Destiny Reviews: A beautiful but empty game. Destiny Review: Biggest Shooter of the Year ⇡ The Final Stand

Bungie has come a long way since its inception. She managed to release such popular series in the nineties as Marathon and Myth. But the real success brought her, of course, Halo. It was not just a must-buy for every Xbox owner - the console itself was acquired for the opportunity to plunge into the amazing universe of the future, where for many decades humanity has been at war with the Covenant, an alliance of hostile aliens. But the story of the Master Chief continued without its creators, and the studio changed Microsoft to Activision as its publisher. And you can blame the latter for greed and squeezing money for a long time, but the fact is that the new publisher gives Bungie complete freedom in working on Destiny. Indeed, despite the developer's vast experience, this is a really new project for him.

⇡ The last battle

Ironically, Destiny, like Halo fifteen years ago, was originally conceived as a third-person action game. But the developers, it seems, have no destiny to do TPS - and soon Destiny turned into a fantastic shooter. With the naked eye, it is noticeable that many of Halo's developments formed the basis of the universe and history - they would look so natural in the next part of the saga about the fight against the Covenant.

A distant, but not very bright future has come. Humanity began to explore space outside of its home planet: it built its colonies on the Moon, Venus, Mars and in more distant corners of the solar system. But then the earthlings were subjected to a swift attack by aliens. As a result, all outposts were abandoned, and the Earth was almost completely destroyed under the onslaught of aliens. When people were on the verge of extinction, they were saved only by a miracle - a certain entity called the Wanderer. A huge sphere hovered over the last bastion of earthlings and gave hope for survival: mysterious strength and high technology. Humanity perked up, gave a decisive rebuff to the invaders and began to gain its former strength. The Golden Era has come - but it did not last forever. Another mysterious force drove people back to their home planet. The survivors took refuge in the Last City - the stronghold of the earthlings, built under the Wanderer. This is where we, the Guardians, come into play.

The Guardians are the finest fighters who have learned to harness the power of the Wanderer. They are divided into three classes: hunter, titan, and sorcerer. Taking on the role of one of them, the player will have to get out of the huge walls that protect the City, and arrange a fun life for the invaders. The choice of profession does not affect the available weapons in any way, but it limits the amount of armor. It is also allowed to use special abilities called Focuses to fight the aliens. Some of them only indirectly affect the parameters of the hero, for example, increasing the damage from certain weapons. Others allow you to teleport, throw bunches of energy and do god knows what else.

⇡ Loner or not?

The developers are in no hurry to lay out all the cards on the table in terms of the gameplay. From a shooter standpoint - judging by the videos available - Destiny retains the best of Halo: a good shooting feel despite fantastic weaponry, and a combination of spacious locations and corridors that provide some tactical freedom. The latter is especially important given the strong emphasis on the cooperative.

Bungie promises a unique symbiosis between single player and online play. I would like to believe, but so far it is very difficult to imagine how this will work. The creators call Destiny only Shared World Shooter, that is, a shooter in the common world. In words, everything is simple: if desired, any player can get to the final in splendid isolation (some episodes, however, will still have to be held in the company). But it's much more fun to play as a team. Users will be able to unite in special units - "strike groups", whether it is a pre-planned trip with friends or random meetings in the game world. We dare to assume that in the latter case, the scheme will probably be implemented in the manner of Dark Souls.

Initially, everyone travels in their personal universes, which "intersect" in a random order. For example, you are in a certain area, where at the same time there is someone else - you got into his playing space, passed a section together, and then your roads may diverge again. In any case, now it looks like this. But the creators went further. During the passage, special events will occur, during which you will need to unite in large groups. For example, in one of the demonstrations, right in front of the hero's eyes, a portal opened in the sky, from where the aliens knocked down. At the same time, several more detachments of other living players suddenly appeared, which need to jointly fight off opponents, and then defeat their leader. Having dealt with this problem, everyone can go their own way again.

