Destiny Review

What do you get when you combine Borderlands with Halo and mix in a ton of fresh ideas? Well, you get Destiny. With a game developed by the creators of Halo and the publishers of Call of Duty, you know it has to be good. Destiny is an action, roleplaying, first person shooter that incorporates massively multiplayer online elements in a science-fiction open world setting.

Destiny is set seven hundred years into the future in a post-apocalyptic version of our solar system following the Golden Age: a prosperous period of exploration, peace, and technological advancement. During the Golden Age, humans had spread out and colonized planets in the solar system. An event knows as the Collapse saw the mysterious dissolution of these colonies, the end of the Golden Age, and left mankind on the brink of extinction. The only known survivors of the Collapse were those living on Earth in the City which was saved by the Traveler: a white, spherical, astronomical object. The Traveler’s appearance had enabled humans to reach the stars in the first place and now hovers above the last safe city on Earth. Its presence allows the Guardians the ability to wield an unknown power known as the Light. Upon mankind’s first attempt to repopulate and reconstruct it’s former colonies after the Collapse, it is discovered that hostile alien races now occupy the areas and are now encroaching upon the City. The player takes on the role of one such Guardian and is tasked with reviving the Traveler and destroying the alien threats before humanity is completely wiped out.

To say the least, Destiny is really, really, really, really fun.  I had so much fun while playing Destiny this past week that it was extremely hard to put down the controller to go to work or school. The game itself just brings people together. I talked and played with people that I either haven’t talked to in years or probably never would have in the first place. I made a bunch of new friends that I’ll probably continue playing with for years to come. That wouldn’t have been possible without Destiny being as entertaining as it is. The mood and vibe of the game is awesome, too. The mystery of space drives you to explore and discover all that Destiny has to offer.

Although the developers hate comparing Destiny to Borderlands, I can’t keep myself from doing so. The game is a lot like Borderlands with the loot system. Upon reaching level 15, the game drops loot left and right. Around the same time, the enemies you are fighting as well as the area you are taken to is very similar to the end of the first Borderlands. That isn’t a bad thing at all. It brings back a ton of nostalgia from staying up all night and grinding the last level of Borderlands with my closest friends. The only distinctive difference between the loot systems is that Destiny’s gives you armor and gear that actually helps you rather than just guns like Borderlands.

Another thing I like about Destiny is that the story isn’t very weighted. After buying a brand new game and popping it into the disc drive, many games will load you up on story before letting you go out and kill the bad guys you bought the game for. Destiny is different. Instead of overwhelming you with story, Destiny shows you a short, skip-able cut scene, gives you a gun and a ship, then let’s you go do whatever you want. The story is definitely there, but it isn’t as weighted as other games. The lore is also very deep, however, you’ll have to go online and read it somewhere like how I described it earlier in my review rather than it being shoved in your face in-game.

The controls in Destiny are what I consider perfect. They’re extremely responsive and feel very crisp. The timings are spot on. Immediately as you press down the trigger, the game will react. There isn’t any noticeable delay, glitches or anything else like that. The guns fire fast, but not too fast. The controls are as close as you can get to realistic in this day and age.

Destiny’s graphics are beautiful. The landscapes of the different planets, the character models, the weapons, everything in Destiny looks amazing across all platforms. You can really see the dark, mystic sci-fi through Destiny’s graphics.

All suspected from Bungie, the music in Destiny is phenomenal. Anyone who’s played Halo can tell you that the series has some of the best music out there. Martin O’Donnel and Michael Salvatori have composed amazing music for Bungie in the past and did an amazing job with Destiny as well. While playing through Destiny, the perfect music just seems to always play at the perfect time. While fighting a ton of enemies, the music kicks up and gets you pumped, and while exploring the planets, the music makes you feel like you’re investigating a mystery. It’s exactly what I expected from Bungie and I can see the soundtrack winning awards in the future. The voice acting however, isn’t the best. Of course it’s great quality and sounds very nice, it’s just not realistic. It almost makes everyone sound like a computer. They’re sort of emotionless in the way they talk and it makes the cut scenes feel like a bedtime story. However, the gameplay is so much fun and everything else about the game is so perfect that I didn’t even make a big deal out of it.

The replayability of Destiny is worth as much as the game itself. I’d honestly pay for another copy of Destiny if it was required in order to make another character. There is so much to do in Destiny from the story, to cooperative strike missions, to competitive multiplayer, to finding dead ghosts and golden chests hidden around the game. The achievements in Destiny make you want to strive to earn them. The game doesn’t just hand them out to you for completing a story mission or even the entire story itself. Most of the achievements are universal and can be earned through almost any of the game modes. It’s perfect for achievement hunters and completionists.

Destiny is the highest selling new IP ever and despite the mass amount of people playing Destiny since the release, the servers are holding strong. The thing that ticks me off about other site’s reviews of Destiny is that the reviewers binge played through the entire game. That’s the only reason it has low scores on many websites. They rushed through the game in a day because the servers weren’t opened until the day before the release. Every new mission or thing to do frustrated the reviewers and made them dislike the game even more because that was more time they had to spend playing the game before they could get their review out and get paid.

A reviewer is supposed to play a game from the point of view of a buyer and give their honest opinion to the public so that they can make a decision on whether to purchase the game or not. That’s why I played Destiny for an entire week before even picking up my pen and paper. The game is ridiculously fun, the controls are extremely responsive, the graphics are beautiful, and the music is phenomenal. Destiny earned the score I’m giving it for making me excited to play a game again and adding another addiction to my list.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Sony Playstation 4 code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.