Destiny is the first game I've played on the Xbox One. I am surprised at how much Bungie improved the FPS without changing very much.
Bungie's mangum opus, Halo, kicked off my favorite series of games. In Master Chief I trust, so it was no small leap for me to pay the near $60 for the latest super hyped game from this awesome shop. Destiny is a blend of Halo style FPS play but with a lot of MMORPG style equipment earning, crap combining and selling off of things you pick up while adventuring. It is a welcome addition.
A big sphere called the Traveller evidently came to Earth, gave humanity some awesome technology and super powers, but also attracted a bunch of enemies. The new tech and powers are great, but the aliens far greater. Humanity is down to one city and some really bad fashion. There are several classes of 'Guardian' and you choose between Titan, Hunter and Warlock. You can adventure solo, with a private team or join up with others in-game to complete missions, join random land bounties and occasionally join randomly generation special 'events.' Typical of the MMPORG/adventure game genre, you spend a lot of time killing Level 1 Rats so you can get a Level 1 sword and kill Level 2 bats, sooner or later you arrive at a Level 1000 GIANT BAT OF GREATER VENGENCE, zzzzz.
The game play is decidedly Halo-esque. Controls, physics, weapons and play style are all very similar. The less-linear approach of the adventure and customization adds a new and fun element. Instead of 32 people who all look pretty much identical, Destiny lets you build your character up to your liking. While I am not there, it appears at level 20 you get a LOT of customization options.
Cooperative play is fun and the difficulty adjusted pretty well to allow me to play with folks of varying skill/achievement while still a n00b. The adventures and story line are pretty mindless and seem designed to get you systematically Space ratting and Space batting away. I look forward to trying some PVP game play as well, I think it'll be a lot of fun.
Peter Dinklage voices the Bungie-typical AI, named 'Ghost.' While I love him in Game of Thrones, this script leaves me wishing Cortana had done a crossover. Destiny is a multiplayer game played on a wide scale. The universe may provide for some new and more interesting gameplay than Halo, but do not expect the emotional connection with the story and characters. This story feels more about getting you trained for PVP.
The Xbox One is impressive. Some of the voice commands and the awful "Snap Screen" are useless. Frequently you hear another player yelling "XBOX UNSNAP" or "XBOX LAUNCH" mid-adventure. These random interjections crack me up, but the device does a beautiful job of pushing insanely detailed graphics at the big screen. The game never slows down and never looks less than amazing.
I am enjoying Destiny. I thought I wouldn't use the Xbox One until Halo 5 launched, I was wrong.
