 Destiny - A universe of absolute marvels I am not here to tell you what you should already know about Destiny. It has been over one week since the global release of Destiny and the gaming world has been littered with information on Bungie's latest release. Instead, I want to guide you through tales of my own personal and planetary massacres of Dregs, goblins and large god damn purple floating orbs of solid stubbornness! Having played the Destiny Beta I was instantly familiarised with atmospheric music score in the final game. The enchanting orchestral sounds that radiate through the menu systems, loading screens and key battle moments; never before have I felt so impressed with how a musical score can enhance my experience of a game. For me, my perception and anticipation were heightened, particularly in darker closed corridors. I felt satisfied with this but ultimately it became easier to predict a situation. The darker and scarier the score became usually meant that a Knight or a wizard were lurking in the shadows. I've read forums and other bloggers note this point also.  Destiny Enemies - The Cabal Class. Cabal Legionary, extremely powerful weapons Destiny's mission range is made up of 'Story, Patrol and Strike' missions with a choice to fly back to the Tower to collect messages, bounties and purchase weapon and armor load outs. I naturally gravitated to the story missions over the side quests. Why? I felt that they offered slightly more variation over the Patrol missions. Nonetheless, choosing what type of mission I could tackle gave me the choice I like. I have always said that 'player choice' is something that I find imperative to amplify my experience! I soon learnt that my choice became stifled by repetition. This was because most of the learning about Destiny happens very quickly thus limiting your choices later in the game. The ability to 'choose' becomes stale. Depending on which planet I was in orbit of, I found my trusty Warlock thrusted upon the exact same plains in most of the Story missions starting in the exact same place. There were slight differences in the lighting and overall ambiance however, this did not negate from my head saying "here again!, Really?" Despite this, small detail, I could not help but to dive back in to the beautiful and majestic world of Destiny. Destiny holds a certain luring charm that kept me coming back like a boomerang! I wrote a blog about 'my first 60 minutes with Destiny Beta' and logged how well Bungie made fantastic use of the lighting, shadows and transitions from dark to light. All of this contributes to the 'luring charm' of Destiny.  Destiny - Getting down to business in The Tower Returning to the Tower felt like taking a 'day off' to soicalise and shop. In Destiny terminology, however, the Tower was a place to maximise your arsenal before launching back in to orbit. The weapons and armor range seemed comprehensive enough for me to feel spoilt at times. My star picking from the weapon range fell under the 'Special Weapons' category of which was 'The Sniper Rifle'. The Tarjan-C to be specific! I found the Tarjan-C to be the most easy to maneuver and whilst the impact was lower, the stability of the weapon allowed me to be more accurate. I can honestly state that there was nothing more satisfying than slicing through the head of a Dreg from long range. Adding to the advantages, Destiny allowed me to fluctuate between the stealthier modes with snipers and 'running and gunning' approaches with a selection of fully and semi automatic weapons. Result!  3D view of The Ghost, Destiny. What would a blog about Destiny be without a mention to the most important piece of AI, The Ghost? The Ghost provides support for guardians in the form of hacking, lighting darkened areas, illuminating the way/objective and providing data about the current mission. I found the Ghost to be a credible source of help especially when I was forced in to a shadowy area. I'd whip out my Ghost in order to provide a soft, yet pixelated blanket of light that illuminated the path. The Ghost reminded me of Navi from Zelda, Ocarina of time but not as annoying. Slotting this in further, the world of Destiny was littered with dead Ghosts that I was able to revive in exchange for a small amount of XP. I was not motivated to find the locations of these as it felt like a mundane task. Instead, I found myself accidentally stumbling upon them. There is a trophy available for reviving 50 of the 62 dead Ghosts so maybe I'll go back through and find these at at a later date.  Juicy Game Reviews Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Destiny. There was a luring charm that made me continue to play. I don't usually give a quantifiable rating to a game but with Destiny I am going to. For its comprehensive loadouts, stunning environments, flawless music score I'd rate Destiny a 7.9 out of 10. This would have been higher if Bungie had avoided the repetition of missions. I'll do a separate review on the multiplayer aspect of Destiny soon.
