I never thought I'd be allowed to play the Destiny Beta, since I've been saving money to make a trip to Canada. Turns out, he has access to it on his PS3, so I've managed to fit, uh, maybe three or so hours in?
I'll preface this by saying that I was very wary about how the game was going to turn out. But it's really something, for me, that would really come into its own when you take the controller into your own hands.
From the beta's first missions, capping the player level at Level 8, I thought the story was crushingly plain. It's hard to say how much they are wanting to truly allow the players to get into, and while I understand the lore is allegedly vast and rich, it didn't feel like it was going out of its way to let the player know. After a few arbitrary mission briefs and
mutterings from the Peter Dinklage-ifyied
AI companion, all I really feel like I've been told is that there are a bunch of aliens and I need to shoot them. I think there was something there about me being resurrected from the dead?!
Though gameplay wise, I'm definitely hooked. Against a few enemies, it can be a bit bland. But when you're juggling hordes of aliens surrounding you, two teammates on either side and a plethora of hard-to-earn, fun-to-use
crowd clearing abilities, the game has the capacity to feel like a beautiful union between first person shooter and dungeon crawling loot and shoot. I was especially impressed with the strike mission that was available in the beta, which took the form of three progressive mini-missions, each ending in a climax of either holding out against waves on enemies in a well designed enclosed map, or fighting off against a
boss and its limitless waves of called upon soldiers.
