Reviewed by: Jamaal Ryan
Writer's Note: This review has been edited for fact checking and grammar. Apologize for the mistakes,
Destiny is probably the most divisive game that I’ve ever
played.
It’s both incredibly fun and boring as hell, captivating and
uneventfully sterile, provides lasting appeal and turns players away. It straddles
both sides of the fence constantly by wearing so many hats - from first person
shooter, to RPG, to amateur MMO - that some are bound to fit, while others are
awkward and uncomfortable, or just completely fall off.
Enjoying Destiny means that you have to, A) Have a level of
appreciation of everything it has to offer and, B) Figured out how to navigate
its segregated structure so that you’re constantly entertained. I happen to be
lucky enough to fall into both categories, thus I’m still having fun with
Destiny today.
But it’s irrefutable that the game isn’t without its
significant problems.
FRIENDLY FIRE
There are many dimensions of design that Bungie baked
into Destiny; and those that come from
its legacy are unquestionably exceptional. One such dimension, which I’ve raved
about
again
and
again,
is its encounter design. Bungie knows how to make shooting things fun.
Throughout the course of the main story, you’ll face up against four different
races of enemies, three in which are impressively distinct from one another.
The Fallen meet your standard light-mid-heavy tiered sub types along with rush
and marksman variants, the Hive scales towards more brutish behavior by pounding heavy damage
from both up close and from afar, and the Cabal are the most diverse of the
three with their vertically agile, DPS, and shielded characteristics.
All the races in which you face challenge you to use your
surroundings better than they can. Witches are notorious for floating behind
cover, sword wielding Knights will chase you to the ends of space regardless
where you flee, and vertical vantage points only provide temporary solace until
you’re faced with enemies jumping towards you, thus forcing you to reposition
yourself constantly. Even though the coordinated differences between the
Hunter, Titan and Warlock classes are all but nonexistent until you unlock
their subclasses, when playing co-op, the simple spike in A.I. quantity
seamlessly perpetuates quality, as more enemies of various types automatically sets
a high bar of teamwork, especially in the entertaining – albeit bullet spongey – boss battles.
Destiny is at its best in the early game when trucking along
from Old Russia to the Black Garden. While all missions begin from the same
general space on each planet, they never lead you to the same location. And
while mission objectives are nearly identical, the path between points A &
B, C & D are reliably differentiated.
DEAD SPACE
All of this is enjoyable if you completely negate all
interests in getting to know the world around you, both physically and
narratively. There’s a significant difference between world building and
storytelling, the former in which Bungie has always excelled at. However I
would argue that Bungie was never a great story telling studio when it comes to
the games themselves, and that seems even more evident in Destiny.
The story here is dismal and nonexistent. Many of the
characters in the game are literally and figuratively faceless with no
perceived personal motivation outside of facing the ambiguous “Darkness” that
threatens the universe. When looking at Destiny’s impressive atmosphere, which
effortlessly balances fantasy and science fiction, it leads you to believe that
there is a deeper story to tell. And there is…on Bungie.net. Bungie’s constant
reliance on written media, electronic or physical, has always segregated the
level of appreciation of the in-game lore. Fuck no I’m not gonna go to
Bungie.net to read a story you should have already told me in the game I’m
playing right now.
Diablo 3 comparisons, as a loot heavy RPG with bad storytelling,
are painfully evident. And while many loot driven games trip up on a hokey
narrative, there’s a certain formula that they adhere to on how to incentivize
exploration. Unfortunately Destiny completely misunderstands what that formula
is.
Early in the game, Destiny tucks away high level opponents
in certain areas as a way to say, “You’re not ready yet. Come back later.”
Proper world structure ensures that areas where over powered opponents reside
are completely isolated in their own sector. But in Destiny, they exist in
little pockets that you can easily stumble into if you find yourself too nosey.
There’s no way of predetermining “I’ll stay away from there” as a way to ensure
that you’re not running into corners of the world in which you’re not supposed
to. It makes these areas both difficult to avoid and to then find again once
you return at a higher level.
Though I myself didn’t have an issue returning to the same
hub worlds again and again for every mission, these persistent spaces are
incompatible to the idea of exploration. On two separate occasions I diverged
off the beaten path in search for these rare chests I kept hearing about. Both
times I found myself wondering aimlessly for up to 10 minutes before I guessed
that these were areas in which the story might not have taken me to yet. Lo and
behold, I was right, as a separate mission and a later objective eventually
brought me to said areas. The lack of enclosed environments leaves you open
meandering about as the game has no way of communicating to you that you’re
literally going in the wrong direction (like what the sector of high level
opponents I insinuated above would have done).