Despite the fact that, according to the developers, Destiny is primarily an FPS, the game has many elements from other genres. Considering the significant bias towards online, it is not surprising that we will have rich options for customizing the appearance of your character and his pumping. Enemies (mostly bosses) will drop unique weapons, armor and tricks. Moreover, each gun has its own skill tree. It should not be ruled out that other used things can certainly be improved in some way.

⇡ The world of the future

The land of the XXVIII century is a rather sad sight. Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and The Last of Us first come to mind when seeing the world beyond the Wall. Dilapidated, dilapidated buildings overgrown with greenery, rusted metal structures and carcasses - in general, a real post-apocalypse. Interestingly, we will be brought even to the territory of former Russia. However, we have to not only explore the vastness of our home planet, but also break out of it. It is confirmed that we will visit an abandoned lunar colony and ruins on Mars and Venus.

Each area is distinguished not only by its characteristic visual appearance, but also by the opponents inhabiting it. Destiny will face several races: the space pirates The Fallen, the insect-like Hive, the cybernetic Vex and Exo, as well as those resembling rhinoceroses in Cabal armor. Bungie, as it did with Halo, randomly shuffles enemy combinations in every skirmish. When you consider that each type of enemy has its own strengths and weaknesses and its own tactics, any battle turns into a small puzzle. Thoughtless shooting will most likely lead to death, so you have to use your wit and think quickly. In any case, we hope that everything will be so.

In between battles, you will have to wander through the peaceful zone, where, in the manner of Diablo, you can sell the loot and prepare for the next battles. Or just explore the world, since Destiny definitely has something to admire. The developers are deservedly proud of the new engine, which they forged for almost four years. The quality of character development is not inferior to that in Killzone: Shadow Fall, and the drawing range, particle effects and volumetric lighting are quite impressive. You can endlessly admire the landscapes from the visual materials available before the release. Of course, this applies to versions for eighth generation consoles. Although the game will be released on PS3 and Xbox 360, it will hardly be able to impress anyone there.

Bungie has conceived a revolution in the FPS genre, using fresh principles of interaction between players. There's something of PlanetSide 2, Borderlands, a shooter base from Halo, and probably Dark Souls elements. Destiny looks great, is intriguing, but still a dark horse. To understand how the notorious "shooter with a common world" actually functions, you will have to wait at least until the summer when the beta test starts. We expect a full release in September this year.

Destiny

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Experimenting in the gaming industry has always been roulette. It is difficult to predict an unequivocal answer about the fate of a project with a new concept - there are too many factors. There is competition in the market, and the expectations of gamers, and the technical component, and even the economic factor.

When Bungie, the studio that gave us Halo, made the announcement of its new project in the genre, and even on consoles, it had the effect of a bomb. The gaming community of console gamers was divided into 2 camps. Some were burying a project that had not yet been released, others were impatiently awaiting the birth of a new universe. The developers boldly announced that they would provide life for the game for 10 long years to come, and this is worth a lot. Even the legendary WorldofWarcraft just recently celebrated its 10th anniversary.

The studio constantly fed the audience with new facts, promising a deep storyline that can be played either alone or in co-op. Every month from the announcement, new screenshots, gameplay videos were posted, telling about the confrontation between humanity and alien races. It was noticeable that the developers are trying to draw as much attention as possible to their brainchild. However, the attention from the press and players was already enough until the start of the game, after which we found out that we did not get quite what we expected.

Anyone who has played at least once will immediately recognize the familiar Bungie style. Alien hostility, a threat to humanity and an abundance of heroism in the plot immediately betray the style of their older brother. What is immediately striking is that Destiny is still more of a shooter than an MMO, as stated. But MMO elements are so organically interwoven here that it is rather a plus for the game. There are several game locations, between which you move to complete tasks. Players can only be found there if they are close to your level. There are no crowds of gamers, shouting announcements in the game chat, trade and clan feuds. If we evaluate the game only from the point of view of the MMO component, then it is in its infancy here. Of course there are classes, there are characteristics of characters, weapons and equipment, but it is noticeable that the emphasis was on the action component.

