Destiny is a game that carries a lot of hope from gamers, developers, and publisher alike. It’s Bungie’s first major title out from under the shadow of Microsoft and the Halo juggernaut they constructed with them, and Activision has bet large on it being a hit (though maybe not quite the half a billion rumored a while ago). It’s also intriguing in that it’s the biggest attempt yet at melding solid FPS fundamentals with an Massively Multiplayer Online experience (Planetside, Defiance, and the like not withstanding). The reason this review comes weeks after release is because those MMO elements take time to unfold, and even then Destiny refused to yield.

Let’s start with perhaps the most disappointing and underwhelming part of the game: the story, or lack thereof. It’s something that cuts the knees out from under the rest of it because it really struggles to give you a reason for playing it to its climax and from that point continuing to slog through the endgame. Halo’s story wasn’t necessarily the greatest masterpiece, but it at least had a relatively coherent universe with personality to it. Destiny meanwhile is quite cold and detached, much like the nebulous and ill-defined “Darkness” which dominates affairs in the game. This Darkness consists of four different alien races: the Covenant-ish Fallen, the bug-like Hive, the robotic Vex, and the powersuit-equipped Cabal. Nothing is really revealed about these races during the game other than they all have some kind of vague religious allegiance to some dark rituals that they employ in trying to conquer humanity. And why are they here? Because humans discovered a mysterious sphere full of technology on Mars called the Traveler. A Golden Age of space colonization resulted from the knowledge exchange as we expanded through the solar system, only to call attention to the Traveler’s ancient enemies. I don’t know why these races fight each other at the same time as us if they all represent the Darkness, and there’s so many things hinted at but never explained during your romp through the story that it just feels all hacked together and pointless. Supposedly more can be revealed through accessing a Grimoire companion app on your other devices, the pages of which can be unlocked during gameplay, but that’s a awfully cheap way of storytelling.

Gameplay wise, it’s hard to describe without mentioning the peers it borrows its ideas from. Halo of course somewhat factors into the look and feel of things, with all the player characters hidden behind helmets that obscure everyone’s face much like the Spartans (granted they remove them in the Tower hub, but that’s about it), and the floating robot buddy reminiscent of Guilty Spark. The gunplay and controls are also very reminiscent of Halo, with a shield that recharges when in cover, and enemies that scramble and flank you when possible. It’s probably the strongest part of the game, actually. Beyond that though is the Borderlands style co-op, where up to three of you can join a fireteam to progress through the story, exploration, and strike missions. Story missions are rather straightforward, while Patrol mode is the most open world MMO-like, allowing you to explore the entire map and pick up quests along the way, with random people in your instance able to chip in as well for big timed events like an invasion of Fallen or a giant walker landing in the middle of things, somewhat like Defiance. Strike missions require a fireteam which will be matchmade if you don’t have enough friends with you, and are basically a series of large boss battles sandwiched by a bit of horde mode type action, or the equivalent of the smaller low level instanced dungeons in MMORPGs. You can also pick up bounties in the hub that give out bonus XP and rep as you complete various achievements like 200 headshots, completing a strike without dying, or beating a story mission with a difficulty modifier. These are a great way to level up more quickly and are highly recommended. Finally if you manage to somehow get your character up to level 26 (and you manage to get 5 of your friends to do the same, because there’s no matchmaking, another irksome limitation), you can particpate in a six-player Raid, where supposedly all the promise of the game is revealed as you figure out puzzles and complex boss mechanics akin to the hardest challenges MMORPGs like WoW and FFXIV offer. More on that later.

Like most MMOs (and Borderlands), there are different classes to play: Titan, Hunter, and Warlock. I managed to level up the latter two classes. Each class also has two subclasses that will determine which special abilities you use. For instance my Gunslinger Hunter had the advantage of massively increasing your damage with the Golden Gun ability provided you had good aim, while my Voidwalker Warlock could do a massive amount of damage with its grenade and special abilities but traded it off for being a little squishy compared to a Titan, for instance. In the end though, all the classes are pretty much equally good at killing things, and none of them really have any indispensible abilities that would make you want to balance your fireteam with one of each, making it fall somewhat short of the MMO formula. As you level up, you’ll also be able to specialize your character further as far as what characteristics your weapons or shields have, for example.

