By Jacob Balatico
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Destiny is Bungie’s newest game since they created Halo Reach in 2010. It began development in 2009 and was released on Sept. 9, 2014. It has been described by Bungie as a “shared world shooter” and encompasses a “mythic science-fiction” setting. This setting follows a prosperous period of exploration, peace and technological advancement known as The Golden Age. However, an event called “The Collapse” mysteriously ended the colonies that humans have set up in the solar system. The only survivors of the collapse are those living on Earth protected by “The Traveler,” a white, spherical, celestial body whose appearance helped humans reach the stars. The Traveler, now weakened and dying, hovers above the last safe city on Earth. Its presence gives the Guardians, the defenders of the city, the ability to wield an unknown power known only as the “light.”
In Destiny, there are three different classes: titan, warlock and hunter. Each class has its own skill tree and abilities, which level up as you do missions, and also has a sub class option for those who reach level 15 in-game and want to play a variation of a certain class. There are also three different races you can be; human, exo or awoken. However, these races are purely aesthetic and don’t affect gameplay at all. Missions take place on planets in our solar system such as Earth, Mars and Venus.
The gameplay in Destiny is very smooth and the graphics are very pleasing to the eye. You can find five chests on each planet, which allows you to free roam the beautiful landscapes. Controls aren’t fidgety and overall, the game is smooth. The multiplayer is reminiscent of that of Halo because it’s so fast-paced but still brings new challenges and lots of fun.
The bad thing about Destiny is that there is a lot of downtime between matches. Also, if you replay missions, you can’t skip cutscenes. The heads up display is alright but the radar can be hard to read and become used to. It’s kind of sad to see a company that’s excelled at these things many times before get it wrong now.
Overall, Destiny is a game that is definitely worth your time. I would score it a 3.5 out of 5. It is a nice game and it’s beautiful. However, there are aspects that could have been approached much better, such as the pairing system for players to connect with other players or just being able to skip the cutscenes after you watch them the first time. Nonetheless, this game is not bad and you’ll find it addicting after you complete the first mission.