For the Russian-speaking community, the main problem will be the language barrier. The game is only in English, which I consider a solid plus. It will be played by adults who speak at least basic English, which will be a kind of filter from immature schoolchildren and narrow-minded players who will get bored of listening to an explanation of the plot or descriptions of objects without subtitles.

Thirdly, you notice that the Destiny universe is extremely reluctant to reveal the secrets of its origin. Of course, at the start of the game, a lot of information is dumped on us about how humanity, on the brink of extinction, was rescued by an unknown "Wanderer", and, having found a refuge next to the saving sphere, was again threatened with destruction. And you, in the role of "protector", must prevent the complete elimination of the human species. But after you get into the tower of the guards, the plot fades into the background, and you have to look for bits of information on your own. However, you take it for granted. There is a huge world, why dig into the past when the world needs to be saved?

By the way, Destiny creates its own unique atmosphere from the first locations. Desolate planets with futuristic designs are incredibly beautiful. They are beautiful, of course, on new generation consoles, where the new game engine shows itself in all its glory. I would like to explore every corner, look behind every stone and every door. The game will awaken in everyone the adventurer of the future, when the spirit of exploration drives you forward, and the enemies that get in your way only urge you to take the gamepad in your hands again and again, returning to this wonderful world.

It is worth making a reservation here. It all depends on what you expect. The hardest hit were those fans who expected to see WoW in the first person with guns, but received with the possibility of cooperative play. Again, it is important to understand that Destiny is a new project that cannot be judged by conventional standards. This is an experiment in a genre that is still doomed to success. Bungie somehow managed to create a very addictive game with only one shooting and grinding, which reveals itself in full glory if played in co-op and on a hard difficulty level. Then a flurry of emotions is guaranteed for you.

What kind of hodgepodge came out of Destiny?

We are offered a choice of 3 classes at the start of the game, which are quite canonical for any multiplayer RPG, only beaten in accordance with reality. Hunter, Titan or Warlock correspond to Archer, Warrior and Mage, if translated into the world of fantasy. It should be noted that neither the balance nor the gameplay, depending on the selected class, will change. You will also shoot, only with some conventions. However, you shouldn't be frivolous about the choice, because you will play depending on the style of a particular class.

The shooter component is excellent, it is a pleasure to shoot here. This is one of the few console shooters that does not make you want to smash your controller to atoms in an attempt to hit with a sniper rifle. The game is very patient with beginners and forgiving a lot of mistakes. There is not much depth of gameplay, appropriate for an MMO, when you calculate your stats with a calculator in order to bring out the ideal character. In PvP, a low-level character with the proper skill can always compete with a high-level character, the balance for this is flexible enough, which is good news.

However, since we are talking about the multiplayer component, it is worth noting that the social part in Destiny is not implemented in the best possible way. You occasionally meet other players in the Guardian tower or on the planets where you landed for the task. The best option would be to play the game with friends, this applies to both story missions and PvP modes. However, it often happens that in the process of exploring the game world, you cooperate with an unknown player and continue to fight bosses together. Emotions are strong - you just ran alone, and after a while you are planning tactics with a complete stranger. At the same time, the network code works fine, no crashes or desynchronization with the server have ever been noticed.

The problem was that the story missions were passed very quickly, the game gradually turned into just an endless grind, in the hope of finding epic things, and the outflow of players from the world of Destiny began. Here the move was for the developers, who a year later released The Taken King add-on, in which they quickly leveled all the shortcomings, adding many storyline tasks and locations, updating the system of characteristics of weapons and missions. The Bungie universe came to life again and filled with "guards". And if initially Destiny was not an excuse to buy a console and plunge into a multiplayer world of adventure, then with the release of The Taken Kings, the game became such an excuse, which confirms the numerous purchases of Play Station 4 and Xbox One bundles bundled with the game.

Destiny, oddly enough, became, if not the founder, then definitely the best example of the nascent MMO FPS genre. This game set the bar that Bungie will try to jump over herself. It became clear that such a genre has a right to exist for those who do not like to spend 5 hours a day on pumping their character, but just want to enjoy playing in the evening with friends.

