Destiny

Destiny is a game that I have been excited about since I first heard about it. I am a long time Bungie fan and I absolutely love Halo. That being said, Destiny takes several amazing aspects from several games including; Halo, Borderlands, Mass Effect, and almost every RPG in existence. The gun-play is on par with most shooters, it feels and looks very similar to Halo which is to be expected. The problem comes in when you play through the story, the voice acting is one of the most hit on subjects as far as Destiny reviews go, the problem is not the actors, in fact I feel that the actors are all great at what they do, the issue is that the story is so bland and vague that the actors are all bored with the concept entirely. With the story aside, particularly since it is only a tiny sliver of the rest of the game.

The real game begins after you finish the story, which won't take long if you take out the fact that you have to spend a large part of your time level grinding in order to maintain the pace required for the story. Once you reach level 20 you begin leveling through your equipment, stronger gear has a light stat, this allows you to level up beyond 20. This is where you begin entering into high level missions, such as Strikes, which are best done with 1-2 other players, friends or strangers can join in on these. Another major aspect of loot grinding are the Raids, which are being released as weekly updates in game. These missions are similar to strikes in that they are harder and require a few other players, the primary difference is that they must be friends and they can take MUCH longer to finish. Most of them are released as a week long quest because it very well may take that long to finish them, and unlike strikes they start off at the level that you chose and increase in difficulty as you progress.

The game is not all bad though, the missions are typically boring rinse and repeat ordeals that can take quite a while, the 3 planets and the moon that you visit during your play are reduced to tiny slivers of the vastness that is promised, yet never delivered, however, teaming up on the fly with random players and joining in on a public event to show off your skills...or lack thereof is insanely enjoyable. Personally I love the idea of grinding through waves of enemies with a friend or two in order to find a new exotic weapon, and being able to jump in or out of the fight at any time(given that you aren't on a story mission) is great, as is waving, dancing or sitting with another random player. If destiny had a proximity chat, then I could easily see this game expand anyone's friends list. Playing online in the crucible is enjoyable given that there are only 4 game types and a 5th game type that is added or taken away at the whim of Bungie. It is a good game with it's own set of flaws, though to be fair many of the issues will be fixed as Bungie has teams working to release new content daily. As for the story, hopefully that can be solved with the upcoming DLC.

Ultimately it is fun to play with friends and strangers alike, and if you enjoy looting and grinding for new gear, and if you can get passed the poorly written and extremely vague story, then you will find yourself playing for hours on end.

I will give Destiny an 7.5/10... Here's why:

As far as 500 million dollars is concerned, idk what Bungie even did with all of it. The only thing I can see is putting money into making it available across all major consoles. Other than that, this is a complete waste of money. The soundtrack is amazing; which is something I always have to give Bungie credit for. Halo's soundtrack was unbelievable and this is still quite impressive. But other than making the game look nice on the newer consoles and the soundtrack, things will get old after playing Destiny for awhile. Peter Dinklage voices your little robot buddy, Ghost, and I have gotta say his voice-overs are cringe-worthy sometimes. His lack of emotion and monotone delivery makes me wanna mute the game sometimes. I have heard that Bungie wanted him to sound that way on purpose... but regardless it takes away from the game.

Basically Destiny incorporates every game imaginable. It touches on Borderlands, Halo, Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, Star Wars, Mass Effect, and pretty much any game you can think of. This is what I love about the game. As far as a storyline goes, there really isn't one except the fact that our galaxy becomes taken over by enemies known as The Fallen, The Hive, Vex, and a few others that are spread across Earth, the Moon, Venus, Mars (and dlc rumors to have Jupiter or Mercury as of typing this). Your job is to go around wrecking your way through enemies to destroy gigantic evil beasts and shrines and other things. So you basically go through the storyline to rank up til you're level 20. Once you are level 20 you must find, earn, and equip armor that has 'light' in it to get to higher levels; the more light you acquire the higher level you get. There are 5 different types of armor for your head, arms, and feet: common (white), uncommon (green), rare (blue), legendary (purple), and Exotic (yellow/gold). Exotic is the hardest to get (I somehow managed to get my hands on some exotic gauntlets but I was extremely lucky). You also can acquire what is known as Class Armor which is basically a band you wear around your arm indicating you are a part of 1 of 4 clans: Vanguard (default), New Monarchy, Dead Orbit, and one other I can't remember. You pick which you want and xp, and crucible marks are banked there so you can purchase better weapons and armor (such as legendary).

