REVIEW: Destiny

Reviewing a game like Destiny is difficult for a few reasons. It drags its hype behind it like a giant tuna. Activision’s marketing campaign has been skewed by the infamous deal it made with Sony, which handed exclusive rights to the promotion of the game, alienating Xbox fans in the process. Xbox fans have previously voiced concerns that they are the the second-class Destiny citizen. Many of these gamers have leapt at the chance to kick Bungie for it’s so-called “betrayal” of the Xbox community, due to the less-than-stellar reviews the game has been getting from some major publications.

Attempting to review the game from a position of integrity is a priority for me, as a gamer, and as a writer, and as such I have decided to split this review in parts, owing to Destiny’s massive size and similarly massive ambition.

I have written this part of the review from the point of view of someone who didn’t play in any beta test, using a retail copy of the game purchased by myself.

Graphics & Sound

I like to get the easy stuff out of the way first, and appearances is one aspect which Destiny unanimously impresses on. Destiny has truly incredible presentation. The music of Martin O’Donnell captivates and enraptures, and does a good job of differentiating Destiny from Halo. The music is often dynamic, ramping up and down based on the difficulty of the battle you’re engaged in, and seamlessly transitions between sequences.

Each world has its own flavour and renders impeccably on the Xbox One. Utilizing the GPU previously reserved for Kinect, Bungie were able to bump the game to the (supposedly) important 1080p benchmark. Bungie sky-boxes are the best in the business, painting the post-apocalyptic alien landscapes in a way that calls upon the industry to up it’s game. Each area is lovingly detailed and meticulously polished, I’ve yet to find a broken texture seam or a hovering asset.

Enemy designs are also wonderfully crafted, each faction taking on a unique styling that permeates throughout each mob type. The animations are wonderful too, and transition well between sequences, reacting to gunfire as well as physics impacts.

Armor and weapons are also very beautifully designed, featuring a level of detail often not seen in games of this nature. Persistently updated games/MMOs tend to feature stylised graphics with low detail in order to make it more cost effective to ship content. Bungie certainly hasn’t scrimped on the production values in this department, which is refreshing for the genre.

It’s very easy to praise the art work of the game, Bungie’s Halo games enjoyed similar majesty in locations and sound treatment, but the kicker is always gameplay.

Gameplay & Story – Part 1 (Level 1-17)

Bungie have been defensive when asked if this is an “MMO”. This apprehension, for me, appears to colour the entire game.

Early on in the game, it certainly feels that the game suffers from an identity crisis, and some of it’s constituent parts feel skeletal.

At it’s core, Destiny is a shooter, and these core elements are very solid. Every weapon type has its own identity, and is satisfying in use, as well as balanced. I’ve been able to perform well in Destiny’s PVP arena (known as the Crucible) utilizing every weapon type. Similarly to Titanfall, it appears as though a lot of thought has been poured into balancing the games various weapon types and abilities, but balance doesn’t come without cost.

The game is so balanced, that the RPG elements, gear stats, feel arbitrary. Stats are normalized in PVP, which is entirely necessary, but it feels to me as though this tendency to keep things balanced carries over into single player too. Obtaining upgrades simply doesn’t feel as exciting as it does in Borderlands or Diablo. Persistent golden chests and vendors deliver weapon upgrades to you like candy, ensuring you’re never at a disadvantage when levelling. This makes the experience dull and repetitive, as the carrot-on-a-stick reward systems from similar games simply aren’t there. Mission end-bosses don’t have loot tables, instead loot is randomly generated in a mission-complete screen, which again feels arbitrary. Hiding the random number generator (RNG) from a loot-chasing dungeon crawler is paramount to maintain a sense of immersion, yet Destiny seems desperate to shove it in your face and remind you you’re doing the same mission again for the 100th time to wait on a dice roll. This doesn’t bode well for the longevity of the game.

Destiny is a connected experience, and features many systems which one would attribute to an MMO. I could write a separate article on the downfall of World of Warcraft, which saw its player base shrink year on year since it began caving to fan feedback. One would think that being a joint venture with Activision-Blizzard, Bungie might have avoided making some of the same mistakes.

World of Warcraft has an enjoyable levelling experience, with varied class combat and varied quest systems. WoW quest chains tend to drive the player through a mini-story about the zone itself. You learn about an areas inhabitants, how the area came to be, and the enemies central to the plot as you progress. The concept is solid, and works across many other similar games. Destiny’s levelling doesn’t deliver on this.

I’ve played the game all the way to level 17 and I am yet to discern any sort of plot. I have no idea what the goals and intentions of the different factions in the game are, how they came to be, or why they came to be. The common mantra seems to be “they’re evil”, but its not a cliché I’d expect from a game with a supposed budget of 0.5 billion dollars. The voice acting is also very woolly. Peter Dinklage of Game of Thrones fame, who voice acts a space-Navi that follows you around, sounds entirely uninterested in his portrayal.

