Last year, Bungie rocked the gaming community with its release of the heavily anticipated Destiny, an FPS game filled with jaw-dropping backgrounds, exciting gun fights, and promises of whole worlds to explore. Filled to the brim with hidden lore, enemies determined to tear your recently resurrected guardian to pieces, and hundreds of different guns to test on your new found enemies, Destiny delivered the promise of a new franchise that would set the stage for at least the next decade.
Despite community backlash on an unexciting companion (The player’s Ghost), a completely randomized drop system, a much more linear environment than was promised, and content that was assumed to be with the original game launch that was delved out into numerous expansions, hundreds of thousands of people still log on to Destiny in search of bounties, new exotics, showing Atheon the business end of a relic, or just tearing through other people in the Crucible. Each and every day users can peruse the forums to read mile long complaints with hundreds of comments supporting, and yet Destiny’s popularity is still through the roof, with thousands and thousands of people watching gamers stream through twitch. Why, if the game is such a let down and disappointment for many, do so many people still fire up their copy of Destiny in pursuit of becoming the legend they longed to be from the start?
Random loot drops are part of what makes Destiny a unique FPS game. Many FPS games drop loot but the difference here is you never know where, when or how you may obtain that one piece of armor or perhaps a specific weapon that you have been longing for. In other games you know to go to certain areas or boss fights in order to, once defeated, find that precious piece you have been seeking. Not with Destiny, several exotic and legendary items will drop at random times and in random places. Have an amazing kill death ratio in every multiplayer battle you enter? Fantastic, though still no guarantee that you will get your hands on that precious Hawkmoon hand cannon! Too many times people have gotten their exotic and legendary items after a less than stellar performance in both story and multiplayer battles. It couldn’t be more random. Oh and in case you were wondering, sharing is not an option. If you were fortunate enough to have several of the same item drop for you and you are feeling kind and want to help a friend out too bad. Several other FPS games allow you to pick up a weapon that your enemy once wielded or will allow friends to drop an item to give to you. Destiny seems to have a strict “no sharing” policy when it comes to these little prized nuggets of fortune.
So you managed to have one of the many exotic and legendary weapons and armor drop for you. Congratulations, your friends who don’t have it will be envious and you have now given them reason to try harder, play more and be envious of your shiny new toys. It doesn’t stop there though. Once you have these items in your personal stock you can upgrade them. Upgrades to both armor and weapons will increase perks, damage, ability to take damage and countless other sought after deal sweeteners. These upgrades come in handy when fighting higher level strikes or missions as well as in certain multiplayer modes designed specifically to show off your skills and just how outstanding your guardian is becoming.
You find yourself in the heat of a battle, doing pretty well so far, seems the enemy just keeps coming from every single direction. Suddenly a gold bar on the lower left lets you know that your super is ready. Time for some heart pounding, show stopping fun! Golden guns with dead on accuracy, Fist of Havoc quaking the Earth beneath them, Nova Bomb hurling through the air toward its intended target! For a brief moment you are nearly unstoppable as you become your own weapon of mass destruction. These supers stand out and can leave nearby enemies afraid to approach until they are sure that the catastrophe that befell their allies has ended. Each guardian has two subclasses, with a third coming with the release of The Taken King in September, in which you can choose to be support for your team once that super is charged and ready to go or for a brief moment you can stand alone as a hero. The decision is yours and you can switch between the options at will.
The fireteam, the chosen few, these are the ones that you will have with you in battle be it raids, strikes or multiplayer. This was probably one of the biggest downsides to Destiny’s launch. In many other FPS games you either play alone through story missions, bosses, or you are set up with a group in a matchmaking system for multiplayer battles. In other matchmaking lobbies you were able to communicate through a voice chat with your team and between matches the enemy team as well. Destiny did not have this other than in multiplayer and a few select missions, to make it worse there was no way to communicate with the random people who you hoped had your back. They have since added a voice channel for the multiplayer matchmaking system in which players can hop in and communicate with one another during the games. However, a raid requires 6 people. Still no way to communicate, numerous occasions you could find people running though the Tower, a social area, in search of a fireteam to take down Atheon or Crota. Communication was limited to either getting someone’s attention via emotes like pointing and dancing or pulling up the message system and going through the painstaking process of typing in a name, message, and crossing your fingers that they would join. It became a game in itself to build a fireteam. If you were lucky they would respond in kind and accept an invite to join the party. Once you were set and ready you could head towards your chosen destination and pray that your new ally wasn’t a bad choice.
