Destiny Ryview - Lots of Hype, Lots of Genres

I appreciate the patience, everyone. It's been a crazy few days, and it won't let up any time soon.

But! Now you get to see what I think of Destiny! (Spoiler: I like it).

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Destiny, by Bungie.

Unless you've been living under a rock and/or very large pebble for the past little while, you probably know about Destiny. It's an MMO, RPG, FPS, acronym filled fun fest where you play a Guardian (which I suppose is legally distinguishable from a SPARTAN) who shoots space aliens and defends good old planet earth.

And there's a talking flying robot ball guy. Again. [1]

I want to start with my first few impressions of the game, the move on to some of the finer points of the ryview. First off, it's a very well done shooter, and while the MMO elements and RPG elements could be expanded upon, I enjoy the ability to interact with my fellow guardians in the style of MMOs and I enjoy the RPG style loot system. Those are both strong carryovers from their respective genres.

Now, the game is quite fun. The shooting, as I said, is definitely fun. I've spent several hours doing nothing but running around shooting bad guys without a care for what mission or objective I'm working towards, because I love using the weaponry. The variety in the guns is impressive, and each gun has a slightly different play style, encouraging a large amount of replay value as you cycle through different weapons.

The mission system is very engaging, and I like that whether you're doing missions or patrols you still interact with other players in the landscape. It gives the game a very epic scale, and I think it works well to keep the game feeling meaningful. You're definitely a part of a larger world.

So much ass still needs to be kicked. [2]

I do wish that there was more control scheme flexibility. Being a Halo player that uses the "Recon" control scheme, learning to use some of these button mappings is tough. And like almost all console games, it only has a few preset options for controls. I still wish they could just follow the PC example and allow  for full mapping of the controller to exactly what you want, eliminating any issues.

I also really wish missions didn't have required cutscenes and such high loading times. I think they should let you skip past cutscenes easily and I wish there was at least a better facade for the loading screens. It definitely helps that you can check your inventory and character stats during the loading, but sometimes the times are still pretty excessive. However, in general, if you use that time to re-equip, it does little to diminish the experience.

The RPG elements fall a little flat for me given the poor, poor loot and experience system, as well as a lack of passive improvement from leveling up. Killing a level 2 enemy yields the same experience as a level 20 enemy, and I believe loot drops are a similar story. And when you level up, it seems like you don't get any kind of passive, slow damage or health bonus, you just passively have access to better loot drops and any subclass bonus, which could increase an ability or increase stats. But after you switch subclasses, suddenly your character level is meaningless, because you just care about the subclass upgrades. It's a little infuriating in it's uselessness.

However, that being said, I want to reiterate that because the shooting is done so well, I'm having a blast playing it. This is not a game for a true, classic RPG, nor is it a game for intense MMO style big-action. But it's a very successful genre hopper and it's good for any fans of shooters who can put up with a loot system.

Scorecard:

Category	Score
Time Value	9
Money Value	8
Originality	9
Ryplayability	8
Fulfillment	10
Final Score	8.8

Let me know what you think of Destiny!

Until next time,

Ryan

Images courtesy of Wikipedia except where sourced

[1] http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--WBNteGEc--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/syaixkik9u07ffe8mska.jpg

[2] http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--nql-DtE8--/pjexokat73ljxthl2um9.jpg