Destiny

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Destiny is Bungie's biggest and only IP since the Halo series. Bungie has been working on this project since they gave the Halo series to 343 studios. Bungie's last game in the series was Halo Reach (2010).

Destiny was released September 9, 2014, the game received generally mixed to positive reviews. I'd say of all the sites i looked at, the average score given was high 70's to low 80's. It was criticized for a shallow story, a problem that Bungie is working to remedy. They have put out two expansions since release, "The Dark Below" and "The House of Wolves". Both of which were enjoyable additions to the game. There is a big update planned for September called "The Taken King".

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Information regarding "The Taken King" is not set in stone. I will confirm the information once it becomes clear.

Destiny is probably my favorite game right now, with Smash 4 being a close second. I loved Halo's weapon mechanics, the weight and handling were done very well. Bungie did a great job with Destiny's gunplay as well. I really like the variety of the weapons as well as the "feel" of them. Another great aspect of the game is the character customizability, regarding to abilities available to each class and subclass.

As stated earlier in this post, Destiny has been criticized in a few key gameplay areas. Regardless of that, I sink countless hours into this game. I love how Bungie has merged the shooter mechanics with many MMO mechanics. Having friends to play and compete with, along with a friendly community of people makes this game infinitely replay-able. Camaraderie makes the grind much more satisfying, along with sharing the elation of an exotic weapon drop.

In addition to the basic story missions there are also strikes that are played with a fireteam of three. Strikes are longer more difficult missions with a boss to defeat. A variation of the strikes are the weekly heroic strike, and the weekly nightfall. The heroic strike is a more difficult variation of the basic strike with improved rewards. While heroic is difficult the Nightfall is an entirely different beast. In the Nightfall there are no checkpoints that means if your entire fireteam dies, you're sent back to the menu. In addition to no checkpoints, the enemies are tougher, more abundant and hit harder. One interesting mechanic in the nightfall are the burns. Burns are buffs to the damage of all element based attacks from all sources, including the player. The nightfall can have an Arc Burn (Electric), Solar Burn (Fire), or Void Burn (Darkness), or all three. The burns actually help the player more than hinder them because of the breadth of elemental weapons available. The great thing about the Nightfall are the rewards. They range from Legendary/Exotic weapons and armor, to upgrade materials and aesthetic gear.

The ultimate endgame option for players are the Raids. The Raids are a Nightfall strike times ten. The game advises, almost requires, a fireteam of six players to be successful. Raids require pinpoint teamwork and strategy to complete. Players will Raid countless times to get the best gear in the game only rewarded during raids. Completing raids on both normal and hard difficulties are the only way to reach the level cap. At this point in time, there are only two raids, The Vault of Glass and Crota's End.

I think Destiny is a great and fun game even with it's shortcomings. Shortcomings being the bland story, and lack of endgame content. Those shortcomings are being addressed in each successive update. With the amount of content Bungie is rumored to be producing and what they have already put out; I feel that Destiny will continue to improve and grow It's already impressive amount of registered users(over 20 million).

Destiny will continue to be the recipient of most of my gaming hours. Destiny is an easy 8 out of 10 for me, with potential to become even better. I eagerly await what is in store, and the planned sequel to Destiny.

Catch me in game fellow Guardians.
*Going to orbit*

I'm out.