The mechanics of the game itself seem easy and familiar enough. Once you learn to work with your chosen weapon(s) then it boils down to the same requirements of any FPS, decision making. Revive a fallen teammate, hold the enemy off a bit longer, or run for cover. As with most FPS games Destiny leaves the decision to the player. At times you may find yourself repeatedly attempting a specific area. The spirit of winning eventually prevails as long as you and your fireteam find some form of communication, strategies and figuring out what has worked in the past.
Even with all of the short comings why are we returning? We are hooked, invested and competitive. The age range of players in Destiny is vast. Probably more than I have ever been aware of. It appeals to all ages, has enough options in game to appeal to all sorts of players. If testing your skill against other players is what suits you then Crucible was built for you. Prefer to fight off the hordes of enemies taking over planets in our Universe then there are plenty of missions, strikes and raids to keep you entertained as well. Each and every player has invested a part of themselves though. Building guardians, piecing together parts of a puzzle that the story hasn’t unfolded for us yet.
We have made connections as a community. Building fireteams through challenges of matchmaking and non -traditional gaming communication, sharing frustrations in trying to hold down Skolas, hours spent showing Atheon and Crota that the guardians will reign. While we may have learned how to communicate despite hardships in doing so we still have that “one more time” sense of adventure to us. Grouping together, building our fireteams to try and be the best of every part of each guardian type, and exploring, laughing, fighting enemies, learning to be patient and building communication to rise above whatever challenges Destiny has in store for us, and we do it all together.
Trials of Osiris, for example, a 3v3 player battle, the golden ticket if you go flawless with 9 wins and no losses is a trip to The Lighthouse. The Lighthouse appears to be a new social area though the only people you will find that inhabit this small piece of Mercury is you and the two other players who fought by your side in sometimes very heated and intense battles. Players are able to play this game type Friday midday until early morning on Tuesday. A few days to try and prove that you and your chosen guardians are the best around. Trials of Osiris does not have a matchmaking system so it is completely on you to find a team. There are mass amounts of forums dedicated to issues like this, plenty of players who offer help so you have a chance at flawless, and countless people utilizing these boards.
We keep returning because we are chasing that golden carrot on a stick. Destiny keeps moving the carrot a bit further away from its players and then ensues the challenge. A challenge to win, to be the best, to find another part of the story and to do it within less time than the person before you did. Challenges to collect every exotic piece for every guardian type you may play. We log in for weekly and daily missions hoping that the drop at the end will give us what we have been searching for. It has become a ritual for many. To do the weekly Nightfall mission immediately upon reset, to get their personal Trials flawless so that they can help other players get through it, and many times all of these things are done for a drop of an item you already own, sometimes in triplicate.
The Taken King will release in September 2015 and is the birth of the second year. Already trailers, streams with Bungie staff and multiple teasers have the Destiny community abuzz. Promises of more story, new Crucible modes, the third subclass of supers and a whole new collection of weapons have us watching and counting the days until release. We want more, we almost need it. Thanks to the lack of in game communication many of us have built bonds with random people all over the world and within those circles there are plans of being the first to beat the new raid boss just as we have done to Atheon and Crota for months on end. Thousands of people will log into Destiny the minute this expansion is available just to be the first to see what stunning visuals, story lines and challenges await each and every guardian. The prize at the end is growing and the guardian’s interest is piqued.
The differences in loot drops, communication abilities, the chance to upgrade armor as well as weapons, bounties, exotics, and of course the supers all make Destiny stand out in a flooded realm of first person shooters. The desire to have all of the legendary and exotics that are only available through playing has us counting minutes for the new bounties to drop for the day. It is all in search of clues to the story, to build a guardian unlike any other, to build a community and all of these things are happening each and every day. Time invested, emotions shared and accomplishments acknowledged among friends Destiny has indeed won over plenty of players and a whole new generation is starting to come on board. Each and every day we have at least one thing to look forward to, even if it ends with your guardian standing there with no more than they had at the beginning. Similarities in game play are starting to show in other FPS games and perhaps a little bit of Destiny has rubbed off on them. Overall, I would rate this game at an 8 for simple mechanics, easy use even for first time game players, and the graphic ability to pull the player into the game. One thing is certain each and every guardian has one thing on their mind and that is to fulfill their Destiny and Become Legend.
After a Year Our Review is…
