Destiny is a world ender. Simple as that. It’s sheer scope and ambition cannot be expressed in words, trailers, screens or bullet points. In the months leading up I have heard many criticisms and concerns that gamers are not feeling the game, it seems subdued and seems to lack focus. Nope. This is a game when you sit and play it for an hour you get it. It opens up at every turn and you are constantly thrown into a bigger world to explore. I heard it posed as a question earlier this weekend as “Destiny vs. the field”. I take Destiny. I see it as if every other game was to be delayed and Destiny was the only game to come out this fall I will be content with that. Beyond content I would be thrilled. Allow me to explain why an Alpha has been the best thing I have played yet this year.
My story begins on Thursday. It was a rough day to say the least. 3 o’clock had come and gone and I was anxiously hitting the refresh button in my inbox waiting to see my alpha key. It would never come. A deal for a new van I was working on fell through and the Miami Heat were being blown out for the second straight game in the NBA Finals. I was down. Then a friend posted an extra alpha key in one of my Facebook groups, someone else a head of me said he tried it and it didn’t work but I had nothing better to do, anything but this awful basketball game, so I booted up the ps4 as fast as possible and furiously inputed numbers. And it worked! I was so excited so I started the download, the download that would take 2 hours. There was no way I was going to bed that night without playing Destiny. So even though I had to get up at 6 for work the next morning I played Destiny till about 2 in the morning.
That would be a theme of the weekend as I was super busy. Friday was my wife and I’s Anniversary, Saturday we went to get a van and had a graduation party and another party. Sunday was Father’s Day which was loaded with pool trips with my kids and golf with my dad. In the midst of all this somewhere I managed to Max my character at level 8 and log around 10-12 hours into Destiny. Any spare minute I had was spent in that world. No matter what was going on I was thinking when I could get back into Destiny. I fully suspect this won’t change when the beta launches in July and the full game in September.
But what makes this game so good? What sets it apart from all the other games trying to achieve the bullet point list of features Destiny is striving for. One word for me sums it up, precision. The game oozes it, the kinda precision that only comes from the very best in the business having the ability to lock the doors for almost 7 years and build a world, then a game around it.
Your gonna hear words like “Mass Effect meets Borderlands meets Halo” and their is merit to that but nothing about Destiny feels that ripped off. These are mere coincidences and similarities. Its a perfect storm of engaging worlds, intricate detail, and spot on mechanics that so very few if any other studios in the world can pull off. Guns personality will have you struggling to not use them when you get that new shiny gun, shots to extremities of enemies do hardly any damage but shots to the chest and head deal much more. Then there is the non combat elements. The people roaming around the beautiful tower, sitting in a circle and enjoying the scenery, taking your encrypted weapons and gear you picked up to see what awesome new piece of kit your going to get. All of this adds to the experience.
Watch me own someone’s face in Destiny
Then there is the strike missions. Which I tackled as a level 5 with two random teammates at level 6. The mission took a while and saw us extremely challenged by the hordes of foes and then multiple big bads that took strategy and skill to defeat. In one section we had to cover the Lannister floaty thing (it’s name escapes me) while it hacked a console. We couldn’t handle it, we kept getting separated and defeated. Finally we decided to stay together where we could fall back and revive each other as need be and not soon after we were on our way. We eventually finished the mission, got our loot, shared a wave and a dance and went on our merry way. Then something amazing happened all the awesome gear I got on the mission I got to take right over to MP and use (quite well I may add). That explains the attachment that will grow to these weapons and gear. You had them through your moments of great exploration and conquest and now are becoming a legend in The Crucible with them. I know many who played it can share my sentiments of how sad it was to log off for the last time and know our player and all those cloaks, helmets and weapons won’t survive the transitions over the next few months. So we shared a screen grab of our Warlock, Hunter, or Titan and said goodbye. A tearful goodbye.
Destiny presents a deep, real living world that offered everything Bungie has been promising since the game was unveiled a few years ago. I can’t wrap my mind around what else they have up their sleeves when the game gets it full release in September but I can promise you no matter how busy I may be I’ll make time for Destiny.
