Destiny on PS3 – The DVDfever Review

Destiny comes to us from Bungie, the development team that have brought us such titles as Marathon – and its sequel which were early first-person shooters, Myth, which is a fantasy-based combat strategy game that removed the resource gathering for tactical head on skirmishes, as well as Oni which was released on PC/Mac and PS2 prior to their most famous release, Halo, which rocketed them to fame on the original XBox. Everyone that is into gaming regardless of the platform they choose knows exactly who these guys are and their heritage.

Now Halo has been passed onto 343 Games and Bungie have headed off to do their own thing, their first game away from Microsoft is the much-hyped Destiny available on PS3, XBox360, XBox One and PS4. Today we are looking at the PS3 version of Bungie’s latest shooter, Destiny. We are currently being bombarded with live action TV adverts, website adverts and links to videos of this game everywhere so we all know it is available now!!

So without further ado as everyone will have seen the marketing, shall we begin?!

Right off the bat from the moment you start playing Destiny you will immediately see comparisons to other games in this genre. I hate comparing new titles to other games when doing a review but Destiny certainly pays homage to a few other games when it comes to first-person shooters.

For a start you do have similarities to Halo if you pick the Titan class as their armour looks very similar to Master Chief but with different colouration. It also has an old-school feel to it, limiting weapons to primary, secondary, heavy weapon and grenades. I must admit it actually reminds me a lot of id Software’s Rage in the way it plays, feels, looks and world setting.

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The game itself is a MMOFPS (Massively multiplayer online first-person shooter game), a very light one at that as you can play through most missions without the aid of other players, so the social aspect of the game is limited to one central hub called The Tower where you can purchase extra weapons and armour, get bounties (more on these later) and see the usual crowds dancing and pointing at people like in most online games!

The levels themselves are split into worlds: you have the Earth, Moon, Mars & Venus and there is also The Reef which has yet to serve a purpose as such. I believe, at the time of writing this review, Bungie are getting ready to release the raids, and this will be the raid location which will be popular once you reach the end game.

Each location has various missions, kind of similar to the Borderlands franchise. However, you do not run around an open map getting said missions from an NPC or bounty board, you are strictly limited to selecting one from the map screen from the planet’s top view. Once you select a mission, your ship takes you to the location (another slight comparison to the Mass Effect series here!). You will be given a little information on why you are there as the level loads in, and once on the planet, your ghost (voiced by Peter Dinklage of Game of Thrones fame) will update you on where you need to head.

For each location and the various missions you will start in exactly the same place, your tracking-type device when you open your ghost will put a temporary marker off in the distance, giving you bearing on where you need to head. Once there, if you bring up your ghost it will briefly give you an onscreen navigation point again. You also have a radar at the top left of your screen with a white arrow round the edge for your heading so you don’t essentially need to pull up the ghost screen.

Once you have reached your destination you will enter either a rundown building, underground set of caves that will eventually house a temple, a sort of area that lost civilisations would have used, or a cave type system that has been created by the enemy. Once you reach the main mission point you will get consumed by darkness which essentially means that there is no respawn if you die past that point. And if you do die, you will be taken back to the start. However, I have found even in these situations you do get checkpoints at roughly the midway point in the mission. In there you will be tasked with in most cases scanning something, killing a specific enemy or reactivating something. While your ghost does this scanning, you usually get swarmed by wave after wave of enemies and ending once the last one has fallen instead of hold off for a set amount of time.

Go to page 2 for more thoughts on the game.

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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.

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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.

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So after working your way through the story missions Destiny does offer an end game. Like I have mentioned previously, raids are coming soon but you also already have the Strike Co-Op Missions, Bounty Missions and the Multiplayer PvP.

The Bounty Missions can be bought as soon as you reach the Tower hub, once you have gone through the tutorial type area at the very start of the game that fits you out with basic armour and weapons. These missions involve killing a set number of enemies without dying in a certain way, getting a large amount of XP, again without dying or killing enemies, to collect a certain number of items. In most cases, you can go to the patrol area on each of the planets to complete these bounties while doing missions of your choosing from the area. Once you have completed a bounty you will then head back to the tower and turn them in. The bounties refresh every 24 hours so there will always be something you can pick up and just head out to do. You will also occasionally get mail, and it is usually a bounty you are given for free instead of having to buy it from the vendor. With this, you take it to the vendor and it will be added to your task list. It will, however, occasionally give you something you already have and are working on so you will just have to remove it from your inventory.

Strike Missions are fun, and contain tougher missions where you can put together a 3-man squad yourself from your friends list, or there is match-making which puts you with 2 random other players that are also wanting to do the same mission. These missions are long and tough and there is one available after completing a few story missions on each of the planets. While doing these missions, you get bigger mobs of enemies, mini bosses and a final boss that takes some taking down as you still get mobs of enemies every so often, working together in your 3-man Fireteam, which has to gel as a small unit. You can redo these missions at a harder difficulty, but you don’t get the chunk of experience like you will from a first play through.

Multiplayer is done through The Crucible, with a selection of different maps. You have to unlock the various game modes through playing the game. You will get a bounty early on which will send you to The Crucible to play 5 games of Control. Literally, Control is your standard capture points on the map with 6 Vs 6 teams. It is fun but can be a bit chaotic at times and quite tough for new players even though it is balanced.

Next up, there is Clash, which once again is 6 Vs 6 but this time no objectives, just team deathmatch. You also have Rumble, which is classic deathmatch with 6 players; it is a free-for-all scenario.

Finally you have Skirmish, which is a 3 Vs 3 mode, but in this one you can actually revive fallen team mates to get extra points. Bungie have also done community-type events during the beta called Iron Banner where balancing is removed in the games so if you are a low-level player you may want to sit it out as everyone has their upgraded weapons and skills from the main campaign. They have also done a mode called Salvage during the beta which is a 3 Vs 3 mode where you have to collect relics and take them back to a mothership. While the relic is being collected by a player’s ghost you have to defend yourself from the other team. I honestly think this mode would be a good addition to the Multiplayer aspect of the game as a permanent fixture.

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Conclusion

I personally wouldn’t say Destiny is ground breaking when it comes to this genre; we have seen games like this so many times previously in earlier titles from other developers. It feels to me like they have decided to play it safe with game mechanics and overall Sci-Fi setting. With a new setting and world like this, I feel a lot more work should have been put into the story. Making its open world more akin to traditional MMOs would have also been a better option.

This doesn’t mean it is a bad game though; initially when all the various comparisons that were going through my head started to fade a little and I started to get into it, I can honestly say I have thoroughly enjoyed my time so far with Destiny. “It gets under your skin” is the best way to describe it, and has that effect on you that screams “just another hour”.

I am not going to knock Destiny just because it is the newest biggest thing that is happening currently. I have taken the world Bungie has created and immersed myself in it and it has been a blast. I believe the gripes I have – and it seems to come up often in the reviews, things like large open empty spaces – does need addressing and more content will always be welcome.

Pros:

• Great Atmosphere
  
• Beautiful Visuals
  
• Excellent Sound
  
• Solid Game Mechanics
  
• Decent End Game Content & Multiplayer

Cons:

• Poor Story-telling
  
• Having to use a PC to access the Grimoire / Cards
  
• Linear Gameplay

Destiny is available now on PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PS4.

Also available is the Destiny Signature Series Strategy Guide from Bradygames.

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Important info:

• Publisher: Activision
• Players: 1-multiplayer

GRAPHICS SOUND GAMEPLAY POTENTIAL	8 9 7 9
OVERALL	8.5