I deliberately took the time to release the full Destiny review as best I could. The game was released on September 9, and two months have passed since then. I made this decision because this game project requires increased attention and much more time to study than any other representative of the FPS genre.

pros

• The developers have created a huge fantasy world.
• Amazing graphics and game design.
• Huge room for pumping your character.
• A huge amount of various weapons and the possibility of customization.
• Almost perfect gameplay verified to the smallest detail.
• A large number of PvP modes.

Minuses

• The main plot of the game is there just for show.
• So far, there is a lack of content and variety.
• The animation and character design could have been better.
• You will have to play for a very long time to earn the optimal set of equipment.

I put the game 9 points out of 10 in advance, because I believe that with the release of add-ons it will become more and more diverse and exciting. Now this game is played with interest by about 3,000,000 people every day (according to the statistics provided by the developers), and this says that something keeps them in this game, despite the current limited variety.

I think Bungie will be fine as they managed to repeat their old trick and create a great gaming universe from scratch. If you are a fan of the Halo series or just FPS, this game is a must-buy. If you are not a fan of shooters, but love science fiction very much, I will take the liberty of also recommending this game to you, since the atmosphere in it is incomparable.

I express my gratitude for the provided copy of the game to the company "New Disc". Completed the game on a PlayStation 4 game console.

Before the release, it seemed too contradictory: like the handwriting Bungie can be traced, especially with regard to the visual design, but on the other hand, Destiny looked like a clone Borderlandsjust done on a grand scale and budget.

Launching Destiny for the first time, controversy gives way to resentment: from the game Bungie expect a detailed universe and no less interesting story than the adventures of the Master Chief. All this in Destiny there is, but in a narrowed form. The plot tells how a small expedition lands on Mars and stumbles upon the "Wanderer" - a huge floating sphere, subsequently allowing humanity to make an impressive leap in development and technology. But the heyday did not last long - from the depths of space came a destructive evil - "Darkness", which turned life in all the planets of the solar system into ruins. The Guardians are destined to save the universe - the ultimate fighters, for one of whom we have to play. Globally, the scenario does not develop further, you will meet a minimum of any characters, but, however, if you delve into what is happening, you can catch the notes of a good science fiction story: for example, on one of the planets you will encounter the artificial intelligence "Rasputin" - he controls in a certain important complex and speaks Russian.

And the plot is the first and last thing that will disappoint you in Destinybecause at the forefront Bungie staged fun shootouts and socialization. Destiny is an MMO, only modern and free from all the unnecessary things that interfere with other games of the genre. Knowledge of MMO-language terms like "raid" or "strike" is completely optional here; it will not take much time from you - Destiny great for session play. Even giving her two hours a day can be a great time. Destiny gives concentrated pleasure, and each visit here is a separate adventure across the planets of the solar system: here you team up with friends, go to Mars to complete a story mission, wandering in the middle of its ever-red sand dunes, and at another moment your company is brought to the Moon, and there you carry out an additional mission (strike), together exterminating crowds of alien creatures.

Fights with opponents are the strongest side Destiny... Artificial intelligence of enemies in Destiny works in the best traditions Halo- they never stand still, go around you from the sidelines, and those who have jetpacks do sometimes unpredictable maneuvers. Most of the battles take place over vast areas, providing operational space and a constant search for new tactics. The playstyles for each of the three character classes - Titan, Hunter and Warlock - are spectacular in their own way: for example, Technomage can effectively turn an accumulated group of opponents into stardust by sending a destructive energy ball into them.

Eventually Destiny clings with a stranglehold, not letting you go from the screen even a step. After each task, you fly to your home location, buy or receive more powerful weapons as a reward for your efforts, which you immediately want to try in business, and just for this business a new unknown planet opened on the map - Bungie constantly motivate you to return to Destiny, and they do it very well.

***

The main question is whether Bungie keep players in Destiny in the long run. The mechanism for the further development of the game is clear - the release of DLC, which will bring new classes, planets and interesting tasks. In addition, on consoles, Destiny there are no smart competitors. I want to believe that Bungie everything will work out because they managed to make the first well-organized, large-scale and wildly beautiful MMO.

