After Nazis and zombies, the most clichéd thing in video games is a post-apocalyptic setting. Not content with giving us a slew of slick shooters after Halo, Bungie decided to take on the mundane with Destiny. Earth as you know it has been reduced to rubble and a host of aliens (another cliché) roam the land. You’re a guardian of the last city on the planet and have to save the world (yet another cliché) or what’s left of it.
The Halo hit maker’s been quietly at work on it for what seems like an eternity. But after a solid presentation at this year’s E3, I was piqued and signed up to check it out. If you’re wondering why you didn’t get in, it’s because it was for US PSN users only. However don’t fret, there’s a beta next month if you’ve pre-ordered the game. Don’t know if you should? You’ve come to the right place.
Character select
After the 7-GB-or-so download I was on my way. Like most massively multiplayer online games, Destiny threw me right into choosing my character class and customisation. Unlike MMOs such as Guild Wars 2 or Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, Destiny doesn’t confuse you with too many options. There’s just enough to choose from.
This is great if you’re the sort who doesn’t like spending the better part of the week trying to figure out the exact shade of indigo for your character’s lips or if the color of your gauntlets match your pants. Besides, you don a helmet for most of the game anyway and you can dye your armor in the final release. I ended up with a human warlock (think Mass Effect’s vanguard class and you get the idea). Aside from humans, there are two other races to choose from: exo, who are robots built to protect, and awoken, who are purple-skinned humans. According to Bungie they have “otherworldly origins” .
The two other class options are the titan, which resembles Master Chief or Mass Effect’s soldier class, and the hunter, which is a rogue class focusing on stealth and precision.
Open world
Now that the most OCD-laden section of most MMOs was out of the way, I was thrown into Old Russia. The first thing that hit me was how good Destiny looks. From finer details like iron sights on guns to grander things like the sheer scale and beauty of the post-apocalyptic wasteland, I don’t think there’s a better looking game on the PS4 right now.
There’s more to do than stare agape at pretty graphics of course. You’ll be guided by an AI assistant, or a ghost as the game calls it, who shares more than startling resemblance to Halo’s 343 Guilty Spark. Until it talks, that is. Then it just sounds like some guy called Peter Dinklage who apparently is a big deal. And no, I don’t watch Game of Thrones (what’s the point, everyone dies right?).
Anyway, the ghost points out areas of interest and keeps you up to date with your mission status. Given that Destiny is mission-driven without Skyrim‘s flower-picking leeway, it does a good job of gently prodding you in the right direction rather than being an incessant nag or annoying (Claptrap from Borderlands, I’m looking at you).
Gameplay basics
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