Bungie's "Mass Effect"-like FPS is a decent shooter.
Developer Bungie's "Halo" trilogy was a landmark achievement for the FPS genre. The original game (along with "Goldeneye 007") proved that console-exclusive shooters could rank up with the great PC FPS games. "Halo 2" revolutionized online multiplayer gaming on XBOX Live and the third game introduced Forge, a powerful tool for would-be map creators. Unfortunately,"Destiny", a blend of "Halo" and "Mass Effect", isn't quite as masterful. It can be fun with friends, but grinding out your character (while essential to expanding the game) can feel like a chore sometimes. Beating certain bosses may also test your patience since the battle can take more than an hour to finish. Like EA's "Titanfall", this is an "online only" game that emphasizes action over story and an engaging narrative.
One of the biggest drawbacks of "Destiny" is the repetitive nature of the mission structure. While you can travel up to five different planets, the formula is always the same. You'll travel from Point A to Point F and then standoff against hordes of enemies and/or an enemy boss. The campaign is broken down into "levels" and each take about 20 minutes to more than an hour to complete. As you progress, you'll earn weapons, armors, items and upgrades. You will also discover plenty of other types of loot and can activate bonus objectives. The problem with the environments, however, is they are repetitive in design. Levels are broken down into Story, Patrols and Strike Missions. Story and strike missions must be completed in their entirety, but patrol levels contain only side-missions that can be either engaged or ignored. Each campaign level or mission can be played cooperatively with two other friends online. In between missions, you can travel to a HUB where you can purchase new weapons, upgrades, items and "bounty missions". The latter can earn you plenty of XP points and currency if you complete them.
The storyline in "Destiny" is reduced to a few cutscenes and numerous voice overs by Peter Dinklage who plays a friendly robotic A.I. Before the game begins, you are given the choice of three different races. But backstory is revealed through cards earned which can only be viewed at Bungie.net. As for the competitive gameplay, "Destiny" has four modes; three variations on deathmatch and a "Domination"-like mode where you must gain and protect "territories" scattered across the map. The special powers of each character race is what keeps "Destiny" from feeling like a typical "Call of Duty" rip-off. Graphically, the XBOX 360 version is solid, but it has nothing on the XBOX ONE's stunning visuals. Unfortunately, the competitive modes can also get sluggish with a choppy framerate, perhaps under 30 frames per second. Load times aren't too lengthy, but not too short either. The good thing about the 360 version is that it doesn't exclude any of the features found on the XBOX ONE version. Overall, if you're not buying into any hype and just want to have fun with a shooter, you could do worse than "Destiny". It's not as groundbreaking or great as something you'd expect from the creators of "Halo", but it's a decent time. This is a game that improves with the constant updates and additions it receives. I'd rank it with a 7.5 out of 10.
