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In most cases, also the final wave of enemies will have a tougher enemy alongside the usual cannon fodder. These enemies look exactly the same as their normal counterparts but their name is in yellow and they take a lot more bullets to be defeated. You get the standard enemies alongside these bosses so you can get more ammo, which is greatly needed as normal enemies usually drop white (primary weapon), green (secondary weapon) or purple (heavy weapon) ammo blocks which coincide with your different weapons.
Now here is where the issues start: each area in itself isn’t actually that big. There is no real exploration, so to speak. Like I have said previously, you always start at the same point when starting a mission and then you just head off usually in a different direction. Along the route to your destination you may get 1 or 2 small groups of enemies that can be taken down in a minute or two, unless you are going down a narrow guided linear route, you can occasionally just omit the encounter completely. It is not like a lot of the open world games where you can really go off exploring, point A–B is literally what you do here on every single mission. It can become a bit on the repetitive side, in all honesty, and the outdoor areas there is virtually no challenge at all.
While outdoors, you can summon your Sparrow for getting from point A–B quicker. These vehicles are very similar to the speeder bikes you see on Endor in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. When using your Sparrow, you can just go zipping past the small groups of enemies until you reach your indoor area. I have found though that with the areas being quite small, it is just as easy to trek it on foot and take in the beautiful scenery.
Upon reaching the area you need to be it is a rinse-and-repeat affair with enemies swarming you in waves until you complete your objective and then head back to The Tower central hub-type area if you have found something that needs to be turned in.
Enemy AI seems to have taken a bit of a step back in places in comparison to their earlier Halo titles. Enemies will duck behind cover trying to hide from your firepower which is to be expected from this genre now. Unfortunately though those same enemies at times will either rush at you or literally move left to right really fast in the open so at times it can be a little frustrating. Some of the earlier heavier enemies like the Wizards and Captains, who have shields and the ability to warp short distances, can sometimes be a game of cat and mouse, you will empty a magazine on your weapon which will remove most of their shield, while you are reloading they have a habit of warping behind something to regenerate the shield. So here you have to rush them to try and keep the pressure on, in this situation they will either melee you to death or you will be chasing them round a crate or pillar Benny Hill-comedy style.
Visually, Destiny on the PS3 is a beautiful looking game. I have yet to suffer any slowdown or screen-tearing when there is a lot of activity happening on the screen. The draw distance is good allowing you to see far off detail to where you are heading and there is no texture pop in. Up-close examining the textures they do look nice, unlike, for example, Unreal Engine’s low-resolution up-close look on the previous-generation systems.
The main noticeable thing though is low-quality anti-aliasing. You will spot jaggy lines down angled edges in The Tower hub area and when in non-organic areas during the missions. In all fairness, unless you stop to physically look mid-action you would hardly notice this downside.
Sound work on Destiny is also pretty good with each weapon class having its own set of sounds, voice acting during the cut-scenes and the music itself is absolutely fantastic and fitting. Peter Dinklage is the voice talent for your ghost but there is no chatter, as such, during your missions unless he is warning you about impending enemies or asking you to hold off enemies while your ghost is doing its thing. His voice acting is good but the overall script and story are what lets things down.
Other actors of note in the game include Gina Torres (Hannibal), Lance Reddick (The Wire), Nathan Fillion (Guardians of the Galaxy), Lennie James (Line of Duty, Get On Up), Peter Stormare (The Zero Theorem, Armageddon) and James Remar (Dexter).
Destiny’s story involves aliens wanting to attack Earth, from what I can gather, and you, as the Guardian player, have to push them back. Other than that it just feels like go here, kill whatever and then onto the next with little to no reasoning behind it. First-Person Shooters don’t really need a strong story, as such, but with the universe Bungie has created, a bit more work here would have been appreciated to pad it out as it does feel more like a single-player game. Every so often whilst playing you will get a pop up at the bottom of your screen saying a new grimoire card has been unlocked. These do pad out the story, but it does feel like an afterthought and thrown in at the last minute. You cannot access these cards whilst in-game – to see what you have unlocked you must go to Bungie’s Destiny site, log in and read them on your PC or mobile phone, which I feel disconnects you from the overall experience.
Go to page 3 for more thoughts on the game, and the conclusions.
Retro at heart and lover of all things ’80s, especially the computers, the music and the awesome movies and TV shows! Crazy huge retro gaming collection spanning the ’80s and ’90s with hundreds of tapes, discs and carts for various machines on top of a 600+ strong Steam library that is ever-growing. No I am not a serial hoarder, just a dedicated retro gamer!