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Bungie left the streak with fanfare, giving the players a goodbye. An emotional story was closely intertwined with excellent sound design, amazing acting and fun gameplay. After such a parting gift, no one doubted that it would be exactly what it was promised to do.

The brainchild of the legendary authors simply could not be bad. The level of expectations went off scale: every news, every art, every mention of the game immediately overgrown with hundreds of comments and rumors. We were promised a powerful storyline, stunning world and dynamic gameplay that requires agility, ingenuity and tactical thinking from the players.

But, as is usually the case, a soap bubble, swollen to exorbitant proportions with pathos, Activisionand the expectations of the most hard-core fans, it burst, revealing to the gaming community an interesting, but far from revolutionary action movie.

I want to warn you right away that players who are used to having everything at once have absolutely nothing to catch. This is a game about long-term development and long-term travel. The project unfolds rather slowly, introducing the player to all the elements in turn. You just need to be patient and wait for the game to fully unfold.

The ancient enemy of the alien benefactor was not long in coming, and soon the rapidly developing humanity was again on the verge of extinction. Hundreds of years later, the Earth is finally ready to strike back. The so-called guards must give a decisive battle to the interventionists.

Sewn with white thread, the plot is replete with incoherent and sometimes illogical episodes. There are huge holes in the script through which faceless heroes, boring enemies and the inability of the scriptwriters to set the right pace for developing events peep through. But a carefully thought-out universe, idealized human heroism and magnificent musical arrangement allow, if not to close our eyes to script bloopers, then at least not to attach so much importance to them.

But to hell with the plot - people do not buy fighters in order to watch the heroes wind snot on their fists, cry for their comrades who have cut an oak tree, and unleash heartfelt conversations with enemies. There is a lot to do without it. There are modes for single player, co-op and team battles. Tasks vary, from simple planetary patrols to cleaning up abandoned industrial facilities from enemy squads entrenched in them.

Weapon handling and knowledge of the terrain give experienced players an edge over beginners, but that doesn't mean that novice guards won't see their moment of glory. The maps are full of alternative routes, sniper nests and convenient positions for those who like to wait for victims, and not climb into the hell with weapons at the ready.

Despite the fact that many tasks will take you to the most remote corners of the game world, almost all of them start from the same locations, which, as a result, over time starts to get boring. Moreover, the sequential execution of missions is constantly interrupted by the need to return to base in order to receive a reward for completed tasks and equip. Long-term downloads also add fuel to the fire of indignation (sores of all versions of the game that fell into our hands).

It would be nice for the developers to work on the game search system. Situations are not uncommon when teams are like a hodgepodge of characters of various levels, which makes the tasks too boring for some players and too difficult for others.

In terms of gameplay, it behaves exactly as an action movie should behave from Bungie... Each of the presented types of weapons is almost perfectly balanced. In addition, each of the classes has its own set of unique skills and melee attacks.

Victories over enemies would be more satisfying if the alien troops were not made up of dullards and idiots. Opponents try to take the player solely by numbers, without even trying to bypass from the unprotected flanks, work in a team and take advantage of the terrain features.

All the player's characters develop in parallel as they complete story missions and participate in multiplayer battles. There are not many trophies earned in battle, but almost all of them can be used, so you don't have to rake tons of unnecessary scrap metal in search of useful weapons.

There are only three similar classes in the game. However, each of them still has its own characteristics. The Sorcerer can turn several enemies into dust with an energy bomb, but the Hunter prefers to gracefully cut opponents into ribbons in close combat.

Let's be realistic: the world of computer entertainment has long turned into a conveyor belt that does not work on the revolutionary ideas of dreamers trying to somehow dilute the gray and monotonous action movies with something new and really interesting, but on the money of greedy publishers like Activisionor Electronic Arts... Games are made not by people who know what the public really wants, but by all sorts of managers, some of whom are nothing more "intellectual"