Destiny Review

Destiny Review

      Kid Safe: High (8.0 / 10)    Game Quality: High (8.0 / 10)

Genre: Massively Multiplayer Online First Person Shooter

-          While this sounds like one heck of a mouthful, it's not overly complicated. First off, as a First Person Shooter, players will control a character as if they were looking through their eyes down the barrel of a firearm. The primary purpose being to shoot/fight/kill opponents in a variety of environments. Similar examples could include Halo or Call of Duty. As a Massively Multiplayer Online game, this means that the game takes place via the internet was several hundred players are able to actively interact with and enjoy the game together rather than playing it alone.

Internet Requirements: Very High

-          Being a Massively Multiplayer Online title, Destiny must have internet. The game does not have any form of single player function that can be played without an active internet connection as well as a paid for online service for the applicable systems. PlayStation 3 has free internet service, however Xbox 360 and Xbox One will require Xbox Live Gold and PlayStation 4 will require PlayStation Plus in order to function appropriately.

Story Summary:

-          In Destiny, you play the role as one of Earth's last remaining "Guardians"; an elite warrior hand selected by a mysterious robotic being of light called "The Traveler" who helped bring Humans and Earth to a golden age of space travel and colonization. However, creatures of darkness, the robotic "Fallen" and insectoid "Hive", have followed the "Traveler" with the intent to consume all life and light in the galaxy. Now, with the help of the other Guardians, you must fight back on Earth, the Moon, Venus, and Mars to protect that Last City on Earth and push back these invaders before mankind is destroyed forever.

Kid Safe: High (8.0 / 10)

-          Foul Language: None

o   From what we have seen, Destiny does not contain any amount of Foul Language (at least on the part of the humans...who knows what those evil robots are saying).

o   Special Note: While playing online, players have a chat option available to them. Use discretion while letting your player online as they are able to send and receive foul language via the chat function.

-          Violence and Gore: High

o   Being a First Person Shooter, the primary focus of this title is to fight/shoot/kill your enemies. In the multiplayer competitive mode, players are able to fight other Guardians which consist of Humans, a blue skinned alien race called the "Awoken", and a race of robotic war machines called "Exos". In the normal story mode, players will fight against the robotic race of "The Fallen" and the insectoid race of "The Hive".

o   Players will utilize a variety of weaponry including pistols, rifles, machine guns, energy weapons, rocket launchers, various sci-fi war machines with lasers and explosives, as well as close range weapons like fists and knives. This is accompanied by semi-realistic sounds of gunfire. Players' primary focus in combat is to kill their enemies. Players gain increased points for shooting enemies in vital locations like the head, which results in "The Fallen" spraying gaseous vapor from their now missing head and/or "The Hive" turning to cinders and disintegrating. With the use of certain weapons or powers, enemies will disintegrate in a flash of light or cinders.

o   Enemies, when shot or injured, will occasionally spray black or white fluids representing alien blood.

-          Sexually-Related Content: None

o   From everything that we have seen, Destiny does not appear to contain any amount of sexually related content. Additionally, while players are able to choose either gender to play as, both are heavily armored in combat gear and neither wear any notably revealing clothing.

-          Use of Drugs and Alcohol: None

o   To the best of the reviewer's knowledge, Destiny does not contain any amount of Drug or Alcohol usage

             

Game Quality:  High (8.0 / 10)

-          Graphics / Visuals: Moderate to High

o   The Graphics and Visuals in Destiny required a bit of extra footwork to investigate. The game is available on both current generation systems (Xbox 360 and Playstation 3) as well as next generation systems (Xbox One and PlayStation 4). The game was pretty clearly developed for next generation systems and anyone playing on the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 are going to have a loss in the overall quality. On these systems, all visuals are notably fuzzier with less resolution. Our best comparison would be watching DVD versus BluRay of a movie (since that is LITERALLY what it is).

o   Now, fuzziness aside on the current generation, Destiny spouts some very beautiful visuals. The game features many imaginative locations including the destroyed remnants of an old Russian air-base, the surface and hollowed out core of the Moon, abandoned cities on Mars, and an jungle-like area on Venus. Each location feels and looks notably different, with stark changes in visuals and colors and a lot of interesting little details put into the design. One of the more enjoyable aspects of the game was getting to explore these varied and well-thought out and designed locations.

-          Audio: High

o   Audio was another solid hit. The game features a nice soundtrack that varies from gentle and serene to hard-pumping and stressful for those really intense firefights. Music is well utilized to help bring the right tone and feel to really drive home the emotional impact of the visuals you are seeing. On top of this a strong cast of voice actors adds a range of different people and things to interact with. Whether being guided along by your "Ghost" companion robot, speaking to those individuals valiantly defending Earth in "The Tower", or the story of how this all came about; everything is well delivered. While there is a fault here or there, the tone and delivery is always well done and very rarely missing anything.

-          Gameplay / Playability: High

o   Gameplay and Playability were equally well done. Starting off with Playability, the game's play is based heavily on other First Person Shooters on the market; most notably Halo who was created by the same developers. However, if you aren't familiar with that franchise, the game provides a quick tutorial level as well as introductions to all of the major aspects of how to move, fight, and play in the world of Destiny. There were occasional misses here or there, like how I received a heavy weapon but wasn't told how to even access or use it for another 15 minutes, however, as a whole, the game is pretty easy to pick up and figure out.

o   The same can go for Gameplay. Destiny acts like a cross breeding of several major franchises on the market today. Halo has already been mentioned, however it is also comparable to games like Mass Effect, World of Warcraft, and Borderlands. Players will have access to open worlds (specific to a planet) which they can freely roam and explore if they so choose. As they fight and play, they will unlock new abilities, powers, weapons, and armors which will progressively make them more powerful and ability to fight stronger enemies. Players will also be able to help or be helped by other players as multiple players will be exploring the same open world environments (meaning you could have 30 people all playing on Earth, doing their own thing, and you are able to interact with them if you so choose). Once you hop back to "The Tower", which essentially acts as home base between fights, you can interact with even more players as they go about their business as well as speak to a variety of merchants and story characters.

o   Overall, the game takes many of the solid game aspects from other hit titles and combines it into a great new one. The only thing that players may dislike in the delivery is that the game progressives a little slower both in the Leveling aspect as well as the collection of New Items compared to other similar titles.

  

-          Dollar-Value: High

o   Overall, Destiny is a pretty high Dollar Value. While it runs at the standard pricing of most new video games ($60 starting), the game offers a fair amount of content. Players will be able to explore several vast new worlds, try out three different types of characters, and have access to a ton of cool weapons and powers to fight off the Darkness. Players will have access to both multiplayer competitive and cooperative gameplay that will let them fight each other as well as follow a decently written storyline about saving the future of Earth and mankind. Plus, unlike many other MMO titles, Destiny DOES NOT have any additional fees regarding playing: the only requirement is that you have an internet subscription to the system that you are playing on (which would be required to play online anyway).

Recommendations

-          Destiny is one of the very few First Person Shooters that does not score too harshly due to adult content. However, if you are itching for other titles, we would initially recommend Halo. While it is M-Rated, it is one of the few titles that many agree does not deserve an M-Rating. Made by Bungie (the developers of Destiny), the game features a similar focus of elite human warriors fighting back against alien invaders. The Halo franchise offers a ton of titles, and has been around for a little while now, so they might be a good one to check out.