Destiny

Bungie’s new game is not as gigantic or revolutionary as that hype may have led some to believe. In fact, it has several features that feel like missteps or problems. But that doesn’t change the fact that the more I play it, the more I love it.

Destiny is a confident, solid, sometimes stunningly beautiful shooter with RPG mechanics that add longevity and depth, and the beginnings of what could be an incredible online universe. But it feels like the tip of the glacier, and I’m not sure it’s a good thing to be more excited about what a game might one day be, than what it is actually is.

Not quite the epic journey into the unknown we were hoping for, mostly thanks to poor writing and a reliance on XP farming, but a treasure trove of single and multiplayer adventures nonetheless.

The half-baked nature of Destiny's RPG elements are just a symptom of a far larger issue: This is a game that’s straddling the borders between too many kinds of experiences, and in its attempts to have something for everyone, it never fully satisfies on any one front.

Destiny stays quite enjoyable as long as it has something new to offer, but this ends rather soon leaving us with a well-crafted repetitive shooter and a disappointing story. The lacklustre competitive multiplayer doesn't help either, so it won't probably be what will keep players attached to the game. Here's hoping Bungie will keep the game relevant by constantly adding new events that won't simply be fighting more of the same enemies in the same environments.

It's not quite the epic space-faring journey we were expecting, but for the time being, we'll sit back and enjoy the ride.

Destiny feels like the key elements of an FPS and an MMO gently resting shoulder to shoulder, instead of being fused together in a truly creative way. It plays and looks great, and offers many, many hours of entertainment to anyone okay with repeating the same tasks, but it isn’t exactly the game-changing science fiction epic we felt it was aspiring to.

An ambitious if repetitive combination of shooter and loot based ARPG. A boost in loot drop frequency could definitely boost the fun/score. [Issue#254, p.47]

It's a slick, mechanically sound, and lavishly produced shooter that uses beauty to try and mask the potentially great but uninspired gameplay inside. [Issue#117, p.62]