There is multiplayer known as The Crucible. You get a deathmatch, FFA, deathmatch with possible revival and a gametype similar to headquarters on COD but with flags. There is a 5th gametype known as salvage that only is around on particular days. There are three types of character you can be: Titan (bulky and strength oriented), Hunter (fast, knife-wielding), and Warlock (back support and energy). I will say that Crucible is absolutely awful in my opinion. It is extremely Titan-friendly. What is also unfortunate is you need to play multiplayer if you want to rank up at some point. I find this to be, easily, the worst part of Destiny; I won't complain about this too much because you can easily find blogs and comments b****in about this already. I have a feeling Bungie will fix this eventually but as of now expect to get your ass kicked up and down the board. They say it is not level-oriented meaning you have the same chances to kill someone who is level 25 even if you are a 5. This is technically true except as a higher level you have access to better weapons which therefore makes it unfair again.

If you want to rank up from 20 you have to play Vanguard strike missions which is basically 1 of 5 missions: Nexus on Venus Summoning Pits on Moon, Valus Ta'aurc on Mars, beating the Archon Priest on Venus, and Devil's Lair on Earth. Archon Priest is the hardest imo followed by Valus Ta'aurc and then Phogon, The Untamed in Summoning Pits. Now these strike missions are required to rank up and earn good weapons. They are usually quite eventful and very hard to do; HOWEVER, they get EXTREMELY old because you have to grind these 5 missions constantly after level 20. This is why I say it is insanely repetitive.

There are also collectibles: Gold chests and Reviving Dead Ghosts. There are 60 ghosts to find and 5 gold chests on each planet. These keep you busy if you are an achievement person.

You can also join in with other players around the world and you can even be on one mission and cross paths with other people who are on completely separate misses; I find this very cool. You can meet a lot of people doing this. The Tower is basically your 'home' where you go and accept and turn in bounties (side missions you can do), encrypt hidden items, buy weapons, etc.. This is where you can meet a whole lot of people running around which is another way you can meet new people to play with. Overall Destiny is a very fun game to play and I'm still quite addicted to it; but be aware that if you hate repetition and grinding this isn't the game for you.

EDITED REVIEW: As of now, Bungie has patched multiple things that make it harder to rank up once you reach level 20. This is, in my opinion, completely ruining the game for me. I don't take back what I have said prior to this but I will say that Bungie's continued patches are going to make this game much less fun to play if they continue to hinder the grinding process (which is what the game is supposed to be in the first place).

Anyway, hope this helps a little. Keep Gaming!

Destiny could've been so much more, it was going to be this groundbreaking game with massive open worlds and revolutionary gameplay as it was advertised, but once it came out, it was a shell of what it could've been, The story, there is none, who is The Fallen, who are The Awoken, who are the Hive?, what is a Guardian, what are the origins of the Traveller, none of this is explained in the actual game, it's all in the Grimoire, why Bungie could've better explained the story?, who knows. The gunplay is pretty good, it feels smooth and fast-paced, the strikes are really good as well, bosses are fun as well, with that being said, the loot system is absolutely broken, giving you jacks**t while your friends or teammates get awesome loot, and once you find engrams after many hours of grinding that you're hopeful will be good, they end up being crappy, the loot system screws you over, missions are extremely repetitive, kill a bunch of aliens, scan something, then kill more aliens, rinse and repeat, the open worlds feel shallow, empty, and lifeless, , colorful and full of detail, there aren't much enemy variety, PVP is fun, it's complete BS that you have to grind so much to progress after lvl 20, all in all this game isn't bad, in fact it's an enjoyable game, but it could've been so much more

This game really has you putting in hours. It started with a bumpy release but Bungie really put everything into it. Its beautiful art and amazing RPG mechanics make Destiny one of the best FPS out there.

Destiny is an incredibly different game and perhaps a hard one to put a finger on, but it's so much fun. Labeled as an OWFPS(Open World First Person Shooter), it has elements of an FPS, MMO, and RPG. Set in a world that combines futuristic themes and fantasy aspects, such as magic throwing Warlocks, chivalrous Titans, and swift Hunters, anyone has the ability to find their place in this world. The game mechanics are incredibly solid. You can feel the weight of your weapon and the power you unleash with the super ability as you reign down on enemies. Destiny has multiple game modes including Story, Patrol, Crucible, Raids, Strikes and more. So anyone should what suits their fancy.

Warning: take caution when reading reviews about Destiny. You must understand that this is only the beginning.