Destiny has been riding high on a wave of hype since its announcement in February, 2013. Pitched as a genre-defying shooter/RPG/MMO, Bungie struck marketing gold with their slow trickle of images, videos, and announcements. Finally, after the open beta finished a few days ago, gamers had an image and hopes of what the final game will be like. Not a day later, those hopes shattered.
Bungie has advertised Destiny as the biggest game they’ve ever worked on, stating that each planet’s location will be more or less the size of Halo: Reach. That’s pretty impressive in itself, considering Destiny will release on last-gen consoles alongside next-gen consoles. However, they also revealed that each planet will only contain one – albeit large – location. As if that weren’t enough, Destiny fans also had to deal with the accompanying list of maps and missions data-mined from the beta’s files (while it’s worth noting that they are definitely incomplete, as it wasn’t a full download, the information still has plenty of gamers worried).
The list reveals that there may be 22-32 story missions, 5 open exploration areas, 23 Strike missions (possibly largely variants of only a few actual missions), and 2 Raids, as well as a number of multiplayer maps.
Comments on forums range from deceived to disappointed to disbelieving, and everything in between. Some believe Bungie outright lied about Destiny‘s size, while others are more optimistic and wait for the final release. Regardless of the varying degrees in responses, it seems as though there are two main conclusions – some gamers hyped themselves up too much with Destiny’s size, which will most likely provide plenty of content, and Bungie plan on adding in much, much more content through DLC.
In a response via Reddit, Bungie stated that there will be plenty of activities for players to partake in after launch – some of which they haven’t revealed yet – likening it to a television program that features constant updates in activities and events. They also stated that “the Moon is our smallest destination,” and we barely scratched the surface, once again hinting at the potential size of other areas across the Solar System both in scale and scope.
Personally, I feel a little disappointed at the notion that there is only one location per planet; that being said, they are incredibly large areas, and I sunk in hours and hours of just exploring with a fireteam. There were also some areas to Old Russia that were locked out of the beta, and plenty of higher-level enemies to deal with. Throw story missions on top of that, plus leveling, looking for new gear, raids, and multiplayer, and I’m still excited for the amount of content supposedly in the base game.
Some comments over Twitter:
“Worried by this Destiny level cap and size of game info. Sounds like ill be done with it after a weekend or 2.”
“The gameplay for Destiny seems to be delivering. I am worried about the size of the game compared to what was being said by developers.”
“The more I read up on the size of Destiny, the more I die on the inside :(“
“Wait Destiny has one region per planet? Well that dwarfs the size… please be false.”
“There are ‘fans’ apparently complaining about the size of conceptual planets in a conceptually sized space in a game.”
“The complaints about the size of Destiny are baffling. It’s at least ~10 hours of SP, a raid, and competitive MP. Compare that to Titanfall.”
From various threads on N4G:
“That is pretty damn good for the beginning… as this game will grow and grow.”
“Is that it? The full game only has 32 missions when they’ve already given us 6 in the beta……. I think it’ll be close to double that.”
“And presumably Bungie will add more content via updates and (shiver) dlc.”
“I’m sure there will be more content. Just wait for the official release from Bungie. They’ve already confirmed 7 planets and the moon.”
What’s your opinion on Destiny‘s supposed size, or lack thereof? Let us know in the comments below.
