Destiny - Our First Impressions!

After years of hype and speculation Bungie's new video game and prospective new franchise Destiny was released last week for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3 and PS4, making an amazing $500 million on its launch day.

To protect the Earth and its neighbouring planets from the ever-approaching darkness the Speaker has ordered the Ghosts to resurrect the Guardians. As Guardians you and other players must work together to investigate and fight off the forces of the Fallen, Hive, Vex and the Cabal.

The Fallen, one of the games many races of alien enemies!

Locations such as the Cosmodrone and the Moon are vast maps, whereupon players, irrespective of the mission they are playing or the experience level attained, will play amongst each other against enemies scattered across the map and deep within each missions key locations. This is how the games “shared world shooter” idea works, whereby players can play co-operatively on vast levels that are used to host multiple missions, generating enemies appropriate to the players within their vicinity. Be you a Titan, Hunter or Warlock, you are free to explore and cooperate, while the Crucible acts as the games versus mode arena, where players can face off against each other competitively.

Warlock, Hunter or Titan (above left to right). Which will you be?

The game feels like a cross between Halo and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. As expected from the creators of Halo, the games weapons feel very solid, with the melee attack packing enough of a punch to knock out lesser enemies with bone-crunching ease.

The action can be unrelenting on some of the harder, more challenging missions!

The game is fun to play, with much customisation and plenty to unlock over what is bound to be an extensive campaign. Combat is rewarding, and the voice acting cast is truly amazing with the talents of stars such as Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones, X-Men; Days of Future Past), Bill Nighy (Underworld, Shaun of the Dead), Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Castle), Gina Torres (Firefly, Hannibal), Claudia Black (Farscape, Pitch Black, Stargate SG-1) and John DiMaggio (Futurama, Gears of War). The game does suffer from slow loading times in between levels, and isn't as vocally alive as other games like Halo or Gears of War. Expect a retrospective review soon once the game has opened itself up more to its new community of players.

Are you a fellow Guardian? Want to play online with other Scified members and staff? Why not join the Official Scified Destiny Clan – look out for more details soon over at SCFD.