Now for the biggest problem of Destiny you’ve no doubt heard of if you’ve been following the chatter online: Loot. It randomly drops from enemies but can also be purchased or unlocked back in the Tower hub, which will remind you a bit of Phantasy Star Online. While the weapons aren’t as zany or as random as the aforementioned Borderlands, there’s a variety to support your playstyle, from spray and pray burst firing auto and plasma rifles to deadly accurate but sparing in bullets scout rifles, as well as special weapons like sniper rifles, rocket launchers, and machine guns. All gear can be especially attuned and upgraded to take advantage of specific weapons, like increasing their ammo or decreasing reload time, so you can really specialize your build. This is all fine and dandy while you’re going through the story and get to the level 20 cap. No complaints.

It’s the endgame where it gets ridiculously cruel. You can’t unlock high level content like the Vault of Glass raid or the current time-limited Queen’s Wrath event unless you upgrade your armor with Rare and Legendary class items with the Light attribute, which concurrently boosts your level above 20. This is similar to content being locked out of dungeons and raids in WoW or FFXIV until you reach a certain item level. That works perfectly fine in those games because there is a clear progression where you can do other dungeons that provide you with the loot you need for a reasonable amount of effort (i.e. boss drops, reputation gains, and faction currency for each run). Destiny however is exceedingly stingy. One strike run only gives you a handful of tokens, when you need 150 to purchase a Vanguard Legendary (not only that, you need to increase your reputation to be able to buy it in the first place). This means grinding away at them dozens and dozens of times. Strike bosses sometimes drop stuff, but it’s not guaranteed like in other games. You’re just as likely to get a Rare or Legendary engram from a random mob. Notice I said engram. Engrams aren’t the final item you need, they must be decrypted back in the Tower. Unfortunately that means you are up against the random number generator a second time, seriously decreasing the odds you’ll get something you need. Too often I’ve had a Rare engram decrypt into Uncommon trash, or an item for the wrong class. It’s completely ridiculous to put players’ progress at the mercy of chance. There’s a reason the loot cave was the most popular thing to do in the game before it got patched out: it was the only way to improve your odds! Bungie says they’re working on making other activities pay off more, but we’re still waiting. In the meantime it feels like they’re deliberately doing this to string out the hours people will put into the game instead of adding more content.

The Crucible, Destiny’s name for PvP, is another opportunity for advancing your character, and while it doesn’t match the brilliance of Halo in its maps, it can be relatively fun. Unlike in the beta it looks like Bungie has balanced out any level advantages as far as the base damage of weapons and health, but there are still ridiculously overpowered weapons out there. I can’t count how many times I’ve been taken out by a shotgun at unrealistic distance, and some auto rifles are as accurate as scout rifles, which is a bit silly, but Bungie is going to be actively tweaking things as they come up, so I can’t knock that too much. There’s a bevy of modes but it mostly consists of a team deathmatch, free for all, or control point mode and some twists on the concepts.

No one can deny that Destiny is an appealing game to the senses, and that’s quite a feat considering it’s out for not only for the Xbox One and PS4, but also the previous generation consoles (BTW it’s a shame cross platform play, a feature of FFXIV for instance, is not available here). The different planets and the moon all have their amazing vistas and are populated with nice little details, making them fun to cruise around on your Sparrow. I also enjoy the music and the way it dynamically adapts to what’s happening on the screen. Shame on them however for not giving Peter Dinkelage better material to work with. Your Ghost is nowhere near as funny or interesting as Cortana as a result. Because he’s a key part of what little storytelling there is, it’s part of the reason why Destiny feels like it lacks a soul beneath the pretty shell.

For my conclusion, I’m going to go back to the loot situation, because it feels like an incomplete review without having unlocked and experienced the game’s first Raid content, Vault of Glass. I tried. I tried really hard to give Destiny a chance to really show me it’s full potential as its take on the melding of solid FPS gunplay with the epicness of a Massively Multiplayer Online game. In the end, I found myself utterly frustrated at the game’s idea of progression, leaving it’s promise just out of reach. That pretty much sums up the game in a nutshell. If Bungie had offered some of us less hardcore players a taste of that raid gameplay immediately upon reaching level 20, and if they were allowed the time to add more strikes and other content before launching so that the grind would feel more varied, the vibe surrounding the game’s first few weeks would be much more positive. As it is, we’re still waiting to find out if they can fix it and grow it into the 10 year franchise they want it to be. The foundation is there, they just need to fill in the gaps in the story and level progression. Perhaps the expansions will go a long way towards that.

Gameplay

Graphics

Sound

Overall