Hype can be a double-edged sword. Spending hundreds of millions to market magma as a “High Quality Resurfacing Solution” doesn’t change the product. It still burns down villages, it still creeps across the ground at half the speed of pouring jam, and it still strikes fear into millions. With reports of Activision spending $500 million on Bungie’s latest FPS/RPG franchise that’s supposedly an MMO but not an MMO Destiny, one does have to wonder how much of this went to development and how much went to marketing.
So now it’s time to delve into the dark future of Destiny, and the future has never been so bright. On the surface at least.
First impressions always matter and Destiny does a fine job of impressing from the moment it graces the screen only to continue treating the eyes at every turn. Light dances across metallic surfaces with an elegance reserved usually for the finest ballets, going on to illuminate the screen with so much lensflare even J.J. Abrams would be jealous. Everywhere from the overgrown ruins of Venus to the dilapidated buildings of Old Russia there’s a tangible quality. It wouldn’t be surprising to find sand in your shoes after a long trek across Mars.
This finesse of fidelity is present in character designs too. Not only is player armor beautifully crafted but so is that of your foes. Worthy of particular mention are the Cabal, whose bulky, yet sleek, suits can cause episodes of jaw-dropping wonder and fear. It isn’t the overall presentation of models that makes them special though. It’s the small details like cloth draped from Guardians or the frenzied running of Hive Thralls which add to Destiny‘s beauty.
Last, but by no means least, in Destiny‘s arsenal is the sound design. Sweeping orchestral scores calmly pleasure the ears at some times only to entwine themselves with thumping electronic beats to get the blood pumping. Even the satisfying thump from melee attacks (seriously, they feel and sound so good that the person responsible deserves free beer for life) is a treat to hear. One nice touch comes from weapons fire which reverberates around interiors, adopting the metallic tones of steel walls or rocky caverns in its echo.
However, not all of Destiny‘s audio is great.
While there’s plenty of it, dialogue rarely raises anything more than a smirk. Very clichéd. The Ghost — voiced by Peter Dinklage and from now on shall by called Dinklebot or Guilty Dink — delivers every line in a tone which straddles the chasm between impassioned theatrics and machine-like monotone only to dip into the hole between. Numerous other recognisable names make up the rest of Destiny‘s cast, but nearly every line doesn’t quite hit its mark. The Ghost companion along with narrations from other characters only seem to exist as a simple way to throw exposition at the player without forcing them to read.
Laying the blame solely upon the voice cast just wouldn’t be fair. Some of the lines they were asked to deliver are born of the same amount of inspirational spark as a brick. This is because, like the blank casing around a cupcake, Destiny‘s story holds everything together just enough to give Guardians reason to pump clip after clip into enemies but barely stands out alone. When the tale does finally get going, it ends with all the grace of a falling potato – a fate eerily reminiscent of that which befell Rage.
That’s not to say there is no intrigue throughout the game. Traversing each of the four planets (Mars, Venus, Earth, and The Moon) evokes a sense of wonder. All have been left to the wilds of nature and the player is left to gaze through a crystal ball, seeing only a murky glimpse of what these areas used to hold. It would have been nice to know more, but allowing players to create their own stories is often more effective.
Where Destiny really excels is in the moment-to-moment gameplay. Whether shooting Fallen Dregs as a new character or taking down huge bosses in the 20+ areas (20 being a sort of soft cap as additional levels are granted by gear not experience), the controls truly feel so intuitive that moving and shooting is itself a joy. Never once do you find yourself engaged in combat with the controller while fighting a Vex Hydra. Every activity from a simple reload to bashing out a class-based ability is smooth as silk. Oh and, of course, the brutal melee strikes are simply to die for.
The three classes all fulfill a particular role in Destiny but, unlike many other multiplayer experiences, you are not penalized for your selection. Titans can use Sniper Rifles with the same effectiveness as Hunters, who are just as capable with Scout rifles as Warlocks. The only major differences between classes come in looks and specialized skills. Outside of this, all classes are nigh on completely homogeneous. That isn’t to detract from the available customization, however. Weapons and armor of higher quality can be upgraded to reward you for continuing to use them and molded to your personal needs.
All of this shows off the most startling element in Destiny: the amount of polish every aspect has been given. There isn’t one half-arsed animation. There isn’t one mediocre texture. There isn’t even a weapon which feels like it was built by a slothenly half-wit from the backwaters of Uranus. It is rare to not see a copious quantity of polish given to a big AAA release yes, but even by modern standards the developers at Bungie have outdone themselves in this respect. Right down to the somewhat surprisingly easy-to-use UI, every aspect feels like it has spent hours being tinkered with.
