Destiny

Thinking back now to when Bungie handed the reigns of Halo over to 343 Industries back in early 2012, Bungie said they would “see us starside,” and that they’d have something big, mind-blowing news. That news would come later as the brand new game Destiny, and they weren’t kidding about the mind-blowing part of the deal. Destiny promised a big new story and universe for players to delve into, something along the lines of Halo, Mass Effect, or even Star Wars. How could gamers not be excited?  However, what gamers got on Sep. 9, 2014 was a game full of unfulfilled promises, repetitive gameplay, and a story and characters that gamers could care less about.

Now, before anybody thinks about ripping into this game because Bungie didn’t make “Halo of Warcraft”, Destiny is a very well-polished, beautiful game full of action-packed fights, big explosions, great hit detection, and multiplayer that’s pretty fun with a couple friends. The game plays very smoothly on the Xbox One and PS4 (can’t speak for last-gen version), and it’s extremely appealing from the outside. Once gamers start getting into the main story, it becomes a different tale altogether. The missions are all laid out the same. The main character travels across the same landscape they did for the last 5 missions, get to their destination, kill a few low-level enemies, then the “Ghost” companion comes out, makes some snarky, monotone comments, while he unlocks a door, and then the player kills a couple dozen enemies and possibly an elite enemy, which is basically the same as all the other enemies. What this game considers “hard” is really just spending an extra 10 minutes pumping ammo and grenades into an enemy while avoiding easily evaded attacks. Destiny has a hugely underwhelming story mode and did not deliver on what Bungie promised, which leaves only the crucible and raid modes to talk about.

The raids are basically the same as the regular story missions, but a lot longer, and usually with some kind of mid-boss or final boss that only takes 25 minutes to kill. Long, boring, and uneventful, the raids are another disappointment to add to the long list in Destiny. Finally, there’s the Crucible, the competitive multiplayer mode that, of all the modes, is the least disappointing. The different character classes and the super abilities make the multiplayer missions fast-paced and chaotic. Players could play match after match and never get bored, and playing different classes, trying different weapon types and different abilities and builds of characters.  There are a lot of possibilities for the Crucible. With that being said, the game has only been out a few weeks, and most gamers are already mentally pushing Destiny aside. 

Bungie didn’t deliver all of its promises with Destiny. A lackluster story, forgettable characters and cut scenes, Destiny is not up to snuff with Bungie’s previous efforts, and most other games that have come out recently. Here’s hoping that the expansions for the game improve what’s been screwed up, but at this point, Destiny is beautiful, well-oiled, and smooth, but also ultimately repetitive, empty, and disappointing.