Destiny is available on Playstation 4, Playstation 3, Xbox One and Xbox 360. For more from me, you can check out my Youtube channel for videos about retro and current generation gaming. Juicy Game Reviews
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 Destiny Beta Release Already, I am sick of hearing the comparisons between Destiny and Halo. I was not impressed as I stood in a game store last week and opened a conversation about my excitement for Destiny. The shop worker replied "yeah well it's Halo isn't it?!". I respectfully disagreed and outlined my reasons why. I left the store thinking 'What a dick' especially after he used a condescending tone during the debate. Now that I have played the beta release of Destiny, I stand FIRM in my arguments that Destiny is not Halo, but a fantastic, immersive and visually stunning game in it's own right. I'm going to talk to you about my first experiences of playing the beta release.  3 character classes to choose from in Destiny: Titan, Hunter and Warlock I was laced with excitement as I watched the percentage increase when Destiny Beta was installing on my Playstation 4. At this point I would like to give thanks to a fellow gamer, Jeroenps4, for providing me a beta download code. YOU STAR! Once I saw it reach 100% and the load screen kicked in, I was poised and ready to choose my class. My choices were out of three: 'Titan, Hunter and Warlock'. I chose the 'Hunter' class as I wanted to have the power combined with mobility within my character. NOW, let me tell you something that I noticed here. I felt SO, SO, SO packed full of anticipation to play this game at this point. Why? Graphically, the characters looked stunning as they swayed slightly on screen prior to making my final choice. I felt an instant connection for some reason. I couldn't believe that this was a beta release? It felt like a final product. After choosing the remaining customizations; details such as face shape, hair and eye colour etc, I ventured forth in to cut scene which I was thrusted upon Mars, present day. I can honestly report that I was fucking mezmorized at the graphical content amidst the backdrop of atmospheric music. This was a consistent feature of Destiny - Beta. I found the music and 'flash sound effects' to add to my experiences in the actual game play. Now add shadows! As I meandered through corridors and across well lit landscape, shadows from enemies would often lean around a corner, alerting me to what lay ahead. More often than not, I would JUMP at seeing this flash of grey coupled with a corresponding sound effect. I felt so much adrenaline!! I also want to note that the use of shadows worked effectively on stationary objects such as netting that hung from ceilings. The shadows made me feel enclosed and trapped which spurred my motivation to progress away from the area. YES, I WANTED TO PROGRESS, TO EXPLORE AND TO VENTURE!  Destiny's open environments look stunning Environmentally, Destiny Beta continued to 'knock my socks off'. There's a moment in the earlier stages of the game in which I was greeted with a vast opening of outdoor marvels. Let me paint a picture for you. Crystal blue and green pops of colour littered the skyline. CUE an incoming enemy ship in the distance that disappeared behind a cliff face. In front of me stood anorexic looking trees dotted across a multi-terrain spread of grays, blues in the landscape. A cloud of fine dust skimmed my line of sight. I could see in to the limitless distance. I was in First Person Shooter paradise! Onwards I went! Looking down my sights on my rifle was as pleasing at it has ever been! I believe that Bungie had done an amazing job in creating a depth of field that allowed me to feel as though I was really behind the trigger. There was a clear fore, mid and background within my line of sight. A sensation of absolute satisfaction infiltrated my gamer brain. I kept asking myself: "Is this really a beta version?" There are a catalogue of enemies I faced in Destiny Beta. Naturally, I'd guess that that catalogue will increase in the final game. I found there to be a even balance of combat and solitary exploring. Allow me to elaborate. I came in to possession of a sniper rifle early on in the demo. Unlike, Halo, I felt that I could stealth through a patch of enemies to find a safe camping spot to pick off those enemies with my sniper rifle. During my chosen stealth modes, I felt a sense of 'ninja like solitude' which became a part of my tactics to pick off enemies whilst taking minimal damage.  Cabal - One of many enemies in Destiny Overall, Destiny Beta is an amazing experience. I want to play it more and more and I am eagerly awaiting the final release. LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU GUYS THOUGHT OF DESTINY BETA.
Thanks for reading. Gemma a.k.a Juicy Game Reviews |
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