You begin on Earth 700 hundred years in the future. The Golden Age has just been decimated by The Collapse, totally demolishing human colonies not only on Earth and the moon, but also on neighboring planets. Extinction of humankind isn’t far away. However, you were one of the lucky few who were saved by the Traveler, a celestial body credited for giving its life to rescue and protect the last safe city on Earth. Your official title: Guardian.
Able to wield “the light,” a gift from the Traveler, your mission is to investigate and destroy several hostile alien races who are attempting to occupy former human colonies. You must do this and revive the Traveler before humans are decimated.
This is Destiny. Developed by Bungie, well-known for the Halo franchise and published by Activision, this first-person shooter game is sweeping the nation and making profit. Both multi-million dollar companies are now synonymous with the most successful new gaming franchise launch of all time. More than $500 million has been generated since the game’s release on September 9th.
Destiny is far from your typical video game. Players can choose to be one of three races of Guardians: humans, normal, everyday Homo Sapiens; Awoken, exotic, beautiful and mysterious creatures; and Exos, sinister, powerful and tireless beings inspired by the undead.
Class options are available as well. Hunters are reconnaissance, Han-Solo-esque bounty hunters. Warlocks are the ultimate space wizards, and Titans combine heavy weapons and melee attacks to become ‘future’ soldiers. Each player is also accompanied by a Ghost who offers advice and encouragement and is voiced by Peter Dinklage, an American actor known currently for his role as Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones.
Players are never lacking in enemies. Four races of aliens await the player brave enough to battle their way through the main storyline. The Fallen are insectoid nomads who scavenge the ruins of Earth for resources. The Hive is a macabre group of ancient aliens making massive underground settlements beneath the moon. The Vex are semi-organic androids attempting to seize control of Venus. The Cabal are military-industrial, massive amphibians (with jet packs) who are establishing large fortifications on Mars. Not only are they warring with the Guardians, but they’re also fighting amongst themselves for total solar domination.
But is Destiny living up to its already well-established name? With mixed to positive reviews, critics raved about Destiny’s good graphic quality, solid gameplay and incredible sound design (weapons, creatures and a beautifully scored soundtrack).
Nevertheless, they weren’t hesitant to speak on some of its lesser qualities. Players are thrown abruptly into the beginning of the story with a lot of new information to process, which results in a vague and unclear storyline. The game has many different missions to complete—all with the same design—making it repetitive.
That being said, the reviews haven’t seemed to slow down the franchise who are already planning on releasing a new extension of the game called the Iron Banner this week.
Aside from normal first person, 3 v. 3 and 6 v. 6 games, players can go through player v. player stories and smaller missions, all the while upgrading their armor and weapons. Collect as many upgrades as possible because, unlike the original game, if the player is lacking the correct weapon, they’re done for.
From the cool-looking iridescent alien blood to the teleporting bugs, any Halo-loving, space-crazy fan would find Destiny a good purchase.
