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A Date With Destiny: Things To Love And Things To Dislike On The Destiny Beta

Published Thu, 31 Jul 2014 23:30:00 -0500

by Hannah Means Shannon

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By Sage Ashford

So, over the past two weeks I've had the privilege of playing the Destiny beta. (Well, I say "privilege" but all I really did was pre-order the game on Amazon, same as everyone else.) Now, typically I hate first-person shooters…like, a lot. But developer Bungie went the extra mile during both its initial and subsequent reveals, marketing Destiny as a vast science fiction game where gamers could travel the Solar System in order to reclaim the galaxy from the various aliens that had forced humanity into hiding in a single city, protected by a mysterious alien force known only as The Traveler.

The fact that it was a post-apocalyptic game set far, far after the destruction and focused more on the potential for rebuilding hooked me , and that I'm a sucker for space opera (a frequently snubbed genre in video games) reeled me in. I tried the alpha and was surprisingly impressed with the game itself–stunning graphics and a beautiful world to play in backed by solid gunplay left me hungry to come back and play in the world again with the beta. So what did I think? Well, here's a quick breakdown, point by point. Do note that if you're a Player versus Player fan, I didn't have a chance to get into that, nor was I interested. My assessment comes purely from the POV of a fan who wanted to play the game as a single-player/co-op experience.

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Things I loved about the beta:

– The gorgeous, detailed environments. You can definitely feel "the power of next-gen" as you explore Earth's Old Russia stage–an area full of nuclear bunkers, junked car (and ship!) graveyards, and strange monuments that resemble current-era spaceships even though the game itself is set over seven hundred years into the future. All the while the armies of the alien forces that stole most of Earth (and all of the rest of the galaxy) from us wander about, staking their claim on our home.

– The art design. As the game is technically about humanity after we've been wiped out, developer Bungie could have gone with a much darker, far more "colorless" environment. But no, the world is packed with beautiful reds, greens, and blues–no doubt a response to all the people tired of "brown shooters". If no one else is willing to say it, I will: your efforts are much appreciated, Bungie.

– The feel of the guns. They have a real weight to them, and when shit gets blown up, you can feel it. The satisfaction of getting a headshot with a sniper rifle from what feels like several meters away is delicious.

– The Moon. They kept this locked off until the next-to-last day, but actually going there was amazing. They really nailed that lonely, quiet and almost unsettling atmosphere that the moon should have. I actually felt like I was on another planet, which was truly exciting. And some of the new elements that were present there (I won't spoil) definitely worked as proper teases for the full game.

– Their plans for scale. They clearly intend for a real space opera-type game, with intentions for players to travel across the entire Solar System in order to help save humanity. It's very ambitious, and I love it.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/N-wCwzx1Oxo[/youtube]

Things I disliked about the beta:

– The actual scale of the game. While Bungie obviously intends for the game to be huge, the beta disabused me of the notion that it would be the case in reality. Old Russia is a pretty large environment to explore, and when I was in the alpha I thought it was just fine as a sort of "first taste" of the game. When it was pretty much the only environment offered in the beta though, it created a bit of a concern as to the true scale of the game. Now we learn that for the first game, we'll only be exploring a single area per planet. Which explains…

– How small the beta actually was. Now, maybe I'm being spoiled here by the last beta I participated in, Square-Enix's Final Fantasy XIV. There the level cap was much higher, and there was such a wealth of environments to explore it almost felt like players were being allowed to play the entire game aside from the end-game content. Comparatively, only having a single stage available actually bugged me the entire time I played the game. Not to mention having the same level cap as the alpha (level eight), which is extra annoying because…

– The hand-holding. The Destiny First Look alpha started players out at level four, with the potential for growth to level eight. That was fine, it was a first look, the equivalent to an extended E3 demo in my eyes. But the beta tried to change things up by showing what the experience is like from level one through four and only succeeded in showing how boring the game is in the earliest bits. You start out with no weapon, no grenade, no super move, and no super jump–all abilities you obtain within the first four levels, and all abilities that take a player (even a completely inexperienced one like myself) all of a few minutes to actually figure out. I'm a big proponent of the idea that tutorials are necessary, but this one took it past that and directly into treating gamers as if they were incompetent. Fortunately it seems to stop that rather quickly, but it was unfortunate to see at all.

– The fact that it was in First Person. This is a strange, kinda nitpicky complaint, but here's the thing: at some point in Destiny's creation, it was supposed to be a third-person action game. Then Bungie decided (with a "small" amount of cajoling from Activision, I'd bet) to stay right in their wheelhouse and go for first-person again. Now, that's their right, but…the game is actually in third-person quite a bit as well. When you're in the Tower, where you buy weapons, armor, de-crypt encrypted loot, buy spaceships, and more? The game goes third-person. When you ride your vehicle to cover long distances in short amounts of time? The game goes third-person. This is NOT a case of them not having properly designed models or the ability to go third person–there should at least be an option to go third-person for players who prefer to game that way in PVE. I honestly can't think of what that would negatively impact if you could.

– The lack of space flight. I'm putting this down but I'm not really holding this against Bungie. I think most players were envisioning cool transitions where you flew from planet to planet, maybe running into alien enemy ships occasionally. But the placement of the title on last-gen probably put memory limits on what was actually capable, and I'm betting there was no way to include this and still make the game possible on PS3 and 360.

– The whole "Playstation Plus" deal. *sighs* Okay, so here's the thing: I get that Sony wants Playstation Plus to be a big thing. Nobody thought they could offer an experience that could equal Xbox Live's, but then they did it on PS3 and now they're trying to take that to the next level, so they're putting online play behind a paywall to try and help with that. That's fine; I get it. As long as PS+ remains the incredible value it is now, it's actually more of a help than a hindrance if you can afford it.

But. The purpose of a beta is to allow players to experience the developer's vision of what the full game is supposed to be. How can they do that if you lock the ability to play with a team behind Playstation Plus? One of Destiny's biggest features is the ability to form three-person groups known as "fire teams" in order to take down bosses and difficult parts of the game, or just in order for people to enjoy playing together. But I sat in my friend's apartment, using his connection, on a second television right next to him, and not only could we not play together because of my lack of PS+, we didn't even seem to be on the same instance of the game! At one point I claimed Destiny was an MMOFPS, but the game is so instanced that you only ever see two or three players in the same world as you at most–that's no MMO I'm aware of. This actually annoyed me, as there was a major part of the game that I was simply locked out of because I didn't have PS+. And again, on release day? Go for it. But Sony shouldn't have allowed that to happen on the beta–it isn't a good look, in my opinion.

Overall? The difference between promise of a massive space game where I could explore different planets and fight various factions of alien races and the reality shown in the beta was quite stark, and as a result a lot of the hype I had for this game has deflated. I'm not saying Destiny doesn't still have potential, or that it won't sell. It's pedigree is too storied, it's appeal too wide. And publisher Activision (known for the Call of Duty franchise) will market it so much over the next few weeks that any core gaming fan will be sick of the commercials and ads on every gaming site there is before it's finally on the shelves. Its success is almost a foregone conclusion.

What I am saying, is that with a game that looks like it has a few kinks to get out of its system (primarily enough content to keep players content for the next twelve to eighteen months), so if you're still on the fence? Maybe stay there a bit longer and see what Bungie has planned.

Sage Ashford is a college kid with far more hobbies than he has free time. You can find him on Twitter @SageShinigami, but also at his own blog Jumping in Headfirst (http://sageshini.blogspot.com), talking comics, anime, music and more.

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