Literally
Amazing
Mike
Exclaims
Acronyms are fun, apologies for the misdirection (not really). Me and what seems like the rest of the world having been playing through hours of the Destiny Beta. From before even the Alpha dropped, it was easy to see that this was going to be something special. Bungie crafted Halo into something which I still believe saved the original Xbox from obscurity, and set the stage for the platform to hold it’s own against Sony and Nintendo. And from what I’ve played, they are crafting something which will set the standard for games going forward.
Polish is the word which comes to mind every time I jump into a session of Destiny. I felt this even during the Alpha, I’ve experienced no technical issues and find the game easily handles what’s going on on-screen. Only slight network problems have blemished my experience and with the millions of people trying to get in this magical world, that’s hardly surprising. Even at this stage, I find the game is more polished and stable than some games currently out in retail. It goes to show, taking your time and not being rushed to release a title can pay dividends to a titles technical performance.
I plan to make a separate post in which I put my thoughts down about how this game looks graphically. It’s astounding how good the game looks and some of the vistas leave me in awe. And I’ve got some great in-game screens to share!
The social features are what drew me to this game, I love completive shooters but I love co-op with friends even more. In most games, co-op is an after thought. Often poorly implemented and at times just broken and not fun. But it’s easy to see Destiny has been built from the ground up to be played and enjoyed with friends. Inviting and jumping into a session with friends is stupidly easy and smooth as babys bottom. I had a friend message me on the phone to come play, I simply selected his ID in-game, selected to join his session and like that I was in. Within a two minute trek, (made shorter once I remembered you have speeder bike) I was helping him to extinguish those pesky FALLEN.
In regards to not knowing I had a speeder bike, I only remembered this due to using one in the Alpha. And it highlights the only real issue I have with the game. The scope and sheer amount of content means that there is a lot to learn. And at times, the game is poor at explaining certain features. Heavy weapons need special ammo? My class can’t use this item/armour? It was simple things like these, which I feel the game doesn’t (yet) do a good enough job of pointing out. With this being an MMO, it really needs to explicitly inform users of game features. Sure hand holding can be pretty painful at the start of a game, but it certainly can pay dividends in later sections.
Tone was also another issue I had, the game sure lays it on thick with the cheese. I’m still also not convinced about the Peter Dinkalge performace and after this piece of magic, I don’t think I ever will be….
Overall this has been the most fun I’ve had in a Beta and the most I’ve been impressed by participating in one. It’s scary how good this game is already and I still can’t over just how polished it is already. Destiny is shaping up to being something special and one of the few times when I honestly must tell everyone to believe the hype.
I know I said the same about Titanfall (ughhhh), but seriously Bungie are onto something exceptional here.
