Exciting Destiny

Every new game season brings with it a few games that are anticipated with some excitement, and then there are the rare games that only come along once every few years, which are highly anticipated with considerable excitement - it seems that Destiny falls in the latter category.

Developed for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One by Bungie and published by Activision under their ten-year publishing deal, the game was demo'd at last year's E3, generating quite a bit of interest on the part of games journos.

Announced as a fusion of action role-playing and first-person shooter, Destiny is set within a large open-world mythical science fiction world that enjoys a unique advantage over similar games in that its event structure is highly dynamic.

That dynamic action structure is important due to the aforementioned fusion style of the game, which is a cross between limited MMO features that are heavily integrated into its first-person shooter and role playing model.

While Destiny lacks the typical MMO cohesiveness elements that stimulates shared relationships, it does manage what Bungie has described officially as 'shared-world shooter' elements that are said to enhance the interplay fun factor.

Official Destiny E3 Trailer - New Beginnings

From the ruins of humanity's past, Guardians rise. To defend our home. To explore our lost worlds. To give us hope.

Destiny is a next generation first person shooter, with rich cinematic storytelling set in huge worlds to explore. Create and customize your Guardian. Defeat your enemies. Become Legend in intense cooperative, competitive, and innovative public gameplay modes.

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It manages this by using a system of 'on-the-fly matchmaking' that allows players to play only with other players with whom they are 'matched' by the game. The word is that this system borrows heavily from the successful matchmaking system that Bungie created for Halo, which can only be a good thing.

Destiny stands out in other ways - particularly with respect to its class-based approach for player-characters; it has been revealed that the classes have profound impact upon the game play experience.

Premise is Key

The setting for Destiny is within the construct of a post-apocalyptic survival scenario that is set some 700 years in the future, at a time when humanity has fully spread its wings and, using advanced space travel tech, spread throughout the universe.

An event called 'the Collapse' causes a mysterious series of disasters that empty many of the human colonies in space, leaving mankind teetering on the brink of extinction.

Ironically the only survivors of the Collapse are on Earth - as far as humanity knows that is - and they were only saved through the intervention of an extra-terrestrial being known as 'The Traveller' -- who also happens to be the entity who, in previous centuries past, actually enabled humanity to reach the stars.

The Traveller now protects the surviving humans in earth, serving as both a source of guidance and a source of a mysterious and little understood set of supernatural abilities known as 'The Light' that are being used by the powers that be on earth - called the 'Guardians of the City' - to maintain order.

Humanity has reached the point in its reconstruction that it seeks to re-establish its colonies, but then discovers that it is not alone in that goal - aliens are also seeking that end - and mankind is suddenly thrust into a position of not only having to battle for control of its own former colonies, but defend the last human civilization on earth from alien attack!

Seriously, does that sound cool or what?

Familiar Game Play

For gamers who do not have a lot of experience with the Halo series, the game play in Destiny will be new, but for gamers with past experience with what is arguably Bungie's most successful game series, a lot of the game play elements will feel familiar.

Now that familiarity only extends to the mechanics of the process - because in Destiny Bungie has created an entirely new approach to the fusion MMO/FPS style game.

When the player takes on the role of Guardians of the City, they will do so as one of three races -- Awoken, Exo, or Human -- but unlike the case with most games in the genre, the race that the player chooses is not the key factor in determining play styles, rather it is the class that they pick that is the deciding factor.

That does not mean that race is an insignificant element! While the race you choose does not have any effect at all on the mechanics of play, it does naturally present a decided contribution to the look and feel of the game and your perceptions of your character and their motives and personalities.

While not a lot has been released in terms of look-and-feel details, we do know that the Awoken are a beautiful and exotic race of nearly supernatural beings, described as being a fusion of angel and elf.

The Exo on the other hand are described by Bungie as a powerful undead-type race, with attitude that matches their appearance.

Humanity in Destiny has taken on aspects that are very similar to that found in the Halo games - emulating the Master Chief in his no-nonsense military focused discipline.

The real differences though, come from the class that you choose to play - or we should say classes, since the game clearly invites multiple player-characters and play-throughs!

The three classes available to players in Destiny are Hunter, Titan, and Warlock.

The Hunter is a reconnaissance-based class intended to be be played with the attitude and approach of the classic'"bounty hunter' type character. In fact during its presentation Bungie alluded to the character of Han Solo from the Star Wars Saga as one inspiration.

The Titan, on the other hand, is the classic melee and weapon-wielding warrior, who was clearly inspired by the Master Chief from the Halo series. A no-nonsense, kick-ass then take names if they are available sort of character, we suspect that the Titan class will be a natural first-class for most players.

Now Warlocks are a bit of a surprise package in the game, since they combine both the special powers that humanity has received from the Traveler, and a wide assortment of weapons, making them a sort of dual-class magic and melee character. During the presentation they were likened to the characters from the Matrix, in that they have that sort of mystical aspect that a Warlock really has to have, but they also enjoy an affinity for violence and weapon-play.

All of the above suggests that players are in for a massive treat - and the fact that Destiny is sure to be one of the blue-chip titles of the new era and new generation of consoles certainly adds to the anticipation that the game is receiving.

That said, the fact that it is also being released on the previous generation of consoles is something of a treat in its own right, considering that it is the first blue-chip AA title to arrive on the next gen that will not force the previous gen gamers to upgrade in order to play it!

That is reason to celebrate - as is the heavily developed multi-player side of the game, which means once we have mastered game play, we will be seeing you in Destiny!