This is all exacerbated by the questionable lack of any kind
of world map to provide some information on your whereabouts, and the fact that
the chests are so infrequent that I can imagine many eventually deciding not to
bother embarking on a search for them, especially after hearing that you can
actually level out of their usefulness.
THE LOOT GRIND
As irrelevant as the chests may be, loot chasing is your primary
incentive in continuing to return to Destiny. And once you’ve reached the post-game
that is the level 20 soft cap, it often becomes your soul incentive. Making your
way past level 20 is inexcusably unclear outside of knowing that armor with
Light attributes allows you to continue to level up. But even once you’ve
figured out what Crucible reputation vs. Vanguard reputation vs. Faction reputation
is, or even how to join a faction in the first place, and what it all means in
regards to eventually getting Legendary loot, it becomes a hassle. You can very
easily fall into a long period of stagnation of earning useless loot while
grinding your way through bounties attempting to earn enough Crucible/Vanguard
Marks – two of the several types of currencies among Destiny’s convoluted economy
– to purchase the desired Legendary equipment. Bungie and Activision have long
tooted the horn with the quote, “The game doesn’t even start until you’ve reached
level 20”. But I’d argue that feeding the game with rotating daily bounties isn’t
enough to prevent the game from slowing down.
COMPETE FOR THE TOP
Part of what sustains the staying power of Destiny is the
much talked about Crucible, Destiny’s competitive grounds. I’ve
raved
about what I love in the Crucible, but after spending countless hours with it, I
very much recognize its balancing problems. As I’ve stated before, all damage
and defensive stats are flattened in the Crucible outside of what will be the
Iron Banner. That includes attack and defense upgrades in each of the weapon and armor skill trees. But because Destiny’s upgrade system works to make your characters
more powerful as a proper RPG should, that doesn’t necessarily translate well in
to the Crucible where most competitive shooter upgrade systems typically offer
more options of play.
Some of the skills obtained in each class compound this problem
even further, creating a larger issue aptly described by Giant Bomb’s
Brad Shoemaker, “The number of
ways you can get one-shotted in that game is fucking staggering!” Outside of shotguns,
sniper rifles, and the ludicrously over powered fusions rifles, recharge abilities
inflict brutal insta-kills. In the later game, players will begin to obtain
Rare armor that offer attributes in which increases three character stats:
Intellect (determines Super recharge time), Discipline (determines grenade
recharge time), and Strength (determines melee recharge time). These attributes
aren’t flattened in the Crucible, thus putting higher level players whose
abilities recharge faster at a noticeable advantage. The Crucible is a highly
entertaining space to test your skill, but at this stage of a game whose
audience is very much committed early adopters at level 20+, most folks below
level 10 are in for a rough time.
DEAFENING SILENCE
Ultimately, Destiny strives to be a social experience, one
that is said to revolutionize console multiplayer as Bungie did with Halo 2.
However unfortunately, the social opportunities are hardly more developed than
your typical console shooter.
As a co-op shooty-shooty-bang-bang, Destiny works very well.
Strike missions smartly match-make three players together for some co-op
action, and they are easily the most popular post game content next to the
Crucible. The Tower, Destiny’s most MMOish social hub, is where you’ll run into
plenty of players who are participating in mood lifting dance offs, caught volleying
the oversized beach ball, or going about their faction and loot grinding
business.
But none of it quite seems to be enough.
If you’re not rolling deep with a predetermined strike team,
Destiny can be a solitary experience. Public Events, the game’s biggest hook social
since its reveal at E3 2013, have only surfaced in my game three times in the absurd
amount of hours I’ve dumped into Destiny. When trying to invite other players
that you run into, the process is walled behind a lengthy U.I. mess on the
Playstation 4. And as a social RPG, it’s bizarre that Bungie has
no intention in
allowing players to trade loot at this time. I deeply appreciate the fact that
Destiny is designed to accommodate for both solo players with a limited time budget
and highly invested, highly social players, but the community features in
Destiny are much slimmer than expected.
The Bottom Line
There’s no doubt that Destiny is in for the long game, a decade-long
long game in fact with a myriad of content planned for the short and long term
future. But Destiny as we know it in just the few weeks after launch has had a
rough take-off. The mechanics and design of a first person shooter are firmly
in place. However its RPG elements are just a bit too tedious, the competitive
multiplayer is just a bit too unbalanced, and the social environment is just a
bit too quiet.
SCORE: C+
+ Spectacular shooter mechanics
+ Excellent enemy encounter design
+ Engaging co-op multiplayer
- Incredibly fun yet unbalanced Crucible
- Poorly formatted exploration
- Convoluted and grindy post-game
Image courtesy in order of appearance:
Gaming Trend
Gamespot
Attack on the Fan Boy
