My first minutes in the Destiny Beta I felt vulnerable, as if I was all alone in this place with nothing but my Ghost at my side. It’s only a matter of minutes before I encountered my first enemies, the Fallen. Strapped with an Auto Rifle and my Ghost I did all a Guardian in my position could, fight. The section of the game I played was set in Old Russia, a very beautiful yet dangerous place if you aren’t prepared properly for battle. I spent about 8 solid hours on the game and achieved max level on my Hunter, I am very impressed with how well each class plays differently. Despite popular belief, I believe a three-man fireteam makes battles much more intimate and allows for a great deal of teamwork and communication. I found myself endlessly wandering the desolate wasteland that is Old Russia just searching for little things I may have missed in the Alpha, I really enjoy fighting my way through a group of Fallen and happening upon a cave and a crate of loot inside, sure this isn’t the first game to do this type of thing but this one sat with me differently, it was like my Guardian depended on me for survival. There is a small handful of story missions in the Beta that include some very intense, very fun mini-boss battles. The Beta gives you an excellent opportunity to experience a good amount of what Destiny is all about, you are the savior of the last safe city and we all must work together to take back what was once rightfully ours.
Another big part of Destiny is its competitive multiplayer, appropriately named the Crucible where guardians take on one another for gear, experience, and bragging rights. I spent about 4 hours last night playing the game mode Control, very similar to some other game modes we’ve played, where two teams of Guardians fight for control of 3 capture points strategically placed around the map, the team with the most points at the end of any game wins. In Control, each team can gain points by capturing, and holding any of the control points. The maps in the Beta are very unique, they take you from Venus, to the face of the Moon, the feeling I get from the environment is indescribable to say the least. Fighting other guardians for control of these points was very fun, the combat in Destiny compliments the game so well. Your Guardians’ special ability is one thing that is very crucial while fighting for control in the Crucible, I find myself saving my special ability for groups of people or vehicles, it seems to come in play a lot in those situations. I really enjoyed my time spent fighting my fellow Guardians in Destiny, it felt like a breath of fresh air in gaming. I absolutely cannot wait to hop back in and capture some more points.
The last game type I was able to play in the Beta was a 3 man cooperative mode called a Strike, these are similar to small raids but much more difficult in terms of combat. My two friends and I jumped into a Strike thinking it was going to be a quick, easy way to level up and get some decent gear but we were in for quite an awakening. I found myself fighting alongside my fireteam through 3 separate waves of Fallen, and another type of enemy known in game as the Hive. Naturally, the Hive and the Fallen aren’t to fond of each other so if you are patient they will kill each other off a little bit, but of course you’ll still have to go in a clean up what’s left. Each wave gets significantly more difficult as it progresses, fighting multiple Captains and Wizards is quite difficult at times. After we managed to defeat all three waves of enemies, we stumbled upon the next big obstacle in our path, a Devil Walker. A Devil Walker is what most of us saw in the E3 gameplay during the public event, a huge spider tank type of enemy. It is a very powerful, very strong enemy that I managed to get down to near death then my fireteam died. This game mode had two difficulty levels in the Beta for Strikes and Missions, Normal and Hard. I played a couple of times on Hard just solo to try it out, and it was quite difficult to try and do by myself and needless to say I failed without the help of some fellow Guardians.
Destiny is a very beautiful game, set to promise big things for the FPS genre. My first impressions of the Destiny Beta are quite good, I was pleased with the level of detail put into just about every little thing I could find. The game provided hours of cooperative fun that is sure to please anyone who enjoys FPS games, it really highlights all the things about a shooter that are good and fun. I find myself anxious to play more, kill more Fallen, capture more points, dance in the tower. The Destiny Beta has made me a believer, not only in this game, but that a genre can be turned on its head and be absolutely incredible. After playing and maxing out my Beta character, I cannot wait to jump into the full release and explore the entire universe that is Destiny. Just playing the Beta has made Destiny one of my top 3 games of the year up to this point, it is a truly fascinating display of the talent that comes out of video game development.
