A look at Bungie's new project: Destiny

Apparently Destiny has been in the pipeline since Halo 2 which is about seven years ago and it sounds like this story focused multiplayer game is going to revolutionise online gaming for consoles in the same way that Halo 2 did. Although we’ve known about this game for the past few months, Bungie have only just fed us some official snippets of information to try and get our mouths to water. Before I saw the new pictures and watched the new teaser video, I wasn’t that bothered to be honest. And now I’ve seen them, my mouth is dripping with excitement. 

 

The Story

Destiny appears to be an online based MMOFPS or “Shared World Shooter” as it is being called, and is set in the future. The story as far as we know is set after humanity has expanded across the solar system, and after it has all been lost again. Something (aliens I assume) “tried to stamp us out. No one knows exactly what” but we do know that not many survived, and those that did owe their lives to “The Traveller”.

The Traveller appears to be a huge sphere that, in a way, sacrificed itself to save humanity. Since then the few survivors in the world have built a city underneath The Traveller because this is the only place that we are truly safe. Every other city in the world has fallen and this is where we make our last stand. So in other words Destiny appears to be set on a futuristic post apocalyptic world. Now humanity has built a new home for itself we have started to explore our old planet to find that there are a number of alien races living here as well, and they don’t like us all that much. The alien races are looking for a way to finish humanity off for good.

Your role in Destiny

This is where you come in. You play a Guardian in the game and it is your job to protect the city. You’ve managed to harness some of The Traveller’s power, suggesting that you will be some sort of super solder. You have to find a way to save the city. “If you fail the last light of civilisation will go out”... no pressure then.

There are three classes that we know of that you can choose from to play as:

• ·         Hunter
• ·         Warlock
• ·         Titan

Everything about your character will be editable and unique to you. You can change your colours, edit how you face looks, amour, cape, weapons, and helmets are all changeable. The idea is that everything that you do will be rewarded, which should encourage you to comeback day after day to play this game.

Game Play

As we’ve already said this is MMOFPS. From what Bungie has told us you’ll have factions that you can join as well as your own clans that you can make. You start in a place known as “The Tower”. In The Tower you can meet up with other players for pretty much anything. By that I mean you can just sit around and chat, discuss strategies before going on a quest or just find people to team up with. From there you can go on to do the campaign missions or the large amount of side quests that will be available. 

Now here is the part that I find quite intriguing but at the same time a little worrying; bungie are making Destiny so that other players can drop in and join your mission. Once the mission is over and you’ve got your rewards/loot, you can team up with these other players or go your separate ways. We’ve seen drop in campaign before in games like Dead Island and, although it works fine, I personally find it a little strange having strangers come in on my game experience. But Bungie promise that it won’t even be noticeable and that it’ll be like a normal thing that happens.

The missions themselves are based all around our solar system which tells us one important thing: there will be space travel. With any luck this means that we’ll be able to customise our own space craft as well.

Phone App

Of course there is a phone app, there’s a phone app for everything! Yeah but this sounds like it’s going to be a little different. All Bungie have really said is that you’ll be able to keep up to date with what your friends are doing and may even be able to help them via the phone app. As well as this you might be able to edit your own character whilst you’re away from your console. But the thing that seems like quite a new idea is that the app will tell you when new quests are available. In other words the game is going to tell you that you need to play it.

The History and Future of Bungie

So Bungie, for those that have been living under a gaming rock for at least the past eleven years, are the studio that brought you such games as Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo Wars, Halo 3 ODST, Halo Reach, and Marathon... did I mention that they did some stuff with Halo? Anyone who is a fan of Halo and online gaming for consoles has Bungie to thank for this. They wrote and developed Halo until Anniversary (and Halo 4) came out. And for those of you old enough (it wasn’t that long ago really... honest) to remember when Halo 2 came out, it was pretty much the game that revolutionised online game play for consoles. This was mainly because Bungie made it so that you could join a lobby with your friends and then search for a game together. But it didn’t stop there, oh no. After the game was finished you and your friends would all still be in the lobby together, ready for the next game. Mental right? I know this is something we all take for granted these days and no one can imagine playing anything that doesn’t do this now, but this really was a huge progression in gaming at the time.

Back then Bungie was partnered with Microsoft, but they broke away a year or so ago and have recently taken a ten year publishing contract with Activision. During this time they are set to work on the Destiny universe and I’m pretty sure they have three games set to come out in this time. At the moment Bungie have their entire 360 person studio working on Destiny, so this is a pretty big project for them that they can’t afford to let fail. Bungie have also said that Destiny will be a multi-platform game, meaning that for the first time ever Playstation will have access to a Bungie game and trust me Playstation fans, you are in for a treat.

A thing to note as well is that the music composer that was with Bungie through their Halo years is still with them and is working on Destiny. This might not seem like a big thing to many, but this is fantastic news to those that where big fans of the old Halo games.

Release Date

Finally, the game has been rumoured to be coming out late this year on Xbox 360 and PS3 as well as “next generation consoles”. However, it might be safer to expect it out early 2014 instead. This is for two reasons. Firstly, this is Bungie’s biggest project and there is no way they can afford to rush this out. Secondly, Activision hasn’t put anything in their budget report that suggests that they plan on making any money whatsoever during 2013.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Activision have said in a press release that Destiny will not be coming out in 2013 - 18/02/13] 

The Verdict

Destiny looks like it is going to be the new game franchise that gives things like Halo and Call of Duty a run for their money. It’s set to be a massive multiplayer online first person shooter and it’ll be something that we haven’t seen before on consoles. You’ll fight for the survival of humanity whilst being able to edit your character in any way that you like. You’ll team up with your friends and be encouraged to make new ones in order to complete missions and get bigger rewards. As well as this there will be a phone app that allows you to procrastinate whilst you’re at work or school. So even when you’re not playing the game you can still be a part of it. This universe is set to last us ten years and although we can’t confirm when Destiny will be ready to play we can say one thing at least, and that is that Bungie plan on redefining how FPS and online multiplayer gaming is played... Again!

-Ayden

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