The dialogue is average at best, sinking all the way to cringe-worthy. I would bet money that Dinklage’s infamous “that wizard came from the Moon!” line would’ve made it into the full game if it didn’t become a meme. Destiny’s strength is clearly in its art, but it sadly failed to inspire a cohesive narrative to tie it together. Any lore is hidden away in grimoires that can only be accessed via an Android/iOS exclusive app or the website. These should be in the game. This may seem like a small thing to pick on, but its a pointlessly stupid design decision which serves no real purpose, and doesn’t inspire confidence in those who are in charge of creating this game.

There are a plethora of small things which coalesce into a theory of poor project management. Why did nobody suggest a simple flash light? This is a basic staple of first person shooters. There are various areas in the game which are shrouded in pitch black darkness, yet your ghost companion only activates it’s lamp in certain pre-defined situations. It’s almost as if the game punishes you for exploring, or that the developers simply had no interest in fostering it. Mountains described in Destiny’s original reveal as “playable terrain” turned out, in-fact, to be a backdrop that cause you to die if you try to go near it. Other areas simply state “turn back” and give you a time limit to return to a more acceptable area. That said, areas are quite expansive, but there is little reason to explore in the first place. Occasionally you find raw materials, that … you can’t craft with, but instead you can hand in for reputation, to (eventually) access gear that doesn’t really affect your game-play.

Even more occasionally, you might find a silver chest, which might contain some credits, but since the game has no real money sinks, money becomes just another arbitrary system which needn’t exist. But most of the time, that cave you climbed into will contain nothing, something which does the level designers massive discredit.

Why include MMO staples like /emotes and social hubs, only to disappoint by not adding text chat channels? Why include MMO-style crafting nodes, and then not add a crafting system? Why add purchasable space ships, and then not let me fly them? The game tantalises with aspects of features borrowed from other games, only to disappoint by not fully implementing them. If it’s in their plan to add these systems and features, then they need to be transparent about that, because their half-hearted appearance of served only to disappoint me.

Ultimately, at level 18, I feel as though the levels and talents I’ve gotten are pointless. My agility is higher, but I can’t tell the difference between that and my far lower level alt. The only noticeable difference is the higher number that jumps out of my gun, but since enemies HP grows in unison, its a small platitude. The gear I’ve accrued is hideous, as if someone vomited rainbows all over me – a levelling pitfall corrected by WoW several years ago. At higher levels you can buy armour dyes, but that doesn’t exactly help someone like me who is struggling for cash, and whose early impressions of the game may make them feels as though it might be smarter to trade the game in.

Every game which has you assume a role only truly shines, for me, when it makes you forget you’re playing a game. Perhaps its part of the shock from going from Metro Redux – a game which bleeds immersion – to Destiny, which seems to rip you out of it at every possible opportunity. Completing quests takes you to a mission complete screen and then boots you off the planet back to the galaxy map; bosses don’t drop loot – but instead you’re randomly assigned loot in that same mission complete screen; the game punishes you for exploring its beautiful landscapes – and seems desperate to place you on rails, narrated by the patently bored Dinklebot.

This lack of immersion can be offset with co-operative play, which allows players to join 2 friends for the levelling experience, but again, various missed design opportunities do nothing but frustrate.

The bosses I’ve faced so far, whilst beautifully designed, lack phases and tactics, and instead just beg you to feed them bullets. The classes differ only in name, and don’t really offer any sort of utility differentiation. Perhaps this is so for balance reasons, but it comes at the cost of depth in a game starved of it. Each class gets a grenade ability, which has the same variations, in addition to super-charged abilities on a long cooldown. Warlocks and Titan’s have an area attack, with the hunter class instead getting a golden gun attack, which gives him 3 shots that do massively increased damage. The abilities are incredibly uninspired, and really does a developer of Bungie’s pedigree a huge discredit.

If there are class differentiating abilities at higher levels, via subclasses, then they should come earlier in the game. First impressions are important, many gamers won’t have the patience or inclination to go traverse to the upper levels. I had hoped for a game where me and my friends could play role separate roles, synchronising our unique utilities to overcome the challenges presented. Alas, so far, the class system seems to just change the colour of your grenade flash.

Conclusion – Part 1 (13/09/2014)

Destiny has serious problems for a game with such a massive marketing campaign. If they’d shipped it low key perhaps the gaming press wouldn’t be out with their microscopes to scrutinize it, instead I feel a bit conned. I feel the blame for this lies on Activision, who have spun this game beyond reasonable levels of hype.

Bungie’s apprehension towards descriptions of the game as an “MMO” ring hollow when they’ve included so many systems from other games of the genre. The lack of cohesion between the game’s constituent parts have hurt it massively.

Destiny’s greatest strength is in its art work, which is beautiful, or possibly in the game’s engine, which has been developed with a 10 year road map in mind. The seamless transition from public area to private is to be lauded, as well as the networking infrastructure, which has thus far held strong against the launch rush.

