E3 2014 Hands On: Destiny

Destiny

While At E3 I Got To See Destiny In A More Intimate Setting Than Just The Trailer. Here’s My Take On It

Destiny was a huge push during last year’s E3 and every other gaming event that took place up until now. Of course that meant that Activision and Bungie again had to come out strong with something to show for the game as we are only months out from the release and there are only so many more gaming conventions to show off at. Well, they brought both a multiplayer showing and a not-so-multiplayer showing this year and I was lucky enough to sit down and play a bit more of Destiny. All on the same build that was recently available on the PS4. Here’s how my “single player” experience went down.

First and foremost I am not sure why Destiny is not being slated as a FPS MMO title. Are they afraid that people will be expecting more or less from Destiny if they do that? You can read all of this as there is no real single player campaign for the game. It is a living and breathing world and while you can try to ‘solo’ things other players can and will show up unless you are in a specific instance. How is this not an MMO?

Back on track, myself and two others hopped right into the world of Destiny and were quickly taken through all of the basics of the game. If you have played Halo or Borderlands then you will know exactly how everything works out of the box. I didn’t even need the tutorial short of an explanation of what specific skills and abilities do in Destiny. All of the game mechanics used are the tried and true ones so there is no gripe there but it does beg the question of what is going to be new in the game besides character models and story?

The environments in Destiny were very rich and lush I will admit. That seems to be the same saying for most AAA titles right now as everyone is trying to prove a point or another with all of the new hardware. It was nice to see it up close and personal instead of on a big screen from 50 feet way though. I could see the nice detail of everything that will be ignored once the heavy gameplay actually fires off. I guess it will be nice to look at during any downtime or long distance traveling but here we hopped right into the fray taking away a few kills from others playing in the “alpha”.

As I thought, once the bullets began flying that is when the fun really amped up. There was jumping, running, and mass amounts of shooting from range to take down the first batch of enemies that I was killing for some reason or another. While I am sure there is a story and reason why for all the murder here, it was glossed over and left more to “kill them before they kill you” mentality. I obliged and quickly found that I was in the middle of a mess of dead bodies looking for the next group or how to upgrade my character after the battle.

This is where more concern came in as I was ushered off to a “safe” location to do all of that. Destiny is a persistent world game where you run the risk of AI NPCs coming and killing you or just other players who are out for no good. Still not an MMO? In fact, get ready to have all of your “I can’t pause” excuses in hand when you jump into Destiny. Unless you back out to your ship, sounds like a lobby more than anything, you have nowhere to go that is safe while you do the essentials in game or in the real world. You are in a constant multiplayer match if you don’t want to go with the MMO aspect still.

Like I said, I had a great deal of fun once I was running and gunning in Destiny but it still really bothers me that it is more or less and MMO setup and that is not being fully mentioned. Your character data is even saved on a game server and not your home system. At least with other games like Borderlands that is all in house. Unless the guy showing me the demo, lead game artist BTW, was incorrect there is only the illusion of a single player mode for Destiny just like if you try to ‘solo’ World Of Warcraft. I feel a bit lied to in general but at least it was about a thousand times more fun than any general MMO I’ve ever played.

Keep an eye out for the beta test this coming July 17^th for the PS3 and PS4 if you want to get your hands on Destiny. You should read beta more as “we are stress testing the servers in the illusion of giving the players a beta” more than anything though as that is generally how it is. You can also hold out until September 9^th to get the full experience on your console of choice.