
accordingly. This level 6 Strike
required a three guardian Fireteam and lasted a tad over an hour. But the awesome part is I never had to make
any friends or worry about who was coming with me. Destiny teamed me up with two Fireteam
buddies and no effort on my part was required.
I only remember one of my fellow characters because her name was
unforgettable: YeastyBeaver, a title that holds a special meaning in my
heart. Up until she and my other
Fireteam member left me right in the middle of battle. But here's the silver lining. I never even noticed, because Destiny
smoothly replaced them with two other pixelated friends. How this happens in real time without the
slightest hiccup is beyond me. But it
worked. In fact, everything in the Alpha
worked. There wasn't one time where
frame-rate dropped or a match didn't connect or someone happened to float past
on an imaginary cloud. And although I do
enjoy the occasional glitch—because sometimes they're extremely frigging funny—not
one thing went wrong the entire weekend I spent gorging myself on Destiny.
THE CRUCIBLE AND CLASS DIFFERENCES:
After the humongous level 6 Strike and
defeating its two ridiculously ammo-absorbing bosses, I danced. But I not only danced because dancing comes
natural. I also danced because I'd
achieved level 8 Warlock: the highest level that could be achieved in the
Alpha. I then took my ship over to the
Tower to upgrade my armor and weapons.
The time had finally come to head over to the Crucible and test my fully
maxed skills in multiplayer. And being a
level 8 Warlock was sure to earn me easy kills and awesome bragging
rights. It didn't take longer than a few
seconds of Control (the only multiplayer
option in the Alpha, where two teams of six attempt to hold three map points
until time expires) to die repeatedly and realize I was way out of my
league. I'm going to take a shot in the
dark here and say that if you were awesome in Halo's multiplayer, then you'll
be kicking some ass in Destiny.
Destiny offers three weapon slots in
multiplayer and regular play. Primary
(ex: machine gun, pistol), secondary (ex: sniper rifle, shotgun), and heavy
(ex: rocket launcher). Primary ammo can
deplete if you're not running around collecting it. Secondary ammo is scarce. And heavy ammo is dropped in about once or
twice a match, giving you a limited amount of time to get it. And it's in the same spot for everyone, which
leads to frantic gun fights for just two missiles.
Each different Guardian class (Warlock, Titan,
Hunter) gets a certain kind of grenade that does the same thing: hurt the
opposition. And then there are the
special moves: the Warlock having the ability to throw a devastating arc of
light, obliterating everything in front of them. The Titan obliterates everything around them
and the Hunter gets three special bullets in a pistol that have a one-shot
kill. If you happen to choose Warlock or
Titan and see a glowing Hunter approaching with a pistol…run. Run as quickly as you can because they will
put you down faster than you can say WTF.
But there was nothing more thrilling than being Super Charged (ready to explode with your special ability)
and seeing three members of the opposing team huddled around one control
point. Running into the fray only to
surprise them with annihilation is as rewarding and as satisfying as it sounds. And damn fun too. It's just too bad the cool-down times for
these abilities are extremely long. You
may only be able to use them twice in one match. This may change as you obtain higher levels,
but since the Alpha only allowed up to level eight, it kept your abilities
limited. The same went for the Warlock grenade,
which also had a slow cool-down that only allowed usability every couple of
minutes. And in multiplayer, every
second counts.
Two different multiplayer maps were
offered. Old Russia—again. And the moon.
The moon was refreshing because of the vehicles thrown on the map. The vehicle handling and weapon firing is
exactly what you'd expect from the Halo creators. But that doesn't mean rocketing around the
moon and running over enemies isn't fun.
Also having two vehicles battling it out in the middle of the map is
hilarious and exciting. I happened to
spend around 14 hours with Destiny and about 9 of those in the
multiplayer. And when the Alpha ended, I
instantly felt the need to go back in and have more fun.
CONCERNS:
Boredom: After
finishing a few smaller missions (the go
here and kill that, type stuff) they became really stale. Hopefully in the final version there are many
different varieties of public events, missions and strikes. If not, then after about a month, multiplayer
will be the only thing keeping people from ditching the game. And that's only if multiplayer has plenty of
maps and allows tweaks for custom matches.
The game showed six different options for multiplayer, but as only one
was available, we'll have to hope the other five are just as entertaining as
Control.
Custom ships: Why? If there's no arena for spaceship dogfights
or hover-bike races, then why have the ability to customize them? Hopefully, Bungie adds these areas to the
final game, because online races and dogfights in space would be a nice
addition to blowing people's faces off.
Voice Over: The
popular Peter Dinklage, known for such works as Game of Thrones and…well, Game
of Thrones, gets to add his unbelievably mundane voice to your bot
companion. The only voice you'll hear throughout the game, considering your
character is a sad mute. His voice work
didn't faze me because most of the time it was drowned out in the middle of a
fire fight, but when you do hear him, it's flat out forgettable. It's a shame Bungie didn't use someone like
Nolan North, or John DiMaggio, or any person with a tad more voice over
experience.
Maps and Icons: Pressing the touchpad slows your character down and shows
your current objective. But why not just
have the objective icon remain on the screen until you get there? It becomes a pain in the ass pressing that
thing to see if you're going in the right direction. And this feature slows down what should be a
fast-paced game. Now, if you're looking
for a map, good luck. The only one
available in the Alpha was at the Tower.
Maybe maps of previously visited areas will be included at game release. Maybe not.
CONCLUSION:
When Destiny was first announced all I saw was
an always-online video game with Halo mechanics and a Mass Effect coat of
paint. Yet, everything about the Alpha
was fun, beautiful (the view from the
Tower is amazing), entertaining and fresh.
Could this be because gamers everywhere only had a weekend to
partake? Maybe. But Destiny still made a believer out of
me. And do you know what that means? Come Beta time I'll be dancing my way through
every strike and multiplayer map available.