I enjoyed Destiny most when playing with friends, who were able to provide entertainment in place of the game itself. Bungie have restricted trading to a future update, to encourage players to “earn their rewards”, whilst at the same time delivering powerful upgrades very cheaply via vendor. The contradictions in design make me wonder whether or not Bungie have a clue what they’re doing.

People have suggested to me that the game “opens up” at level 20, and gives you access to Strike Mission play-lists (which are comparable to WoW dungeons, with mini bosses and a final boss at increased difficulty), but in my opinion it shouldn’t take several hours to find the enjoyable parts of any game. World of Warcraft and Diablo captivate with abilities and game-changing upgrades at every turn, whilst Destiny offers little to make the levelling experience compelling.

Future updates to Destiny will depend on players continued interest in the game, and based on my experiences so far I’ll drop Destiny like a brick once I finish what is supposedly it’s story.

Destiny has been marketed as an “evolution of shooting games”. Its certainly a mutation, but based on my impressions so far, it remains to be seen if natural selection won’t kill this freak of nature off.

Conclusion – Part 2 (29/10/2014)

Now I’ve managed to finish Destiny’s raid, as well as play a boatload of PVP, and have had time to fully consider my experience with Destiny.

Had Destiny not been a massive budget title, carrying with it the reputation of legendary Bungie, as well as receiving the nod from powerhouse publisher Activision, Destiny might not be under so much scrutiny.

Many of my original assessments hold true, the game is devoid of plot, hell, it’s devoid of meaningful content. Period. Destiny’s strike missions are dull, ending with a bullet-sponge boss that requires no forethought or planning. The tactics of each require you to wait around whilst Dinklebot opens a door or repairs a computer, producing an uninspiring wave-after-wave of canon fodder for you to pummel ahead of the dungeons snorefest target dummy boss battles. Although, my initial assessments on Destiny’s PVP have changed…

Destiny’s PVP is frighteningly unbalanced, disregarding rampant server issues and dropped connections. Titan’s can instantly kill you after sprinting for just two seconds, and Sunsinger Warlocks gain a shield every time they melee, meaning any Sunsinger with half a brain won’t lose to you in close quarters combat. See below for proof.

The inclusion of ultra-moves in PVP make for an incredibly frustrating experience, as it allows unskilled players to murder you without any semblance of effort. It simply isn’t fair to die as a result of an IWIN button, in any game – and Destiny is the only PVP game I can think of that doesn’t provide suitable counters for many of these ridiculously overpowered abilities. If I am killed in Battlefield or Halo, it is most likely my fault, but the same cannot be said about Destiny. IWIN buttons have no place in any self respecting arena based FPS. Even UT99’s nuclear rocket launching redeemer could be countered. I am getting frustrated just writing about it.

Destiny’s periodical “events” amount to being forced to repeat the same old missions with slightly different modifiers, masquerading as new content. I can respect that the alure of new loot regardless of how is enjoyable for many gamers, but I think that fleeting fix isn’t conducive to creating a deep game that hopes to have a 10 year life span.

Destiny’s loot system was recently hotfixed, having achieved notoriety for providing wilful disappointment. One would’ve hoped that this was a bug or an oversight, but Bungie actually gave high level engrams the chance to turn into low-level items on purpose, hoping that the randomness would be “fun and exciting” – this kind of design mentality concerns me for Destiny’s future success.

The Vault of Glass raid is the one pin hole of light in this vast void of disappointment. Vault of Glass truly feels as though it were developed by a different team, featuring advanced tactics and challenge that I had yearned for in Destiny’s lacklustre strike missions. One boss requires players to defeat waves of unique monsters in between tackling the bosses’ shield using a mechanic unique to that encounter. Raid members are then afforded a small window of opportunity to dent the Hydra’s massive health pool, whilst also maximising their damage output against the increasingly difficult waves of additional monsters and avoiding various other hazards. The challenge was refreshing, and honestly, the only sufficiently engaging one I had in my entire 50+ hours with Destiny.

I have to reiterate that Destiny has an INCREDIBLY strong foundation. The graphics are gorgeous, the gunplay and combat is fluid and well tuned (in PVE…), Destiny’s weapon upgrade system is interesting and engaging, but the positive comments end there. Destiny has no memorable characters or plot, save for Peter Dinklage’s notoriously poor performance as your Ghost companion. The game has very little polish in terms of tuning and balance in PVP, many character classes enjoying utterly overpowered moves which take no skill what-so-ever to execute. Finally, I find it frustrating as a consumer that Bungie will ignore criticisms about the game’s sub-par base content, and expect players to shell out further cash to pad it with an upcoming expansion, of which Xbox versions will have cut content.

Whilst I don’t begrudge those who enjoy Destiny – as the game does have a solid foundation – nothing about Destiny inspired me to continue with it. I find it to be a shame primarily because the game is conceptually incredible, gorgeous and features a great engine. Poor project management, the lack of testing, the odious content exclusivity deal and the slow pace of addressing concerns all scream at me to trade the game in, and with Call of Duty and Halo around the corner, I may just do that.