Sadly though, this is its own curse. It may all feel great and sound astonishing, but it also feels cold – almost clinical – in its delivery. Every second spent in a board room meeting discussing whether that floor texture or this mechanic will appeal to all has apparently been detrimental to the passion which can really make a game stand out. The most memorable aspects of much-loved games are not the precise controls or the sound design; they are the little sparks of fun, something which seems to be lacking in Destiny.
There is so much scope in the game for little things to raise a smirk or throw in a surprise. The Moon could have had an American flag in the distance alongside the remnants of a lunar lander. A comedically named mission target or two wouldn’t have gone amiss either. Some fun did manage to slip through the gates with a couple of choice weapon names, but everything else has the lustre of surgical steel. Yes it cuts well enough. Yes there’s an incredible strength to it. Yes it completely serves its purpose. It just doesn’t want to make you smile.
If anything, the best vehicle for comedy, your Ghost, causes more cringing than dinner at Ricky Gervais’ house. “I’ll work faster!” he shouts while breaking through a code. He’s a robot for heaven’s sake! Obviously Dinklebot is the first computer ever to be built and programmed to run as inefficiently as possible.
Oh the fun is from getting new loot, you say? Well, there is some truth to that, but not a whole lot. Leading up to level 20, loot drops are sparse at best and currency stocks barely grow quickly enough to fund the purchase of new equipment. This does change at the soft cap though. Jumping into the 3-person strike missions, each generally taking anything from 15 to 30 minutes, does give out the loot, but in a particularly cumbersome fashion. More often than not, you obtain an Engram which has to be taken back to the central social hub to be converted into a new pair of shoes or a shiny hat, at which point the loading times decide to wander into view.
These aren’t soul crushingly long loading processes, like those seen on the Amiga 2600. Just after a hectic strike mission though, sitting through a minute of loading only to get a new piece of gear unlocked, then jumping back into loading and then into yet more loading time to start the next mission just breaks gameplay up. Would it not simply have been easier to give each player their new equipment outright without making them traipse over to a hub?
“Variety is the spice of life” is a common phrase which everyone has heard sometime in their life. Not the folks at Bungie though. Almost all missions follow a structure more rigid than granite. Here are your options. Go here and scan this, then shoot this mini-boss. Go here and defend your Ghost. Go here and defend your Ghost, then defeat this mini-boss, then scan this. That’s pretty much it, apart from one mission where the your Guardian is given a sword to swing around. One mission.
Both in the high level strikes (of which there are six… Yep, six) and the story mode that’s about as varied as anything gets. Maybe this is due to the combat area design, which creates a perfect battleground on which to fight the strict selection of enemies placed before you, but it is no reason to keep coming back.
And yet, with all this lack of variety and a clinically cold world, Destiny is still a compelling experience which is difficult to turn your attention from. These failings are severe in the long-term but in the short-term, Destiny is a joyous and wonderful game to devote time to. It seems to suffer from a split personality. One side of Destiny is a great collection of mechanics and systems which make the game a joy to play. On the other is a world which could have been wonderful to explore had the passion not been sucked out in favour of a little more polish.
Sat atop Destiny‘s tilted crown, though, sits an experience which tests players to the limit on an even, competitive playing field: the Crucible. This Player vs Player environment is always fun and always interesting, in part because it takes the game’s mechanics and applies them to a competition against others with the same tools as yourself. In part, though, it could also be because this environment is the only place in Destiny where you really have to engage any grey matter to adapt to situations.
Destiny could have been the shining star many wanted it to be. Destiny could have even been the stepping stone towards greatness the current generation of consoles hungers for. Instead, it has been born into the world without an identity all of its own. Half RPG loot system, half social MMO shooter, and somehow half competant multiplayer competitive FPS. It is a game of three halves which together do not add up to a whole.
It will still eat up your social life and spit you out. It is almost worth purchasing Destiny to feel just how good a Generation 8 shooter could feel. If a little passion and variety had been injected, Destiny could have truly become a legendary release. As it is though, Bungie’s latest provides a fun distraction without the staying power its mechanical prowess deserves. Rather than being created by a group of designers willing to take risks to carve out a new identity, Destiny feels like it was designed in a boardroom during shareholder meetings to maximise mass-market appeal over creating a timeless classic.
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